Presentation delivered at WordCamp Raleigh on November 3, 2012. I discuss the benefits of choosing WordPress to power a non-profit website, point out special considerations and must-haves, list recommended plugins, and share resources available online to help non-profits with their websites. I draw from my experience as designer and webmaster for a house of worship and two other non-profits.

1. Adventures in Non-Profit
Web Design
Presented By
Melodie Laylor
WordCamp Raleigh
November 3, 2012

2. Connect with Melodie
• E-mail: melodie@melodielaylor.com
• Website: http://www.melodielaylor.com
• Twitter: @melodielaylor

3. A little about me
• From Virginia Beach, VA
• Worked with WordPress over 5-1/2 yrs
• Organizer of WordPress Hampton Roads Meetup
• Maintain a church website with 2x weekly sermon
podcast/vodcast
• Webmaster of three additional nonprofit websites

4. What I've learned
about non-profits
• Often little to no budget for website design and maintenance
• Often little to no budget.
• Want to do own updates
• Need frequent content updates in multiple formats
• Essential to connect with a lot of people on a repeat basis
• Often clueless about how to take donations online - the
MOST IMPORTANT thing for the site to do

5. Why WordPress for
non-profits
• The best things in life are FREE
• DIY content publishing
• A web platform which easily facilitates
connecting with supporters in multiple ways

6. Non-Profits Powered
by WordPress

7. CURE
• http://www.cure.org
• WordPress as a CMS
• Detailed About section
• Blog frequently adding photos and video
• Tweet frequently
• Active FaceBook page
• YouTube channel, Flickr stream

8. CURE
• Swag store (e-commerce) - looks like they're using
Shopify not a WP plugin
• Calls to action: donate, newsletter signup
• Dev team built custom plugins: ex. Fundraising
meter on CureKids page
• Personal Fundraiser plugin is in repository:
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/personal-
fundraiser

9. Showcases of non-profit
sites powered by WordPress
• WordPress Showcase -
http://www.wordpress.org/showcase/tag/non-
profit
• WPMU blog - http://www.wpmu.org/15-
beautiful-non-profit-websites-built-with-
wordpress

10. And now...I present
my humble sites

11. • Christian Embassy International Church -
http://www.ceicva.org
• Christian Business Network of Hampton
Roads - http://www.cbnhr.org
• Love and Hope Ministries -
http://www.loveandhopeministries.org

12. Resources for non-profit
webmasters

13. Plugins
• All in One SEO Pack (AIOSEO)
• Contact Form 7
• Gravity Forms (premium) - Business and Dev licenses comes with
mailing list/autoresponder addons, Dev license comes with PayPal
addons
• Shareaholic - social sharing, includes Google + and Pinterest share
buttons
• Social Profiles Widget by Nathan Rice
• Floating Social Media Icons by Acurax - includes Google +, Pinterest

14. Plugins
• Subscribe2 and Subscribe2 Widget - email notification of blog
updates
• Newsletter Manager - double opt-in newsletter subscription
• WP Autoresponder and Newsletter Plugin
• These newsletter plugins are great when you're still small; there are
host restrictions on how many emails you can send out
• Recommend graduating to a commercial email campaign and/or
autoresponder service like MailChimp, Constant Contact or Aweber
• There are plugins and widgets for integrating signup forms for these
services

15. Plugins
• Blubrry Powerpress - ultimate podcasting/
vodcasting plugin, includes iTunes support
• Sermon Browser - podcasting/vodcasting for
churches

16. Plugins - Fundraising
• PayPal Donations by Johan Steen
• Simple Donate - set donation levels
• Personal Fundraiser - allows fans to create their own
fundraisers on your behalf, shows goals and progress
bar
• Fundraising - by WPMUdev $19 - full-featured
fundraising campaign plugin - set goals, recurring
donations, progress meter, offer rewards, send thank
you emails and tax receipts

17. Web Hosting
• Dreamhost - offers free hosting account for
501(c)(3) organizations
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Non-profit_Discount
• CAVEAT - reviews are mixed for Dreamhost

18. Other Resources
• TechSoup - http://www.techsoup.org - where
non-profits can request technology donations
(both products and services) from
participating corporate partners or receive
discounts
• grassroots.org - Free resources to help
charities

19. Time for questions

20. I hope you enjoyed
this presentation.
THANK YOU!