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EReadiness:Web Presence
From NGOPedia
| EReadiness:Self Assessment Tool for NGOs |
|
Having your own website:
- Provides inspiration to the community
- Is very motivating to the staff (especially if they are featured in name, if not in pictures)
- Is a wise public relations move
- It is the prime vehicle for keeping existing funders happy (by keeping them informed as well as giving them visibility), and for attracting new funding
- Informs your community and the media and publicises your activities to new potential members or users
Important
Creating and hosting a website used to be a very technical job. However,
these days it is much easier than you think because many tools and a lot
of resources have been created to facilitate the process. But creating an
attractive website still requires some dedicated resources (including some
creativity and inspiration). Keeping it updated and relevant also requires
some discipline and motivation. Remember that a good website is not the
responsibility of one person (such as the fundraiser or manager). Ideally many
staff are involved with the planning and content creation – the more staff you
involve, the greater their motivation and the better your website.
Question: Does your organisation have a web presence?
(tick all that apply)
(tick all that apply)
| Answers/Scenarios |
Level | Yes |
|---|---|---|
| Our NGO name appears on some websites, usually listings or directory pages, possibly with a short description of what we do and some contact details. | 1 | |
| We have a simple website consisting of a few pages with the essential information. | 2 | |
| We have an attractive, extensive and detailed website, which is updated regularly and accessed using our own NGOspecific domain name. | 3 | |
| We have a professionally designed website with a number of interactive features (e.g. blog, signup, member areas, events calendar, discussion forums). It is regularly updated by staff and possibly automatically from selected content on our internal network. | 4 |
Level 1: Non-existent or Basic
| Description |
Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| The organisation has no web presence, or at most it is listed in a single-paragraph/page listing in some (national or international) directory of NGOs/organisations that are active in a particular area. |
Move to the Next Level
| Actions | Not Possible (give a reason why) | Possible (tick where applicable) | ||
| Short Term | Medium Term | Long Term | ||
| Decide who you want to target with your website (members, existing or potential funders, the local or national community, potential volunteers, governance bodies). You usually want to target several if not all of these audiences but use different pages (information content) for each of them. Prepare content specifically targeted at each of these. Often you can re-use existing information found in brochures, information leaflets, press releases and media articles, fundraising proposals, financial statements etc. | ||||
| Look at existing websites – especially from organisations that work in the same or a similar area as you do. | ||||
| Feel free to steal ideas (what information and how to present it) but do not copy content. | ||||
| Decide on web hosting (or web presence) provider – preferably use one that has a fill-in-the-blanks template option. | ||||
| A good option is to use a reputable but cost-effective local web design company – apart from keeping the money within your local community, it also gives you the option to set up a longer-term relationship for moving up to the next levels. | ||||
| Now may already be the time to start thinking about finding and registering your own domain name which is a key success factor in developing your own brand and having your website linked to by others. A domain name is usually based on your organisation’s full or abbreviated name. Take a look at the domain names of other NGOs to get an idea of the possibilities. Use a local (NGO.org.za) domain if you operate in one country and all or most of your stakeholders are local. If you desire international exposure or have long-term plans for an international expansion, you may opt for an international domain (NGO.org). It is likely that your desired international domain name is not available (all the good names have already been taken), in which case you will need to use some creativity. Note that free domains are sometimes possible, e.g. NGO.za.org. | ||||
| Registering your own domain is not very expensive and you do not have to use it immediately. For instance, South African NGOs can register a ‘org.za’ domain for free but you need to prove that you are an NGO (just visit www.org.za for more information). ‘.org.za’ is the ‘official’ not-for-profit domain. | ||||
| It is even easier and quicker to get a ‘.za.org’ address (check www.za.org) although it is and looks ‘less official’. NGOs in other countries will need to look at their own countries’ domain registrar’s rules or can consider using an ‘international’ .org address. | ||||
Some web resources for setting up your own webpage:
If it’s just a small site with one or a few pages that you’re after, then the easiest and quickest way is to use http://www.ngoconnectafrica.org and apply for a free microsite there. NGOConnect Africa even offers volunteer help for setting it up. If you want to learn more details or do something more advanced, then there are many tutorials on how to get started with your website.
Check out a few of the following just to see which one’s writing style you like the most:
- The Beginner’s A-Z Guide to Starting/Creating Your Own Website – the essential step by step guide/overview to starting your website: http://www.thesitewizard.com/gettingstarted/startwebsite.shtml
- Where beginners learn to create websites: http://www.2createawebsite.com/ebook/websitetutorial.pdf
- Wanda Wigglebits welcomes you to her guide for Building a School Web Site - at a kiddies level but you can also use the info for other websites: http://www.wigglebits.com/
- Learn to build your own site, promote and monetize it: http://biyw.com.
