A recent survey of Detroit-based non-profits revealed a wide range of styles and functionality among their web sites. While I admit to trolling sites for possible business opportunities, I quickly considered donating my time to at least one non-profit for the purpose of redesigning their site. It was disappointing to see first-generation web design promoting grass-root organizations who contribute daily to making our city a better place to live. So, just what am I prepared to do? Fair question. Let’s pick two sites, look at their current design, and suggest a better solution.
For the purposes of full-disclosure, I was not contacted or invited to redesign any of the sites. This is purely an exercise to improve, not to criticize. Most non-profits operate on meager funding. In most cases, less than $30,000 per year. It takes compassion and a healthy dose of love for their neighborhoods to do what they do. Having a nerdy web geek on staff is not feasible in most cases. However, thanks to open source and content management systems, and social networking tools like Ning and Facebook, there’s no reason any organization, large or small, can’t have a website that communicates to it’s constituents and stakeholders and provide easy maintenance and updating options for the site’s owners.
First up, the Georgia Street Community Collective. They maintain the Georgia Street Community Garden and Market, and operate the Georgia Street Community Center and Library. Think 1994-96 websites. Lots of GIFs, large buttons, background image, and colored text. A site only a mother could love. Want to see something scary? Use your “view source” option of choice. The site was designed using Homestead and Animation Factory and the code structure is not for the faint of heart. There’s a lot happening on the home page with flashing news banners and repeating arrows, so we’d like to suggest a WordPress or Drupal solution that can provide the GSCC with a site that can communicate news and events, collect information, and keep the maintenance to a minimum. Currently, the GSCC uses Blogspot to drive their blogging activity. It’s our contention they can have both in one nice self-managed package. There’s absolute no reason we can’t help the GSCC make the transition to Web 2.0 painlessly with a theme modified to reflect the unique mission of the Georgia Street Community Collective.
Our second candidate, the Motor City Blight Busters, Inc., was founded in 1988 with the mission to stabilize and revitalize Northwest Detroit neighborhoods. We think by taking a few of it’s existing elements, like its background image, and reconstitute them into a Joomla or WordPress CMS. This would allow for a better presentation of it’s multi-media assets, and we can make this site as bold and up front as the organization’s enthusiasm and verve. It’s not bad to have a splash page, but there’s some rules of convention that should be adhered to, like not having two instances of the same slide show. We would tackle the issue of video set to auto-play as well because we subscribe to the view that your visitors should have a choice in how they would like to access your site’s content.
Again, we know our warriors of the non-profit sector are fighting the good fight and often suffer from lack of resources and limited personnel. And again, we argue that better website solutions are available for the very affordable price of free if only a few willing web techs donate a hosting solution or a free template modified to the organization’s wishes. It seems to be a win-win for all involved.
So, what am I prepared to do? I can provide hosting, help select and install an appropriate platform, help modify, transform, and migrate content. Or, I could help train volunteers on how to use the power and variety of open source software to advance the missions of our community non-profits here in Detroit. Worthy causes deserving worthy contributions.
