If your association nonprofit is active in any kind of cause or mission, then it’s likely that you’ll have a web site that provides periodic updates about the latest news concerning your mission. This is where content management software (CMS) becomes a necessity for most nonprofits. It may seem tempting to avoid the use of yet another piece of software designed to make your life easier, but rest assured an integrated Content Management Software is one tool that can really make your life easier.
The Benefits of Using Content Management Software
You don’t need to know HTML
Most integrated CMS applications offers an editor that goes by the description “WYSIWYG”. That’s just an acronym for “What You See Is What You Get”. In other words, when you’re adding content to your website, you’re doing it in a manner very similar to a word processor. If you opt for writing HTML files directly, then you’ll need to know all the markup (the special codes that make characters bold, italicized, etc.). Not only will you need to know all the markup, but then you’ll need to place it on the page. It’s much easier to write in WYSIWYG fashion, where you don’t need to worry about markup at all.
You’ll have easier image management
Most CMS applications have a built-in image management feature. This allows you to upload an image and describe it so that it can appear in search results later on. The software will also create image thumbnails for you in multiple sizes. This is a huge time saver.
You’ll have separation of design and content
Suppose that you’ve added several hundred posts on your website and now you suddenly want to change the look of it. With a CMS application, you can change the theme quite easily. And, most integrated Association Management Software solutions offer very nice professionally updated templates to change as needed and as frequently as needed to highlight a conference, time of the year for your association fund drive, or to highlight a season. Once the theme is changed, all of your posts appear just as they should appear as part of the new theme. However, if you manually wrote HTML files for all of those posts, then it’s likely they would all need to be updated to support your new look and feel. That’s a huge hit on your time.
If you’d like to learn more about content management software options, feel free to contact us. We’re here to help! Until then, keep SmartThoughts in mind.
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