John began his career developing e-learning and expert systems before moving into business application and web development. He co-founded Sereno with Rod fifteen years ago. John concentrates on developing digital strategies with Sereno's charity partners and leads on design.
If you are seeking a new digital partner for your charity's website, or are looking to improve the way your site is hosted and supported, the following guidance should help.
While large charities may have the digital expertise or budget to deploy effective donation systems, this is not generally the case for small to medium sized charities.
It's often the case that charities first use recommendations and Google to engage a digital partner to help with a site rebuild. However, some of the most successful redesign projects start with a period of internal negotiation and planning.
Two years ago, at the Drupal conference in 2017, Dries Buytaert, Drupal’s founder, discussed the ways in which Drupal could leverage its sophistication and power and not compete with small website building platforms that take care of all the design and hosting for you - eg Wix, Squarespace.
Drupal site owners have a wealth of choices when it comes to maximising visibility on search engines. You have to keep your content relevant and up-to-date but by thinking carefully about the tools on offer, you can make the most of your content and see improvements in your rankings.
Website donations generally play an important role for charity websites, although they may not be the primary source of funding; indeed, many charities do not rely on individual donations at all.
While we never know what’s round the corner in the world of digital and the third sector, we’ve seen a number of interesting trends emerge in 2018 that will grow further in 2019. Here’s our take on what’s next for digital in the UK charity sector.
We have undertaken many migrations for clients from existing content management systems to Drupal. These moves are prompted by a number of factors, and include:
We all know it can be a lot of work to keep your charity intranet vibrant and all used. That said, here are half a dozen really quick and easy ways to improve your intranet and make it more useful and visited by your staff.
While I want to look specifically at social intranets in this article, I should first point out that the business case for any intranet is in general poorly understood. While it's possible for Comms teams to go to senior management with a case for a new or revised intranet, it's unusual to see KPIs rigorously reviewed after the first year.