9 Tips on how to Avoid Nonprofit Website Design Mistakes

According to Internet Live Stats, there are over 1.8 billion websites on the internet, and the number keeps growing.

With so much competition, it’s more important than ever for your nonprofit’s website to stand out. If it blends into the background, you could miss out on great opportunities to be discovered by donors.

A well-designed website is one of the most effective marketing tools. There are many resources, and many marketers will teach you what to do when designing nonprofit websites. Still, there are not many resources on what not to do for a nonprofit website.

Here are 9 nonprofit web design mistakes to avoid and what you can do instead to ensure your website manifests results

1. No Target Audience

Inserting your passion for the organization’s cause is effective, but the overall goal shouldn’t be to talk about yourself. It should be towards your target audience and their purposes.

Choosing and understanding your target audience is one of the first steps you should take when establishing your organization’s marketing goals. By analyzing your supporter base and creating personas, you’ll be able to set your audience and cater your nonprofit website to the right crowd.

2. Using an Unfriendly Design

A website stuffed with clashing colors, various fonts, and text that block not placed correctly will lose website visitors immediately.

You have less than 15 seconds to capture a website visitor’s attention, and you need to make it count. Offer a visually attractive and informative website where visitors can learn more about your organization and the excellent work you do.

Using a hierarchy of imagery and media that draws your visitor’s eye down the site has proven to be an excellent strategy.

Take a look at the various multimedia you can use to sway your audience.

3. Skipping the Logo

A logo is more than just a design you stick on your business cards. It’s your brand’s most viewed element, represents your nonprofit, and creates consistency across your internet presence.

By not including your logo in your website design, you risk losing nearly 80% of your website’s visitors, and ultimately, donors.

A clean, simple, and memorable logo will make a great impression on your audience and create an instant connection between them and your organization

Need an eye-catching logo to represent your nonprofit? Our logo design services will help you achieve high visibility and get attention from your target audience.

4. Disregarding a Mobile-Friendly Website

In 2017, 21% of online donations were made via mobile phones. It illustrates that implementing a mobile-friendly design is essential for nonprofits.

Make sure to properly format your website to work on mobile devices, including tablets. An easy way to ensure this is to test your website on multiple devices to find unwanted quirks.

5. Difficult Navigation

Your website’s visitors should be able to find the information they’re looking for in three clicks or less. If it takes any more than that, they’ll likely search for their answers somewhere else.

As you design your nonprofit organization’s website, ask yourself these questions:

• Is all of the important information on the home page?
• Is the website structure adequately organized?
• How easily does your audience find what they’re looking for on your website?

Also, your website becomes much easier to navigate when important pages such as ‘About Us’ or ‘Donate’ are in the main navigation.

6. No Case for Support

If you want the support of donors and community members, you need to give them a reason to give it to you.

Appealing to your website visitor’s emotions through your copy with images is very important. It’s a good idea to create a webpage that explains why people should join your community or donate.

Don’t forget to include what their donation will go towards and the difference their support will make.

Here is a good sample case from Joe Garecht Fundraising for your reference.

7. No Clear Call to Action

When people land on your website, they shouldn’t have to ask themselves, “What now?” They want a concise and clear call to action to tell them precisely what they need to do.

If you know the actions you want your audience to take, make sure you outline the steps for them in your website’s copy and design.

Most nonprofit websites have a ‘Donate,’ ‘Join,’ or “Get Involved” button on their site. A helpful tip is to make this button appear on every page of your website in a bold color that stands out.

8. Too Much Emphasis on Donations

Encouraging your audience to donate is a solid goal for your website, but don’t overdo it by making it the only call to action. Depending on your organization, there could be many other engagement opportunities that you can promote.

Do you have an upcoming event or volunteer opportunities? Are there communication forms that your audience can fill out to receive more information?

Point your visitors towards these engagements, as well. It can grow your community and could lead to more donations later.

9. No Social Media Integration

Social media integration is the act of using social media accounts as an extension of your marketing strategy.

In a world where more than half of the population is active on social media, integrating your nonprofit’s website with social media is necessary. Plus, doing so builds your website’s engagement and social media following.

People should be able to access your social media accounts through your website. You can attach social media sharing links to your pages and blog posts or create a feed of recent social media posts to make this easy for them.

If your website offers an option to create an account, create a social login option to access their account through Google, Facebook, Twitter, and more. A great option considering LoginRadius found that 73% of website users prefer to log in this way.

Harnessing and using the power of social media begins with an effective marketing strategy. These social media tips for nonprofit organizations will help you connect with your supporters.

Avoid Nonprofit Web Design Mistakes With a Web Design Service

We’ve covered many of the most common nonprofit web design mistakes. Still, there are many more essential elements to consider and blunders to avoid while creating a website that achieves your goals.

At DesignsTouch, we provide custom websites for nonprofits that maximize digital technology for the social good and help you achieve success.

Request a no-obligation proposal quote now, and we’ll contact you within one business day.