Now more than ever, it’s essential for your nonprofit to have a comprehensive and informative website. From potential donors to new board members, your website is the first place stakeholders visit to learn more about your work.
In my role as a communications advisor, I have helped nonprofits build new websites—based on my experience, here are six steps to keep in mind if your organisation is looking to build out a website:
As soon as you start thinking about building a new website, begin compiling a list of websites whose design appeals to you. These don’t have to be nonprofit websites; they can be from any domain.
These references will allow you to show your developer what you mean, rather than trying to explain it.
Make a file of screenshots of infographics that stand out, layouts that are sharp, features that you found useful—capture anything you like and would like to incorporate into the website. These references will be invaluable because they allow you to show your developer what you mean, rather than trying to explain it to them.
Spend some time noting down the essential information that you want featured on your new website. If you already have a website, use it as a starting point to see what is still relevant and what needs updating, what is missing, and what was superfluous.
Some website must-haves include:
Avoid the temptation to include too much information and too many pages. This could clutter your site and take away from the key message you want conveyed.
Related article: Making communications work for you
Even before you start looking for a vendor to build your new website, you can avoid bottlenecks by preparing content and having it ready for the developer to plug in to the beta site.
Things you can prepare in advance include:
Do not pull a donor’s logo from Google images; these may be distorted or dated. Instead contact the CSR or communications person and ask them to send you the latest, high resolution version along with their guidelines for how to use it.
This is a crowded space and a wide range of prices are quoted so make sure you know what you’re getting. Some factors that affect the cost include:
Related article: Communications 101: Talking about your nonprofit
Be sure to ask the following questions to any potential web developers so there are no unpleasant surprises after you sign.
The barriers for entry to this field are low, so be sure the developer you choose is established and has a good amount of experience. Try and ask for a reference check if possible and meet with at least 3-4 different companies before settling on one.
For one of the websites I helped with, the designer sat in a remote city, so she was never able to meet us face to face or come to the office and understand the DNA of the organisation. This affected the quality of the output.
If the team you hire is based out of another city, ask them to explain how they have dealt with this situation in the past.
A good CMS will be easy to use and make it possible for staff members of your nonprofit to make basic updates to pages. Some areas that need frequent updating are the Team Member page, the Impact numbers and the Financials page, especially if you have FCRA and need to disclose quarterly foreign currency donations.
For bigger changes, you will need to turn to the developer. Again, this can come back to team size and in-house capability. Try and build in an agreed upon schedule for changes in to your contract with the company.
Today, apart from WordPress, there are several website builder platforms available like Wix, Squarespace, Weebly and others, as well as the option to build the website from scratch. Ask the developer why they work with their chosen platform and be sure to understand the limitations of it. Try and do a little basic internet research and read reviews of the platform.
They may show you a custom site they have done, when quoting you the price for a platform site.
Sharp infographics are a great way to explain programmes, so ask to see original infographics that the designer has designed. Often, web developers have competent technical staff but very average designers and visualisers.
Try and remember that your primary objective is a website that presents your work in an easy to comprehend and attractive way. While cutting edge design and technology is a plus, it comes at a price. For-profit companies, especially those in e-commerce have much larger budgets for websites, so you shouldn’t compare your site to theirs. The exponential effort and cost for you to get an exceptional website probably isn’t worth it, give that in 30-36 months after your new website launches, you will likely have to invest time and money in this process again.
* The Content Management System is the access to the back end of the website, where you can log in and make changes to web pages as and when needed.