Nonprofits can't function without a web presence, as it is their primary point of contact with the people they serve. Keeping this in mind, your nonprofit's website should provide easy access to all of your pertinent information.
Now you must be thinking, about how to set up a website for donations.
As a starting point, it should include information about the organization, its activities, and how people can become members or donors. In order to be successful, a nonprofit must be able to effectively communicate its message and cultivate a following. Both of these objectives can be greatly aided by developing a non-profit website.
Think of it this way. You'll need an online donation page if you're a non-profit organization or plan to start one. To help you decide, we've put together this list of how to make a nonprofit website. This guide can be used to share information and updates, make a compelling argument, and persuade others to get involved. It's also much less expensive than you might expect if you take the proper approach.
Don't worry if you're a complete novice when it comes to running your own website. The information on how to create a nonprofit website you'll find in this guide will help you launch a successful non-profit website.
Here are 10 steps to follow if you're wondering how to build a nonprofit website.
The purpose of a website is to provide a perfect view of your nonprofit organization's history, mission, and upcoming events to anyone who visits your website. However, if you're not the sole manager of your nonprofit, it's likely that this information is dispersed among the various departments.
Assemble your team in order to take on the website project. Start by appointing someone to head up the website development team. This person is in charge of creating the website's content and keeping everyone else on track so that everything gets done on time.
Your team members' abilities will determine how you divide the website's duties. Your website will stand out if it has visually appealing graphics created by someone who knows how to design graphics or add text to photos, such as a nonprofit web design agency.
Identify external advisors. As the project progresses towards the end, they would be responsible for reviewing the website and providing constructive feedback. Set deadlines for your website team once it has been assembled. If you stick to your schedule, you'll keep making progress.
Prior to beginning the design process, you should determine the goals of your website in order to be crystal clear about what it is there to accomplish.
You should also think about your nonprofit's virtues and the impression you want to portray to your website visitors. Your goals and values should guide the nonprofit web design of your site, as well as your choice of words and colors.
There are a lot of options, but they can be grouped into three main categories. To build your own website, you can start from scratch, go for a website builder, or you can use a Content Management System (CMS).
Unless you already have a team of talented developers on board, starting from scratch is usually an expensive and time-consuming process. However, website builders are inexpensive and easy to use. However, they don't give you a lot of control or flexibility over your site.
A CMS is the ideal balancing act between the two. You can download the software and use it to build your non-profit website for free if you use this type of platform. An additional benefit of a good CMS is that it will provide a user-friendly interface that allows you to make changes to your site even if you have no prior experience.
You can think of your domain name as a home address. People will always be able to locate your organization on this page. A web host is responsible for maintaining your website's online accessibility once the domain name has been registered. Keep in mind that you'll have to pay to renew your domain name every year.
In addition, a Top Level Domain (TLD), such as .com or .net, must be selected. For non-profit organizations, we strongly recommend using .org because people are more likely to trust organizations with this TLD.
The engine that powers your site and makes it available to others is a hosting plan, which you'll need to sign up for in order to get it online.
Consider abbreviating or using an acronym if your organization's name is too long. You can check Google Domains to see if a potential domain name is available once you've come up with some ideas. If your domain name is already taken, you may need to think outside the box to come up with a new one!
Think of yourself as an architect when creating your website, with the sole purpose of making it simple for everyone to use.
In order to be successful online, you don't require or even want an overly complicated website. You don't really need more than five pages. It's important to keep each page focused on answering just a few specific questions. In creating content for your website, follow these general guidelines:
Home Page
About Us Page
Service Page
Support Us Page
Contact Us Page
It's best if the page's header and footer are always visible, regardless of which page is currently being displayed. In the event that a visitor needs to locate specific pages on your website quickly, these two sections of your website will be extremely helpful.
As long as the website is visually appealing and interesting to the user, they will keep clicking and exploring the pages. This is why having a well-designed website is critical.
Consider the following:
Visitors will be more engaged if the pages on your website are clear and uncluttered. Nonprofit Web Design Services include UX experts who design and test new ways to improve website user experience (UX).
To summarize, here are some rules to keep in mind:
When making changes to your website, it's a good idea to look into the various plugins that are available. It's packed with social media links, subscription forms, and more. Make sure you have a way for your supporters to get in touch with you or keep up with your progress.
