OL 640 Certificate Program: How to Build a Website for Your Nonprofit

 

200 Organizations. We have had the pleasure of working with participants in our nonprofit training programs from over 200 nonprofit organizations in North America, Britain, Europe and Australia.

“Tim and his online team are only an email away and based on my own experiences never failed to respond to my challenges, concerns, successes and queries. I have benefited tremendously from my interaction with Tim and participation in the program. I do wish you continued success with your commitment and drive in providing excellent service, and valuable and practical knowledge.” Gillian Primus

 

Each 8-week course costs $150.00 and begins monthly.

 

 

In 601 and 602 we will show you the step-by-step process of how to create a website of your own, and how to grow the site with new blogs and with new captivating landing pages.

• In 601, build a new website for your nonprofit from scratch.
• In 602, maintain the site so that it’s always in good condition and grow your site with new blogs and with new call-to-action landing pages.

In OL 603 and 604 you will learn how to convert Internet searchers into supporters and how to capture new newsletter subscribers to increase the size and quality of your mailing list.

• In 603, learn how to lure Internet searchers to your site by optimizing your landing pages for increased traffic, and how to convert casual visitors into supporters of your nonprofit.
• In 604, learn how to entice new newsletter subscribers to increase the size of your mailing list and learn how to get more people to open your newsletters and then ‘click through’ to your website.

 

 

 

If you work with a non profit on programs such as animal welfare, community development, education, the environment—or a food bank or homeless shelter—the Certificate Program 640 will help you increase donations & subscribers, connect with your volunteers and build your brand.

 

Were you aware that today’s nonprofit websites need to be a tad more sophisticated than they were a few years ago? Now, website visitors are both mobile and in a hurry.

 

Learn how to build a website for your nonprofit organization online. Our How to Build a Website Certificate Program shows you how to create a mobile friendlywebsite from scratch, create an effective layout, add a logo, choose fonts, create new pages, add donation, volunteer and subscription forms, and create landing pages that convert visitors to donors and grow your email list and and send compelling email newsletters.

 

Who Should Join: Nonprofit staff and people wanting to transition into a nonprofit career.

 

Although this How to Build a Website guide has been written for beginners, many of the exciting ideas presented will also be helpful to seasoned website managers. Do you need to develop a new web presence for your nonprofit? Or do you currently have a nonprofit website that needs an up-to-date facelift?

 

How to Build a Website Certificate Program. Certificates. Course participants who successfully complete the entire sequence of 4 courses will receive a program certificate.

A Certificate Program of 4, 8-Week Courses. This diploma program is composed of four, 8-week courses. They are taken sequentially—since your new website develops from one course to the next. Enroll in the courses one at a time: Start the program with OL 601.

601 shows you the step-by-step process of how to build a website of your own—from scratch. If you follow the detailed steps in this process, you can actually wind up with a new website by the end of the course.

 

Now that your new WordPress website is up and running, this course is going to show you 12 very simple things that you can do to 1.) maintain your site so that it’s always in good condition and 2.) grow your site with new blogs and with new call-to-action landing pages.

 

In OL 603 you will learn how to convert Internet searchers into supporters of your nonprofit by improving the website’s landing pages: the pages that customers see first. Let us show you how to begin optimizing your landing pages for increased traffic and conversions.

 

In OL 604 you will learn how to capture new newsletter subscribers more efficiently in order to increase the size and quality of your mailing list. You will also learn how to get more people to both open your newsletters and then ‘click through’ to your website to a dovetailed landing page.

 

The Learning Environment. This training program is not based upon lectures—it is based upon action. Each week’s activity comes with step-by-step instructions and editable templates for you to customize to build your own website. Course consultants will work individually with you each week in developing your new site.

Discover opportunities which will help you design and grow your website with a pallet of tools that we provide that you can explore.

 

The program leader, Tim Magee, Executive Director of the Center, has led hundreds of nonprofit staff through our online learning programs.

 

200 Organizations. We look forward to working with you online. We have had the pleasure of working with participants in our nonprofit training programs from over 200 nonprofit organizations in North America, Britain, Europe and Australia.

More Information? Be sure and look at each course’s syllabus by clicking on the Certificate Syllabi tab.

Each 8-week course is $150.00. There are no other costs nor books to buy: all course materials, editable templates, and guides are downloaded from the course site.

