Topic: WordPress for Non-Profit Organizations
I own a boutique agency in Van Alstyne, Texas, and built my first website in 1996. It was HTML and it was dial-up, because I wanted to share photos of my Pit Bull, Lucy. Lucy sent me down a path of advocacy and volunteering that informs my work today. My ideal project is one that helps people engage with local services or motivates them to give to a cause that lifts up our community. My passion is education. I support our public schools and serve on the board of a foundation that provides community college scholarships. My other job is as a shepherd of actual sheep.
How did you get involved in WordPress?
When Blogger, Movable Type, Joomla, and WordPress came out, I started experimenting with all of them, discovered WordPress, and never looked back!
What do you do with WordPress?
I have been using WordPress since 2007. I have been most energized over the last couple of years when I have been focusing on projects for local government and non-profit corporations supporting public service, public libraries, and education.
What has your experience with the WordPress community been like?
This will be my fifth WordCamp as an attendee and my first as a speaker. When I attended my first WordCamp, y’all had -women’s t-shirts-. That thoughtfulness impressed me. And now, two women keynotes at WordCamp DFW 2017? Heaven! I wish this inclusiveness had been the norm in my early tech career.
Why did you want to speak at WordCamp DFW?
I felt that I have gotten so much out of the WordPress community that it was time for me to give back.
Why did you decide to speak on WordPress and non-profits?
As a volunteer, board member and communications professional I have seen non-profit organizations fail to attract the resources they could have because their websites made it difficult for people to engage. WordPress is the ideal platform to address this, because it’s highly adopted, flexible, easy to use, and allows multiple authors with different levels of permissions. Thanks to the e-commerce capabilities that have developed over the past few years, WordPress even makes it easy for donors to give non-profits money.
What do you hope the audience gets from your talk?
Whether you create WordPress sites for clients or as a non-profit employee or volunteer, this session will help you use WordPress to engage donors and volunteers, represent the organization as a good steward of donors’ money, and protect its security and reputation.
We will discuss needs assessment, plugins, and project management and maintenance issues. This toolkit will also be useful for those who work with faith communities, local government, and education.
Tickets are now on sale for this year’s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to sponsor the event or help run it. We hope to see you there!