With the rise of the Internet, people are spending more and more time online. They’re consuming information faster than ever before — from silly YouTube videos to researching the causes they’re passionate about. However, with so much content out there competing for attention, how can your Nonprofit stand out?

A great way to improve your nonprofit’s digital presence is by designing an engaging website. To help you maximize your site’s impact, we’ve pulled together the top insights on making your website an effective component of your nonprofit’s marketing strategy. Consider the following tips to build or revamp your nonprofit website:

1. Choose a website builder with nonprofit-specific features.
2. Leverage your brand.
3. Focus on your donation page.
4. Create event landing pages.
5. Ensure your content is mobile-friendly.

As you incorporate these changes, prioritize accessibility, making it easy for your supporters to find your most important pages and learn about the important work your Organization does. Ready to jump into the world of web design? Let’s get started.

1.   Choose a website builder with nonprofit-specific features.

When designing your website, it’s important to choose a website builder that meets the needs of your organization. The right website builder will offer tools that support your organization’s efforts and make navigating your website a breeze. For instance, if you’re a nonprofit that often holds ticketed fundraisers, your website should feature a streamlined event registration process.

For nonprofits, there are a variety of benefits to selecting a nonprofit website builder over a generic builder. These features include:

• User-friendly interface. If your website is difficult to click through and has a slow loading speed, site visitors will be more likely to navigate elsewhere. Having accessible features—like a menu bar at the top and a straightforward layout—will result in a positive user experience. All links and buttons should appear clickable, and text and visuals should be clearly displayed so that users can absorb information easily.
• Nonprofit-specific features. There are many tools that your nonprofit website will need, including an embedded donation form, social media integrations to advertise fundraisers and programs, and event management to streamline the registration process. Digitizing the donation and event process will make it much easier for donors to support your organization and for your nonprofit to track and analyze support.
• Support built into the experience. With the right nonprofit website builder, you won’t be alone in designing your website! Your website builder should offer training on how to use its system as well as live support from experienced web developers. This way, if you run into any speed bumps or aren’t sure how you can strengthen your site, your website builder can help.

Your nonprofit website should have the same branding as other digital and offline materials to help users connect with your nonprofit. Choose a website builder that will help you discover new branding strategies and build upon the work your organization has already done to get its name out.

2. Leverage your brand.

Your website should help promote your brand so supporters feel more connected to your nonprofit. After all, branding is a huge part of establishing trust. If users feel like they can trust your nonprofit, they’ll be more likely to engage with your organization through volunteering, donating, or attending events.

There are many features you can leverage to guide the design of your nonprofit website and strengthen your organization’s branding strategy:

• If you already have a logo for your nonprofit, be sure to clearly display it on your website’s home page and throughout your site. If you don’t have one yet or want to revamp it, design a logo that aligns with your values and introduces your nonprofit to supporters in a creative way. Your logo should be easy to understand, straightforward, and feature a color scheme that is consistent with other branding materials.
• Color scheme. Choose two or three colors that work well together and use this color scheme across your website and branding materials. This gives your website a more unified feeling and can add to its sense of professionalism. As a result, users will be more likely to trust your organization.
• Create engaging graphic design and visuals that tie back to your nonprofit’s core values and branding. For example, it might be helpful to include an infographic on your homepage to educate visitors on your organization’s mission. Your pictures should tell your organization’s story—for instance, you can include pictures of people volunteering or individuals who have been positively impacted by your organization’s efforts. Be sure to add something—such as a logo in the corner or a border with your brand’s colors—that lets people know this image is attributed to your organization.
• Select one or two fonts that you’ll use consistently throughout your website and your marketing materials. Your font should be easy to read, clean, and professional. This way, users can read through your website without getting distracted.

Remember that your branding should strengthen the user’s perception of your organization, not take away from it. Simplicity is key for your branding strategy—if you do too much, your users won’t be able to absorb your website’s information.

3. Focus on your donation page.

A concrete goal of your nonprofit is likely to raise money. Why not optimize your website to help with this goal? Creating an accessible giving page on your site is a must-have to streamline the Donation process.

