WordPress for small nonprofits:
an ideal match?

Presentation at WordCamp UK, Manchester 2010

Jason Kingwww.kingjason.co.uk
IT4Communitieswww.it4communities.org.uk

How many registered charities in the UK (according to the Charities Commission)?

Not forgetting...

The many social firms, social enterprises, associations, non-charity community groups.

It's a very diverse sector.

How much is the
voluntary sector worth?

Voluntary sector does not mean...

unpaid or amateurish

And there are plenty of paid opportunities for agencies and freelancers

Third sector organisations want something low cost that communicates to their stakeholders.

Aside from a few glitches we're giving wordpress a big thumbs up!

The whole thing cost us not more than 500 pounds to put together.

It's been a great tool for a small organisation with a limited budget.

You have a very good looking site, good navigation excellent CMS and a site that does 80% of what a small charity needs.

The other 20%


CRM
Email newsletters
Events management
Donations
Volunteer co-ordination
Fundraising

We couldn't find a plugin to get a form in WordPress to send information to our CRM package

I've found it a little tricky as wordpress doesn't work great with Safari

Charities' staff may not understand technology. You'll need to be patient and give plain English explanations.

The backend is so straight forward compared to some other entry level CMS or blogging systems.

And it's getting easier to use...

Custom content types

Blogroll now called Links

Menus that the client can re-order

Revisions and Trash

Small organisations need to develop their site in bits and pieces, whenever small pots of money become available.

With Wordpress it's very easy to get a basic version up-and-running and then add functionality over time.

You can get a free account, start developing content immediately, and
migrate to a custom install later

Nonprofits would find the process of setting up a WordPress site from scratch quite daunting.

It's got pretty good anti-spam capability for your commenting

In small organisations red tape is almost non-existent and simple Wordpress sites - even from free themes - simply do the job, and everyone is happy.

Most non-profits aren't bothered about what open source is, so long as it works. But some see it as an ethical decision.

Education and local government clients are often in favour of open source. But progress can be hampered by in-house IT teams because they have invested so much money in the very opposite of open source software.

But as budgets are tightened there may be less project by committee.

WordPress is working great. We're looking at BuddyPress now

A social networking plugin for WordPress.Many voluntary organisations run niche discussion, self-help and social forums.Ning started charging for its service recently and lots of nonprofits are looking for an alternative.

It's not a proper CMS, meaning it doesn't support things like versioning, flexible document search, workflow natively.

If you need lots of "enterprise" CMS features, you end up having to install dozens of plugins, which have different user interfaces, different levels of quality, etc.

Then you lose the benefits of Wordpress in the first place -- fast, agile, efficient for small projects.

It's known by lots of developers so in theory it's easy to get people to
customise it

WordPress developers seem to have little knowledge or regard
for accessibility issues.

It's the end of having to employ second rate cheap agencies who will build you something that you need them to maintain.

There are lots of developers for WordPress but lots aren't any good
-- it's hard to choose a good one!

LASA Suppliers Directory

www.lasa.org.uk/ict/suppliers-directory

Helps charities find trustworthy, reputable ICT suppliers who understand and work with the voluntary sector.

How many companies in the suppliers directory say they offer WordPress as a CMS?

Ways to find nonprofit clients

Yahoo Charity Webmasters Group
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/charitywebforum/

UK Riders List
http://lists.lasa.org.uk/lists/info/ukridersNCVO Approved Consultants Directory
www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/products-services/consultant-directoryNetsquared Net Tuesday meetings
http://www.meetup.com/The-Manchester-NetSquared-Meetup-Group/

iT4Communities

www.it4communities.org.uk

We match skilled IT professionals who want to volunteer their time and skills, to charities and community groups that have IT needs.

Mental health charity needs WordPress lessons

A mental health charity has a really good WordPress website. They need someone to:show them how to update the site themselves in short one-to-one sessions;

ensure they have all hosting details so they are not reliant on a volunteer in the future;

they would like you to help them set up Google Analytics.

Probably about two days' work. A great task if you enjoy training people.

Social enterprise needs navigation menu tweaked

A new social enterprise has a website based on a Wordpress theme called Clean Home.They're looking for a Wordpress developer to modify it so that they can have a navigation system that can handle more than 1 level.A ten minute task or is it? What if the theme isn't WordPress version 3 compatible?

Stroke charity needs CMS

Their webmaster has just resigned due to conflicting priorities and they are unable to update their website.They would like the site redesigned with a CMS so they can make their own changes. They want a shop so they can sell Christmas cards and other goods. You'll need to incorporate a CMS and train them how to use the CMS to update their website.

Read on...

LASA Knowledgebase
www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk
Non Profit Website Design: Examples and Best Practices
www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/14/non-profit-website-design-examples-and-best-practices

The following people's opinions were much appreciated

James Tomb of Action Medical ResearchWill of MumzineSeb Bacon of Democracy ClubPaul Lacey of PLM CreativeDeborahCaspar BelowDawn Pierson of People Print

Column 1

WordPress can do it !8

What about the rest?2

Column 1

Money for delivering services99

Communications budget2

Column 1

WordPress can do it !8

What about the rest?2