Nonprofit Website Starting Point
The best place to begin the development of your nonprofit website is to establish the website’s primary and secondary target audiences. (Unlike a commercial website where there is generally no division in the viewership, a nonprofit website has to consider if the viewer is seeking a service or information, or is the viewer seeking to fund a service which they may never access themselves. Two distinct audiences with different priorities.) That being said, are they charitable donors, members, volunteers, professional peers, event goers, the general public — or are they clients — or another group set altogether?
Next we help determine what the primary purpose of the website will be. Is it to raise funds or awareness, to inform, to steer people to events — or for another purpose? (We have a detailed design questionnaire to facilitate all that.)
Once your core audience and purpose is identified, we then begin the process of building your nonprofit website. Key components include:
- Creating an intuitive website organizational structure, with your nonprofit in mind.
- Customizing your website design to fit your needs.
- Branding your logo (should you need that).
- Building the website (in WordPress!), with special drag-and-drop tools.
- Make your nonprofit website fully “responsive” (looking good on smart phones, tablets and other screen sizes).
- Testing your website to confirm that it is cross-browser friendly with the popular versions.
- Helping you select and an appropriate web host service provider.
- Be a trusted adviser to the overall development of your nonprofit website.
Initial Planning of your Nonprofit Website
Preparing the content for your nonprofit website requires proper planning, not just for what should be included now, but for what may be added later. The decisions you make now will lay the foundation for a long-term, consistently effective website presence.
Website Format
The format for an nonprofit website is not unlike a dynamic brochure, with the content sometimes gleaned from existing publications. Once this initial phase is completed, you’ll be able to build upon it quickly. Do you want to stream your Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter accounts? Have featured articles and events? There are many website options to consider. Our passion is to build the best website for your special audience, thus creating the comprehensive outreach and development tool you envision.