- Only eight simple lessons and you will be designing websites quickly:
http://www.how-to-build-websites.com/
- A nice step-by-step tutorial (10 steps): http://www.websiteinfodesign.com
- W3schools is a very thorough but rather technical tutorial: http://www.w3schools.com/Site
- Make your own website guide: http://www.makeyourownwebsiteguide.com
- The Two Hour Web Site - Build It in Microsoft Word 2003:
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=391847
- Creating a web site: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Website, http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Website and http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Free-Website
- More commercial resources:
Level 2: Early Stages
| Description |
Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| You have a simple website consisting of a few pages. It presents the basic information on your NGO including its mission, contact details, some operational information, some pertinent media articles and related information and sponsorship details (usually linking through to your sponsors’ website). | ||
| Your website is hosted on a generic (i.e. cheap) host, possibly as part of your ISP package. | ||
| Alternatively, it is hosted on a free web-hosting facility which uses advertising to pay for the hosting or it is a service by an NGO-promoting organisation. | ||
| Have a brainstorm in a facilitated group session on the overall web design and content after starting with an informed briefing on what websites are and how they can benefit the organisation. Ideally this briefing includes a demonstration of some successful ‘competitor’s’ websites. If you haven’t chosen a domain name yet (or if you are unhappy with it), this is a good opportunity to select and register one. | ||
| After agreeing on the content (which should be based on the different stakeholder groups which the website intends to target), you assign the initial data/content collection (or creation) to individual staff members. | ||
| Assign the web maintenance responsibility to one or two staff members. Ensure that they receive the necessary training on how to maintain the website but also ensure that the necessary information (e.g. new media articles, current and planned events, news items, updated financial statements) is channelled to them on a regular basis. | ||
| Consider outsourcing the initial website development and training but ensure that the developers are using tools which are compatible with (or the same as) those available in-house for the staff responsible with updating the website. Ideally the same party can provide the necessary training to your staff. |
Level 3: Intermediate
| Description |
Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| The organisation has a multilevel, detailed website. Although it still consists mostly of static information, it is updated regularly (more than 10 times per year) with news items (or a newsletter), events (past and future), FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about the organisation and its activities), staff profiles (it’s important to include their pictures), favourable news media reports (best if they feature the organisation but, if that’s not possible, reports that highlight the need for the NGO’s existence), financial statements, more detailed operational reports etc. | ||
| The website is hosted on a reliable server using the organisation’s own domain. The site has a clearly identified audience with specific pages targeted at each of the stakeholders or interested parties (e.g. potential members, donors, media, community, government and other stakeholders). | ||
| There is a likely to be a ‘sign-up option’ for members, a means to subscribe to a regular newsletter (or at least be informed of important events), and possibly an online query or information form which can ideally also be used for donation enquiries. | ||
| At least one staff member has website maintenance and update as part of their job responsibility (the web master) but there is some redundancy in skills so that someone could take over at short notice or in case of emergency. | ||
| Continued skills training is happening. | ||
| There are feedback sessions to the NGO executive on a regular basis on issues such as the web visibility, issues, content and traffic analysis. |
Move to the next level
Acquiring the skills needed to build a professional, dynamic website using in-house staff is not really a cost-effective strategy. Unless your organisation is very large, it may be best to outsource the initial development of the website to a contractor, but specify that you wish to have the tools and skills training required to maintain the website using internal staff (unless you also want to out-source the website maintenance). It is advisable to get expert advice on where to host the website, what platform and tools should be used, how the site should be advertised and how to keep statistics about who visits your site (and how they navigate it).
Level 4: Advanced
| Description |
Yes | No |
|---|---|---|
| The organisation has an attractive, dynamic and comprehensive website, usually including some custom development. | ||
| It includes interactive or Web 2.0 elements such as a blog (usually set up by an executive staff member, a creative muse in the organisation or the web master), a discussion forum for stakeholders, a dedicated members area (e.g. where they can sign up, update their details, find detailed information), a specific donors space (with details, links, and other exposure elements), and a short-term events listing (i.e. updated regularly). | ||
| Importantly, there may be a donations section for (new) online donations by visitors (if applicable and legal) or ‘shop’ options (e.g. where the NGO could sell community products or NGO-branded memorabilia). | ||
| The website is integrated with the organisation’s internal document management system and intranet (i.e. automatic content generation). | ||
| The organisation does regular traffic analysis: who visits the site, where do they come from, which pages do they view and in which order. | ||
| There is careful visibility management of the website (e.g. the pro-active listing on search engines and links management from relevant associated pages – those of stakeholders, NGO-umbrella organisations or other public forums – to the organisation’s website). | ||
| The website could be operationally managed and maintained by internal staff although specific web development or technical issues are likely to be outsourced. |
This page was last modified on 14 October 2009, at 12:33.
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Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.