Website for non profit org

Hi,
I have been asked to do a website for a local garden club (non profit org). I had overheard a conversation a long time ago, that there was some way for an organizaton that is non profit to get a website and not have to pay for hosting or domain name. Does anyone have any experience working with non profit organizations and what options are available to a group that really don’t have the funds to support a yearly website fee.

Thanks,
sarb

IMHO, domain names and hosting isn’t that expensive. But if you’re looking for free there are a few options. Note that “free” is in terms of expense, and there are “conditions”.

Free hosting used to come with URLs something like

and had the site framed in the hosts page so they could have their advertising banner on top.

But if you can work with WordPress you can get something like
wordpress.com/yoursite/
for free without any “banners”. And nothing says the site needs to be a blog, it could be comprised entirely of pages.

If you want the URL to be
yoursite.com
then you’ll need to pay or find a sponsor (that may or may not want something in exchange).

WordPress is good but I suggest you to choose any other CMS which will allow you upgrade the website and add new functionality once you need it. Joomla is decent, Drupal is very good and MODx is probably the one of the best on the market.

I agree that there’s other good free software. But where do you get a free domain (or more correctly, a subdomain) and free hosting (with or without support) that offer those?

I vaguely recall that Dreamhost was offering free hosting to non profit organizations with proper registration in the US.

Not sure about the domain.

I’m not sure that I will need to upgrade the site as it will be strictly for information purposes. Nothing complex.

I’ll check into Dreamhost and see if that is a fit.

Thanks for all your advice everyone…

Sarb

if Dreamhost isn’t a fit you could try contacting the marketing departments of other companies. I’ve heard of some hosting providers offering hosting to registered non-profits in exchange for a donation receipt of the same value (that they can use as a tax deduction).

Different companies offer this kind of web hosting time by time. I believe if you contact several companies and ask them about possibility that would be good idea. Maybe some of contacted web hosts will help you

I’m sure some hosts do but as someone mentioned it will have terms.

I know HostGator give free hosting to registered charities.

I suppose you need to keep eye on the advertising sections of various web hosting forums. It seems some of web hosting providers have such offers, But in any case they will ask you tell more about your project first