A bad website experience can deter prospects from getting to you know and, more importantly, from donating to your nonprofit. Build a website that encourages communication sign-ups, engagement and recurring visits.
Here are 5 website mistakes that can hinder donor engagement and how to fix them to improve your nonprofit’s reach and ultimately, donations.
1. Hidden donation button
Your donation button needs a prime spot on every page of your website. It should be a no-brainer for anyone visiting your website to see where and how they can donate. Likewise, when a visitor clicks on the donate button, make the donation process as simple and streamlined as possible. The fewer clicks the better—you don’t want your donors to get confused or distracted. This list of 12 effective donation page traits is a great place to start.
2. No mobile optimization
More than 60% of U.S. website visits originate from mobile devices. If your website isn’t optimized to be viewed on all screen sizes, you can frustrate users. Moreover, you can lose donors. Optimize your website (and donations pages) for mobile to ensure calls-to-action are the right sizes across all screens, that imagery and fonts appear appropriately, and that users have a great experience no matter where they are coming from.
3. Lack of story
We’ve mentioned the story of one as a way to break down a bigger issue or problem and name it, through the eyes of one person. Whether you use the story of one or other storytelling methods, your website needs to guide users—readers—through your story. Your story showcases your personality and elicits emotion. It creates a common ground with readers and shows that their actions (i.e.: donations) can make a difference. Without a story, your website reads like any generic nonprofit out there. What makes yours unique?
4. Missing imagery
It’s not cliché in the nonprofit world—a picture is worth a thousand words. The images for your participants, recipients, events and impact you’re making on the world are important parts of your story—of your brand—and need to be shared on your website. Use compelling images of real people throughout your site; take it a step further by embedding video, interviews or impact stories that users can watch to understand more about who you are and what you do. Use images that will resonate with your audience—can they see themselves in the pictures? Do they understand how necessary your services are? Show them with imagery.
5. Ignoring SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is a way for your website or individual web pages to rank higher on search engines. The copy that you have on your website, the headings you use and the descriptions of content all play an important role in getting more eyes on your site. Optimize your nonprofit website by writing informative copy with keywords in mind, telling your nonprofit’s story in a meaningful way and using metrics to inform content and layout decisions.
At the end of the day, you want to create a website that engages donors through stories, information and great user experiences. We have some additional resources on our blog and encourage you to download our free website checklist to get started.