 

How to Enroll. Simply pay the course fee and fill out the Nonprofit Program Participant Information Sheet by clicking the ‘Enroll Now’ tab.

 

If you have a question don’t hesitate to contact us at: Online.Learning@csd-i.org. Many questions are answered on our Online Learning FAQ.

 

 

OL 601: How to Build a New Website for Your Nonprofit

OL 602: Maintaining and Growing Your New WordPress Website

OL 603: Landing Pages & Simple SEO for Your Website

OL 604: Mailing Lists and Email Newsletters

 

Don’t have time to build your own website? Let the Center for Sustainable Development’s web design team create an elegant and effective website for you—and quickly too! Learn more about our Nonprofit Web Design Services.

 

 

In 601 and 602 we will show you the step-by-step process of how to create a website of your own, and how to grow the site with new blogs and with new captivating landing pages.

• In 601, build a new website for your nonprofit from scratch.
• In 602, maintain the site so that it’s always in good condition and grow your site with new blogs and with new call-to-action landing pages.

In OL 603 and 604 you will learn how to convert Internet searchers into supporters and how to capture new newsletter subscribers to increase the size and quality of your mailing list.

• In 603, learn how to lure Internet searchers to your site by optimizing your landing pages for increased traffic, and how to convert casual visitors into supporters of your nonprofit.
• In 604, learn how to entice new newsletter subscribers to increase the size of your mailing list and learn how to get more people to open your newsletters and then ‘click through’ to your website.

 

 

This course will be focused on the getting a site up and running so you get right to work! Here is what is in store for you: 12 approachable steps over 6 weeks.

 

1.1. Decision One: Choosing a website host and registering your website address.

1.2. Decision Two: WWW: Weebly, Wix, or WordPress? Choosing a platform.

1.3. Decision Three: Selecting an attractive website theme with modern features.

 

2. Registering a new Domain Name.

 

3. Signing up for a shared hosting service.

 

4. Creating your WordPress website.

 

5. Connecting the name registration and hosting services and the WordPress site together.

 

6. Choosing a Theme for your website

 

7. Creating a Child Theme

 

8. Day one at your new site: Navigating backstage: what design tools are available on your platform?

1. logging in
2. opening your dashboard
3. opening up a finished page
4. opening up a finished page for editing
5. seeing where your photos are
6. seeing where your blog posts are
7. seeing your pages in Tree View
8. learning about your webpage’s theme
9. learning where to go to customize different elements with your theme
10. menus, widgets, columns and sidebars
11. seeing what plug-ins your webpage is using

 

9. Important basics: quick and easy navigation—and mobile phone friendly too.

 

10. Organizing your initial pages: keep the structure simple—but plan for growth.

 

11. Set the Google SEO search stage: Make including these ultra simple search magnets in your initial pages a habit now.

 

12. How to find answers from the WordPress community to WordPress questions you may have. The section also includes a set of links to the best online resources that we found for WordPress.

 

OL 602 Course Syllabus. Maintaining and Growing Your New WordPress Website.

602 is focused on the basics so you can get right to work on your new website! Here is what is in store for you: 12 approachable steps.

1. Day one at your new site: An introduction. Navigating backstage: what design tools are available on your platform?

 

2. Branding: adding a logo and slogan; choosing fonts and colors.

 

3. Posting a new blog and adding a new webpage: Let’s create 2 copy/paste templates.

 

4. The difference between HTML (text) and WYSIWIG (visual) editing. Which one is better for you?

 

5. Four ways to add content to new pages. Find the one that is the easiest for you to use.

1. Templates: copying an existing page that you like and then editing it to become a new page
2. Copy/pasting, editing and formatting in HTML (text)
3. Copy/pasting, editing and formatting in WYSIWYG (visual)
4. Word: converting Word documents into HTML documents for pasting into a new page

6. Links. How to add links both to other pages on your website (Donate here!) and to other websites as well.

 

7. Photos. How to upload and then insert photos into new page.

 

8. Documents. How to upload documents into WordPress so that your website visitors can download them.

 

9. Four must-have copy/paste HTML snippets for:

1. tables: useful for putting descriptive copy next to a photo
2. numbered & bulleted lists
3. indented paragraphs
4. form insertion

10. Get started right away: Quick start donation, volunteer, and subscription forms.

 

11. Pre-Launch Checklist: Editing a page and checking spelling, grammar and links. Even after carefully producing a new page you might need to reword a sentence. The best way to do this is to open up the page itself so that you can see it clearly, and then open up the same page in editing mode side by side.

