Introduction to WordPress Adrian Sanabria-Diaz & David Hayes Introduction Understanding Wordpress Non-Profit Organizations using WordPress The Power of Open Source Collaboration Customization Theme Selection Plugins and Functionality Content Management, Blogging, and SEO Donations, Memberships, Subscriptions Event Management and Volunteer Engagement Communication, Campaigns and Outreach Wordpress in Action (Demo) Real-World Success Stories Best Practices and Tips Disclaimer: Installing Wordpress requires some Technical Know-How Q&A and Conclusion Understanding WordPress WordPress is an open-source content management system (CMS) for websites. Used by small and big business and non-profit organizations. Market Dominance of 43% of all websites (June 2023) Easier to get off the ground then a website from scratch Plugins allow many organizations the ability to deploy little to no code Flexibility for diverse website types and complexities https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-dominates-market-share-of-top-10000-websites/415113/ Non-Profit Organizations Using WordPress The Jane Goodall Institute Works to protect chimpanzees and other animals. Team Rubicon Provides disaster relief services. CURE International Provides medical care for children with disabilities. The Big Give Helps donors find charities to support. The Interfaith Housing Alliance Provides affordable housing. Peoples Under Threat Works to protect people from genocide.L Los Angeles LGBT Center Works to build a world where LGBTQ+ people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society. Nebraska Association for Translators and Interpreters (NATI) NATI provides industry resources and training for hundreds of translation and interpretation professionals. The Power of Open Source Open source software is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. "Source code" is the part of software that most computer users don't ever see; it's the code computer programmers can manipulate to change how a piece of software—a "program" or "application"—works. Programmers who have access to a computer program's source code can improve that program by adding features to it or fixing parts that don't always work correctly. Collaboration and Customization Open Source allows for strong collaboration Customization through Themes and Plugins (highlighted later in the presentation) Don’t reinvent the wheel! Look for plugins Massive online community if you encounter any issues with most of your questions likely already answered by many others Themes Selection Making a website representative of your brand, company, or non-profit relies heavily on the look and feel of that website. Most Themes available for Free or priced between $10 - $150 depending on complexity Bulk of the work comes from making the website your own and plugin integration Some themes include their own forms and design style Plugins and Functionality A WordPress plugin is a piece of software that can be added to your WordPress website to extend its functionality and add new features. Designed to Integrate seamlessly with WordPress Used to customize and enhance the capabilities of your website without requiring extensive coding knowledge. Offer a wide range of functionalities, such as adding contact forms social media sharing buttons e-commerce features search engine optimization tools security enhancements performance optimization analytics integration, and much more. Allow you to add specific features or functionalities to your website without having to build them from scratch. Content Management, Blogging, and SEO Wordpress was created when the internet was mainly used for blogging. Since then, the internet has grown and evolved into what it is today and Wordpress evolved with it and today is used by eCommerce companies, non-profits, businesses, and everything in between. Content management systems work to help you do just that. Manage your content. Without needing to know how to code, you can easily add pages, blog pages / posts, upload images, and change text on your website. This is where SEO comes in. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is like giving your blog a special map that helps search engines understand what your blog is about. With the help of plugins, which are like little helpers for your blog, you can add information to your blog posts that tells search engines, "Hey, this blog post is really useful and relevant to what people are looking for!" Donations, Memberships, Subscriptions via Plugins Donations WPForms GiveWP https://donate.lalgbtcenter.org/ https://natihq.org/donate/ Charitable PayPal Donations Donation Thermometer Memberships / Subscriptions MemberPress Restrict Content Pro Paid Memberships Pro Ultimate Member WooCommerce Memberships Examples of Plugins that meet workflows for Donations, Memberships and Subscriptions Event Management and Volunteer Engagement Event Management Events Manager WP Event Manager Event Organiser Amelia All-in-One Event Calendar The Events Calendar My Calendar EventOn Calendarize it! for WordPress Modern Events Calendar Stachethemes Event Calendar Tickera Volunteer Engagement Wired Impact Volunteer Management Participants Database RSVPMaker Volunteer Roles Communication, Campaigns and Outreach Effective communication is key for nonprofits to engage supporters, donors, and the community. This workflow includes creating and sending newsletters, email campaigns, and social media updates. Email marketing and social media management tools can be useful here. Powerful tools include: MailChimp Constant Contact for WordPress Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons CiviCRM CiviCRM is a powerful, web-based constituent relationship management (CRM) system built by and for nonprofit organizations and NGO's. One could also use this application in place of the several plugins used. Contact Management: Automatically store all data for each contact in one place, creating a unified, holistic record for each constituent. Configurable & Customizable: CiviCRM’s open-source license will allow you the freedom to find the right programmer to tailor your installation specifically to your needs. Membership Management: Individuals can sign up and pay for their membership online, receive automatic membership renewal reminders, and receive member-only emails. Accounting Integration: Enter your gifts once in CiviCRM, and export them in the accounting format that your accounting system - and your accountant - will love. Case Management: CiviCRM allows organizations to create, manage, and track simple or sophisticated case management workflows. Event Management: CiviCRM provides a full set of tools for running events and recording a constituent’s attendance in their activity record. Email Marketing: Create and manage bulk email lists. You can also segment your lists, do A/B testing, and monitor statistics. Contribution Management: Process and track contributions, send gift acknowledgments, and report on your data in an elegant and intuitive workflow process. Advocacy Campaigns: Build advocacy campaigns by tying together and tracking the progress of a campaign’s events, mailings, activities, and contributions. Peer-to-Peer Fundraising: Your members and donors can raise funds on behalf of your organization through personal campaigns. Reports: Choose one of the 40 standard reports or configure and create a custom report to evaluate your organization’s impact. Real-World Success Stories https://natihq.org or hover over the QR code NATI’s Joomla to Wordpress Migration Case study Challenges, Solutions, and Outcomes and why the switch to Wordpress NATI had the following requirements Donation Page Event Management and Ticketing Membership Management Ability to Search through Interpreters and Translators Contact Form pages Campaign Management Best Practices and Tips Keep Plugins Up to Date Keep server up to date! Keep images small when uploading Analytics to measure engagement (e.g. MailChimp, Google SiteKit, Monster Insights) Use a Trusted CDN (e.g. CloudFlare) We recommend the Wordfence Plugin for security Disclaimer: Installing Wordpress requires some Technical Know-How Wordpress has a product that allows you to use their servers to run your blog, however, for more complex workflows, like NATI uses, you will need to host this on your own server. This is where you can contact either Adrian Sanabria-Diaz with Tiempo LLC or David Hayes with BlackBrick Software in setting Wordpress up for you. Disclaimer: Installing Wordpress requires some Technical Know-How Once WordPress is running on a server, you can start updating the content on that website. We can help with recommending plugins, keeping the server up to date, and converting any workflows you have and integrating them with WordPress. Q&A and Conclusion Thank you! Contact Information: adrian@tiempo.llc, david@blackbrick.software