What a non-profit website needs before it asks anyone for money
Most non-profit websites were built once, by someone kind, and then nobody could change them. Here is what I'd check first, in the order that matters to a donor, with examples from a charity site we built.
People who run non-profits didn't start them to manage a website. You started because somebody needed help. So the site tends to get built in a rush, by a volunteer or a relative, and then it sits there. The news is months old, the donate button is hard to find, and a visitor can't tell whether you're the real thing.
We built a site for a registered charity that helps first responders and military veterans pay for specialty treatment. It's a good example because the stakes are high on both sides. Donors want proof the organization is legitimate, and the person visiting for help may be in a hard place. Here's what mattered, in order.
1. Say who it's for and give them one next step
Open your home page as if you've never heard of the organization. Within a minute you should know who you help, what you do for them, and what a visitor can do about it. On this site, the first screen names who the charity serves, says what it does in a sentence, and offers two buttons: apply for funding, or explore the program. Nobody has to scroll to find out whether the site is for them.
If the people you serve may be in crisis, put help where they'll see it. This site shows Canada's 9-8-8 suicide crisis line in a bar at the top of every page, so it's there before anyone has to look for it.
2. Make giving easy, and keep your records where they are
Someone has decided to donate. That's the hard part, and it's already done. Now the site needs to stay out of the way. Here the donate button sits in the top menu on every page and shows up again further down. It goes to the donation platform the charity already used, so gifts and records land where the bookkeeper already looks.
That was on purpose. A new website doesn't have to replace a donation system that works. It has to make it easy to find. Click through your own donate path on a phone, start to finish, and see how it feels.
3. Show your paperwork
Donors want to know you're legitimate before they give. The site has an accountability page with the charity registration number, the registration notice, the certificate of incorporation, the bylaws and the board. Anyone can check it.
It also says plainly what the charity doesn't publish: financial statements it can't verify and treatment success rates it can't back up. I think that line earns more trust than a glossy report would. Don't quote a number you can't support, because people do check.
4. Answer the questions people are afraid to ask
A page of plain answers saves a lot of nervous emails. On this site that means who qualifies, what it costs, and that applying doesn't guarantee funding. The application itself stays on the form tool the charity already used. The website's job is to explain what happens before and after, and to send people to it cleanly.
The contact page works the same way. A general question, a volunteer sign-up and a share-your-story form each go to the right person, and there's an email address for anyone who'd rather write. If every message goes to one inbox, one person being away means messages sit.
5. Give every number a source and a caveat
The site quotes research on PTSD in RCMP members and a report to Parliament on veteran suicide. Each figure links to its source and carries a note saying what it measures and that it isn't a result from the charity's own work. That's the right way to do it. If you use a statistic, say where it came from and what it doesn't show.
6. Keep the news current, and keep the dates
A news page with the last post from last spring tells a visitor nothing is happening, even when plenty is. This one has the recap of the latest fundraiser, a video archive and podcast interviews. Older posts keep their dates, so a past announcement isn't mistaken for something current. Your latest event or thank-you should be on the site the same day.
Got a site that doesn't do justice to your cause? Bring it to a call and we'll go through it together, looking for what to fix first. A website starts at $4,000, fixed price and agreed before we begin.
Book a free discovery callWhat a website won't do
A website won't raise money on its own. People give because they care about the cause, usually because someone they trust asked them. What the site can do is make it easy for a person who already wants to help, and hard to lose them over a missing detail or a confusing page.
There's more about this kind of work on the non-profit and fundraising organizations page.