Website integration on your wishlist? Learn what's possible:

Here at NPower Northwest, we’re striving to make our web design and development practice better than ever by talking to the sector about their web and online communications experiences. So far, we’ve reached out to 115 nonprofits in Washington and Oregon and received feedback via phone and online survey from about 25 organizations on topics ranging from website pain-points to favorite online tools to the underlying site technology. As it turns out, nonprofits in the Pacific Northwest have plenty to say about what makes their online operations tick and what snags they hit, and we’ll share this information as we connect with even more organizations.

One topic that’s already showing up a bunch is site integration with outside tools like Salesforce, MS Access, Google accounts, PayPal, event and ticketing management systems, Constant Contact, and Vertical Response, to name a few. People want dynamic websites that connect seamlessly with the other tools they use, and they’re not always having an easy time making it happen. This stood out immediately to us because site integration is a huge part of NPower Northwest’s web consulting services. Integrating your organization’s tools with the web, despite presenting unique technical challenges, enables you to extend the reach beyond the walls of your organization, casting a wider net to collect and broadcast information about your organization’s programs. Integrating your tools can improve the efficiency of your staff by creating a more automated flow of information from and to your constituents. Here are a couple of examples from our work with clients:

• NPower worked with FaithTrust Institute to streamline their processes and get a handle on the data regarding the individuals they serve in order to put the information to better use. FaithTrust staff needed a way to easily push content from their database to their website and, conversely, be able to collect information via their website and have it land in the correct places within their database. NPower built a fully-integrated Plone website and Salesforce CRM system that includes events, volunteer, and donor management, a blogging platform, and an online store. The integrated tools include PayPal for secure payment processing, Plone's GetPaid e-commerce plugin for shopping cart and inventory management support, PloneFormGen for easily creating powerful forms that FaithTrust Institute can modify and extend themselves, and the suite of Plone/Salesforce integration products developed by NPower Northwest, Groundwire, Web Collective and other community collaborators.
• NPower’s collaboration with Humanities Washington also demonstrates the potential of connecting the tools organizations use to build their business with the web. Integrating Humanities Washington’s Plone website and Salesforce CRM allows them to collect applications for their speakers program online; once submitted these applications automatically create records in their database. Once they are approved, the confirmed speaking engagements automatically populate the Humanities Washington events calendar on the website. This whole process is paper-free and avoids duplicate data entry by the organization staff.

You can check out other examples of NPower’s work around site integration in our new Website Portfolio. If you’re interested in talking with us about our website or database consulting services, contact us online or give us a call at 206.286.8880. Stay tuned for more updates on our ongoing sector survey!

- NPower Northwest Web Team