Tips for nonprofits

Website options: Tips for nonprofits - 2
Last update: 08/16/2009	By Marilyn Bakker, still learning

Because I've been maintaining websites for nonprofits for many years, I'm sometimes asked for advice on how to get a web presence.
Here are some hints based on my own limited experience.

	The World Wide Web
	The term World Wide Web (www) defines the network of web servers that hold and "serve up" websites. A website is a collection of interlinked computer files. Web pages are written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Web browsers (e.g. Internet Explorer or Firefox) understand that language. When you give your browser a web address, it connects with the server computer that downloads the website files to your computer .
	There are zillions of server computers on the web. This page resides in the www.techforecast.com domain on a web-host's server in Canada.

What's on this page
PC-based full-featured websites, installed software	Web-presence options, my experience
Web-based full-featured websites	Blogs - free and easy

Full featured PC-based websites

The webmaster's PC has installed web-authoring software. Files that comprise a full-featured website are created here and uploaded to a web server.		A web-host's server is a big computer that holds files (html web pages, photos, etc.) that can be "served up" to viewers via a web browser.
There's an intimate relationship between the webmaster's PC and the web-host's server. For nonprofits that can be a major disadvantage.

What is a file? A file is a piece of work created by a software. Web pages (like this one) are HTM files that use Hypertext Markup Language (html) code to tell a web browser what to display on the computer screen. A web page contains hyperlinks to other HTM files and to other kinds of files -- like JPG photo files created on a digital camera. The images on this page are GIF files.
	Note: Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) files are extremely useful on the Web. A full-featured website provides them easily, but some alternatives don't. See web-presence options, below.
What is a webmaster? Managing a full-featured website is a one-person job. Webmaster is the name for the person who does it, with web-authoring software.
What's web-authoring software? Web-authoring software makes web-page creation easy -- but beyond that, it helps manage the dozens (perhaps hundreds) of files on a full-featured website and the hyperlinks that link them together. I still use Microsoft FrontPage, not their newer product Expression Web. Another popular product is Dreamweaver.
	The Friends of Sherwood Island have a big website comprised of 722 files housed on my PC and on the web server. Many of the files are photos-jpg files exhibited on pages like this one.
Note: My websites are simple. My skills are no more than average.
What are the pros and cons of PC-based websites? They offer unlimited design possibilities, but there are two disadvantages: (1) They cost money. At a minimum, the cost of a domain name and web hosting. And maybe a paid webmaster. (2) Dependence on the webmaster. If your nonprofit doesn't have a volunteer webmaster, the cost of hiring a professional can be very high. And the timing of site changes depends on the webmaster's availability.
Are there any other options? Nonprofits can eliminate or minimize their dependence on a webmaster by using web-based services. Web-based work can be done on a remote server, by anyone authorized, from anywhere. See examples below.

Web-presence options

Today I'm managing full-featured websites for five nonprofits, as well as associated web-based sites.
Example: Lifetime Learners. The full-featured LLI website links to an announcements blog and a Flickr photo site.
Example: The Y's Women and the Friends of the Westport Senior Center don't need full-featured websites. They can get by with a blog and and a Flickr site.

Examples, my sites	PC-based	Web-based
	Website	Website	Blog	Photos
Lifetime Learners Institute (LLI)	www.lifetimelearners.org	--	Wordpress blog	Flickr site
Friends of Sherwood Island	www.friendsofsherwoodisland.org	--	--	Flickr site
Norwalk Tree Alliance (NTA) *	See note below	Orgsite experiment	--	Flickr site
League of Women Voters	www.lwvwestportct.org	--	--	Flickr site
Friends of the Senior Center		--	Wordpress blog	Flickr site
Y's Women		Google site	Blogger blog	Flickr site

* Norwalk Tree Alliance has switched from a webmaster-managed full-featured website to a blog managed by NTA volunteers, who also manage their photos at Flickr. The domain name www.norwalktreealliance.org was transferred to their Blogger blog.

