There are few experiences as rewarding as putting your skills to use for the greater good. This week, I was fortunate enough to launch an updated website for the Islamic Center of Golden.
Here is a ‘Before’ and ‘After’ preview of the organization’s website:
Most importantly, this was a learning experience for me. I have summarized the little things I learnt as follows:
1. Free Hosting: DreamHost provides free hosting to 501(c)(3) non-profits
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/
https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/
2. WordPress open-source CMS: Most easy to use with readily available free themes and plugins relevant to Masajid
2a. Recommended Theme: “Square” modern looking, responsive and free.
2b. Recommended Plugins: “Daily Prayer Time” free and customization sleek daily salah schedule. and other standard WordPress most popular plugins like “Black Studio TinyMCE”, “Duplicate Post”, “Page Builder by SiteOrigin” etc.
3. Google for non-profits: After verifying organization’s non-profit status, Google provides organization with unlimited G Suite accounts on the domain with Gmail, Google Drive, etc. on the organization’s domain.
https://www.google.com/
4. Google Voice number linked to multiple phones:
https://www.google.com/voice
5. Google Classroom: Free for eligible educational organizations
6. Google Analytics: Free detailed metrics around website visitors
7. Newsletter subscription service “MailChimp” free upto a certain limit