Charity Websites First Anniversary

The H.A.R.T. Community Transport Charity Websites First Anniversary was celebrated on the 14th of November 2009. After a slow start, with a few cyber attacks and some downtime recorded along the way, the Charity Websites First Anniversary was hailed a success.

The Website Coordinator said "websites are not the easiest of projects to manage, in the ever change cyberspace environment there are a lot of technical issues to be overcome and a close eye always has to be  kept on the budget".

The H.A.R.T. Community Transport Coordinator continued "Managing the budget was easy really, there was none - literally!!!"

Despite the lack of resources the Charity Website First Anniversary has highlighted some notable achievements. A lot has been done and new features are being added all the time.

The website Coordinator explained "initially the Charity Website was just an online brochure. As time has gone by lots of new features have been added such as subscribe-able Newsletters and the Online Charity Shop".

"a new Charity Mobile Phone Recycling Scheme is being promoted...the early indications being that there is a lot of fundraising potential by using the internet".

What does the future hold following the Charity Websites First Anniversary Celebrations?

"the internet is a great place to promote your wares, however it is very crowded and you do need to promote yourself in every way possible. Recently we have been tinkering with Social networking sites such as  Facebook and Twitter. It is early days but we see the potential for interaction through Social Networking as a low cost way of interacting with new our online Community, especially younger people".

"Charities, especially Community Transport groups, can be seen as being just for older people. Just by looking at  the recent range of services offered by H.A.R.T. one can see that this is clearly not the case.  For example, after School and Sports Club transport being offered to younger people on a regular basis. By using the latest internet tools Charities can move some way to overcoming this prejudice, and it's fun!. We are always looking for new ways to find and interact with a new audience "

Volunteer Website Journalists

H.A.R.T. is a volunteer led Charity. Many of the Community Transport services are delivered by Volunteers, the Charity Website is no different. The Website Coordinator looked to the future "H.A.R.T. Community Transport have a tremendous story to tell. It is definitely not a case of 'what you see is what you get'. There are new stories emerging every day, whether it is a new service, a new bus being launched or someone's birthday (recently one regular customer celebrated her 101st birthday!). There is a constant stream of Charity Website content out there just waiting to be written"

"Developing new Content for the Charity Website is key to it's long term popularity, we would like to involve the ever expanding community of H.A.R.T. volunteers in producing it. Currently we are looking for some budding journalists, maybe students wishing to expand their CV and portfolio or just someone who likes writing as a hobby, to help keep the Charity Website alive and up to date. Photos are another great way of telling a story, a 'pictures tells a thousands words' as they say. They are also an excellent way of bringing the Charity Website alive".

"If there is someone out there who would like to be involved in this 21st Century new media project then remember everyone is welcome and that age doesn't matter (the Volunteer Flash Banner to the left was produced by an 11 year old), just get in contact, we don't bite, the biscuits are yummy and Les make a great pot of tea!".

Charity Websites First Anniversary Statistics

• 4,616 Visits By 3,015 Absolute Unique Visitors (number of visits have doubled in last two months)
• 17,055 Pageviews
• 3.69 Average Pageviews
• 00:04:00 Time on Site
• 65.27% New Visits
• 4,616 visits came from 74 countries/territories
• 4,616 visits used 33 languages
• 4,616 visits came from 942 network locations
• 4,616 visits used 13 browsers - Internet Explorer 65.10%, Firefox 29.66%
• 4,616 visits used 9 operating systems - Windows 95.60%