Nonprofit Advisory Edition
10 Point Checklist to Supercharge Your Nonprofit’s Website
What follows below is a ten point checklist to supercharge your nonprofit’s website.
1. Create Calls to Action: Place “Donate”, “Get Involved”, and “Sign Up” buttons in a clearly marked location on the homepage and place the “Donate” button in a fixed position in a bright color across all pages on the site. This makes it as easy as possible for visitors to get involved with your organization's cause.
Here the Susan G. Komen foundation has placed a clearly marked donate button on the right hand side of the page. They also have two specific calls to action “Find a Race” and “Become an Advocate” that make it quick and easy for visitors to become active contributors towards the Komen cause.
They also have links for “Share Your Story” and “Join us and Stay Informed” that allow visitors to get involved in the cause with just a minute of their time and a couple of quicks. Their calls to action are also placed on the right-hand side of the page. This is because studies have consistently shown that individuals tend to look at content on the top-right side of a document (or website) before the top left. You may notice that newspaper almost always place their most important story on the right-hand side.
2. Diversify Your Content: Good nonprofit websites have multiple kinds of media and allow
users to not only read about projects but to watch videos, see pictures, and network with others who care about the same cause or with those on the ground the organization is seeking to help.
Here Mercy Corps has placed a variety of media types right on their homepage. They have blog articles, videos, and photos in a quickly accessible menu. This diversity keeps the website fresh and engaging. It also means that individuals with limited time could view a few photographs or a short video and get a decent idea of the work being done by Mercy Corps. Similarly, for those individuals who only to donate to an organization once they have thoroughly researched it, the more in depth blog posts can serve as a powerful tool.
3. Display Mission Statement Clearly: A clearly defined mission statement is critical to help viewers quickly and easily understand what the mission of the organization is and what type of work they are engaged with. This statement should be placed on the homepage in an obvious location and a “Learn More” button should be placed on the homepage for viewers who desire more detailed information.
This banner from the Sierra Club is great because within 5 seconds of opening the webpage you can see what the organization is all about: they are an environmental group who is dedicated to protecting the planet. Internet users hate having to sift through content to find pertinent information. Remember that your organization’s mission will likely seem obvious to you, but for a visitor who has never heard of your organization before it might not be so clear at first glance.
4. Establish Your Social Network Presence: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, and other social network sites should be connected to the website’s homepage and links to these social platforms should be on every webpage, email, and other electronic piece of content the organization publishes. Encouraging viewers to like your organization and to connect with one another can be a great way to generate buzz and engage your donors.
The International Rescue Committee has placed logos for facebook, Twitter, and Youtube at the top of their website. These links are at the top of every page and remain visible no matter where you navigate in the website. In addition, most of the articles they publish have links asking you to “share this page”. Don’t forget that having your content shared via social media can be as important as getting another “like” or “follower”.
5. Attract Monthly Donors: Online donors are less likely than offline donors to give regularly throughout the year. To try to engage your online donors more frequently consider creating a “donate monthly” button that allows individuals to give a set amount on the first day of each month.
Oxfam America has a “donate monthly” button clearly displayed on the right-hand side of their homepage. You can tell by this button’s prominent location that Oxfam puts tremendous emphasis on gaining recurring donors. Monthly donors are great for any nonprofit because once they are in the system they require little resource expenditure and can allow your organization to continue looking for new first time donors.
6. Customize Your Content: Capture data about what individuals are reading, watching, and donating on your webpage. Then send out emails or newsletters to individuals with content relevant to their past activity on your website. Be sure to continue gathering analytics on this customized content to make sure your campaigns are being successful and make changes as necessary.
MailChimp (shown above) is one of many great resources to track the success of your external emails and newsletters. Programs like MailChimp can also interact with Google Analytics giving you powerful insight into how your emails are translating to donations. Information is power and the most effective online fundraisers learn to gather data, identify trends, and turn those insights into action.
7. Encourage Grassroots Fundraising and Organizing: Grassroots fundraising is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to raise money and awareness. By creating an online “toolkit” for grassroots activists with ideas and resources you can inspire viewers to take action in their local communities. Creating an online venue, either via social media or on your website, for these activists to network and share ideas is another great way to keep people engaged and excited.
The Obama Campaign has mastered grassroots fundraising and organizing. They have established a large database of individuals across the country who organize and fundraise in their local communities. This type of outreach helps build a sense of ownership and dedication among individuals. The Obama Campaign also does a great job networking their various grassroots activists so that they can learn from and inspire one another. Eventually this type of network can be self-sustaining and a powerful tool for any organization.
8. Go Mobile: Allow people to sign up for mobile alerts and to donate and access content on their smartphones.
Kiva Alerts is a great application built on the Kiva.org API that allows users to track loans and be alerted when new loans that fit their criterea are listed. Kiva Alerts and several other nifty Kiva applications have all been developed by third party organizations. Kiva has encouraged developers to create applications that interface with their product and in doing so has been able to essentially outsource mobile application development for free. Lesser known organizations will likely have to design their own mobile applications, but the ability to interact with individuals anywhere in the world and while they are on-the-go cannot be underestimated.
9. Provide Concrete Examples: Highlight specifics projects that your organization has been working on and provide concrete examples of how donors money gets put into action. People are most concerned about the end product and how they can impact the lives of others.
World Education has listed all of their projects by both region and project type. This makes it quick and easy to see examples of how donors dollars are being spent. Lots of organizations put information in the aggregate about how many lives they are affecting or how many schools they have built, but by listing all of their individual projects World Education has translated those abstract numbers into concrete examples. This helps create emotional buy-in and builds a connection between potential donors and those they are helping.
10. Become an Expert: Your nonprofit is an expert in its field. Show off your expertise to the world by creating a blog and posting lots of content related to the issues you are hoping to tackle. This will help you establish credibility and it can significantly improve your search engine placement.
Amnesty International maintains a robust blog with lots of content relevant to their mission. This blog gives users specific stories to engage with, builds the organization's credibility and recognition, and helps with their SEO. It also creates a place for individuals to engage in a more intellectually rigorous way by commenting on posts and interacting with other supporters. This helps to engage viewers and keep them coming back to the website on a regular basis.
A quick note from Anant:
We understand what it means to raise funds for your nonprofit, and have a profound respect for the vision & dedication of the nonprofit sector. It has been our pleasure providing this overview of online fundraising platforms for you and for your non profit, and we sincerely hope it can be useful to you in making strategic decisions for your organization.
If there is anything else we can do for you on the strategy or tech side of things as you ramp up your campaign, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
Anant | Non Profit Advisory
Inspire, Empower, Educate
http://anant.us | 646-470-WEBS ( 9327 ) | Contact