 

12. How to find answers from the WordPress community to WordPress questions you may have. The section also includes a set of links to the best online resources that we found for WordPress.

 

OL 603 Course Syllabus: Landing Pages & Simple SEO for Your Website

1. Landing Pages: The Middleman Landing pages convert a casual visitor into a donor.

 

2. Keyword research for landing page text: The 21st Century Communication Secret: [Shhh… It’s all about them!]. Using your visitors language (VOC). Use potential supporters’ language in your landing pages too. This is how supporters will find you. Are your keywords congruent with: Your new potential supporters’ search terms? Your webpage landing pages linked to from your newsletters?

 

3. Twelve Steps in Producing the Perfect Landing Page for your Organization. Building a landing page template that you can use over and over again. Bonus: a pre-launch checklist.

 

4. Demystifying Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Using keywords in your headings, page title, page description, URLs, and content.

 

5. Using the keywords you researched in developing your landing page text.

 

6. Writing a detailed background information page template to support your Landing Pages.

 

7. Cross checking search terms, ad keywords and landing page keywords. Are they congruent? Duplicates? Cost-effective long-tails. Organic keywords. Managing keywords.

 

8. Launch your landing page, and detailed background information support page.

 

9.Build visibility and visitors: Promote your blog or landing page to friends and colleagues—and ask them for a link.

 

10. Add a site map so Google can find you quickly.

 

Bonus: 20 Resources to keep you up to date.

 

OL 604 Course Syllabus: Mailing Lists and Email Newsletters.

Week 1. Where are you now? Do you have an email service provider? Who? Do you have subscription forms? Pop-ups? How to choose an email service provider. Or, evaluating if your service is up to snuff.

 

Week 2. Collecting subscriber names using your service’s tools. What information should you ask of a new subscriber? Double opt-in?

 

Week 3. Installing pop-ups on your website. Which type? Where? What should they say?

 

Week 4. Do you have a free offer to entice new subscribers? Compiling an E-book or information sheet to capture new subscribers.

 

Week 5. Managing subscriber information. Segmenting subscribers between say: donors & volunteers.

 

Week 6. Subject lines. Your chance to be both creative and a Sherlock.

 

Week 7. The email itself. What should it look like? How long? The body of the newsletter. What will lure subscribers to click through to an actionable landing page on your website?

 

Week 8. Launch. Writing a new, compelling, newsletter dovetailed with an action-oriented landing page.

 

Bonus: 20 Resources to keep you up to date.

 

 

 

“Tim and his online team are only an email away and based on my own experiences never failed to respond to my challenges, concerns, successes and queries. I have benefited tremendously from my interaction with Tim and participation in the program. I do wish you continued success with your commitment and drive in providing excellent service, and valuable and practical knowledge.” Gillian Primus

 

“Thank you so much, Tim – till the next course. It will be a pleasure to go out and demonstrate the elegant simplicity and effectiveness of your system. I thank you for a wonderful learning experience together. Looking forward to another time as classmates or colleagues.” Carol Wallace.

 

 

 

It’s easy to enroll in our courses. There are only two things to do: pay the course fee and fill out the Nonprofit Program Participant Information Sheet. The links are just below.

 

We offer four, 8-week courses in the How to Build a Website program. Each of the courses is $150.00.

 

To pay by debit or credit card simply select your course number from the drop-down menu just below and click “Add to Cart”. You can add more than one course to your cart.

 

When you are ready to pay, click “Check Out.” PayPal membership is not required; you will see “Don’t have a PayPal account? Pay as a guest now.” This will lead you to a normal credit card form.

 

2. Nonprofit Program Participant Information Sheet
Simply fill out the Nonprofit Program Participant Information Sheet at the bottom of this page.

 

We look forward to working with you online!

 

The course leader, Tim Magee, Executive Director of the Center, has led hundreds of nonprofit staff through our online learning programs—and its sister international development program. Certificates and diplomas will be issued through the Center.

 

200 Organizations. We have had the pleasure of working with participants in our nonprofit training programs from over 200 nonprofit organizations in North America, Britain, Europe and Australia.

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Nonprofit Leadership Skills Development. All of our online training for nonprofits are available in three formats: distance learning, live workshops, and one-on-one mentored training programs.

 

If you have a question don’t hesitate to contact us.