Websites 101: Advice for Nonprofit Programs
Nonprofit programs are often charged with delivering an online product such as a website. If they are well-funded, the program may be able to hire a web consultant to plan and coordinate the website build. Many nonprofit programs, however, rely on internal staff even when their staff do not have web experience.
I’ve helped nonprofits build new websites from scratch or redesign websites an organization has outgrown. I’ve managed websites once they were launched and managed the work of vendors providing long-term support and maintenance. I’ve also assisted program teams in launching web projects from concept and planning, to writing RFPs and selecting vendors, to coordinating and working with digital vendors through design, build, content migration, launch, and post-launch.
This article is a condensed version of the advice I give to nonprofit program teams on what they need to consider if they are charged with setting up a new website or redesigning an old one. This is meant as a high-level overview of things to consider, plan for, and most importantly, set aside a sufficient budget and manpower.
Domain
A domain is the URL or web address that shows up on a web browser. This needs to be carefully chosen to reflect the name or mission of a program. You will need to decide with your stakeholders and team how you want the web address of your program to appear on web browsers. Once done, you will need to select and purchase that domain. You should always purchase variations of the domain (.com, .net, .info) to prevent hackers from “squatting” on them and stealing your traffic or worse, redirecting to content inappropriate for your audience.
Hosting
Web hosting makes your website accessible on the internet. Web hosting happens when files that make up a website are uploaded from a local computer to a web server. The server can be maintained internally by your organization. It can be a service included in your contract with a digital vendor who built your site. Or it can be a service you purchase directly from a vendor. Either way, you will need to decide on where your site will live online and to budget for it. A good web hosting company will provide web space plus technical support in case problems arise. Most web hosts provide a menu of services and a pricing plan for each level of service.
Content Management System (CMS)
A content management system (abbreviated as CMS) is software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without the need for specialized technical knowledge. It is a tool that helps people build a website without needing to write code from scratch. Most modern websites are built on a specific CMS platform. Two popular free or open-source CMS systems are Drupal and WordPress.
One thing to note: open-source software may be free, but it takes expertise to design and build a website using these platforms and configure them for your needs. It takes expertise to run and maintain your website over time. And it takes expertise to troubleshoot issues and fix problems you may encounter. These skills are not free and often come at a premium.
You will need expertise in a CMS to upload and manage content and maintain your website. This expertise can be gained by training your staff or hiring a web content manager proficient in that CMS. For advanced needs, you can hire a consultant or hire a web development vendor on a retainer. Advanced expertise is usually needed for ongoing technical maintenance, updates to the CMS core, security updates, and updates to installed plugins or modules. Finally, you will need advanced expertise to perform technical, functional, and design enhancements to your website over time. It is very important to budget for these over the lifetime of your site.
Content
Content is the information in your website uploaded to fill your audience's needs and demands. Content can be text, images, documents, files, video, audio, etc. The purpose and audience of your site will determine what type of content will populate your site. Because you will be creating and uploading content to your site on a continuing basis, you need to plan for content creation, editing/proofreading, and a workflow for ensuring quality assurance so your content will be error-free.
You will also need proper skills and experience to put content together in an attractive, online package. This means that in addition to investing in expertise for a CMS, you will also need to invest in tools and expertise for design, content creation, and editing. At the very least you will need graphic software. If you are planning on multimedia content, you will need to invest in tools for creating and editing video, audio, and animation.
Staffing
You will need staff to upload content and manage your website. This person (or persons) should be familiar and proficient with your CMS and have practical, working knowledge of HTML, CSS, web accessibility, graphic design, and multimedia production and software.
The size and complexity of your site and content will determine how to structure your staffing needs. Many nonprofit sites are managed by a single person who is a web “jack of all trades,” while others are run by a web team of several individuals with specific skill sets such as a writer/editor, a developer, a designer, a content strategist, a project manager, etc. Planning and budgeting for staff to manage and create content for your website is a must.
Web Analytics
You will need to keep track of web traffic. You will also want to measure important user interactions such as file downloads and other online behaviors. Many nonprofit sites use Google Analytics for measuring web traffic, which comes free with any Google account.
Some things to keep in mind:
1) Always set up a Google account for the project instead of using someone’s personal account. If there is staff turnover, the account can just be passed on to the new staff.
2) Google Analytics measures web traffic out of the box, but by default does not measure important user interactions such as file downloads, user signups to forms, etc. For these, you will need to configure Google Tag Manager and use it in conjunction with Google Analytics. If you want to keep track of aspects of your web traffic such as keywords and key phrases that rank in search engines for search engine optimization or SEO, you will need to activate and configure Google Search Console.
3) These tools require skills and expertise. Most webmasters or web content managers have at least some expertise and familiarity with Google Analytics. Google Tag Manager and Google Search Console are considered more specialized skillsets which can be learned by training, or you can supplement your staff’s expertise by hiring a web metrics consultant on the side.
Technical Support
Something very important I’ve often seen overlooked by nonprofit programs is the need for ongoing maintenance and technical support for the lifetime of their website. Websites sometimes experience server-related or database-related problems and go offline. Other times, routine technical updates to the CMS core or plugins interact badly with your site’s custom templates and the result is the design or appearance of your site “breaks.” Sometimes, hackers take an interest in your site and exploit vulnerabilities in the system to deface it, inject malicious code, or try and steal and download sensitive information.
In all these situations, you will need someone to fix these problems. You can’t rely on your in-house web content manager to know how to fix 100 percent of the issues you will encounter. Especially for advanced issues, you will need an expert developer or technicians who can diagnose and fix your website quickly and efficiently.
Many nonprofit programs maintain a long-term arrangement with a consultant or digital agency for technical support. In many cases, the client pays a monthly or quarterly fee to the vendor to be assured of this level of protection for the lifetime of the website. Long-term technical support is something programs need to always plan and budget for.
Working with Consultants or Digital Agencies
Most nonprofit organizations will not have in-house staff or departments for web design and development. Organizations interested in setting up websites usually hire an external firm to design and build their websites.
Digital agencies are companies that coordinate the creative, strategic, and technical development of screen-based products such as websites and mobile apps. A full digital agency can offer services such as search engine marketing, online advertising, web design and development, and e-commerce consulting. These firms can work with your team on website planning from concept to design, build, quality assurance testing, to launch.
Digital agencies vary in size, resources, and experience. Some agencies are one- or two-person operations where the principals do all the work. Some are staffed entirely by contractors and freelancers except for the principals who primarily do business development. Some agencies are large enough to have multiple staff in-house: those with deep expertise in specialized skills such as content strategy, UX or user experience, digital and graphic design, web development, and programming; or specialists in specific programming languages and CMS platforms. Some agencies perform the work with a mixture of in-house and freelance staff.
The type of digital agency you will work with and their capacity will be largely dependent on how big your budget is and the size and scope of your website project. I go into detail in this article on specific advice I have on things to look for and requirements for working with digital vendors.
The most important thing for nonprofit programs to consider in working with a digital agency is there needs to be a single focal point of contact and project manager on the program side who will work and communicate with a single focal point of contact and project manager on the agency side. This will ensure that things do not get chaotic and that communications are focused and efficient.
Conclusion
To summarize, there are a lot of requirements nonprofit programs need to anticipate in planning a web project. Programs usually have a limited amount of funding over a finite period. They need to budget well with an eye towards cost savings as much as possible.
This article highlights important items that I advise program teams not to skimp on and to allocate staff and space in their budget. The key takeaway I want programs to get reading this is they need to plan and budget not just for the site build and launch. They need to plan and allocate budget and manpower for their website over the long haul — for the planned duration or lifetime of their website.
