Building a Website

Introduction

There are millions of websites on the web today, and the majority of Americans and residents of other developed countries use the internet to find information they need. The IT infrastructure is also slowly being improved upon in developing countries. As a result, building a website for your nonprofit organization / NGO should be a priority. Your website will help you achieve several things: Maintain relationships with your current donors, provide an avenue for fundraising, tell your story, and let others learn about your mission.

Getting Started

Before you begin the process of building your website, you should consider all of the costs that come with a website, how you want to update your website (what type of website you want), who your audience will be, and other critical questions. There are 3 basic costs to owning a website:

• Start-up Costs (Designing & Building the Website)
  • This cost is a 1 time cost. It is the cost of hiring someone to build the website with a design, layout, and custom programming.
• Webhosting Costs (an ongoing cost)
  • This ongoing cost is necessary, because you will need somewhere to "put" your website after it has been built. Special computers (servers) are hooked directly into the internet with a fast internet connection that "serve" your website files to anyone who visits your website.
• Domain / URL Costs (an ongoing cost)
  • This is also a necessary ongoing cost. Your Domain Name (website name, i.e. "www.smoothstoneservices.com") is one of the most important aspects of your website, because it defines how people access your website. It should be easy to remember, easy to type, and usually, if it is shorter, it is better!

There are two types of websites:

• A static website contains pages that are not often (or easily) updated. Each page is built with a scripting language like HTML, uploaded to the server, and then left alone.
• A dynamic website is one that is constantly being updated and changed. It runs off of a database where all of the information is stored. Many dynamic websites run with the help of a Content Managemnt System (CMS - see below). This website is an example of a dynamic website, and is built on Drupal.

Components of a Dynamic Website

The following are common components of different kinds of websites. Some websites only have 1 or 2 of these components, and some integrate all of these. You will need to think about your website's primary target audience and then decide which of these components your website will require.

• A CMS is a Content Management System / Course Management System. It is the most commonly used component of a dynamic website. Most dynamic websites have a CMS. A CMS allows general website operators to manage their content. Good examples include Drupal, Joomla, Moodle & Blackboard.
• A CRM is a Customer Relationship Manager. This is a system specifically designed to help manage clients – their contact information, billing information, etc… Good examples include Salesforce and CiviCRM. In the case of an NGO working with people in developing countries, one would want to use their CRM for two purposes: To track donors AND to track clients. In this case, you would likely be tracking different information about each groups, so you will want to consider how you will keep each group separate.
• A Student Information System (SIS) is a system that tracks students’ records, grades, report cards, etc… It handles transcripts, can organize students into different classes, etc… A good example of this would be Banner. An SIS would obviously be used in an academic environment, and wouldn't be needed for a non-academic based website.

 

To learn about how Smooth Stone Services can help you with your webhosting and design needs, please visit https://www.smoothstoneservices.com/website-consulting.

Open Source Software

Open Source Software is software that is free, freely distributable, and provided with its source code. Developers can modify and improve the code however they wish, and freely distribute the modified code.

As a result, open source software has huge benefits. Since it is completely free, anyone can us it. Since the source code is provided, anyone can improve the program - thus creating an even more outstanding program.

Open source software can be developed by for-profit companies, but only if they provide the software for free.

Nonprofit organizations can benefit from many open source programs, because often times these organizations have very little available cash and are looking for the cheapest alternative. However, while many of these programs are cheap (free), they are also high quality and can often times do the same thing, if not more, than conventional programs.

List of some Open Source Projects
Linux
OpenOffice
Firefox
Drupal
CiviCRM
Moodle

Wiki Help

This is the help page for our Wiki system.