What is Site Maker?
Site Maker is a tool for building quality websites in a streamlined and cost effective manner, developed by Foundation North with digital partner Gravitate, and made available for projects related to Foundation North and its communities and partners.
The Site Maker Approach
From time to time the Foundation has projects which require a website of their own such as:
- when we design a new fund or initiative
- when we are working with others on a project and want to make that publicly available
- when we have a report to publish in digital form (a step up from a nicely designed document or PDF)
- a "microsite" (small website) for internal or external use as a place to publish information, just like this one
These websites often have similar requirements for functionality and support.
Rather than starting from scratch each time, Site Maker uses a "master" website which holds all the features and functions we have developed and choose to make available for reuse in future projects.
When a new website is required, we can select which elements of the "master" are needed, take a "copy" of the master and have it customised to suit the project.
This approach significantly cuts the time and cost involved with producing new websites, and with the support of Gravitate, each project benefits from the development of the platform.
Who are Gravitate?
In 2020, Foundation North sought a new digital partner to redevelop their website and provide support and service for ongoing projects.
Gravitate was the successful candidate, standing out for their dedication to service and standards, and for their commitment to working with organisations whose values are in alignment with those of the Foundation. Gravitate are a dedicated team based in Auckland.
New projects built using Site Maker will be produced by Gravitate.
Frequently Asked Questions
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CSI’s website looks great but I want my website to look different to that – how can that be achieved? I don’t just want a cloneIn the same way that CSI's website looks different to this Site Maker website, so will yours and every other Site Maker website. Every project includes design "customisation" to suit your "look and feel" - things like colours, backgrounds, fonts and logos will all be styled to suit your project, the layout of pages may also be tweaked. The content you add into your site will help change up the flavour, and if you want to really break the mould, Gravitate will work with you to explore that for your project.
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Looks fab but it’s still an investment I’d need to carefully consider. Is there support to help me if I am not sure if this is right for us?Yes, depending on what it is you would like to ask about there are a number of people who can help. For Foundation North kaimahi, you can reach out to the Comms team first. The Comms team and the Shared Services team hold the relationship with Gravitate and have launched several great website projects including this one! You can also contact Gravitate directly, either by filling in the form on this website to start a project or find their contact details on their website. Make sure you let them know that you're thinking about making your project using the Foundation's Site Maker so they know how to best look after your queries.
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Will the website ‘belong to us’ once the website is built and paid for?The website is yours and will be publicly available once it's live for as long as you pay for hosting with Gravitate. You will have your own site and CMS (Content Management System) seperate from any other site. All your content is owned by you under standard NZ copyright. Find out more about Copyright in New Zealand on the New Zealand Intellectual Property Office website. If you want to move your website elsewhere for another company to host, Gravitate will allow that but it will take some work. Note that web service providers very rarely support another organisation's work.