JCC Website of the Month: Selection Process

Dear Colleagues,
We continue to get requests each month from JCCs nominating their websites to be Site of the Month. We are aware of all the great changes you’ve been making to your websites, and the selection process is more and more competitive. However, to become site of the month you need to meet our criteria.

We review each site's performance in a variety of categories and give it a numerical value in each area. These areas include:

Brand
Use of the JCC Movement brand includes the following components:
• Fonts
• Colors
• Silhouetted images
• Brand badge
• Illustrations
• Brand Voice
• Overall Look and Feel

Currentness of content
• Event information not older then current month
• Extra points for weekly or daily info updates

Registration
• Contact information with each event or class
• Ability to register online for classes or events
• Extra points for ability to join the JCC online

Online Donations
• Contact info on a donate page (it’s important for your users to be able to find out who can help them)
• Downloadable PDF contribution forms
• Online giving through a secure site

Contact information
• Full contact information (phone number and address) of the JCC at the bottom of every page
• Staff contact page with phone numbers or extensions and e-mails of the staff

Information about Israel
As a Jewish organization we feel that our connection with Israel should be prominent. We believe that JCCs should be promoting Israel through programming and web.

Links to Jewish Organizations
JCCs play a big part in Jewish communities, and for that reason we feel JCCs should display links to local Jewish organizations on their pages. A links page would be most useful as an informational tool for new community members.
• At the very least, there should be a link to the federation, JCC Association, and United Way (if your JCC receives funding from them).
• Local Jewish organizational links
• Extra points for a full Jewish resources page

Usability
Your users should be able to navigate easily through the site to find and do the following things:
• Programming information (events and other programming)
• Transactions (donations, registrations, etc.)
• Operational information (hours of operation, location, directions, etc.)

Technical
• The site should load quickly, under 10 seconds.

Design
• Visually appealing
• Easy to read
• No obvious distractions
• Balance of graphics and text
• Font, size and color suitable for online reading

Nuts and Bolts
• Privacy policy
• Security statement
• Terms of use
• Figure out a way to collect e-mail addresses from your members – offer an incentive, newsletter, etc.

Navigation
• Consistent menu structure (same links in same place on every page)
• Functional search option that works, or a site map

Please let me know if you have any other questions and/or comments - we welcome your ideas on how to improve the process. E-mail us.

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