Wednesday 3 April 2013

30 Days, 30 Websites, 30 Empowered NGOs

I have recently become involved in a project with a friend who is trying to raise money for tuition fees. Rather than just asking for money, he has decided to offer out his web development services: for every £1000 raised towards tuition, he will develop a website for an NGO/non-profit organisation free of charge. The goal is to raise enough money in 30 days to allow him to develop 30 websites, and in turn empower 30 NGOs. 

Research has shown that many NGO websites are of low quality because organisations do not have the resources available to pay for professional development. This is true of the NGO I am currently working with - they have a website, but it was developed using a free template and is restricted to a small number of pages. My organisation would like to have a professionally developed site, but cannot afford it at this time. The result is that people become bored with it as they are unable to use the website in the way they would like to and as such, content becomes outdated very quickly.

In this day and age, websites can provide huge benefits to NGOs. They can help to promote the work they do to communities, policy makers, donors, volunteers and all other stakeholders. Websites are often the first point of call for people looking for information, and for interested donors when considering whether to partner with an organisation. They give NGOs a louder voice - to shout about the achievements they have made to date, and to highlight the challenges they are facing as well as the support they need to continue to achieve. As global internet usage grows, so does the importance of websites for organisations to stand a chance of being noticed.

30 days is not a long time to try to achieve the funding target, however it is hoped by keeping it short and sweet we can build momentum quickly.

I encourage you to visit the donation site for further information. Any support you can give would be much appreciated and would be going towards two very valuable causes (NGO empowerment and individual education).

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/websites-for-ngos

If you have an interest in NGOs and know of an organisation that could benefit from having a professionally developed website, please visit the Facebook page for further information on how to apply.

http://www.facebook.com/WebsitesforNGOs

Thank you for your support.
Rachel



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