A Guide to Nonprofit Web Design

There comes a time when every Nonprofits website no longer serves them. Whether your organization helps the unhoused, clothes those in need, or saves the animals, your Nonprofit is doing great work and deserves a great website. There’s a lot to consider regarding nonprofit marketing, and having a fully functional, updated website should be top of mind. Here are the critical steps to designing a website for your Nonprofit that fits your organization’s mission and goals.

Audit your Current Website

Whether you are starting from scratch or using your current website as inspiration, pull out those high-performing gems that you can replicate in future versions of your website. For example, if you get great engagement on videos hosted on your site, consider keeping that content front and center on your redesigned website. You can reuse most of the copy, blogs, and other articles found on your current website for the new one. Auditing your existing website can also help you uncover outdated or irrelevant information that might need to be refreshed before you include it on your new website. This process can help you discover things you may want to change or keep around when designing your new website.

Determining your target audience is critical to building a website that converts and meets your goals. You can find this information by reviewing the data on your existing website to pull out insights on your current visitors, which can include demographic information such as gender, age, and location. This information is critical to guarantee that your website is optimized for your audience. Knowing who you’re targeting as you embark on your redesign project is also essential.

Establish your Strategy

There are several things to establish when building your strategy. One crucial factor is key performance indicators (KPIs) to properly gauge your website’s success. These benchmarks measure your website’s performance to determine if you’re meeting your goals. For example, one of your objectives may be increasing online donations by a certain percentage year-over-year or improving ticket sales. Establishing a baseline number helps you understand whether you are achieving your goal or need to adjust your website to stay on track. Use website tracking tools such as Google Analytics to uncover information about what’s happening on your website.

Developing a strategy for your website’s design should also involve input from the very people for whom you’re building your website. One way to determine what your website’s visitors want is to ask them directly through a user testing program. This method involves asking your target audience to interact with your redesigned website while in production to provide constructive thoughts and feedback. User testing usually involves selecting a sample of people who agree to be the testers in exchange for a reward for their time. Consider soliciting the help of your donors and aid recipients to craft a website that’s built for them and their needs.

Develop your Design

Here’s where the fun begins! In today’s digital age, your website is likely the first to encounter people within your organization. However, your website must look more than just pretty. It has to work, too. Remember to incorporate your organization’s colors and other visuals into your website to make it stand out and introduce visitors to your brand’s unique identity. Create thoughtful navigational interfaces and interactive elements that come together into one cohesive, functional website showcasing everything your nonprofit offers.

Another critical element of a website redesign for nonprofits is ensuring your website is mobile-friendly. In fact, with so many people now engaging with websites via their mobile devices, consider a mobile-first design.

Professional Photography 

Once your design is laid out, remember essential details such as professional photography. The human species are visual creatures. Therefore professional photography plays a critical role in getting one’s attention. This is a great way to show the fantastic things your organization does for the world and the community.

Photography allows you to tell your Nonprofits story through the power of visuals, so be sure your images include individuals in them, whether you are showcasing your volunteers or staff, showing customers enjoying your services, or at an event; these are all great ways to showcase your Nonprofit in a professional light.

Consider the Accessibility

While you have plenty of freedom when designing your Nonprofit’s website, accessibility is non-negotiable. Your website must accommodate users with disabilities, including hearing, vision, or cognitive challenges.

Pay close attention to your website’s color scheme to maintain the proper contrast for individuals with trouble identifying colors, especially when it comes to the colors you choose for your text; if the color of the text is difficult to read, be sure to run it through a Color Contrast Checker to ensure it passes, and everyone is able to read the text. You’ll also want to avoid audio-only content, including captions and images with embedded photo descriptions for screen readers. These are just a few of the essential things you’ll need to consider when creating a website that is accessible and inclusive for all.

Easy to Manage Backend

One of the many reasons Nonprofits are looking to update their website is due to a difficult-to-manage backend. This can cause difficulty for your staff and those trying to manage your website’s upkeep. Simple is better when it comes to designing your WordPress website, and the same goes for the backend of your website; it needs to be userfriendly and easy to manage. If changes need to be made over time or you need to switch out a few images, such tasks should always be easy to tackle.

Whether this has inspired you to redesign your Nonprofits website or given you a few new ideas to consider, you will not regret giving your organization the update it needs to focus on results and solutions.

Let Propr Help

At Propr, we’re no strangers to website redesign for nonprofits. We understand the unique challenges and opportunities of nonprofit marketing, and we’ve worked with many organizations to redesign their websites. Our team at Propr is ready to help you achieve its goals and make an impact — and it all starts with a website.