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Best NonProfit Website Design Practices for the year 2020

Author: Kalpana Singh
by Kalpana Singh
Posted: Apr 11, 2020

As a nonprofit, your website is significant to the organization’s long-term success. A well-built online presence can result in the following:

    • Raising money
    • Connect with the new and existing donors
    • Draw the attention of supporters
    • Generate prospects with media
    • Word of mouth

    Your best nonprofit website design should have some distinctive objectives. So, you must keep a check on the following points:

      • The main aim of your website is to have donors, potential partners, and the media, which would be inspired and take action and get connected.
      • A website should be user-friendly and can easily navigate.
      • Make proper use of fonts, colors, and other design elements.

      When all user-friendly strategies and practices are implemented, your best nonprofit website design gets sure enough to get the attention of online visitors and to build up the foundation for a lasting relationship.

      1. 1. Nonprofit website design best practices

      Many ways would develop the user experience design of your website, but there are certain keys for nonprofit website design best practices:

      1.1. Make Your Site Donor-Friendly

      The main element for every nonprofit organization is donations. One of the best ways to request for donations is through your websites, especially when we talk about new donors. It gets simple for donors who make frequent donations. The process of donation should be simple and straight-forward for the people to understand.

      One should keep a check mainly on 2 things when creating a site:

      1. Your donation page should significantly be linked from your home page. You can do this with the help of a special banner, button or make it prominent in standard navigation, as donors have to check before they donate.

      2. Try to make the entire process as simple as possible. Don’t ask your visitors to make a new set-up of account before making donations. The process of donation should be very easy compared to any other online transaction. Try to make use of a single-page donation form, along with single page confirmation. Only essential information is required in the process of payment through credit cards or echecks. There are very few possibilities for any connectivity issues if they have to deal with only one page.

      1.2. Make Your Site is Media-Friendly

      Getting the attention of the media has a massive impact on nonprofit organizations. Media attention results in bringing up more donations as it raises the profile of the organization, attracts attention from journalists, bloggers and any other audiences play a great role.

      Makes sure you make things easy for journalists to find out information about your nonprofit organization in the following ways:

        • Include profiles of your board of directors, founder(s), and other key personnel.
        • Make sure you include contact information (email and phone) for each of these key people.
        • Have a downloadable media kit that includes everything your print media kit does.
        • Offer downloadable images from your site so journalists and bloggers don’t have to contact you and wait for a response.
        • And include press-ready quotes, both from members and directors as well as outsiders.
        • Make it clear that journalists and other organizations may use these items in news coverage without contacting the organization for prior permission.

        1.3. Communicate the organization’s purpose.

        Don’t take your website just for granted; think as if your visitor doesn’t know what your organization is all about. Prospects will be able to find you with the help of organic search, referral links, and social media. You should state your mission right through the website. Also, you can provide a prominent link where the visitor can view the history of your organization.

        That must comprise problems that need a solution, whom you help and why visitors should get involved or donate to you. Try to make your visitors get deep into your website so that they take active action by providing clear calls-to-action, by simply relating it to the organization’s core purpose.

        1.4. Inspire visitors to volunteer their time.

        Although there will be many prospects who are not able to contribute financially, they might be interested in volunteering their time to the organization’s cause. Let them participate in featuring different volunteer opportunities you would like to offer, providing with appropriate contact information and the next steps.

        1.5. Use a subscription box.

        To get in contact with the current and would-be donors, and you must try to persuade them to offer them through different levels all through the year. You should capture their email address by using a subscription box. To initiate, we suggest the visitors sign up for your newsletter to receive special content, invitations for events and also provide the organization's growth report. Or, you can also provide them with a special piece of finest content; such as mailing eBooks through mail when the viewer subscribes with an email address.

        1.6. Embrace a relevant content strategy.

        It’s highly recommended that implementing a content strategy and posting timely blogs, articles and recently updated news on your nonprofit’s website. This will result in an increase in an organization's visibility, encourage visitors to stay connected and make it simple for prospects to get connected with the website through organic search (SEO). Always try to post articles with photos through events and fieldwork; data and facts about your cause; share stories about volunteers who made donations, educational articles as to how to start volunteering and news updates about your organization.

        1.7. Make user engagement a priority.

        Last but not least, nonprofits must always take into account not only what your site visitors can see but what they can interact with as well. After all, that’s the beauty of web design: you can connect with your donors faster and more efficiently than ever before.

        Jump-start the virtual conversation by showcasing the following engagement opportunities on your home page:

          • Social media icons for mobile engagement.
          • Sign-up areas for email newsletters.
          • Donation buttons and forms.
          • Information and opportunities for joining a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.
          • A searchable resource center for downloadable content.
          • A calendar featuring upcoming fundraising events and volunteer opportunities.
          • Gamification tools like a leaderboard or a fundraising thermometer.

        1.8. Highlight CTAs in Site Navigation

        Visually highlight your most significant call to action within your navigation menu. On any page, that goal will be prominent and easily accessible. Secondary CTAs can be a more muted color but still, be visually prominent.

        2. Conclusion

        Your best nonprofit website design should be placed where a visitor feels comfortable and appealing. Making it easier for the users to get more information and get added ways to get support for your mission. The first impression is always difficult to catch, but they can also be more demanding when you and your target audience are separated by a screen.

        That’s why the main key to start from the right track is through user-friendly nonprofit website design. At the end of the day, catering to your supporters both on and off the web is what matters most. So, don't forget to implement these nonprofit website design best practices to have an ultimate website!

        About the Author

        Kalpana Singh loves pursuing excellence through writing and has a passion for technology. She currently writes for JanBask Digital Design.com which is a web designing company that provide services in Web development

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Author: Kalpana Singh

Kalpana Singh

Member since: Nov 19, 2019
Published articles: 2

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