There are a few key features your donation page should have to make the giving process fast, simple, and rewarding for your donors. We recommend that you:

• Brand your donation page. Your donors should feel connected to your organization. In order to strengthen donor relationships and make supporters feel emotionally tied to your cause, customize your donation page. Just like you’ve done with your other pages, include your brand’s color scheme, logo, and images that show the amazing work your nonprofit is doing for the community. This boosts donors’ confidence that their donation is going to an important cause and increases the chances of retention.
• Add white space in between elements. Your donation page should be easy to read and fill out. It’s therefore important to add appropriate spacing in the form so users can easily navigate through the process.
• Keep your donation form short. Try to include only a few prompts to get the most important information from donors, like their name, contact information (phone number or email), and billing information. This way, donors can fill out the donation form quickly, resulting in a positive user experience.
• Offer multiple giving options. Make sure your donation form has an option for recurring donations in addition to a one-time donation. This helps build a reliable revenue stream for your organization. Give donors different options for how much they want to donate and how often they want to donate.
• Set up a nonprofit payment processor. Once donors make a contribution, you’ll need an easy and efficient way to collect these funds. A great way to do this is through setting up a nonprofit payment processor, which takes the donated amount out of donors’ bank accounts and puts it into your nonprofit’s bank account.

According to Bloomerang’s 20 Best Practices to Optimize Your Nonprofit Donation Page, online giving increased over 40% in the last few years, so optimizing your donation page is key to boosting revenue. A simple donation page can improve your nonprofit’s donor acquisition and retention rates. As a result, you’ll see increased support, bringing your organization closer to achieving its goals.

4. Create event landing pages.

In order to create excitement over your nonprofit’s next event, you need event landing pages. Your event landing pages should serve as a one-stop resource for everything your supporters need to participate in an upcoming event. They should be straightforward, informative, and include interesting graphics that compel supporters to join in on the fun.

To make your event landing page a success, you should include:

• Time and location. Put this information in a large, bold font so site visitors know exactly when and where this event will take place. It can even be helpful to include a countdown to further boost excitement and encourage supporters to participate.
• Let your supporters know what this event is about and why it’s taking place. Explain how contributions towards this event will help your organization meet its mission. Be specific and appeal to people’s emotions.
• Dress code. Let supporters know the appropriate attire for your event. For example, if you’re hosting a gala, you may want to recommend cocktail attire. If it’s a halloween candy fundraiser, you might want people to dress up in costume. People love getting dressed up, so this is a great way to intrigue more people to take part in your event.
• Registration pricing/donation options. If your event requires purchasing a ticket or donating to your cause, make this direction clear. Include helpful links that take supporters directly to the donation or registration form or embed these forms into the event landing page.
• Like all pages on your website, your event landing page should use the same color scheme and font. This helps build brand recognition so new supporters can connect with your nonprofit.

Make sure your event landing page is visually appealing! Break up large text into smaller paragraphs and use images to grab people’s attention.

5. Ensure your content is mobile-friendly.

To maximize engagement, give supporters the opportunity to explore your website on their mobile devices. More and more people are using their phone to surf the web, so optimizing your content for mobile devices will increase your website’s reach.

This means that text and images should be well-formatted to both computers and mobile devices with minimal loading time. When your website is not mobile friendly, mobile users may experience frustrating pinch-and-scroll and an inability to exit out of pop-ups. As a result, they’ll be less likely to visit your website again or engage with your nonprofit.

Users should be able to easily donate, watch informative videos, and read your website’s content from the palm of their hand. The right website builder will help your organization optimize its website for mobile devices.

By making your website appeal widely to new supporters and longstanding donors, you can maximize support for your organization. Choose a website builder with helpful features and develop content that will turn site visitors into active supporters.

As you start brainstorming ideas for your website, feel free to look at other nonprofits’ websites for inspiration. Morweb’s 30+ Best Nonprofit Websites highlights a range of engaging designs, from interesting branding strategies to homepages that stand out. See what’s possible for your nonprofit and use these ideas to strengthen your design.

Good luck!

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