How to Create a Website for a Neighborhood Association

readysetgowebsitedesign@gmail.com (Elaine Lambert) — Thu, 07 Apr 2022 17:52:56 GMT

According to Wikipedia , a neighborhood association is “a group of residents or property owners who advocate for (or) organize activities within a neighborhood.”

Unlike a homeowner’s association, membership in a neighborhood association is voluntary and neighbors do not have to pay dues or follow any rules.

Because membership isn’t mandatory, having a website to showcase the benefits of being a member is beneficial to both the association and the neighborhood.

I haven’t seen a study that proves this, but my guess is that a well-designed website for a neighborhood association could help property values. When someone is considering moving to a neighborhood, they most likely search for information about that neighborhood on the internet and if they find an active neighborhood association website with upcoming activities, friendly pictures, and helpful information, that would be a vote in the neighborhood’s favor.

How hard is it to create a website for a neighborhood association? It doesn’t have to be complicated.

In fact, I always find simple websites more attractive than cluttered and complicated ones.

What Does a Neighborhood Association Website Need?

Let’s look at a website’s needs from a neighbor’s point of view.

Include a Neighborhood Map

First, a neighbor needs to know the boundaries of the neighborhood so they’ll know if they can become a member.

If your neighborhood association is in Fort Worth, there is a directory of neighborhood associations . The website includes maps for each association.

Include the Benefits of Becoming a Member

Once a neighbor has determined they live within the bounds of your neighborhood association, they need to decide if they should become a member.

Neighborhood association dues range from $15-$100 per year. Why should someone pay that money to become a member? What’s the benefit to them?

Write out the benefits clearly on your website.

Some ideas might be:

Events designed to help you meet your neighbors and make new friends
Awareness of zoning variance requests that directly impact your neighborhood
Awards for most beautiful lawn or other beautification projects
Representation at city council meetings so the needs of your neighborhood are heard
Notification of city laws and ordinances directly impacting you and your neighborhood
Resources to help you get the most out of your neighborhood and city

Include an Easy Way to Become a Member

Neighbors vary in their ability to use the internet, so you need to offer multiple ways to become a member.

Printable Form

For the lowest tech option, include a link to a printable PDF of your membership form. Make sure it includes how much the dues are, who to make the check out to, and where to mail the form and check.

Online Form

An online form can be handled a couple of ways:

Create a contact form that includes the fields from your membership form. Set up the form so that once it is submitted, the website redirects the neighbor to PayPal so they can pay their dues online. The downside to this is that someone can fill out the form but then not actually complete the payment.
Create a form in MailChimp and embed that form onto your website. This lets you create a newsletter list as you collect membership forms. I think you’re able to collect money through MailChimp, but I’m not positive. I am sure that you can redirect the form after a submission to PayPal.

Sign up your neighborhood for JotForm and create a form that automatically includes payment. With JotForm you have the option that someone can’t complete the form without payment. Another benefit is that the form responses go into a spreadsheet that makes managing your membership easier. JotForm has a free program, but it only allows for 10 payments per month, so depending on how big your association is, you might need the $15.83/month plan. (You could always redirect the form after submission to your neighborhood's PayPal and hopefully collect payment that way.)

Include Upcoming Events

One of the best things about being in a neighborhood association are the events (at least this is my favorite reason for being in my neighborhood association).

My neighborhood has a parade on Labor Day, a fun annual meeting, and a Halloween party.

Your neighbors want to stay up-to-date with upcoming events. To do this, use multiple channels:

Social media (create an Instagram and Facebook page for the association)
Newsletter (you can use MailChimp to collect email addresses and send out regular updates)
Website Events page

Keeping Website Events Up-to-Date

One of the challenges about keeping the website event page up to date is having the website built in a way that makes it easy for the current event chair to make updates.

Here are a few options:

Use a program (or make sure your website designer uses a program) that makes it easy to make updates directly on the website. Create a short video that can be passed from one event chair to the next showing how to make the updates. This option works best if your events don’t vary from year to year except for the details like date, location, etc.
Use a program like Tockify where events can be embedded onto the website. Then new events only need to be created in the app and they’ll automatically be displayed on the website. Tockify has a free plan that should work well for neighborhood associations, but they also have an $8/month plan that allows for pinboard-like cards to display on the website.

Keep the association Facebook page up-to-date with the event calendar and (once they get the feature fixed) embed the Facebook events onto the website . This would really be the best option except that this Facebook feature has not worked for a long while and I don’t know when they’ll get it working again.
Keep an Instagram account just for your neighborhood’s events and embed the Instagram feed on your website.

Include Links and Resources

One of the most helpful pages on a neighborhood association website has the information a neighbor might need, such as:

Contact information for the neighborhood police officer (in Fort Worth, you can find this information on the neighborhood association’s database record)
Name and contact info of the city council representative and other state and federal representatives
Trash pick up days and policies
Information about watering restrictions
Addresses and photos of neighborhood or close-by parks and playgrounds

Include PDF Downloads of By-Laws and Minutes

Though I’m not one to actually read meeting minutes or by-laws, it’s good to have access to them on the website.

Save important documents as PDFs to make them easier to open and unable to be changed.

Include links to download the PDFs.

Record a short video to teach the secretary how to upload current documents.

Include Contact Information for Board Members

I recommend creating email addresses for the neighborhood itself and the board members (such as MyNeighborhood-Pres@gmail.com, MyNeighborhood-VP@gmail.com, etc), then setting those accounts to forward any incoming emails to the current board member. That keeps board members from having their private emails listed online, plus reduces the amount of changes that need to be made online as board members change.

Another good idea is to create a Google Voice phone number for the neighborhood association and key board members. Again, forward incoming calls to the current board members. That way member’s personal phone numbers don’t need to be listed online, but neighbors will be able to call them.

Finally, I recommend getting a PO Box for incoming mail (and making sure there’s someone to regularly check for new mail). Again, this limits how much information needs to be changed as the treasurer or membership chair changes, plus keeps private information off the web.

A Couple Examples of Neighborhood Association Websites

I hope to create another post to show actual examples of neighborhood association websites, but for now feel free to check out two websites I've created for Fort Worth neighborhood associations.

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