In order to accept donations and expand your audience, there are numerous plugins available. Additionally, donors must have a variety of payment options available to them. Some people prefer to pay with their credit cards, while others prefer to use PayPal or a digital wallet. It's possible to lose donors if they can't find the most convenient payment method for them.
In other words, be sure to set up a plugin that makes it easy for you to accept payments. Check out more information on 7 Ways On How You Can Brand Your Financial Services Better.
Additional steps can be taken to improve your SEO efforts:
It's necessary to keep tweaking your website after it's launched in order to better meet the needs and preferences of your visitors. As long as you remember that it's flexible, you can make changes to make the website's impact even greater.
Discover how your website is being accessed, which pages are most popular, and where your visitors are located around the world by using analytics tools to track website traffic. Google Analytics is a useful tool that tells you which keywords and phrases the public search for before they click on your website.
This information can help you determine if your website's goals are aligned with the goals of your visitors.
With that said, we have come to an end on the steps of how to create a nonprofit website.
And now you have a fully functional nonprofit website.
Before you open your nonprofit's doors to the world, make sure your front door is welcoming and ready to receive all visitors. Regardless of which service provider you choose, here are some things to keep in mind as you begin the process of creating your first website.
There will be a wide variety of visitors to your website, and not all of them will be of the same type. During any given time, you may have donors, partners, or clients on your site. Their wants and needs are vastly different, so your site should be easy to navigate for each one of them. This is called navigation with cognitive ease.
You'll need to anticipate the needs of your diverse user base and provide them with the information they're seeking. Creating Buyer personas for your website's visitors is a great way to accomplish this.
Establishing website functionality requires the use of a few essential components.
Intuitive Navigation
Nonprofit websites should be simple to navigate, provide useful content, and make it easy for visitors to donate money to worthy causes. Keep an eye out for any links that might be hidden. It is important to make navigation icons easy to find and direct users to relevant information.
Adaptive Layout
Any device should be able to access a nonprofit's website with ease. In order to maintain the same layout on a desktop, laptop, mobile, or tablet, you need to have a responsive nonprofit web design.
Website Security
Donors are concerned about the safety of the website they use to make financial contributions and support nonprofits. Check to see if your website or payment processor has an SSL certificate. The donation page should have the most up-to-date security measures in place.
There are numerous ways to elicit an emotional response from your audience and thus establish a human connection.
Photographs are a great way to connect with your audience. Using photos to demonstrate your nonprofit's mission to the public is quick and simple. You don't have to scroll through a lot of text to get a sense of what's going on in the photograph.
When it comes to evoking an emotional response, a well-chosen quote can do the same. Therefore, these words should be prominently displayed on the website. In addition, they should convey the nonprofit's mission in a clear and concise manner.
A video is a fantastic tool for evoking strong feelings in viewers. A well-chosen soundtrack and compelling images can help visitors connect with your organization through a video. People who see a video are more likely to share it, increasing your nonprofit's ability to get its message out there. Of course, you can always hire a nonprofit web design company to do the job for you.
Keep in mind that while answering the questions specific to each page, there are some general characteristics that all pages should share. Calls to action are a common focus for nonprofits in online marketing efforts and on the website.
You can easily add a "Donate Now" button to each page of your website for a very low cost.
Be sure to get everyone's email address! Every page of your website should have a "Join Our List" button. You'll be able to have a more meaningful and long-lasting conversation with your audience this way.
The end of your content should always include a succinct call-to-action (CTA), whether it's a generic web page or a blog post! As a website owner, you have an opportunity here. Tell them what to do in your CTA, whether to read more or donate money to your cause.
You can find top marketing strategies for nonprofit organizations in this blog.
Now that you have all the details on how to build a website for nonprofit charities, create a website strategy that includes goals, strategies, and measurable results. Consider your target audience and the people you hope to reach with your digital materials, and then design and write your materials accordingly.
It's best to stick with easy-to-use digital marketing techniques while developing website designs for nonprofit organizations. Maintaining your website on a regular basis will ensure that it is always up to date, accurate, and fresh. Make use of your website as part of a broader strategy for marketing and publicizing your business.
In the end, remember to enjoy the process!
Looking to Build a Website for Nonprofit Charities?
P
Great guide, very detailed
N
Nice ideas on marketing an NGO
B
Audience often lose interest if they do not find feedbacks or real stories. Thats really important.
B
Is WordPress the right way to go? What are your thoughts on this?
J
Thanks for reading our blog Sander, for queries kindly contact info@janbaskdigitaldesign.com