A Selection of Notable DrupalCon 2023 Sessions for Nonprofit & Government Attendees

Numerous nonprofit, public, and government organizations have opted for Drupal as their CMS. Drupal can fulfill their expectations of having a website that is secure, reliable, scalable, endlessly customizable, and accessible to differently-abled audiences.

The vibrant and supportive community of Drupal users and developers gathers twice a year for DrupalCon — a big global event to discuss what’s trending in the Drupal world. This time, the conference is taking place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023, attendees from nonprofit, public, and government organizations will be able to both hear and share some insights, meet like-minded professionals, and discover new ways in which Drupal could help their organizations thrive.

Below are several conference sessions handpicked by our Drupal design team.

Top DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023 sessions for nonprofit, public, & government attendees

How Drupal powers the global UN Refugee Agency fundraising platform — by 

Mohammed Razem (Mohammed J. Razem)

Without a doubt, nonprofit teams are founded and run by community and socially driven people. They have big goals related to making a genuinely positive impact in the world. One of the best examples is UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. At UNHCR, they save the lives of displaced people worldwide, protect their rights, and help them build a better future.

With big goals come big challenges. Imagine, for example, managing scattered online fundraising campaigns in more than 20 global markets from the same platform. It looks like you would need a multi-region, multi-country, multi-language, multi-currency, and multi-editor digital platform for that.

Luckily, Drupal makes ambitious tasks achievable, so the UNHCR team can rely on their Drupal-based donations platform with a centralized admin experience. The platform currently serves 9 countries, 4 regions, 56 currencies, and 10 languages. It is seamlessly managed by a global team of admins.

Under the hood, the platform utilizes a powerful suite of modules and services, including Drupal Commerce and Layout Builder. You can take a deeper dive into the intricacies of the complex project if you attend the DrupalCon 2023’s session by Mohammed Razem.

Aspirations vs. Realities: Nonprofits Share Their Roadmaps — by Jack Steadman (jacksteadman)

It’s always insightful to hear from another team in your industry about their priorities, needs, and plans. Nonprofit attendees will have a chance to benefit by hearing from 300 fellow organizations in a 50-minute session. Jack Steadman will be sharing valuable findings from the survey of 300 nonprofit teams.

Specifically, the survey covers how nonprofit organizations approach their websites, as well as other digital engagement and reporting tools they are using. Among the questions featured in the survey are:

• whether nonprofit teams are satisfied with their current digital tools, what their pain points are, and what needs are yet to be addressed
• what priorities they have for making new investments in technology
• how they approach decision-making
• what triggers their decisions related to re-platforming and migrations

The audience will gain insights into how technology requirements are evolving in the nonprofit sector, and, as a result, how investment strategies are evolving with them. This information could be valuable not only for nonprofit teams to shape their best strategies but also for technology partners to address customer needs in an optimal way.

Beyond WCAG Compliance: Next Steps in your Website’s Commitment to Digital Inclusion — by Andrew Mallis (Andrew_Mallis) and Mike McCaffrey (mikemccaffrey)

Nonprofit, public, and government organizations often have higher accessibility requirements for their websites than other sectors. Moreover, they need to demonstrate genuine inclusivity as an inherent value. By making the information about their programs, services, and missions easily accessible to the public, they also show transparency and accountability. 

That’s why it’s vital for them to go beyond the standards of accessibility to provide a positive, engaging experience, in which one key output is creating inclusive content. We at ImageX have always been actively promoting accessibility, so this session deeply resonates with our values and quality of work.

The session will cover the tools and tactics that you can rely on in your daily efforts to better serve your audiences’ needs. They are pretty versatile, so you can use them irrespective of your organization’s size or budget, as well as regardless of whether you are starting a full redesign or making improvements to your current website.

Do I Actually Need a Redesign Right Now? — by Bjorn Thomson (bthomson)

In search of top-notch digital experiences, you might be nurturing the idea of a website redesign. However, the redesign may not look as exciting once you get down to the numbers and the impact on your organization's resources.

Budget constraints and limited employee hours are common among nonprofit, and public organizations. The same can easily apply to a team in any industry, hence the important question raised in this session: do you actually need a redesign right now?

In this session, Bjorn Thomson of the ImageX team will share useful tips that will help you define whether you need a redesign today or could wait for a better moment in the future. Furthermore, you’ll discover practical steps that you can implement on your website to see measurable progress without the need for an immediate redesign. Finally, he’ll share how to measure and assess what has been achieved through these steps. 

Government Industry Summit

During their visit to DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023, all employees of government organizations will have a chance to gather for an exclusive, industry-specific meetup — the Government Industry Summit. So if you represent one of those organizations, you might consider extending your standard DrupalCon program with a Government Summit ticket. 

This applies to federal, state, or local government employees, as well as private-sector employees supporting the government. Attendees of all professions — ranging from project managers and editors to full-stack developers — will be able to gather plenty of valuable information, share their ideas or address any concerns, and network with their peers at the Summit. 

The day-long Summit program includes sessions in various formats such as presentations, case studies, attendee-driven discussions, and more. It is bursting with exciting topics, just to name a few:

• improving accessibility in federal agencies since the issuance of the special Executive Order
• building a robust community of content managers in a demanding government environment
• rebuilding a website based on the “Let Drupal be Drupal” philosophy after facing content management issues on a fully decoupled site

Visit our booth at DrupalCon 2023

As DrupalCon Pittsburgh 2023 approaches, we are increasingly excited about our comeback to the event. Last year’s event in Portland filled us with fantastic memories, and we hope to create new and equally positive experiences in Pittsburgh. 

We are once again a Champion Sponsor at the event. We’ll be happy to see you at our booth so we can chat about all things Drupal. Looking forward to meeting and discussing how our Drupal experts could help you boost your website's success. 

See you there!