So, you’re getting ready to dive into the wild world web of website design by setting up a website for your church, ministry or non-profit website.
Cool!
Most start-up organizations who rely on donations don’t have a lot of funding, so placing the burden of the website setup to some in-house (whether it be paid staff or volunteer) is a common thing.
But let’s be honest.
This often leads to a mediocre website or even a flat-out, butt-ugly design.
Solution?
Use premium website templates!
Premium Website Templates
Like I said, a lot of nonprofits are on a shoestring budget, so there can be a lot of resistance when it comes to laying down some cash on a premium website template—whether it be for WordPress, Joomla!, Drupal or Shopify.
Considering how much a custom design from a professional designer and/or developer would cost, purchasing a premium website template is nothing!
Most premium website templates start around $30 and peak at around $200 with most premium website templates landing around somewhere in the middle. Not only are many of these designed really well, some of your theme shops provide online tech support! This can be a huge time saver and if you ever do need some tech support, you’ll feel like the theme has paid for itself!
Just because you’re a non-profit or church plant, doesn’t mean you should have an ugly website. And if you’re worried about your website looking like the guy down the street, keep in mind that adding your own log, making a few simple color changes (some premium website templates make it easy to change colors) and using your own images will give you just enough of a custom look to get you by until you’ve grown enough to fit a fully custom website into your annual budget.
What’s your favorite place for premium website templates?
Chris Huff says
I don’t have any one site that I get my themes from, but I can usually find a free theme that I can tweak to be exactly what I need. But I’m also very familiar with html, css, etc, so I realize that may not be on option for many churches. I’ve used Elegant Themes and WooThemes before and had a good experiences with them, but once again, I didn’t need to rely much on the support they offer.
Eric Dye says
You’re so pro. 😉
KirstinLee says
I was wondering if I could get some feedback on the new website I’m designing for my church. I feel pretty confident about it, and then I see posts like this one and it makes me wonder what it really looks like to the outside world lol!
This is the current website:
http://www.pcgkingman.org/
This is the one I’m working on (it doesn’t link anywhere yet, it’s only the front page that I have done)
http://www.pcgkingman.org/homepage.html
It looks like crap on mobile devices, but we’re going the way of a mobile-friendly subdomain.
I’m completely new to this, so any ideas or pointers would be awesome.
Eric Dye says
I think you’re certainly taking a giant leap forward! Lookin’ much, MUCH better! Any reason you didn’t build it on WordPress or CMS?
KirstinLee says
Thank you! Makes me feel a lot better to get a pro’s opinion.
I really don’t know enough about CMS to make an informed decision.
I understand the basics of CMS, but when I go to a site like joomla.org it’s like I’ve been dropped in a foreign country. I would love to build on a platform that would make it easier me and others who help maintain the site, I just have no idea where to start.
As far as WordPress, the church has dropped half a grand on a hosting package with Yahoo — changing hosts is off the table until the end of ’14.
Eric Dye says
I’m referring to WordPress.org–the self-hosted flavor. $500 on a hosting package!?!? Dang.
KirstinLee says
Oh! I wasn’t aware that that existed. I’ll have to look into that for sure.
Yeah, I love my pastor and “coworkers” to death, but making a decision like that when the current website was created in Dreamweaver by the church secretary who could barely use an iPod… probably wasn’t the best idea. (;