This blog is for volunteers, webmasters and administrators of associations, clubs, charities, communities and other groups. We discuss issues and trends in modern web technologies that help your organization achieve more with less. This blog is sponsored by Wild Apricot membership software: a set of tools for membership administration, event registration, website management, online fundraising - with friendly and knowledgeable tech support. See for yourself how affordable and easy it is to use: - Take a tour!

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• 02 July 2008

  How to Check Your Website on Different Browsers 

  Cross-browser compatibility has long been a frustration for website designers. What looks fine in one browser may be more or less “broken” in another, with sidebars shifted and elements overlapping... But does it really matter, how your website looks in different browsers, in the big picture of what your organization is trying to accomplish online? Read More... Posted Wednesday, July 02, 2008 5:11 PM by Rebecca | 7 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, Usability, nptech, Web 2.0, Best practices, Google Analytics, websites, open source

• 08 May 2008

  How Well Does Your Website Work for its Users? 

  How easy do you think it should be to make a charitable donation? Getting a charity to accept your money might not be quite as easy as you'd think — if the charity's website is designed to meet its own needs, that is, rather than the needs of the people who visit and use the site. Here's an example: When an acquaintance passed away this week, I decided to pay my respects with a memorial donation to a major national charity. In a few spare minutes at lunch hour, I wrote out a cheque and sealed it Read More... Posted Thursday, May 08, 2008 6:52 PM by Rebecca | 5 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, Usability, Fundraising, nptech, Best practices, case studies, websites, Accessibility

• 20 September 2007

  Web design and usability guidelines for non-profits: An interview with Jason King 

  Jason King is a freelance web designer and ICT Trainer who works exclusively with non-profit organizations. He is also the author of the Nonprofit Web Design Blog , providing tips on planning, commissioning, designing and editing charity websites. In the following interview, we talked about nonprofit web design and usability best practices. Jason also shared some useful insights on ways nonprofits can design their websites so that they are easy to use, communicate effectively and are accessible to Read More... Posted Thursday, September 20, 2007 12:52 PM by Creative Apricot | 7 Comments Filed under: General News, Associations, Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, Usability, nptech, Web 2.0, Best practices

• 29 May 2007

  Non-Profit Websites: 10 Tips to Website Usability  

  When potential members and donors visit your website, they expect to find it easy to use. Kim Krause Berg from the Cre8pc Blog has a great article about website usability (making your site easy for your visitors), which is well worth reading. Here are Kim's ten tips (this is only a summary, read the post in detail here ): 1. There is not enough persuasive or value oriented information to convince visitors to stay on the page. 2. Don’t place 100 links to the inside pages from your homepage. 3. Quit Read More... Posted Tuesday, May 29, 2007 1:28 PM by Creative Apricot | 0 Comments Filed under: Associations, Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, Usability, nptech, Web 2.0, Best practices

• 13 February 2007

  Do Non-Profits Get ROI From Usability? 

  For businesses, usability's return on investment is pretty clear. Increased employee productivity, greater improvements in key performance indicators, double the sales and double the conversion rate. But what about non-profit organizations? Can they also get ROI from usability, even when they don't earn it back in the traditional sense? According to Jakob Nielsen, the expert on website usability (shaping your website so it works best for users): "It's a misleading notion that usability is only a Read More... Posted Tuesday, February 13, 2007 11:06 AM by Creative Apricot | 1 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, Usability, nptech, Best practices

• 11 January 2007

  Non-profits are using emerging web 2.0 tools and you should too 

  It should come as no surprise. The buzz about Web 2.0 tools and software-as-a-service (SaaS) has been caught and non-profits are adopting them. That's the gist of the recent article in IT Business In fact, there are a lot of ready-to-use software-as-a-service (SaaS) products on the market to meet the needs of a non-profit. Online donation tools for example are great for organizations that don't want to deal with setting up their website and server. One great advantage of software-as-a-service (SaaS) Read More... Posted Thursday, January 11, 2007 9:00 AM by Creative Apricot | 0 Comments Filed under: Non-profit technology, General non-profit interest, Usability, Wild Apricot, nptech, Web 2.0, Best practices