Creating a website for your nonprofit can seem like a daunting task that leaves you feeling more clueless than when you started. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be!
In this blog post, we’ll explore the 4 steps of creating the right kind of website for your nonprofit!
1. It all starts with your mission!
Your nonprofit is mission-driven. Your website should be, too. The first and most crucial step in creating a website is revisiting your mission and vision statement. You will want to visualize and identify how a website can assist your non-profit in its mission.
For instance, if your mission is to feed the homeless then you would ask the question, “What function will a website play in feeding the homeless?” This is where most people get stuck as a website cannot fulfill your mission (feed the homeless), but your website can:
- Create awareness around the issue in your community
- Allow users to learn more about your organization
- Have a contact form where interested volunteers can reach out to you
- Accept online donations
2. Give your website a purpose
The next step is giving your website a clear purpose. How many times have you visited a website and then left the website before you consciously were able to realize it? This is usually due to the website not giving you it’s the reason for being.
Without a clear purpose, your website is just pictures and words on a page. The first step into identifying the purpose of your website is to ask the question,
What steps do I want users to take when they visit my website?
If you aren’t familiar with the term “user” in website development then here is a definition that I like to use: “Someone who comes to your website directly or indirectly (e.g., referral, social media), to either learn about your organization or take an action.”
Your website’s purpose is heavily linked to the actions you want your users to take. If your nonprofit is a foundation, then the purpose of your website may be to spread awareness around an issue and to accept online donations. As you can see, the first two steps can overlap when it comes to defining your website but this normal. We are simply refining what a website looks like from a high-level view to the actual individual actions we want “users” to take.
3. Align the visual design
Now that we have clearly defined the role a website plays into your non-profit, next is to cater to all images and graphical elements to your mission and purpose.
You will want to decide how your website will look and feel and whether to use stock photos or possibly hire a photographer to take photos of your organization for your website.
A few free stock photo websites that are royalty-free, although be aware that not all images on these websites are “work-safe.”
• https://www.pexels.com/
• https://pixabay.com/
*Please do not copy or use any information or images on your website without consent from the owner. Pretty much all information online is subject to copyright so use royalty-free stock images, paid stock images, and create your own content for your website.
4. Content, content, content
Start creating content for your website that fits into the overall purpose of the website and visual design stated in the previous steps. Specifically, give your donors content that serves the actions you want them to take. If you want to want volunteers to sign-up to help your non-profit, then make it easy for someone to sign-up. Take it a step further and create a list of questions a volunteer might have, and create content that answers those questions.