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A nonprofit website is an opportunity to communicate your organization’s mission to a wide group of people. A strong online presence can help convert visitors into donors or volunteers for your nonprofit organization.
For nonprofits, education about the cause at hand and website functionality that let visitors show their support is key. From creating an inspiring design to growing your reach, here are seven key steps for making a nonprofit website.
1. Set your website goals
Before building your site, work with your nonprofit’s stakeholders to set goals for your site. Are you most focused on educating visitors, increasing donations, or getting more volunteers? While each is important, try putting them in priority order.
Having a clear idea of where you most want to lead website visitors will help you decide which pages your site needs and which website functionalities are critical to achieving your goals.
2. Get a custom domain name
A domain name is the URL someone will type into their browser to get to your site. Even more than a for-profit business, nonprofits need to build trust with their potential donors and volunteers. A custom domain helps people identify you with your real-life work and helps them feel certain they’re giving money to an organization they can trust.
To get a domain, start by choosing a domain name. This should closely match your organization’s name to avoid any confusion. Squarespace offers a domain name generator to help find options if your first domain name is taken. Then simply find a domain provider to confirm that the URL is available and purchase it. Some domain providers also offer discounted pricing or even free domains for nonprofit organizations, so make sure to check.
Learn more about buying a domain
3. Choose a website template and pages
Once you have your domain and website goals in hand, choose your website building platform. Website builders make it easy to create and update your website without getting a web developer involved.
From there, refer back to your website goals. Those goals will help you make a list of the pages your website needs. Here’s a list to get you started.
About page
Contact page
Donation page
Financials
News and/or blog
Ecommerce store
Volunteer information
FAQ
Some of these pages, like your About page, may need multiple sections or subpages. For example, you might want to have a page dedicated to the history and mission of your nonprofit and another dedicated to your leadership team.
A website builder like Squarespace is user-friendly for beginners. You can create your pages with a drag-and-drop editor and easily add features to collect online donations, share upcoming events, and help visitors get involved.
4. Communicate your mission
One of the main functions of your website is to explain your nonprofit’s goals and bring visitors on board with your mission. Your homepage is one of the first pages your visitors will see so make sure that page clearly states:
What your nonprofit is focused on
Who it supports
How it measures success
Make your mission statement easy to find. We recommend summarizing your mission statement on your homepage and adding a call-to-action button to direct new visitors to learn more on your About pages. Make sure your mission statement is also part of your header or sidebar navigation menu too. This way, no matter where a visitor enters your site, they’ll be able to deepen their understanding of your work.
The more clearly you convey your mission, the more motivated a new visitor may be to donate time or money to your organization.
Learn how to write a mission statement
5. Design with emotional impact in mind
Not only can you use your web design to share the practical parts of your mission, but a great design can also get visitors emotionally invested in your cause. There are a few ways to connect with your site visitors.
Use compelling images. Try sharing photos of the situations or people you’re trying to help or happy images from some of your on-the-ground work. Or add detailed infographics that help drive home the need for your services.
Tell a story with your copy. Use your website copy to tell the story behind your organization and why it’s so important to the people on your team.
Choose an appropriate color scheme. The colors you use on your website impact how your visitors feel. Think about how you want people to feel when they learn about your cause and the work you’re doing. For example, muted colors may be best if you focus on heavier topics and causes.
Share your successes. Add a page to your website for news or a blog to share more about the work you’re doing every day. This can also be a great space to share more personal stories or testimonials from the communities your nonprofit serves.
Using your nonprofit’s website design to build connections with site visitors will make your work memorable for them. Even if it doesn’t get them to donate or volunteer on that visit, a well-designed website can encourage them to share your cause with the people they know.
See nonprofit website examples
6. Make it easy to show support
With the pieces in place to attract new allies to your cause, make sure it’s easy for those people to make a contribution. Create a donation button that takes visitors to a donation form and display it prominently across your website.
If you host volunteer events and trainings, use a scheduling platform so visitors can choose dates that work for them. Platforms like Acuity Scheduling also have integrations that allow you to add a custom sign-up form to collect any volunteer information or automate confirmation emails to save yourself time.
Read our guide to accepting donations on your website
7. Optimize your website for search engines
One way to share your nonprofit’s mission beyond your local community is by improving your ranking in search engine results. Setting up a basic SEO strategy is particularly beneficial for nonprofits because you can grow your audience without pulling from your budget to buy paid ads. To have a website that ranks well for your focus area, start by making sure your site:
Includes common search terms for your nonprofit’s focus, like “nonprofit for stray cats”
Loads quickly and be easy to use on mobile devices
Is accessible to users regardless of background or ability
Once your site is live, your news page and blog content are a great way to naturally include common search terms for your niche. Making your site accessible includes adding alt text to your images.
Squarespace sites have features that are optimized for SEO, like the option to customize page titles and descriptions. You can track your performance over time with analytics to see how many site visitors are finding you through search engines and which search terms are sending them to you. Use that information to make data-driven decisions and adjustments to your site strategy.
See our guide to basic website SEO
Build relationships with your audience
Once you’ve created your new website, use it as a resource to build connections between your supporters and your cause. For example, you could create a paywalled Member Site on your site for monthly donors or attendees of a specific fundraising event. There you can share personalized news and updates for those supporters.
Or simply encourage visitors to follow you on social media or sign up for your newsletter. That way you can reach them across platforms to share updates on your work or urgent fundraising needs, then drive them to your donations page or blog for more information.
No matter your audience, make sure you frontload important information in your emails and social media posts so that you have everyone’s attention right away.
This post was updated on June 20, 2023.