Every year, we try to help out some non-profits with their web marketing efforts. It’s our way of giving back to the local community, and doing some feel good work. Along the way, we’ve noticed some consistent issues that come up for non-profits maintaining a web presence.
1)Register Your Own Domain
Domain Registration is not tied to hosting, and non-profits should register their own domains at a reputable domain reg service instead of relying on a web designer or agency to register it for them.
2) Hosting should be in the control of your organization.
Hosting is s easy to set up provided you use a good hosting company that offers great service and can guide you through any issues you may have. Hostgator is, by far, one of the best hosting service providers. You cannot go wrong with them, they will save your site when it goes down and help you through any issues you may have, 24/7.
If you do decide to go another route, such as having your designer set up or hosting for you, make sure you have record of your server control panel login. This is a must-do.
3) Save money, don’t go custom.
Use self-hosted WordPress as a platform for your website. With compromise, you’ll be able to ad functionality with WordPress plugins, and save money for the good work that your organization does. WordPress is also simple to use and can allow your organization to update content easily.
4)Keep good records.
Write down and store of all your usernames and passwords for all your web “stuff”: domain reg, your server control panel, your website back-end, your Paypal account, your social media accounts etc. Establish a policy for passing along this data as part of your yearly board transition. Loosing these logins can cause trouble down the road.
5)Maintain your brand and establish brand policies
Make sure that all your online marketing efforts reflect your organizational brand- everything from the graphics you use to adorn your social profiles to the language you choose.
Have more ideas for non-profits? Share below in the comments, we appreciate the feedback!