In the 16 years I’ve been building websites it seems like the technology becomes more powerful yet more difficult to implement each year. Fortunately, event calendars have defied the rapid pace of technological bloat and are easily added to a website. I’m focusing on two I really like, both which have different uses. If you have some favorites note them in the comments and I’ll be happy to check them out.
Nonprofit Calendar Features
Before I get into what I recommend, it’s worth reviewing what I think are necessary features:
The Basics: Of course time, date, location, description, and repeatable events are a given.
Beyond the Basics: I really like calendars that incorporate maps as well as the ability to invite people via email.
Usability: First and foremost they should be easy to read and navigate for anyone on almost any device, from the desktop to the handheld devices, from Laptops to iPhones and anything in between.
Display: Day, Week, Month, and Agenda views are all handy, but the ubiquitous calendar-style month view is the bare minimum.
The Calendars I Use for Nonprofits
Google Calendar
This is an example of what a Google Calendar looks like embedded on a web page.
This first is my favorite calendar and one I literally use multiple times every day. But it’s more than a personal calendar. You can use it for your nonprofit calendar because it really packs a lot of features into a free and portable package. In fact, I’m usually surprised when someone isn’t using it – it really is THAT simple and powerful.
What I Like:
Quick and Simple Data Entry - This is my favorite thing about Google Calendar. You can simply click on the date in the month view and enter in the “What” box something like “2pm Lunch with Dad” hit and the “Create event” button and the calendar will automatically add it at the right date at the right time. I have not used anything that beats it.
Drag and Drop - In the calendar view you can simply click on an event and drag it to another date and the event will move and the date will change. Just like a good desktop calendar – easy.
Portability - If you choose to make a calendar public (if you want to share it online) then you can embed it into a website fairly easily. Here’s one we embedded on a site for my son’s baseball league. It also syncs with some versions of Microsoft Outlook. Here’s Google’s guide to synching with Outlook.
Different Views - Often in calendars, especially those in month views, the events can be truncated. By having the ability to switch to an “agenda” view you can often get all the details pretty easily.
Multiple Calendars - These are all accesible from one screen, color-coded. You can choose to share them with others or make them public if you are publishing them to a site.
What I don’t like
Gmail Account - You DON’T need a Gmail account to view a public calendar, but you will need one if you intent to create and update the calendar. I don’t mind it but some people will.
Design - The standard design is a little dated looking to my tast. Maybe customization would help but who has the time?
No Event “Pages” - This is important if you intend to hold a variety of events throughout the year and you want to publish event pages on your website. You’ll have to create them separately and then link to them from Google Calendar.
Best Use
A relatively no-fuss approach to maintaining a calendar for a non-profit that does not care that it comes with some discrete Google branding.
More Info: If you want to learn how to use Google Calendar to publish your nonprofit events, check our the Google Calendar event publisher guide.
All In One Event Calendar WordPress Plugin
The All In One Event Calendar WordPress plugin looks similar to Google's Calendar with some notable differences.
This is an example of a WordPress plug-in that really works. If your site is built in WordPress and you use it to update and maintain your site – and there’s no reason you should NOT be using WordPress if you are a small or mid-sized nonprofit – then this is a great bet. (You should check out our WordPress conversion service if you want your site to look the same but be easier to grow and maintain.)
What I like:
Integration with WordPress - It comes as a WordPress Plugin so you can install it right from the WordPress control panel. It even has a widget that you can post to your home page with an agenda list of upcoming events and a link back to the main calendar.
Design - The calendar has a modern design with nice transitions. If you’re handy with HTML and CSS then you can also change colors to match your own site design.
Ties to other calendars - You site visitors can subscribe to it using Google Calendar, Apple iCal, MS Outlook and other systems that accept iCalendar feeds.
This agenda view can be loaded as a widget into your WordPress site and displayed on your home page for easy event access.
Event Summaries - The calendar shows larger event summaries when you hover over them, which is especially handy in the monthly view. You don’t have to click on the event to get the basic details.
SEO Optimized Events - This is actually a great feature because unlike Google Calendar your events, once published will have their own page, which will get picked up by the major search engines. You also will be able to post links to those pages on your Facebook and Twitter feeds.
What I don’t like:
Data Entry - Entering events is not quite as easy as it is in Google Calendar, because you do need to log in to your WordPress dashboard then add an event in a process that’s similar to creating a new post. You have to add the date and time by hand.
No drag and drop - While Google Calendar allows you to move events from one day to another by simply dragging the event, you will have to go into your WordPress administration and change the event date fields. It’s not a big issue, but it is something that can slow you down.
Best Use:
If you’ve got a website in WordPress and you want a Calendar that looks nice and works great and will help you stand out a little more, then All In One Event Calendar is a good bet. Data entry and management is not as easy as in Google Calendar, but each event get’s its own page and can be set up with a plug-in to accept simple registrations. It’s one we’ve rolled out a a couple of new sites recently and we really like the way it performs.
More info: The developers maintain a site where you can learn more about the the All In One Event Calendar.
