Top Four Most Common Issues for Non-profit Websites

Many non-profits come to us for a site upgrade - they need better access to their website, and they need a way to upgrade information easily and with minimal fuss.

Here are the top four issues we've seen. If these sound familiar, don't worry, it can be handled! You are not alone ;-)

1) "We rely on our web person to make changes, but they went out of business/got a job/cost too much."

With the advent of more Content Management System usage, this is (thankfully) becoming less of an issue. If your site was made in 2005-2009, you probably had someone create a straight HTML site, for which it's difficult to make updates. Someone usually has to go into notepad or textpad or Dreamwaver and make a physical change, and then port the whole site back to the hosting using FTP. Can be costly and time-consuming, and you're stuck in a "hostage situation". Not good.

Solution: Convert to a Content Management System

Drupal is our system of choice but Wordpress, Joomla! and custom content management systems release you from the burden of relying on one person to make changes. With correct access, any user can use web-based data entry forms to update pages and posts.

2) "We send our e-newsletter through our secretary's collection of e-mail addresses in Hotmail/Yahoo/some other listserv."

With more mailing list adoption, this problem is going away. Federal regulations regarding SPAM (not to mention pure respect and stewardship of your customers) means you'll want to convert your collection of e-mails into mailing list software.

Solution: Convert to Mailing List Software (recommended integration with your existing Drupal site)

We've used Constant Contact, Vertical Response, PHPList, MailChimp, and Simplenews, which integrates with your existing Drupal database so your web users can also sign up for your e-newsletter.

3) "We need to update our calendar of events."

A simple calendar update turns into a chore. Why is it so difficult to change that one event? See #1: usually this is related to someone having to fuss with code that's inherited from years ago. Change it up and make an upgrade to a modern system where you can do something as easy as going to "Add new event", getting a form where you fill out the Title, Start Date and Time, End Date and Time, and Description --- and the system updates your calendar automatically.

Solution: Convert to Drupal and Calendaring options

We're big fans of the Calendaring functions within Drupal, but you can also convert to Google Calendars and embed the calendar into your website.

4) "We want to accept payments for this _______ (event, membership package, product) online."

If you are using paper-based forms and answering the telephone, consider converting to an online system where you process payments online. We use PayPal (2.9% transaction fee and no annual fees) for most of our clients' needs, although Drupal also handles Google Checkout, Authorize, and check and money orders for payment.

Solution: Convert to Drupal with Ubercart for payments

Ubercart allows you to handle the payment processing automatically. One scenario to consider is this: your customer reviews your documents, makes a payment online, and gets automatically "bumped" to a specific level of user access on your site upon receipt of payment (think, getting member-only content, being listed in a directory, or being able to post events or pages). We've done this to great success with membership organizations that need to collect annual dues: the software assign a particular role for 12 months from the date of purchase and will even send a reminder e-mail when the term comes up!

There are many available alternatives to your system. Consider an upgrade to make the most of your website outreach.