This is the first in a series of blog posts about using blogs instead of websites for nonprofit organizations or grassroots organizations.
Introduction
Here's my advice: any nonprofit volunteer run organization should use blog not websties? Why?
I will refer to the data that the site will hold as online data. Where that data goes is traditionally a website but using a blog would be easier for most laypeople.
Before deciding how to put data online the organization needs to define why they want an online information storage place. Who will read it? What is the purpose? How often does the information change?
As the Internet got more poplular it seemed even the least computer savvy person knew about websites. Websites became the thing that everyone thought they needed when they think about putting data online. The problem with websites is there is a cost to running them and special coding language must be known. Just owning a domain name cost something then you need a host server for your website. These usually are set up through a company such as Go Daddy and there are usually montly fees and often long term contracts three to one years in duration. There is a learning curve to using the sites, even the skeleton sites like Go Daddy.
Sometimes an organization has a computer savvy person who steps up to create a website for free. Often this person is the one and only person who can run the website. The others are so happy to have found some talent that they go forward with creating the website without looking at other options (like blogs).
Often the volunteer website person winds up spending more time on this than they expected. Every single organization I have worked with who ran a website has wound up having that person leave, whether it's just because they move or their kids grow up and they move on or due to interpersonal squabbles between adult leadership. Then what happens is the organization has an old website which no one knows how to update to make it currrent. Sometimes the person who controlled the website leaves and refuses to give the passwords and account information and the organization has old data stored on the web for months or years that cannot be edited.
Don't get yourself into that position, please! Why? Not only is it a hassle but the nonfunctioning website can be a problem for existing participants in the program and also it can impede or prevent newcomers to the organization from getting current data or joining. Imagine Boy Scouts who want a Troop to join but who cannot find who to contact?
An issue with a hosted site such as one with Go Daddy is if you wish to transfer to another hosting company the transfer process in and of itself can be yet another project.
How much work do you want this to be? Think about this and be honest with expectations.
Given what I know from helping and being in leadership positions with volunteers, I know the work of the organization, the actual working with the kids or whatever your activity is, is and should be your main focus. You do not want to focus too much energy and time or to create stress over something such as how to get your data online and how to keep it updated. Publicity and communication to the public are important but they should not be major financial investments, the organization should focus on what their mission statement says they should be doing.
Thus, I recommend a FREE blog with a company that is created to be used by people who do NOT NEED TO KNOW ANY CODING. I have been using blogger.com for over seven years and it is simple as pie. In this post I will speak to the ways that you can use the FREE Blogger account to make a blog for your organization.