In recent years the not-for-profit and charitable sector has made great strides on their journey for digital transformation.
Increasingly, this sector has seen the focus in strategy move online and many have embraced the ever-increasing breadth of tools and platforms out in the market to do so.
Competition is strong and the need is great. The role of charities in society has never been more in demand. But the cost of delivering these much-needed services is great and competition for funding and donor support is high. In light of these challenges, it is key that charities embrace technology to its full potential.
While some charities are ahead of the game, many smaller, more local charities are lagging behind. Charity Digital quoted in 2020 that only 28% of charities in the UK have a digital strategy in place and 50% do not have a website. There are still many in the sector looking to embark on their digital journey, while others will be considering how to take their digital strategy and website to the next level.
The foundation of any successful digital strategy is your website and behind every great website is the right CMS.
Over the last 20 year Element 78 have supported many charities on their digital transformation and we have design and developed numerous websites for great brands such as Young Minds, Brandon Trust and NASP to name a few. We believe Umbraco is the perfect software platform to help brand within this sector achieve their goals in the short term and further down the line.
What is Umbraco?
Umbraco is an open-source content management system (CMS), known for its flexibility, scalability and highly customizable meaning your website can be tailored to your needs.
Why is Umbraco the perfect CMS for the charity sector?
The charity sector faces a number of challenges which impact its ability to embrace many software and technology advances,
Knowledge & Skillset - many smaller charities do not have dedicated digital teams in place
Funding - the competition for funding and investment within charities is great and complex. Therefore, investment in technology and systems is often compromised.
Resources—often stretched thin, with few people managing multiple areas of the business and at risk from ongoing funding pressures—result in limited time availability, a small workforce, and varying skillsets.
Here, we explore why Umbraco is the perfect tool to address these challenges.
1) Easy to use
Umbraco has a user-friendly, intuitive interface, making it very easy for users to manage their content. This is key for charities with small teams, varying skillsets, and responsibilities, as they can easily and quickly update and publish content. Manage a range of digital assets and user journeys with no technical knowledge and no need for specialist support internally.
2) Responsive
A mobile is increasingly most people’s device of choice for accessing websites, especially for younger generations. Websites in the charitable sector often have many roles and cater for numerous audiences.
- Sources of information
- Donations & e-commerce
- Destinations for professionals
It’s essential that they have a website that's optimised for mobile to enable users to complete their goals quickly and easily. Umbraco offers responsive design, which means your website will automatically adapt to any screen size, ensuring a consistent and user-friendly experience for all users.
3) Integrations and Plug-ins
Charities often integrate with a number of third-party tools, for donations and fundraising and e-commerce shops, therefore it’s essential for the CMS to easily facilitate these integrations. Umbraco integrates with a wide range of third-party tools and services, including e-commerce platforms, marketing automation software, and analytics tools. This increases the functionality of your website and the business opportunities. Umbraco is the perfect choice if you need to consider how you work with existing CRM platforms or donation platforms.
4) Customisable
Umbraco is highly customisable and flexible, enabling charities to create a website unique to you and your specific needs. Providing a broad range of templates and themes to create a website that reflects your brand and values. This is key for charities, where brand appeal and values are key drivers for their target audience. We know from work with clients within the sector that younger audiences are highly receptive to the visual identity of charities.
5) SEO optimisation
Umbraco is SEO-friendly, making it very easy to optimise your website for search engines. SEO is crucial for charities as their role is often educational, providing resources for those in need. Umbraco's SEO-friendly features include easy integration with Google Analytics, customisable meta tags, and a user-friendly URL structure. Strong SEO is key to driving new users and building awareness.
6) Security
Security is a top priority for any website. Umbraco is known for its strong security features, with regular updates and patches to address any vulnerabilities. It's also a reliable CMS, with a track record of stability and uptime. Offering Charities peace of mind as they often deal with vulnerable and sensitive information.
7) User Management
Charities often have multiple teams managing the website and therefore user management and permissions are essential to retaining monitor and control updates. Some employees might only have an author or editor access, while others are administrators. This ensures all site updates are tracked.
8) Cost
Umbraco is an affordable software, making it a great choice for charities that have limited budgets. Unlike other content management systems, Umbraco is open-source, which means that charities can use it for free. Additionally, Umbraco's pricing model is based on the number of servers and not the number of users, making it a cost-effective solution for charities.
In summary
Whether you are a charity or not, here at Element 78 we believe Umbraco is a great solution for your business and its needs and we’d love to discuss how we could help you on the journey to a new website.
