I just came across this great post from back in April by Dean over at Heal Your Church Web Site about Software as a Service for Church Websites . 

It is worth a read and your consideration if you are involved with any Christian Website for an organization.  Here is a small snippet to entice you over to read the post:   

...SaaS helps keep this highly mobile, suburbanly sprawled congregation together by facilitating both paid and lay staff in terms of communications, sharing materials and schedule management. In other words, the problems solved by FBCF’s use of the CCM go well past that of simple website content ‘manglement.’

Read the post 

I am becoming more and more of a fan of the content management system Drupal.

The developers and community at Drupal.org have recently released the beta version of the new 5.0 release. This new version of the Drupal CMS received many new features, including improved performance, a new administrative interface, and a new slick default template.

I decided to download the beta and give it a test drive. Here are some of the things I found during installation and setup.

New Web based Install, Makes it Easier for Everyone

After dropping the drupal files into the main directory for my test site, I created the mysql database and then pointed my browser to the new site.

Here is what comes up:

I choose my database type (mysql) from the radio box, entered the name of my Drupal database, along with the username and password to access the database. Then I hit “Save configuration”.

That was it. My new Drupal install was complete. Nice.

Drupal Website Setup

After completing my install in about 90 seconds, I followed the link to visit “your new site”. From my new Drupal home page I was guided by a five step list to start using my new Drupal site.

So I:

Created my first account

including:

1. Choosing my password
2. Setting my user time zone

At this point it would have been good to be taken back to that five point list. However, I had to go back to my home page to seed the five point list again.

Today I am taking a look at NetworkforGood.org because it has the following advantages for your church or nonprofit website:

• You can start receiving online donations quickly with very little setup
• You can startup using the online donations service with little costs (their basic service has no setup fee and transaction fees are low)
• Your donors can setup regular automatic monthly donations.
• You do not have to worry about having a merchant account, managing secure transactions on your own website, or struggling to keep up with important privacy and security standards. Network for Good handles these issues for you.
• You are able to track your online donor information.

Note: I and CWM are not affiliated with Networkforgood.org or Guidestar.org.

Using Network for Good to Accept Online Donations

Network for Good is a nonprofit organization that has been around since 2001. Networkforgood.org acts as an online donations portal for non-profits. Networkforgood.org accepts online donations for any nonprofit listed within the non-profit database ran by Guidestar.org.

Guidestar lists all nonprofits who are an exempt nonprofit registered with the United States IRS. This means that if you are a church or non-profit in the US, then you are probably already listed on these websites.

Based on the information from their website, you can get started taking online donations in 4 easy steps.

1. Register and Complete the Guidestar Information Form
2. Read their Giving System Agreement
3. Create your Network for Good URL
4. Apply for Electronic Funds Transfer (Recommended)

Once your nonprofit registers, you can add to your listing in Guidestar. Network for Good provides you with a link and even images to let people click to “Donate Now” from your website.