The glossary of non-profit digital
30 terms defined in a few lines, with a frequent question and the related terms.
A
ASBL (Belgian non-profit)
An ASBL (association sans but lucratif) is the Belgian legal form of associations: a legal entity that pursues a selfless goal without distributing profit to its members. It is th…
At cost
At cost is the price that covers the direct costs of a job (days, hosting, tools) without profit margin. In Kern4Good, KERN-IT builds websites and provides consulting for associat…
B
C
CMS
A CMS (content management system) is the software that lets you edit a website without coding: pages, news, images, menus. Wagtail, WordPress or Drupal are CMSs. The Kern4Good pro…
CRM
A CRM (customer relationship management) is the tool that centralises an organisation's contacts and the history of each relationship. For an association: members, donors, volunte…
CSR
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the set of practices by which a company takes into account its effects on society and the environment: working conditions, suppliers, foot…
Cohort
A cohort is a group of associations, five in general, that go through a Kern4Good cycle together: scoping, workshops, design, development, training, go-live. They share the techni…
Counterpart
The counterpart is what the sponsor receives in exchange for its funding: visibility (logo, mention, page), access (invitation, contact), a service (consulting days). It is what d…
D
Digital divide
The digital divide is the gap between those who have access to digital tools and know how to use them, and the others. It affects people (access, skills, uses) and organisations, …
Digital inclusion
Digital inclusion gathers the actions that let everyone access digital tools and use them: hardware, connectivity, support, training, services designed to be simple. It is the ans…
Digital training
An association's digital training means teaching its editors to run the website, the tools and good habits (passwords, GDPR, publishing). In Kern4Good it is shared by the cohort, …
Digitalisation grant (Brussels)
The Digitalisation grant ("Prime Digitalisation") is an aid of the Brussels-Capital Region that covers part of a company's digitalisation expenses (website, tools, advice), under …
Domain name
The domain name is your website's address (myassociation.be). It is rented yearly from a registrar, it belongs to the association that renews it, and it also carries the email add…
Donation
A donation is a sum or a good given without counterpart to an organisation. In Belgium a donation to an association only opens a tax reduction if the association is approved by th…
E
ERP
An ERP (enterprise resource planning) gathers in one software the management functions of an organisation: accounting, invoicing, purchasing, stock, human resources. Useful to str…
ESG
ESG designates the three environmental, social and governance criteria by which a company's responsibility is assessed beyond its financial results. Social sponsoring feeds the "S…
G
GDPR
The GDPR is the European regulation on personal data protection. It applies to any association that keeps lists of members, donors or beneficiaries: say what is collected, why, fo…
GEO (generative engine optimisation)
GEO (generative engine optimisation) designates the practices that help a website be read, understood and cited by AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and their pee…
Generative AI
Generative AI designates the models able to produce text, images or code from an instruction (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and their peers). For an association it serves to write faste…
H
P
Patronage
Patronage is support given by a company or a person to a work or an organisation of general interest, without direct counterpart or with a very limited one. It belongs to donation…
Private area
A private area (members', volunteers' or partners' area, extranet) is the part of a website that asks for a login and a password. As soon as it exists, the website keeps people's …
S
SEO (search engine optimisation)
SEO (search engine optimisation) covers everything that helps a website appear in search engine results without paying for advertising. It has a technical base, done once when the…
Showcase website
A showcase website presents an organisation, its activities and contact details, without online sales or a member area. For an association it is the base website: who you are, wha…
Social impact
Social impact is the real change produced by an action on people or a community, beyond what was spent or built. It is described by observable results: what changed, for whom, and…
Social sponsoring
Social sponsoring is financial support given by a company to a project of general interest (here, websites for associations) in exchange for defined visibility counterparts: logo,…
Solidarity pool
The solidarity pool is a Kern4Good cohort's fund: sponsor companies pay their packs into it, associations contribute if they can, and KERN-IT draws the at-cost price of the websit…
Sponsoring
Sponsoring is a contract by which a company funds an activity (event, club, project) in exchange for defined visibility: logo, name, presence in communication. It is an advertisin…
W
Wagtail
Wagtail is an open source CMS built on the Python framework Django, used by institutions and NGOs around the world. It combines a clear editor for writers with a solid technical b…
Website migration
Website migration is moving from an old website to a new one without losing what was acquired: the content, the addresses known to engines and partners, the ranking. It is prepare…