From our extensive experience working with nonprofits, we’ve uncovered five key features an efficient nonprofit website should have.
For businesses, the web site is the single most precious piece of digital land they need and therefore the same is true, if less so, for nonprofits.
Nonprofits are under much more pressure to inform their constituents their story, to possess a brand that they live by, and have ethical values that drive their behaviour. And telling those elements to the planet is where websites shine. So here are the five key features you would like to incorporate on your nonprofit site to creating it shine as brightly as possible.
- Simple, Clear Calls to Action (CTA)
For businesses, the calls to action (CTAs) are usually pretty simple — “Buy Now” or “Give Us Your Information.” There are many different flavours of this, like free trials, freemium business models, product demos, content marketing, and more… but the essential idea is the same. and therefore the reason it’s an equivalent everywhere is because it works really, rather well . Websites that don’t have a transparent invite the visitors make them go “Hmm, that’s interesting” then stray .
And we’re willing to bet that’s not your core objective. So confirm every page has great CTA. That means:
- A clear ask. Visitors got to understand what you would like them to try to do .
- Compelling button copy. Make your CTA easy to ascertain , understand and use.
- Transparent. confirm the visitor knows what’s getting to happen next once they hit your CTA.
- Drive Online Donations
If you’re a nonprofit that collects donations, then your website may be an excellent spot to try to do it. For starters, any traffic you’ve got to your website was likely acquired via organic or paid media — both of which are incredibly cost-effective donation acquisition channels. That’s why it’s critical that you simply monetize your site and provide your visitors a simple refund to your organization.
One example of this is often the YWCA Toronto, one among our clients who we helped by streamlining online donations and making their user experience simple, fast, mobile-optimized, and straightforward to use.
- Become a Content Hub
Nonprofits are unique therein they often have access to dense knowledge networks within their organizations. For instance , if you run a nonprofit that helps people find housing, you almost certainly have tons of experience within your city’s housing ecosystem.
If you’ll turn that institutional knowledge into content for your constituents, you’ll vastly improve the standard of service and care you’ll provide.
And this doesn’t need to be some huge project. An easy blog may be an excellent spot to start out , written by existing team members. What’s more, you’ll easily use a content hub to supply donor-specific content, designed to extend donations on your site.
- Understand Your User Flow
Not every visitor goes to every page of your site. you would like to recollect that to maximise your user experience, so how you design follows the trail your users are already taking.
For instance, if you’re finding that 90% of your homepage visitors click through to your contact page, then it’d be worth putting a contact form on the homepage.
By understanding what your visitors do on your site, where they are going , an in what order, you’ll start to maximise your impact.
- Client Success Stories
Nothing connects people to a mission better than a hit story:
- People remember stories better than anything
- Stories bring a component of realism to a potentially dry topic
- Stories add credibility that you’re living your stated mission.
These stories are often as a low-budget blog post to a high-end production shoot. persist with what you’re comfortable with and, if it works out, start to double down.
Wrap up
Designing an excellent nonprofit site isn’t all that different from designing an excellent for profit. and that we can learn tons from for-profits.
Here’s a fast checklist of inquiries to ask yourself to bring your nonprofit website up to snuff.
Are your calls to action clear, simple, and tell the reader what to expect? If so, you’re good. If not, you would possibly want to see your CTAs.
Can you collect donations online? Online donations are excellent (and inexpensive) thanks to increased contributions. If you don’t have donation capabilities, you’re leaving contributions on the table.
Are you a content hub for donors and constituents alike? If not, you ought to be. you’ve got dense expertise which will be spun into interesting content for your users, which successively is interesting to your donors. At an equivalent time, with donor-centric content about your vision, mission, and achievements, then you’ll jazz up your online donations even more.
Are you creating success stories? Most nonprofits have nebulous and sophisticated missions and goals, and it are often difficult for people to understand what they are doing. A case study of a client you’ve helped can do wonders to simplify what you are doing into a format that folks can commit to memory for long enough to grab their cheque books. Websites don’t need to be complicated beasts, especially for nonprofits. But following these five best practices, you’ll be on your way thanks to a site you’re pleased with in no time at all .
