Carr Systems Incorporated
Technology solutions for your business problems
Easy-to-use Open Source Websites for Nonprofits
Challenge:
The Cerebral Palsy Ability Center serves children with motor disabilities. Budgets are tight and volunteers get a lot of the work done ... but the needs of the community don't stop to ask how much service a nonprofit can afford to provide. The CP Ability Center asked Carr to upgrade their website, set up a CRM solution, and improve the user experience. They wanted Open Source technology to keep costs down, as well as to ensure they maintained total control of this critical marketing asset.
Solution:
We were able to provide an inexpensive, quick-to-deploy website using an Open Source CMS platform that we recently released under our new nonprofit service initiative, Third Sector Labs. Through Third Sector, we have created a Drupal-based CMS platform that can be easily expanded with apps such as CRM, Social Media Management, Volunteer Management, and more. For the CP Ability center, we deployed the CMS, set up a new website, ported over content, and then added a CRM app to complete the suite.
We deployed their new website system into Third Party Sector's dedicated hosting farm, the Co-op. The Co-op is so-named because it just that - a co-operative hosting solution for customers. Unlike other web-based providers like SaaS companies, Third Sector's customers own their software, source code, and data. If a customer wishes to move to a new host, they can take everything with them - total control.
Impact:
Our work has enabled the Cerebral Palsy Ability Center to significantly improve both their marketing image to the community and their business management of donors and volunteers. Using the Co-op has also made the customer's life much easier, as service is provided month-to-month at the customer's discretion. No long term or complicated contracts to be reviewed by attorneys and waste precious resource dollars that could be used for program services.
Services:
Technologies:
