You can buy software to create your own templates for a little bit more than you would pay for a canned template and for a lot less than if you paid someone to customize a canned template for you.  With a software named Artisteer you can create templates in HTML, Word, Drupal, Joomla and some other platforms that are identical so you can create seamless templates (your website can match your blog, etc.).  You can read a review about Artisteer to see if it might suit your needs.  I have used it for Joomla, Word, and HTML templates.  I found the HTML templates a bit lacking, but the software is perfect for beginners (no knowledge of HTML or CSS is needed) for Word and Joomla and Drupal templates because you use a WYSIWYG editor to make the template and the software generates all the supporting files (scripts, php, etc.) for you.

If you're interested in Joomla! CMS, join a Joomla! User Group. We run one in Chicago which meets on the 2nd Wednesday of every month. It's FREE, and it includes lunch. See our site at www.JoomlaChicago.com .

Additionally, there's a CMS Expo Learning Conference coming up May 3, 4, 5th 2010 for people wanting to know more about Joomla! as well as a comparison to Drupal, WordPress and Plone (and more), hosted by the CMS Association (same group which hosts JoomlaChicago).  There is a charge for this conference, but it's a great way to meet leaders and CMS users in the non-profit realm, who are considering their options on the Content Management side - especially focused on Open Source.

Cheers,

John Coonen
Co-Host, JoomlaChicago User Group

We work exclusively in Joomla and have done so the past 3-4 years. It's free, there are 1000's of templates to choose from, the support is robust and as fa as CMS's go it ranks as one of the best in world.

To combat the learning curve we built www.MyJoomlaCast.com with over 70 Joomla training videos. All of the basic tasks are covered.

That said, Wordpress, Drupal and others offer similar benefits. Most often it comes down to the CMS that you find yourself getting comfortable with as you try each one out.