Lancaster Yeshiva Center
This small nonprofit’s site needs to convey more warmth, cohesiveness and professionalism.
May 2008 By Sarah Durham and Farra Trompeter
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Unlike print, online communications can instantly communicate to the world at a relatively low cost. In the past 10 years, organizations with fairly specific audiences (for example, those serving a particular neighborhood, faith or point of view) have been able to welcome the world to their (virtual) doorsteps.
The mission of the Lancaster Yeshiva Center, which operates with an annual budget of approximately $227,000, according to GuideStar, is to “provide post high school age students with Torah education and vocational training.”
We were fascinated by the idea of a Jewish enclave doing vocational work in the midst of Amish Country in Lancaster, Pa., and decided to check it out. With a little digging, we discovered that Lancaster Yeshiva Center helps Jewish boys who have lost their way find it again, through the combination of learning a trade and studying Torah.
Ultimately, this small organization is all about having a transformative impact on a specific audience that needs help. Sound familiar? This is a story many organizations strive to tell, so let’s see how Lancaster Yeshiva Center is doing at telling it online and what other organizations can learn from it.
The organization excels with its warm and welcoming images. In fact, the photography on the site is probably its strongest aspect, particularly on the homepage and staff page. Staff members look friendly and approachable, which is important to reassure parents and prospective students alike, especially since the school is “live in.”
Some suggestions
We’d love to see this same warmth in the copy throughout the site — perhaps shared through success stories, profiles or testimonials from past students. Communicating the “warm fuzzy” of the organization, particularly through individual storytelling, has been proven effective to raise money — but many smaller organizations often overlook this simple opportunity.
Here are a few other low-cost suggestions Lancaster Yeshiva Center (and other small organizations) might employ to make the site more welcoming in other areas and, therefore, reflective of its transformative work:
* Domain name: It’s getting rarer and rarer for a nonprofit to use a .com instead of a .org. A .org on the back of its name instead of a .com would immediately tell a donor that Lancaster Yeshiva Center is a nonprofit organization, ready to receive tax-deductible donations.
* Goals and audience: It’s not immediately clear that Lancaster Yeshiva Center caters to Jewish students from around the country, i.e., not just in Lancaster. How about including some demographic information in the mission statement or homepage, so that it’s clear from the start that a Jewish family in Des Moines, Iowa, also might benefit from the organization’s work?
The mission of the Lancaster Yeshiva Center, which operates with an annual budget of approximately $227,000, according to GuideStar, is to “provide post high school age students with Torah education and vocational training.”
We were fascinated by the idea of a Jewish enclave doing vocational work in the midst of Amish Country in Lancaster, Pa., and decided to check it out. With a little digging, we discovered that Lancaster Yeshiva Center helps Jewish boys who have lost their way find it again, through the combination of learning a trade and studying Torah.
Ultimately, this small organization is all about having a transformative impact on a specific audience that needs help. Sound familiar? This is a story many organizations strive to tell, so let’s see how Lancaster Yeshiva Center is doing at telling it online and what other organizations can learn from it.
The organization excels with its warm and welcoming images. In fact, the photography on the site is probably its strongest aspect, particularly on the homepage and staff page. Staff members look friendly and approachable, which is important to reassure parents and prospective students alike, especially since the school is “live in.”
Some suggestions
We’d love to see this same warmth in the copy throughout the site — perhaps shared through success stories, profiles or testimonials from past students. Communicating the “warm fuzzy” of the organization, particularly through individual storytelling, has been proven effective to raise money — but many smaller organizations often overlook this simple opportunity.
Here are a few other low-cost suggestions Lancaster Yeshiva Center (and other small organizations) might employ to make the site more welcoming in other areas and, therefore, reflective of its transformative work:
* Domain name: It’s getting rarer and rarer for a nonprofit to use a .com instead of a .org. A .org on the back of its name instead of a .com would immediately tell a donor that Lancaster Yeshiva Center is a nonprofit organization, ready to receive tax-deductible donations.
* Goals and audience: It’s not immediately clear that Lancaster Yeshiva Center caters to Jewish students from around the country, i.e., not just in Lancaster. How about including some demographic information in the mission statement or homepage, so that it’s clear from the start that a Jewish family in Des Moines, Iowa, also might benefit from the organization’s work?
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