Orgsites. Attractive free websites for nonprofits, with some design limitations. Relatively easy to manage. See experimental NTA example above. Major limitation: you can't use your own domain name.

Google sites. The Y's Women Google site was created for just one purpose: to house a PDF file of the membership form. Blogger doesn't allow file uploading. (See Google free sites below)


Web-based websites with site-builders
Paid sites
	Especially for small businesses, many web hosts sell packages that include hosting, domain registration, and site-builder software. Examples: Network Solutions - Homestead - StartLogic. You can do limited design work on the web, or for greater flexibility you can download and install the host's software on your own PC. See a cautionary article.
	Microsoft Office Live Small Business. Among many services for small businesses, Microsoft offers very nice do-it-yourself websites with a free starter package. For experimental purposes, I signed up and began working on this website: www.techforecast.org If you sign up, you can also get your own domain name, free for a year. Reviews.
Ad-supported sites
	Example: Yahoo Geocities. Long-established and very popular (but not to my liking), the ad-supported service is shutting down in October 2009. As a replacement, Yahoo is offering a paid service.
Free sites
	Google. The Google Page Creator, which included templates and hosting, is being phased out. Its replacement, Google Sites, seems to be geared toward corporate collaboration.


Blogs - free and easy
Blog is short for web log. Blogs have two main characteristics: (1) They are designed for daily dated entries: today's post goes to the top of the page, and yesterday's post moves down. (2) They invite comments from visitors. But comments can also be prohibited. Compared to a full-featured website, design possibilities are very limited; but with some workarounds, they can be rather elaborate. For a sampling of how blogs can be used, take a look at the Blogger's Choice Awards.
Prominent bloggers (e.g. Daily Kos, Westport Now) use installed blogging software, but ordinary people prefer to blog on the web. That way, they can post items from any computer, anywhere, and (if allowed) readers can post their own comments.
The web-based blogging world is dominated by two providers: Blogger (owned by Google) and Wordpress.
Two kinds of Wordpress. The original uses open-source blogging software available at wordpress.org. Now there is a much easier hosted version of the software: wordpress.com.
Domain name The web address (URL) of a typical Blogger blog is: yourname.blogspot.com The web address (URL) of a typical Wordpress blog is: yourname.wordpress.com But for a small fee, both will host your blog under your own domain name: www.yourname.org. Examples: The Y's Women site (www.yswomen.org) is a Blogger blog. The Friends of the Westport Senior Center site (www.friendsoftheseniorcenter.org) is a Wordpress blog.
Wordpress vs. Blogger Both offer many design templates, but there are differences. [An online comparison.]
My perspective. Blogger wins in only one respect: text editing. Changing fonts and formatting is easy. Wordpress requires some skill with html code. In everything else, Wordpress wins.
Important Wordpress features: static content and file uploading
Static content: The nature of a blog is that a new post appears at the top of the page, pushing older posts down. That can sometimes be a nuisance. Wordpress provides two useful options: sticky posts and static pages.
	*Sticky posts:* Example of the nuisance with Blogger. At www.yswomen.org, the post titled Y's Women Photos ... must always be on top. But the only way to accomplish that is to continually post-date the post without making the date look absurdly too far ahead. Example of a Wordpress sticky post.Wordpress. At www.friendsoftheseniorcenter.org the "Who we are" post is a sticky post that stays in position. And it also has static pages that are listed in the right sidebar and in this particular theme, across the top of the page as well.
	*Static pages:* A page is a post that stays in one place. Example: At www.friendsoftheseniorcenter.org coming events are in the dynamic posts. After the event, photos are presented in static pages that are listed in the right sidebar and shown as tabs at the top of the page.
PDF-file uploading
	Most nonprofits want to make one or more PDF files available online (e.g. a membership form). Blogger allows uploading of image files only. Other kinds of files must be stored on a different hosting site. Example: The link to membership form on the Y's Women Blogger blog is a link to the form on a separate Google site. Now that Google sites are being shut down, that file is being abandoned. Wordpress example: On the right side of the LLI announcements blog under Pages, the film discussion items include links to on-site PDF files of the movie schedules.