FLiP Follows: LinkEducation Episode 4 - The Launch

In February of 2007, FLiP launched an occasional reality series, “FLiP Follows.” We highlighted LinkEducation, a startup nonprofit, as they navigated their way through launching their website, getting their first donations, running their first event and building their advisory board. Now LinkEducation faces a new challenge: How to make their new site a success.

But first, here’s some background for those new to FLiP:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3

LinkEducation, an educational services nonprofit, was founded by three Teach For America employees over a year ago. Though young the founders saw a real need in education, and developed an idea to fill that need. They noticed that New York City teachers and parents were often unaware of the many education programs available to their kids, and had no time or resources to search for these services. Meanwhile organizations that provided services to teachers and students had no reliable way to reach them. They wanted to create a website to connect these two halves by making it possible for parents and teachers to find education-related resources in their communities.

LinkEducation, after months of struggling with Advisory Boards and fundraising events, proudly launched their site on January 3rd. Through www.linkeducation.org, you can easily find quality and affordable education programs such as after school tutoring, homework help, and alternative schools simply by entering their zip code and key words. But what did it take to get to this point and how will they ensure that their efforts pay off? How did they make sure that they didn’t stumble into the many pitfalls of creating a successful site?

Building the website is really quite a ride. Here are some tips on what they learned along the way:

1) Know what you want

With technology these days, there are nearly infinite possibilities and even more decisions you need to make as you develop the website. Know what you want before you dive into developing the website. It will make your life a whole lot easier! (As you might have seen, Rachael and Anna spent over a year figuring this out).

2) Make basic templates to clearly explain your ideas

What you picture in your head and what the developers envision can often differ significantly. “We spent most of our time doodling, sketching, mapping out the site, and eventually crafting basic ‘wireframes’ (aka drawing pictures of what you want your site to look like with descriptions of how you want the pages to connect to each other). This saved us a LOT of back and forth when it finally came time to tell the developers what we wanted the site to do.” Putting in some time establishing this base can really help put you and the developers on the same page so that your end product is in fact what you want.

3) Pick the right backend

Backend (the behind the scenes technology that helps you manage your site’s content) is extremely important. While there are numerous decisions and almost endless choices to make here, there are two main categories to pick between: open source and closed source. Rachael and Anna researched the difference between open source content management systems (like Drupal, Joomla and Mambo) and closed source systems (like IBM and Ektron and lesser known proprietary systems). They found out that the main difference is simple: if you have a lot of money to spend, closed source content management systems can be your best option because you are then able to afford the more expensive and secure systems (e.g. IBM). However, if you have a smaller budget, you may be limited to smaller propriety systems (ones that only a few developers know and aren’t as transferrable).

On the flipside, an open source content management system opens up a world of developers experienced with that particular language and, while potentially more buggy, there are exponential opportunities. Rachael and Anna had fears of being trapped with bad developers and decided to stay on the cutting edge with an open source system that gave them flexibility to hire different developers as needed. First decision down, many more to go…

“After you decide if you want an open source or closed source system, it’s important to do your homework and determine which open source CMS has the right applications for your needs. For example, we are planning to expand our online networking opportunities so we needed an OS CMS that already has applications in place for us to just add as we grow. Drupal fits our needs over the others.” There are number of online guides to help you determine which open source system is right for you…if open source is what you want.

4) Realize that developers run late

When Rachael and Anna first started developing the site, the web developers told them it would be ready in two months. They took that deadline very seriously and informed their network that they could expect the site in the fall of ’07. As it turns out, contracted web developers generally run late. Five months into the Fall of ’07, they finally had a site.  They learned a valuable lesson and will no longer set hard deadlines when they add new features.

5) Budget in extra money

We all know the saying “time is money.” Well, when it takes an extra three months to build your site, it is normally because they are putting extra time into your site that they didn’t account for in the budget. This will increase the cost of your site. With LinkEducation, the final cost of the site was about 40% more than expected (which, according to the developers, is standard). It will vary depending on whether you pick open source or closed source (open source is, as mentioned, more buggy and can take more time to test), but either way, make sure you have some leeway so you have enough to pay for your site!

6) Pick the right server

Servers differ a lot in size and stability and it is easy to find a “dud.” Make sure you do your homework and pick a good server. With a bad server your site can be slow or even crash, which can prevent viewers and can lose your content if you do not have a backup. LinkEducation did their homework and picked DreamHost, which was highly recommended for Drupal websites.

So there you have it. That wraps up everything that Rachael and Anna learned while starting LinkEducation. We hope that for all of you out there who are beginning the endeavor of starting a website for your philanthropic initiative, that this has saved you the time and headache of learning this on your own.

But this is just the beginning for LinkEducation, and we will keep you posted on how they progress from here. Will their site be a success? Keep your eyes out for our next FLiP Follows, or check it out for yourself at their launch event on February 1st at Proof Bar (on 3rd Ave between 19th and 20th Street) from 6-9. RSVP to linkeducation@gmail.com.