Most nonprofit organizations understand that a website is a key communication tool that helps them state their mission, share their successes, and keep their donors up to date. A nonprofit website is also a central tool for growing the donor base. That’s why it’s not enough to just check the box: “Yeah, we have a website.” To be the most successful in the digital age, nonprofits need to strive to develop a great website.
In this episode of our podcast, we connected with Adam Walker. He’s co-owner at Sideways8, a web design company that helps nonprofits develop websites to reach the right people, increase donations and membership, and ultimately make a bigger impact on the world.
When it comes to designing websites for nonprofit organizations, Adam is the one to talk to. So we did.
You can follow Adam on Twitter at @AJWalker and read his personal blog at AdamJWalker.com. Want to see something really cool? Check out 48 in 48, in which Adam and his team host events to build 48 nonprofit websites in 48 hours—for free.
Don’t have time to listen to the whole podcast? Here’s the TLDR:
5 Things that make a great nonprofit website:
- Validation: A website helps your potential donors understand what you do, and if you’re not a big nonprofit brand, it helps validate that what you’re doing is legit.
- Mission: Your mission is fundamentally why anyone will ever support your nonprofit. A great website communicates your mission to the public.
- Mobile-Friendly: Your donors are using their mobile phones to visit your website. If it isn’t mobile friendly, you’ll miss out on important engagement. This is a must have.
- Speed: Your site load speed needs to be up to snuff. If it’s not, your users won’t wait for it to load. And guess what? Neither will Google: site speed plays into your ability to rank in search.
- Story: Bottom line, your website needs to tell your story. And it needs to do that well.