Why spend money to license a proprietary content management system for your website? Open source CMS systems like WordPress are world-class, free to use—and you benefit from the continuous improvement provided by global networks of developers who contribute code and knowledge. Open source is the way to go if you’re running a cost-conscious non-profit organization that needs a rock-solid website—but you’re on a budget.

Stay current. Proprietary platforms are out of date the day you launch. Open source platforms offer frequent, free updates; upgrades are easy to do and inexpensive.

Leverage the social web. Open source solutions grew up in the world of social media. They come with built-in capacity for user-created content, video and RSS.

Driven by search. Search engines drive as much as two-thirds of traffic for most sites. Open source platforms are well-tuned for the search engines, helping you to build traffic.

Easy content authoring. Open source software solutions make it easy for any staffer to publish your content, but minimize improvisation that too often creates inconsistency on non-profit sites.