When Southeast New Hampshire Habitat for Humanity needed a website redesign, we were psyched to be part of their solution. This local affiliate of the international non-profit does big work, partnering with corporations and families to try to eliminate poverty housing. They make people’s lives better and we were thrilled to be a part of that in our small way.
SENH Habitat Executive Director Cheryl Van Allen and her team knew they needed a more professional, current online image, but they also wanted to be able to update their site easily to share the work they do and let supporters and volunteers know where they could help. Top goals for their site were:
1. Be able to update the site and share news using available staff.
2. Offer an independent online store area for the Dover, NH ReStore to share new merchandise and news.
3. Create a site planned for search engine optimization.
4. Include social media integration and ability to sign up visitors for email news.
5. Offer a clearinghouse for the vast amount of info SENH Habitat has for potential partner families, volunteers, and supporters. (This is very important so SENH Habitat doesn’t have to spend as much time fielding phone calls.)
I think we accomplished all of these goals. Perhaps the most valuable to SENH Habitat is the ability to make updates internally, without having to contact a Web developer. We did this by using WordPress as a content management system (CMS) to empower SENH Habitat staff and volunteers to quickly create new posts and categorize them in a number of ways. There is a photo gallery, a news page, and a separate area for the ReStore site. The site’s Home page also automatically pulls RSS feeds from news posts to the Home page to show fresh content.
A few other things to note:
– There is an updateable WordPress calendar where SENH Habitat can list events, builds, deconstructions and other activities.
– The Dover ReStore section features photos and descriptions of recent inventory. It’s searchable, archived, and organized by category and keyword.
– There are now three RSS feeds visitors can subscribe to through a feed reader or email to receive automatic updates every time SENH Habitat posts new content.
If you have any feedback on the site, please let us know. We truly enjoyed working on it and getting the chance to support SENH Habitat for Humanity.
