Many groups that I work with have not had this explained to them very well — but you need to both register your domain and set up hosting for it to work.
The difference between registering a domain and hosting a domain:
- Registering your domain is like purchasing a listing in the phone book (for those of us who remember printed phone books). This way people know how to reach you.
- Having a company host your website is like renting an office space so that you can put stuff there and people can come visit you.
You can get my specific advice about registering your group’s domain and hosting your group’s domain on the posts where I explain each process more fully.
More about this:
What is the difference between hosting vs registering vs your website files? thanks to Hostgator, a reliable (and green) webhost.
If you have other questions related to this, let me know in the comments. It’s common for “non-techies” to get confused about this, but I’m fairly certain you can learn what your organization needs and do the best thing!