Recommendations for Wordpress themes for a Nonprofit's website

August 22, 2011 2:22 AM

Looking for recommendations for a Wordpress theme best suited for a Nonprofit organization's website.

Preferably something that is cheap/free, lightweight (low on graphics) and easy to use. Will be looking to integrate a discussion forum using something like bbPress, so should be able to play nice with the plugin.

Thanks!

posted by sk381 to computers & internet (7 answers total)

no specific recommendations, but remember that colours are easier to change than structure. You might find a great coloured theme, but if the layout and bbPress friendliness isn't there, it isn't worth your time.

Focus on finding the layout you like, and then look at the colour secondarily. This is sometimes quite difficult to get other people to look at when you're showing themes to (not tech minded) colleagues.
posted by titanium_geek at 4:36 AM on August 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh! also: is there a culture of blogging existing? I use wordpress for our church's website, and it's good because non-techs can learn to update it, but they can't grok the idea of blogs. So I've modified the theme to have 1 post on the front page so it doesn't have old content on the front page. (They'd be asking to edit the old blog posts- not understanding that they could just bump it down the page with new content.)
posted by titanium_geek at 4:40 AM on August 22, 2011

I like Weaver. It has several themes readily available, but can be easily customized. It is free and the support forums on the Weaver sight are frequented by the developer and other very helpful people.
posted by Jandasmo at 5:43 AM on August 22, 2011

Weaver website: http://wpweaver.info/
posted by Jandasmo at 5:46 AM on August 22, 2011

I did something like this a few months ago using the "Canvas" theme from www.woothemes.com, combined with Buddypress (which integrates nicely into Canvas).

Alas, the site I did is currently migrating sites, and woothemes is retooling their website as well.
posted by kaszeta at 6:10 AM on August 22, 2011

@titanium_geek-- I work at a church and I've run into the same issue. "Oh, well we don't want a BLOG..." (as if it were a dirty word). So instead they're paying too much for a web developer and I keep asking him to take superfluous "features" out.

OP--check out Thesis and see what you think.
posted by Jane Austen at 12:28 PM on August 22, 2011

I've just set up a WordPress website for a local greyhound rehoming charity, and I stuck with the default theme (twentyeleven). I think it fulfils your requirements nicely:

rgt-edinburgh.co.uk
posted by primer_dimer at 2:54 AM on August 23, 2011