A Little Intro…

Organizational websites… Where do they come from? Why are they everywhere? What is their purpose? What is their role in the existence of the Internet? Where are they going? How do I set one up? Are you intrigued? Ask and you shall receive; those questions are answered here. Read on and enjoy!

Ancient Web History

Part of all the different non-profit organizational websites today is the well-known top level domain “.org”. The “.org” TLD was one of the very founding original top level domains of the Internet. It was born in the beginning of 1985 along with its brothers and sisters “.com”, “.us”, “.edu”, “.gov”, “.mil”, and“.net” and since then has been a very crucial part of the Internet and non-profit organizations globally. Its creation had its roots in being specifically for non-profit organizations; however, organizations that did not meet the standards for the other gTLD’s also were also permitted to use it. The very first group to adopt the “.org” TLD was The MITRE Corporation for their website: “mitre.org”. So began the first organizational website.

Statistically Speaking

Since its origin in 1985 the “.org” TLD has grown massively. At the time of this writing there are more than 10,200,061 registered “.org” domains. It is also the third most popular TLD in the world. Globally out of the top 1 million most popular sites 39,333 of those 1 million end with “.org”. The top 5 “.org” websites are: wikipedia.org (globally ranked #6), craigslist.org (globally ranked #42), wordpress.org (globally ranked #100), wikimedia.org (globally ranked #151), and mozilla.org (globally ranked #160). The “.org” TLD even became the very first open TLD to sign their zone with DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions). Certainly the “.org” TLD has come a long way and from what the statics has shown since its origin in 1985, “.org” appears to be constantly growing.

About Organizational Websites and the One Word Question… Why?

Organizational websites are websites that usually are based on non-profit organizations and usually have the “top level domain” of “.org”. (There are exceptions to the rule, which, I’ll explain later.) These websites are straight forward in conveying their “mission”, “main objective”, or “cause” to a particular audience, however, may also have other objectives in addition to their main objective that are very closely related. For example, an organizational website that has a single specific message, such as one that conveys the need for awareness and financial support for breast cancer research, focuses on one area. The appropriate example would most definitely be: www.nationalbreastcancer.org However, there are organizational websites that convey more than one message but are still closely related such as one that raises awareness and seeks financial support for of all kinds of cancer research with the different specific cancers categorized and on the site. That example would be: www.cancer.org

What’s the Meaning of This?

The purpose of an organizational website main goal is to promote and campaign their mission and/or message concerning an opinion, stance, and/or beliefs on a topic or set of related topics. Part of such campaigning is for the organizational website to reach out to an audience with information about their cause, to educate them concerning their cause, and to raise the awareness for that it. An example of an organizational website is a non-profit is a charity fund website. This organizational website would express the need to support the fund by educating the audience of the need to support the charity, how to support the charity, and for the audience to extend the promotion of the cause by challenging the audience to spread the news of it to others. Here is another good example of such a site: www.aspca.org. Another example of an organizational website also is a religious website. This organizational website reaches out to educate the audience/viewer on their interpretation, stance, and/or beliefs of their core doctrine and challenges the audience to promote and share such with others. Here’s another example: www.christian.org

Which do you want first? “The Good News” or “The Bad News”

Organizational websites are more commonly associated with non-profit organizations. However, the “.org” TLD is not restricted to non-profit businesses only, so anyone can register a domain name with the TLD “.org”. Even in the case that “.org” websites are most commonly associated with non-profit visitor audience, there are websites that do have the “.org” TLD and are mainly used for commercial activity. This is due the unrestricted parameters of buying the domain name with “.org”, and it is this lack of such restriction that can generate “some” confusion and the small risk of losing an audience. However, having the TLD “.org” can be beneficial due to the assumption that it can gain a greater sum of cause supporting visitors and build up their trust in confirming that the website is truly non-profit.

The Setup Process: Section-by-Section

Part 1: The Technical Stuff

First, for the organization to setup a website they must buy a domain name and hosting. The domain name should be bought soon as possible due to the fact that domain names that are taken cannot be used by another. The domain name should have the “.org” TLD. Preferably, the organization should buy hosting and a domain name together for a discount. There are also some hosting companies that will give discounts to non-profit organizations.

Part 2: The Content

The second part is to prepare the content and design of the site. The site should be Social media friendly sites as this will help in spreading the mission and cause of the organization. The main and most compelling information, such as the mission statement and cause should be displayed first on the site. The home page should display this information so the website can grasp the audiences’ attention before they become disinterested and leave.

Part 3: Basic Structure, Functionality, and Usability

The third part is to setup the coding and functionality of the site. The site should be simple, easy to navigate, and accessibility features ready. RSS feeds and email newsletters, and blog features should be used to send out news and updates about the site and the organization’s cause. A donate button with be available so that visitors can donate to the cause. Contact information should be easily available to the visitor, it should clear and understandable, and any contact forms should simple so that the visitor does not become frustrated and disinterested.

Part 4: Action!

The fourth part is that the site should be setup so that it can help acquire donors and recruit volunteers. The main content and purpose should be upfront and noticeable in a sympathetic and appealing way to generate emotions and ultimately gain a response to support the cause. A volunteer form and contact information should be readily available on each page making it easy, inviting, and not frustrating to the visitor to sign up to support the cause. There should be examples and testimonies of individuals who are helping already and have a positive experience in such.

Part 5: Maintenance

The fifth part is that the organizational website must be maintained and kept up to date both with the coding and with its content and other details about their cause. This is just as crucial as creating the website. If the website is not kept current the content will be out of date and misleading to the audience. This will ultimately cause the website to lose visitors and supporters as the website will be deemed inaccurate, confusing, and untruthful concerning the main cause of the organization.

It is also extremely important to never take down the website when preparing a design update. The site must be continually operational. Potential visitors and supporters that would have been would see a “site under construction page”, become disinterested, and ultimately leave with little chance of them returning. As for consistent supporters and visitors, they may go to another similar website for the same cause which also causes the website to lose faithful supporters. The website redesign should be created and tested on a testing server. Then when the new design is ready it should be uploaded and introduced during a time of low traffic, such as late at night for the applicable time zone. Also there should be a notice that the website has been updated. All design, content, and functionality changes should be noted on the home page so that visitors are aware of them as well and an email should be sent out to registered supporters of the website with notice of these updates.

The Organizational Website: “Organized”

The website should be structured with compelling home, about, mission, donate, volunteer, and contact pages and should be kept current with updates to the content about the organization’s cause and its progress. It would benefit the organization to use a content management system to make and keep up with the necessary updates and changes. Also, with the use of a database, such as with PHP and MySQL or comparable programming languages, the site would be able to better manage the content. The use interactive scripting languages, such as JavaScript, would keep the site from being static and boring. This makes the site dynamic and provides the interaction and functionality that will appeal to visitors.