Drupal and Social Media for Nonprofits

Course length: 6 weeks
Commitment: Weekly presentation with step-by-step instructions. Forum-based question-and-answer available during the week.
Fee: $225 per participant (early bird fee through 02/26: $175)

Pre-requisites:

• Required: Web hosting "Mini-Me" package from Nexcess.net for testing purposes.
• Familiarity with Web-based data entry forms.
• Nonprofit status (data entry manager, consultant, or technical support).
• Existing website (including domain and hosting) or desire to create new one.

Access: All course materials, conference followup, and homework will be available for review by course participants online. Please note that this is a content-heavy course that requires follow up each week.

Outcomes: Class participants will learn basics of Drupal implementation and social media integration. At the end of the course, each participant will have a hosted Drupal website with customized views, content types, limited modules, and a downloaded theme. Participants will also have a number of social networking links to begin promoting in tandem with their website.

Course uses the Acquia Drupal distribution.

All participants receive a free e-version of both "Fifty-one Ways to Build your Community of Clients Online" and "Social Networking for Women in Business", by course instructor Monica S. Flores.

Self-Questionnaire: please review these questions to determine your suitability for the course.

Start Date:

Web-only classes: Forum-based assistance and copies of course materials available online -- go at your own pace and work your way through the activities. Start date: March 1, 2010.

Find a sample PDF of different types of functionality available.


Drupal for Nonprofits

About the Instructor

Monica S. Flores is an active web developer and Drupal specialist. Serving as developer, coder, and themer on over 200+ websites, she has been creating websites since 1999. Through her company, 10K Webdesign, she offers ongoing training, consulting, and full-service web design and development to public agencies, nonprofits, minority women in business, and green and progressive organizations.

Course Details

Class 1
Overview of Course.
Basics of Drupal.
Domain and Hosting.
Drupal vs. Joomla vs. Wordpress.

File Transfer Protocol.
PHP/mySQL.
Themes.
Website Specifications Document.
Question and Answer period.

Homework: Create database. Download Acquia distribution. Upload to host using FTP. Initial installation.

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Class 2
Review of Modules.
Review of Themes.
Review of Content Types.
Review of Menus.
Review of sample pages.
Question and Answer period.

Homework: Create first round of content and menus. Create custom Content Type. Create custom View. Create Blocks.

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Class 3
Organizing data.
Review of users.
Community-building on your Drupal site.
Review of Roles and Permissions.
Question and Answer period.

Homework: Create custom roles. Continue finalizing overall website specifications.

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Class 4
Testing Data.
Workflow.
Documenting your site.
Question and Answer period.

Homework: Find and implement custom modules, as needed, based on instructor feedback.
Set up initial social networking links, e.g. Facebook Fans page, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Posterous, Seesmic, Cotweet, etc.

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Class 5
Padding out content.
Integrating with Social Media tools.
RSS Feeds.
Question and Answer period.

Homework: Set up Mollom and Google Analytics. Set up additional social networking services if needed.

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Class 6
Finalizing your site.
Preparing for Launch.
Followup planning and updates.
Question and Answer period.

Homework: Demonstrate follow-up and maintenance plan for your website.

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Post-Course
We offer forum-based support for course participants on how to best approach the next phase of your website, including marketing, content creation, recruiting members, and additional ideas on how to increase your communication through the website. If your organization hires 10K Webdesign for additional work, we offer a 10% discount on all quoted prices.

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Document Overview:

1) Pre-planning Website Overview: The core of this class is built around your website specifications document. This is an "overview" document that gives you a good start on your prioritized functionality list. This may be used in addition to a Site Map to give you an overall understanding of what to display on the live site.

Note that there is always an option for you to reorganize and/or add new items, because Drupal has menu control and add-on functional elements.

http://www.10kwebdesign.com/10K_Website_Planning.php

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2) Checklist: This is the checklist of information we go right through http://www.10kwebdesign.com/checklist.php

This is a full list of all the information needed to build the website.

GET A DOMAIN:
GoDaddy.com

HOSTING:
Nexcess.net: Mini-Me or Gettin' Hits packages for larger sites

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3) Sample Designs
For design, we recommend you set a budget and stick with it.
Higher end: $450 per customized design
Middle end: ~$200 - $250 to download a theme
Free: Download a free theme

FREE THEMES:
http://themegarden.org/drupal6/
http://drupal.org/project/Themes
http://drupal2u.com/

*THEMES for PURCHASE:
http://www.cmsquickstart.com/drupal-themes
http://www.topnotchthemes.com/drupal-ubercart-themes

*(notice that sometimes there are two prices: a price to download and a buyout price, which removes that theme from circulation)

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4) Functionality
Consider the functionality you need and the levels of access to the site.

* For example, who can log in to the site?
* What types of users do you have?
* Who can access what types of information?
* Is some information for logged-in users only?

Sample "grid" of permissions for different types of users.

	General/Public	Member	Admin
Access Contact Form	X	X	X
Create calendar item			X
View Profiles		X	X
Edit own member profile		X	X
Edit all member profiles			X
Edit pages			X
Upload a photo		X	X

* Who may edit the page content?
* What are the benefits of membership?
* Who can submit a link to your link list?
* Are there different tiers of membership payments for different benefits?
* What does the directory look like?
* What does a single user's profile page look like?
* Do you need to organize any submitted content into particular "categories" or can items by "free-tagged"?

The more planning time you put into this process of envisioning what you want the site to do, the easier it is when organizing your wishlist into a specifications list.

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5) Next Steps
10K Webdesign offers follow-up support for additional customization and implementation of your website. Please let us know your situation and the kind of support or assistance you need.

At 10K Webdesign, we take pride in understanding of the needs of our clients: we help you make the most out of your website. We look forward to working with you.

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