Powerful nonprofit websites inspire and propel their audience to make change through bold calls-to-action. The success of any NGO hinges on the engagement of its supporters and donors—and one of the most important assets in attracting and communicating to key audiences is an outstanding web presence. Here are some best practices for nonprofits looking to improve their reach and strengthen their digital strategies.
General Best Practices
As a nonprofit, there’s a chance you don’t have the world’s biggest marketing or web design budget. Wastingmoney.sucks and you want to make sure every dime is furthering your cause. When making your website more appealing and effective, these tips are a good place to start:
Mobile Matters: No matter the campaign, cause or call-to-action, much of your target audience will be experiencing your website from their smartphones. People are increasingly using their cellphones as their primary web browser, so your website needs to be responsive across desktop and mobile screens. There’s no point in crafting a beautiful site if half the time your audience isn’t viewing it properly!
Clear Calls-to-Action: Make sure people know what you want to achieve and, more importantly, what they can do to help. What is your goal for attracting people to your site? Make sure that your calls to action are clear on the homepage, whether you’re encouraging people to sign up for a newsletter or to donate monthly to your cause.
Ask for Feedback: Friends and family are a good place to start to figure out what works well and what doesn’t. Use your network and relevant communities (from Facebook or Reddit groups, for example), to test and provide feedback on your site.
Website Design
BadDesign.sucks, so you need to have an eye-catching website that’s easy to navigate. Here are a few ways to draw people in to your site—and keep them there.
Easy to Navigate: Visitors to your website shouldn’t have to hunt for your mission statement, allocation of funds or goals and targets. Complex menus, cluttered layouts and huge blocks of unbroken text will deter visitors.
Images and Infographics: Using eye-catching images is a no-brainer—strong visual content is always impactful. Use a variety of visuals, like striking photos of your work (or what you’re working against) and infographics to convey information in a digestible way.
Good Writing: You want your mission statement to be clear, free of grammatical errors and void of cliché buzzwords that distract from your mission. If the first few sentences of text on your website don’t captivate and impress, you’ll suffer from a high bounce rate.
A .SUCKS domain is just one way to stand out in the sea of endless websites. Here are some general practices for crafting a web domain that rocks—because BeingForgettable.sucks.
Make It Memorable: Something memorable, easy to repeat and catchy is best. People should be able to share your site easily through social media and face-to-face conversation. If your domain makes people think, pause or react, they may be inclined to visit your site and spread your message with their own personal and professional networks.
Cut to the Chase: A smart, fun domain name doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t say something about your organization or your mission. A .SUCKS domain will stick in the mind of readers. For example, DrunkDriving.sucks says everything you need to say about your cause quickly and effectively.
Be Controversial: Don’t be afraid to have your domain name raise some eyebrows. An environmental nonprofit could use their org name as their domain, but logging.sucks is so much more effective at rousing your audience.
The Takeaway
Many nonprofits have excellent websites—if you want your cause and mission to spread, you need to be one of them. Use these website best practises to up your chances of being heard by the widest array of people possible. PoliticalApathy.sucks and BeingSilenced.sucks, so be sure to optimize your web presence to draw the most eyes and ears to your message.
With these tools and tricks in mind, join the conversation and share your voice with a .SUCKS domain today.
Photos: Shutterstock / Rawpixel, Shutterstock / GaudiLab, Shutterstock / Pressmaster, Shutterstock / Rawpixel