Drupal in the Non-Profit Arena

With the advent of the Content Management Systems (CMS) on the internet today, Non-Profit organizations have a better chance than ever to present a professional and well organized image to the public, as well as building a central location for supporters of the group or cause to share experiences and opinions.

Although the options seem daunting when one starts to explore this bustling field of options, Drupal stands out as a best choice for Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs). Here are some of the key features of Drupal as it relates to the Non-Profit arena.

1. Drupal itself is driven by a mature developer community that is focused on providing a great piece of software that is free. Although there are a lot of free options out there, few have the large well organized development team.

2. Drupal is fast and secure. Some popular systems out there suffer from security problems, and the negative impact of being hacked or having a web site defaced is a big risk for most NPOs.

3. Drupal is a strong publishing environment. One of the main purposes of the Non-Profit website is to communicate effectively not only to it's members but to potential members and supporters. Drupal allows stories to be developed over time, reviewed and moderated by a group before it is published to a larger audience. It also allows sophisticated control over what appears on the "Front" page of a site, and how long it stays there. It doesn't have to be a simple stream of running entries.

4. The profile module in drupal is an extremely flexible community building feature. Custom fields are easy to create, and custom "Member Lists" are built in. For example "Members in your area" or "Community Leaders".

5. The personal blog feature also allows members to have a stake in the community, personal blogs can even be published to the front page.

6. Drupals commenting system makes it easy for groups to share opinions and experiences easily. It is also possible to publish stories or sections that have no commenting. (ie, an about page, or a contact page)

7. Drupal supports search engine friendly URLs so other people can find you, and help give your organization a voice that will be heard.