Finding a volunteer for web site design for a politically divisive topic

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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I am not sure if MPSIMS is the right place for this post, but it seemed like the most likely spot. I suppose it’s possible it shouldn’t be here at all, but I can’t think of any reason in particular. If it is improper I apologize and will accept what a moderator decides to do with it.

Someone I know runs a service that tries to get funds to people who do not otherwise have enough money to afford abortions on their own. It’s entirely donation run, and all the monetary donations go straight to women who are recommended through a clinic as needing financial assistance. It’s also sliding scale, so women who can sell off some CDs or something to raise some of it can get a little help while homeless women (at least one recently I know about) can have the whole thing taken care of. The main idea being that freedom to choose an abortion doesn’t mean much if you can’t afford it. This group was was mentioned in, I believe, The Nation recently as deserving support.

I’m not asking for donations of money or pointing people to the website here, which I am sure must be a violation of rules, either explicitly or just as a practical matter. What I am trying to figure out is if people here know a way to possibly contact a web designer who might be willing to volunteer to create a simple and easy website. The fund itself cannot afford to pay for a designer (all the money goes to needy woman in desperate circumstances), but I myself paid for some domain names and arranged to have a web host donate space. I thought maybe I could design a site also, and although I’ve done some in the past I know it takes me far longer than what other more experienced people could do, and I really do not have the time to put into it right now. It’s not the sort of thing that even needs to be all fancy as a one page site with basic info and a link to the PayPal address and so forth would be better than the nothing it has right now. I just don’t know how to find someone who’d be willing to volunteer, would support the cause in general (I know some might be afraid to be linked somehow to something politically divisive), and also someone who at least has some sites already done that demonstrates skill so I don’t end up accepting a volunteer who ends up with something unsuitable.

Any thoughts on this?

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Crikey, you’re right about it being divisive. I think a lot of people will be reluctant to touch it (even if they support the idea in principle), but here are a few perhaps marginally useful comments:

-It sounds like you’re setting up an actual charity. That probably needs to be done completely properly with regard to law, tax, etc.

-Simple websites aren’t actually all that difficult to set up and if you don’t need an online product database, or flash animations, or stuff like that, it’s not much more difficult a task than using a word processor, and there’s no need for you to get embroiled in learning to code HTML like a guru or anything - you should be fine with a WYSIWYG web design program.
The aesthetic side of web design is important though, so I don’t want to appear to be saying that it’s always easy to create wonderful, great-looking websites.

-There’s this thing called ChipIn that may or may not be relevant to your requirements.

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Dan, I sent you an email.

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Left you a PM.

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Yeah, this is someone I know who set this up, and she’s done it with the assistance of the National Network of Abortion Funds, so I have to trust that all that is taken care of. I’m just trying to organize the donation of technical assistance.

Thanks for the comments, Mangetout.

I’m just now checking the private messages and emails I received about this. It occurs to me that if more than one person might be interested, the NAFF has a number of local organizations who could probably use some help setting other sites up, so there may be a way to assist more groups than just the one I know the organizer of.

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Simple and easy? Take a look at the sample CSS designs at Open Source Web Design