Creating a club or association website: our tips for creating an effective web page
Published on March 01, 2023
Associations are not-for-profit organizations serving a social cause, sporting or cultural activity. Often run by volunteers, they depend mainly on the support of members and external donors to carry out their activities. In the absence of financial resources or technical expertise, setting up a website is often seen as optional. Yet it's a fantastic tool, and relatively easy to set up thanks to the Sublim.design content manager.
Let's take a look at the advantages of having a website for a humanitarian, cultural or social association, or a sports club, and talk about how to go about creating one.
Improve the visibility of an association and its activities
Setting up a website is an excellent way of promoting an association, presenting its news, team members and activities. With a website, an association can share its story and objectives in a way that attracts new members. An online presence can also help to enhance its credibility and influence, and enable it to be present in the Search Engine Result Page(SERP), i.e. in search engine results pages, thanks to SEO.
More generally, a website provides you with a reference space and proprietary pages, since their (URL) addresses and content belong to you. They can then be easily shared on social networks or in a newsletter to reach an even wider audience.
Providing useful information to association members through a dynamic website
The website should be the reference platform for all members of an association. They should be able to find information such as event schedules, meeting minutes, membership forms, activity calendars, news, organization chart, contact details of other members, sports results where applicable, etc. All this information can help volunteers to stay informed and involved in the day-to-day activities of their association.
Members can also use the website to communicate with each other thanks to a forum or reserved area where they can ask questions, suggest ideas or report problems.
Raise funds to finance its activities
Associative organizations often need money to finance their activities. A website can help them raise funds by enabling people to pay their membership fees or make online donations.
The association can also sell merchandising items(t-shirts, bags, specialized equipment, posters...), an effective way of generating additional resources. In this area, Stripe offers an online payment service that's really easy to set up.
Creating a site takes time, so cut to the chase and choose a service that's easy to use.
It's important to stress that creating a website requires a certain personal investment. It can be delegated to an external service provider - freelance webmaster, communications agency or community manger - but the service can be quite costly.
At the same time, tools such as Wordpress, Wix or Magento allow you to create your own website. While these services make the task much simpler, they remain relatively complicated to use for many people. In addition, some of these services come with a chargeable package that won't suit all budgets.
If you're looking to create a showcase site, Sublim.design could be a good alternative. It's free and easy to use, so you can concentrate on what's really important, i.e. content! With Sublim.design, creating a page takes just a few seconds. Users can integrate text, photos, videos and much more without having to configure anything! It's a Content Management System(CMS) that makes publishing so much easier, and is particularly well suited to the needs of associations.
A website is a powerful tool, but it needs to be maintained and updated regularly if it is to remain effective and attract the interest of your association's members.
To conclude
It's important to stress that creating a website is not an end in itself, but a means to an end. The association must clearly define these objectives before starting to create its website and write content. It is also important to take into account the security and confidentiality of members' personal data.
Are you a member of a soccer, judo, tennis or handball club interested in promoting a cultural event (demonstration, exhibition, show), a humanitarian action, a social or political activity? Start creating your website now!