Website concerns that I need advice on

[RNeumann]

That sounds like a good outcome.

 

[Sigarms]

Eddie

Welcome to working for a voluenteer group that is a non profit and trying to account for money so EVERYONE is aware of what is being spent.

I know my comment doesn't help you, only pointing out that you are not alone trying to use common sense in accounting for money being spent on a volunteer group to promote what they were founded for.

My only comment which you may find of help is if your wife is writing the bylaws, please ensure you organization takes a vote on what "by laws" are approved by your group.

The biggest issue I see with any organization in your position (or those that I've been involved with) is how many active participating members you have to actually vote and how those bylaws are actually set up within the organization. Sometimes it becomes more of a "private club" and only a few people actually know what's going on with the money "raised". "Private clubs" become more like dictatorships where people feel they care more about what the organization is about than others.

Just an idea if you haven't looked at bylaws...

FormSwift : Create your non-profit-bylaws!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

We had unaccounted money in a cub scout pack yrs ago. When the person wouldnt account for the money, several if us moved to another pack. The local council was no help to us.

I was treasurer many yrs for the church. I welcomed people to look at the books. I required copy of sales slips for reimbursement. Its not an easy job.

 

[Sigarms]

We had unaccounted money in a cub scout pack yrs ago. When the person wouldnt account for the money, several if us moved to another pack. The local council was no help to us.

I was treasurer many yrs for the church. I welcomed people to look at the books. I required copy of sales slips for reimbursement. Its not an easy job.

We had a fundrasier for our cub scout pack that the person couldn't account for on the funds who was running the fundraiser (his idea). One of a couple of reasons why I stepped down as cubmaster. I wanted that person held accountable by small claims at worst, and the minister in charge of the charter organization said no. Couple years later, minister told me that he regretted not going along with my call.

When you collect money on behalf of an organization, it's just a basic principle of CYA IMO and having the appropriate documentation. PARTICULARLY IF YOU'RE THE ONE IN CHARGE OF THE MONEY!

What people forget is that ANYONE who is a member of that organization who raises funds has a right to see a balance sheet on where funds are being used (same for any church you go to as well IMO).

 

[Alan W.]

We had unaccounted money in a cub scout pack yrs ago. When the person wouldnt account for the money, several if us moved to another pack. The local council was no help to us.

I was treasurer many yrs for the church. I welcomed people to look at the books. I required copy of sales slips for reimbursement. Its not an easy job.

My wife is the treasurer at our church. She is a stickler for receipts. No receipt no reimbursement. She hands out a detailed treasurers report at the monthly business meetings. And there is another party that also counts the money.

For any group there has to be transparency when it comes to funds.

 

[TractorGuy]

One thought and suggestion I have is to change the web site domain to a Dot ORG so it's represented as an organization. Dot COM is supposed to be for commercial enterprises. The registrars apparently don't care what you are doing on your domain when they register it. I have even seen some government websites with a Dot COM designation rather than Dot GOV. This should not happen.

Also have whoever designs and administers the web site to have enough sense to make the page title match that of the organization rather than "Welcome". That would enable someone to bookmark the web sight and be able to see what it is without having to rename the bookmark.

 

[Diggin It]

I have even seen some government websites with a Dot COM designation rather than Dot GOV. This should not happen.

.gov is owned by the US Government and they alone grant access for a fee. It used to be $250, but that may have changed. States usually get access and you'll see 'ky.gov', 'tn.gov', 'az.gov', and so on. From there, it's up to the states to pass it along. If the protocol is followed, you'd have nashville.tn.gov, tucson.az.gov and similar. If you followed it down from there, you'd get things like 'sheriff.gennesee.mi.gov' where Gennessee is the county or police.tampa.fl.gov.

But many cities and counties feel that gets too complicated for regular people to grasp, so they just go with the .com TLD. Other cities and counties don't even realize they have the option .

 

[Sigarms]

One thought and suggestion I have is to change the web site domain to a Dot ORG so it's represented as an organization. Dot COM is supposed to be for commercial enterprises.

Although technically you're not wrong, it's nothing to lose sleep over if your organization is on the website as a ".com" IMO.

 

[TractorGuy]

.gov is owned by the US Government and they alone grant access for a fee. It used to be $250, but that may have changed. States usually get access and you'll see 'ky.gov', 'tn.gov', 'az.gov', and so on. From there, it's up to the states to pass it along. If the protocol is followed, you'd have nashville.tn.gov, tucson.az.gov and similar. If you followed it down from there, you'd get things like 'sheriff.gennesee.mi.gov' where Gennessee is the county or police.tampa.fl.gov.

But many cities and counties feel that gets too complicated for regular people to grasp, so they just go with the .com TLD. Other cities and counties don't even realize they have the option .

Although technically you're not wrong, it's nothing to lose sleep over if your organization is on the website as a ".com" IMO.

My advice and opinions are FREE and worth every penny! However it remains that anything worth doing is worth doing right.

 

[Kingsqueak]

$125/yr is practically free. The lowest possible resource hosted (aside from running on a machine in my own home) will run $8/mo at cost (no time/service fees for her to run it or modify it) for just a static website with no features aside from displaying HTML.

You should simply ask her to meet with you and explain what the setup is since apparently the people who hired her are no longer involved.

A web site can be $8/mo for just plain HTML files or many thousands a month with shopping carts and email systems, content management systems, patching and maintenance and the web traffic itself that hits the site. You need to sit down and understand what she has set up for you and what work she is doing for you.

I just took a quick look at the site, if she's even making $50/yr for her time to keep that site running for you, it would be a lot. It's a simple site, but who else in your group understands how to keep a domain renewed and modify the content of that site if you need to? I would charge at the very least that, per-hour, spent working on a site for a customer. So you have a very cheap resource.