But what kinds of nonprofit web design characteristics help with inspiration, awareness, and funding? We’ll break 8 of our best moves down below, first with technical aspects, then with general best practices for nonprofit websites.
#1: A Popular, Easy to Use CMS
A fair number of nonprofit marketing teams come to us with little to no capability of editing their own website. An upcoming event, specialized content, news relating to the mission—all rely heavily on a website that can be tailored and regularly updated for volunteers, donors, and grantmaking foundations.
Rather than choosing a completely customized, expensive CMS, opt instead for an easy-to-use, well-known CMS that’s made for marketers (not for developers). That will be easier on your budget both for upfront costs, and for updates that can be made in-house rather than reaching out to a developer. If you don’t know where to start, we recommend Wordpress with Elementor—the same CMS we used for our project with BioLEAP.
As a digital marketing and website design agency, our job is to make marketing teams’ jobs easier. So we do CMS training with our clients and ensure everyone that needs to update the website feels comfortable doing so.
#2: Clear Calls to Action
Every nonprofit website probably has “Donate Now” somewhere on the site. It’s well-worn and familiar, but overall pretty generic. By getting more creative, you’ll be able to connect with website visitors and increase chances of conversion. The user has already gotten that far—your website—and is interested in your cause, so compel them to action. But make your calls to action more interesting than “Donate Now”.
Which CTA makes you want to click?
Provide a Meal OR Donate Now?
Help the Animals OR Donate Now?
Adopt a Giraffe OR Donate Now?
When you indicate specifically what donations can do, it helps connect users to your cause. For your primary CTA, make sure it’s in the top right corner, where site visitors will be looking for it.
Quick reminder: CTAs don’t just have to be for donations. They can also help users contact their representatives or volunteer for an event. (More on that in #7).
#3: Mobile-Friendly Design
Sites are typically mobile-responsive as a rule now, but that doesn’t mean it’s a mobile-friendly design. Since many nonprofits have a considerable percentage of traffic coming from mobile users, ensure that your website design makes sense on both a computer monitor and on a smaller screen.
During the design stage, look closely at mega menus, built-in tools, and donation forms to make sure they can easily be viewed and managed in mobile. Check out your traffic, broken down by channel (mobile, desktop, tablet) so you can see exactly where your audience is coming from. Ensure that whatever website designer you’re working with shows you the previews on all screen/channel types during site design.
#4 Make the Navigation Simple and Clear
Creativity is great when it’s part of your CTA, but don’t muddle your user journey. Guide them precisely where you want them to go, whether it’s current work for the cause, an upcoming event page, or projects needing funding. Provide users with what they came for, quickly.
Be aware: users may enter onto your home page, or they may be dropped onto a blog page because they clicked on a link from a search result or a ChatGPT query. Look at every page design throughout your site to ensure it’s always an easy navigation, and use links in your footer and a clear top nav menu as well. Check out our CureJM case study to see how we simplified their website and navigation for greater impact.
#5 Interactive Elements
By keeping users on your site, you increase the chances of donation and involvement. Use interactive elements to keep visitors engaged. This can range from maps that show your global impact to sections or pages where users can see the specific difference their donation can make.
For typical for-profit businesses, a key to success is finding out what the customer or client wants. It’s not too different from nonprofits that way. Find out what donors want to know or how they want to make a difference, and keep them interested. Pair it with high-quality images, interesting charts, maps that show global impact or upcoming events, and you’ll have a site that holds their attention.
And don’t forget civic engagement—have a place on your site for different legislation (with downloads) for users to engage with their local representatives. By making it easy to get involved, your site can become a hub for change. The engagement on your site ties it all together for users to see both the changes being made, and the changes they can be part of.
#6: Inspiring Images
Emotional connection is linked closely with the story and imagery of a nonprofit website. This means that stock photos won’t likely cut it. Whenever possible, use actual photos from events, from your cause in action, and photos of volunteers. Website images meant to inspire help bring in emotion and the human element—which isn’t something AI can generate.
Take one of our recent clients, NAVS: their images were tailored carefully to inspire change. They were also careful to avoid lab animal images, and instead used aspirational images of animals in the wild or at a rescue, recovering.
Remember, stock images are pretty recognizable. It will be clear if it’s a generic photo of a man walking to work with his briefcase or a group of people “laughing”. Swap stock out for real pictures of the people, places and things you impact, and those helping to make that difference. If stock imagery must be used, look to use natural scenes and make sure they match your brand tone.
#7 Engage Those Not Ready to Donate
If a user is on your website, they’re likely interested in your cause. But that might not mean they’re able or ready to donate (yet). However, they can still help! Provide them other opportunities through showcasing volunteer hours, or identify other ways they can get involved: attend a beach clean up event, help raise awareness through a 5K, join a junior board—whatever you can do to involve people, do it. These star volunteers may eventually become future donors, or can lend support in other ways, by giving their time and energy.
For some nonprofits, the biggest goal is awareness and conversation, like Wallis Annenberg GenSpace, who came to us to create a website to help them digitally represent their brand and drive new people to their physical space.
#8 Share Your Story
No matter what, the human connection of making a difference is a powerful play for nonprofit websites. Design your site to focus on the story behind your mission. Sure, business websites have an About Us or Our Story page, but the story for nonprofits has to be compelling and engaging enough to prompt giving—of time and of resources. No one wants to give out money to an organization that’s ineffective or inefficient.
Tell a story that will connect. This includes showing how funds are being used, listing your accomplishments to allow visitors to celebrate with you, while also clarifying the work left to be done. In the same way that images can inspire, let your storytelling garner support through logic and conviction—painting the picture that the mission can only be completed when it includes donor dollars and volunteer hours.
For great nonprofit website design, you have to make a great first impression, showing your organization’s trustworthiness while telling a great story—make it easy to navigate the site and difficult to walk away without taking action.
