This past weekend, I attended the WordCamp Louisville conference. WordCamps are held all over the US to bring together users, programmers, and designers who are interested in WordPress. So it’s a camp (or conference) on how to best utilize the website engine, WordPress. I think WordPress is a great tool for non-profits to use for their websites.  Scratching your head a bit still? Let me try again.

WordPress is a platform that many many groups use to build their website with all over the world. In fact, 1 in 5 websites are using WordPress right now as their platform of choice. Think of WordPress as a car frame and engine. Every car needs a frame and engine. On that frame you can add an exterior, wheels, doors, mirrors, leather interior even the fuzzy dice to customize your car. That’s what WordPress is like. There are themes, widgets and plugins to customize your site to your wants and needs.

Themes and Widgets
Themes are like the exterior to your car. They determine the color, placement of your logo, where your home and sub menus will be located on the page and so forth. Widgets are like the added features to a car that usually don’t add much functionality to it like cup holders or interior color. Widgets are sections of information that are typically displayed on the side bar areas of your site. Like our affiliations section on the home page of our site is a widget. A non-profit might use that space as a “Volunteer Spotlight” section or promoting an upcoming event.

Plugins
Plugins bring extra functionality to your site like power windows or seat warmers on a car. At the conference this past weekend, the most interesting plugins were the event calendar, the countdown to your event and some of the security plugins to keep your site from getting a lot of spam.

GF&M feels the WordPress platform is the right choice for non-profits because it is so easily adapted to fit your over all and everyday needs. Want to start counting down to your annual gala? You can do that. Want to keep your donors up to date on the upcoming programs? You can do that too. Want to start a newsletter? Yes you can. Plus you don’t have to know HTML or be a programmer to change the information on your site. It is very user friendly.

Have questions on WordPress or how it could fit your organization’s needs? Leave a comment, email or call us.

Hello World!

We are so excited about our new website and blog posts. We want to provide our visitors with education, information and growth opportunities. Stay tuned for original posts, information from credible sources and news on what’s happening in the fundraising and non-profit industry.

Here are some of our ideas:

How to’s
Best Practices
Tips and Tricks
Top Tens
And other things we seen, tried, avoided and just think is cool while working with our non-profit clients over the last 2 decades.

Meanwhile, if you have any questions, news or information you’d like to share with us please leave a comment. If you have a question or want to suggest a topic please let us know. We would LOVE to hear from you.  Or find us on Facebook or LinkedIn.

See you real soon!