Nonprofit Website Stories By Design

When most nonprofits think about telling their stories through website design, they usually think of navigation and the content of the site. While navigation and content are important for telling visitors about the organization, and the “About” page should be easily found, most visitors just want to find something useful to them when they first visit. Before you share poignant stories about the organization, you need to think about the framework that will support their success.

Just as the words within your nonprofit website need to speak to the visitors, so does the design.

Good nonprofit website design helps visitors find information quickly, access resources easily, and take action immediately. What are the things you provide your visitors? What are the benefits they get from visiting your website? It’s not what you do, it’s how you help. Donors want to see that you know how to help those you serve, so if you design your website to serve, they will be more likely to click the donate button. Serve them exactly what they want right away to generate interest in your organization as a whole, so you build trust.

Page views tell the story of your visitors.

Take a look at your current website analytics to see which pages are viewed the most. Is it your homepage, your events, your blog, or something else? Most people’s first stop isn’t a donation page (unless they’re trying to find where to give away their money!). It’s more likely they’re arriving at your website through word of mouth, social media, looking for an organization that does what you do. From there they will look for more information (often, they aren’t even starting at the homepage!). Learning what pages people visit most will give you clues about what’s important to them.

Create centers of engagement.

Letting your nonprofit website tell a story means making it really easy for constituents to engage with your organization. You show them you care about your mission when a visitor enters your site and immediately finds what they are looking for. Make them feel welcomed by sharing information they want to engage with.

Tips for designing your nonprofit website to serve and engage your visitors:

• A resource center (blog, articles, pictures, etc…), can be a great way to keep visitors on the website. These centers provide an easy way to illustrate how you help your constituents or community while providing valuable information.
• Does your organization or association provide valuable resources to constituents through your website? Visitors just want to find the information they need. Making it easy to find those resources with navigation and strategically placed buttons through the site will help visitors find what they want.
• If you have resources for different segments, make that clear and easy for people to self-identify the resources they need.
• Make your resources and/or your website searchable so visitors can easily find what they are looking for right away. This creates immediate engagement.
• Adding pictures and success stories along with the resources, will inspire donors and volunteers to take action. Overall the website is built to serve the needs of those who visit it.
• Does your organization hold regular events? Instead of a button called “Events,” you want to be helpful by giving a preview of a few events as a resource, so they can decide if they want to click through and look at them. It’s obvious you do events, but until someone knows if those events are something they are interested in learning more about, they won’t click the button. Yet, events are a great way to engage visitors in your mission.

Follow your visitors path, not yours.

In the end, you need a nonprofit website that is designed to follow what your visitors want. The path they want to walk down. Don’t tell your visitors about who you are, show them by making it easy to engage with the important information they came to your website to get. Need help redesigning your website to serve vs. tell? Send a support email or contact us.