Getting out there: Successful online communications for nonprofits

EcoCity Cleveland hosts FREE web workshops

To help non-profit organizations improve their online communication skills, EcoCity Cleveland has organized a three-part series of interactive workshops. In addition to the workshops, EcoCity will host two special brown bag lunch events at the Cleveland Environmental Center with local web design experts. The events are specially designed for environmental and conservation organizations in Northeast Ohio, and funding comes from the Cleveland Foundation. The following is the agenda and timeline for the series:

Web development 101:
Planning for an effective, low maintenance web site

• Build it right - The planning work you do before building your site will determine its success and ease of use. EcoCity Cleveland Director David Beach will discuss how he planned EcoCity’s site architecture to result in an easy to update, award-winning web site.
• Think global – Why are web management tools (i.e. Frontpage or Dreamweaver) so beneficial to maintaining control of your site? We’ll touch on the advantages of web software for templates, updating links, and making global changes to your site.
• Master your domain – Get the basics on registering and maintaining your domain name, consolidating multiple domains under one account, and reserving URLs as intellectual property.
• Gracious host –Items to consider while selecting a web host service that’s right for you. We’ll include an online demonstration of navigating a web host service area and explanation of costs/benefits.
• Get searched – Basics on designing your site for better search engine optimization, submitting your site to Google for better results, etc.
• Open access – Ways to be in line with or mindful of new standards for disabled people or seniors using your site.

Location: Cleveland Environmental Center, 3500 Lorain Ave. (Conference Center), Cleveland
Time: 9-11 a.m.
Date: 6-14-05

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Web development 102:
Learning the web editing basics

Marc Lefkowitz , EcoCity Cleveland Web Editor, will present demonstrations of basic web skills to help non-techies maintain an effective web site, including:

• An introduction to HTML
• Using color
• How to upload files (the FTP process)
• Optimizing photos for the web
• Starting new pages from templates
• Page layout using tables
• Document relative- and site-root relative hyperlinks
• Cascading style sheets
• Content management software such as Contribute

Location: Cleveland Environmental Center, 3500 Lorain Ave. (Conference Center), Cleveland.
Time: 9-11 a.m.
Date: 7-14-05

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Web development 103: Integrating the web for campaigns and fundraising

In this training session, we move beyond the basics to discuss more advanced tools that you can use on your site for organizing and fundraising, such as:

• Creating sign up/survey forms
• Web-metrics – learn who’s using your site and how
• Linking your web site to your mass email and fundraising efforts (with online demonstration of setting up an email alert).
• Setting up a merchant account for online donations
• Using blogging technology as a Web publishing tool
• And other topics to improve your online communications

Facilitator: Marc Lefkowitz
Location: Cleveland Environmental Center
Time: 2 hours
Date: 8-25-05

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Brown Bag lunch: Introduction to blogging
and using blog software to publish

We’ll hear from a local blogging expert George Nemeth, CIO, Cool Cleveland and brewedfreshdaily.com about how to create content for a blog and how to set it up using Blogger, Moveable Type or one of the other free tools available on the Internet.

Time: 1 hour
Location: Cleveland Environmental Center
Date: 9-29-05

Brown Bag lunch: Web branding strategies

This presentation will be lead by a local graphic designer with experience developing marketing materials and Web sites for non-profit organizations. We’ll cover how to effectively convey your organization’s message and establish its ‘brand’ by developing a web site that ties into your organization’s marketing and off-line efforts.

Time: 1 hour
Location: Cleveland Environmental Center
Date: 12-08-05

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EcoCity Cleveland
3500 Lorain Avenue, Suite 301, Cleveland OH 44113
Cuyahoga Bioregion
(216) 961-5020
www.ecocitycleveland.org
Copyright 2002-2005