Volunteer Resource Website | Responsive WordPress Design & Development
The Brief
AVRBC promotes leadership in the ‘management of volunteer resources’. They provide a supportive network for their 150+ members, which themselves represent nearly 100 social-profit and governmental organizations throughout the province of British Columbia.
AVRBC was looking to move to the WordPress platform for it’s ease of use and to reduce the burden on their own volunteer board. In making the move they also wanted to improve membership sales and management, inspire members through design and build a responsive website.
The Solution
Using WordPress as a platform we were able to build a robust yet budget conscious website. It was our job to compile all AVRBC requests and goals and provide smart solutions using a mix of custom and trusted 3rd-party plugins. The end result was a happy client and custom WordPress theme that enabled:
- Membership/conference purchase & automated registration
- Engaging members only area (pages & resources only accessible to logged in members)
- Member profile directory
- Automated purchase & registration
- Advanced forms for data collection
- Custom public resources section (classified by custom icons)
- Improved home page messaging to engage members and connect with prospects
- Social media integration
Design / Development Features
Automated Membership Registration
When a customer purchases/renews a membership and completes their profile they are automatically upgraded in the backend to ‘Member’ status. This grants them access to member only pages & resources.
Member Directory
Each member has the option to create an online profile. They can edit their profile at anytime and view or connect with other members in the directory.
Member Restricted Content
AVRBC has the ability to restrict content based on user type. This is especially useful to share restricted information with members or conference attendees.
Easy Member Profile/ Data Exports
All member profiles are setup with a form submission. AVRBC can export all profiles or other advanced form data, in bulk, with 1 click and import the file into their other management tools.
Phase 1: Connecting the Dots - Not Inventing the Wheel
Our goal for this project was to use WordPress strategies, tools and trustworthy plugins that already exist, rather than quadrupling our clients budget to build from scratch. This involved a lot of upfront planning to map out the user flow and functionality. In the end we were able to provide a solid, budget friendly solution.
Geeky highlights include a WooCommerce purchase ID, connected to a custom checkout template that leads to a gravity form that connects with a gravity view and hooks-up with a groups user assignment. In english; user buys membership, fills out their profile and gains access to members only content and directory.
Phase 2: From logo to a brand
AVRBC came to use with a logo and 1 colour but not much else. This was exciting! We worked with them to create a brand colour palette and typographic system. We even designed a series of custom icons to better communicate their mission. These custom icons are also used in the resource section of the website to help classify blog posts.
Phase 3: Automation = Ease for Administration
The final product was a custom built WordPress theme with a design that connects and inspires the many members of AVRBC. One of the highlights for us, was the amount of AVRBC web team chores we eliminated. By building in automation of the members registration and directory we were able to reduce the workload on the volunteers, so they can focus on what matters most. Also the ability to export sections of member data with 1-click was a huge benefit for them to connect with other management platforms.
