The Gilbert Center: The Modern Nonprofit Web Site: Strategies, Patterns, and Tools

The Modern Nonprofit Web Site: Strategies, Patterns, and Tools

A Seminar on Web Based Communication

Detailed Content Description | Related Reading | Faculty | Delivery Options

We all know now that the modern nonprofit web site is not simply an online brochure, but knowing what it is not only gets us started. Maybe that will help us avoid spending our limited budgets on pretty online boondoggles, but we still need a proactive vision. We still need to know what works. These seminars will give you that answer and more.

Detailed Description

Section 1: Communication Centered Web Site Design

The Email Manifesto says that "a web site designed around an email strategy is more effective than a web site designed around itself". But what does that mean, exactly? What are the practical methods used to design a truly effective nonprofit web site? This seminar will address these issues by covering:

four steps to communication centered web design
three major ways that web sites can support an email strategy
five key methods for turning web site visitors into newsletter subscribers
five syndromes of website failure and how to avoid them
the politics of communication centered website planning

This seminar is right for you if you have authority or responsibility for web based online communication of any kind. If you are looking for guidelines based on solid evidence and you want to make sure your website meets your communication goals in ways that are truly demonstrable, then you will get a solid start out of this seminar.

Section 2: Content Management: Managerial and Strategic Issues

Content management is about empowering the right people to communicate using the web. There are software issues, of course, including decisions about what CMS to use to manage your site. But the critical issues are managerial and strategic. This seminar will address this issue by covering:

three ways to use communication mapping to identify key content flows
five tactics for testing decentralized web publishing
ten management approaches for dealing with disintermediated and disgruntled staff
six steps to choosing Content Management software
how to connect organizational strategy to content management
making the big leap to network centric organizing

This seminar is right for you if you have managerial authority or influence on the processes for setting up and maintaining a website. If you want to empower the right people to communicate online, if you want to save money and critical staff time, if you want to create an organization that is agile online, then you'll find both first steps and a long term perspective in this seminar.

Section 3: Nonprofit Weblogs: A Model for Online Publishing

Weblogs are a popular model for personal web publishing and in many ways, an ideal model for many nonprofit organizations. More importantly, weblogs can play a key role in helping nonprofit organizations achieve an entirely new level of effectiveness, with some profound effects on traditional models of accountability. This seminar will address this issue by covering:

measuring how weblog-friendly your organization may be
five ways of finding the right people to write your weblogs
a comprehensive web publishing model that includes weblogs
understanding the difference between weblog hype and reality
three steps toward a community of weblogs in your field
six steps toward using Real Simple Syndication
twenty successful examples of nonprofit weblogs

Related Reading

Here are a few related articles by Michael Gilbert:

Faculty

Michael C. Gilbert

This seminar will be taught by Michael C. Gilbert, the author of "Why Web Sites Fail", "Communication Centered Technology Planning, 2nd Edition", and the "Site Analyzer Reports", the Editor of Nonprofit Online News, and the Founding President of the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. For more information about Mr. Gilbert, please see his bio.

Delivery Options

Our pre-packaged online seminar here consists of three 90 minute sessions.

Live Online Seminars: These are presented at a scheduled date & time, broadcast live, and include live Q&A time with the instructor. Live online seminars presented by The Gilbert Center are open registration seminars, which means that anyone can attend. Please see our calendar for upcoming events. You can also read technical requirements and other basic facts for this seminar delivery option. (Please note that our calendar of live seminars only goes out a couple of months and not all topics will show up there.)

On-Demand Online Seminars: On-demand means you can attend at a time that is most convenient for your schedule. It consists of the recordings of the most recent live presentation, and comes packaged with a 30 minute phone consultation with the instructor so you can ask questions about the seminar materials and how they can best be put to use in your particular situation. You can also read technical requirements and other basic facts for this seminar delivery option. The catalog of seminars available on-demand is listed down the right-hand side of that same page, and also the calendar page. (Please note that not all topics are available yet for on-demand viewing. See the On-Demand Info page for a complete list of current options.)

Private In-House Sessions: If you have a group of people to whom you would like to offer training, please consider our private, in-house seminars. Which means you can hire us to present this and any of the seminars listed on this site, as well as custom sessions, for your group privately; online or in person at your location. Please contact us for more information if you're interested.