Is Your Nonprofit Making These 6 Website Mistakes?

Even the savviest nonprofits can sometimes struggle to keep every plate spinning. But your website is often the first introduction someone has with your organization.

Is it making a strong first impression? Or are you guilty of a few of the following nonprofit website mistakes?

We’re going to talk through 6 mistakes that we’ve seen on a few nonprofit websites. We aren’t here to shame. You’re likely busy doing the life-changing work that your mission demands. But because we want your mission to reach even further, we think these 6 mistakes are worth resolving today (or at least sooner rather than later). 

1.   You aren’t greeting guests with a cookie

Everyone wants to stay at a Hilton Double Tree because they’re greeted with a warm cookie when they walk in.

Or, we know that there’s a lot of talk around cookies online, and not everyone enjoys them as much as the ones at Double Trees. You may be hesitant to track what visitors are doing on your website for privacy purposes, or you might even think website tracking isn’t that impactful for the work you’re doing. 

But in the digital world, this is how you meet people. And if you don’t take the time to learn who your audience members are – what drives them, what they’re doing while they’re on your website, where they go when they leave – then there likely won’t be much of a relationship in the future.

2.   Your store is a little cluttered

You and your team likely do a lot any given week. And this is part of what work at a nonprofit looks like.

But are your supporters getting an email from development one day, another from marketing the next, and then a volunteer invitation at the end of the week?

And when they go to your website, are they running into a lot of mixed messages? Could someone new understand in less than 30 seconds what your mission is, and exactly how they can partner with you in it?

When it comes to your website, make sure that people know how they can help. If you’re looking to increase donations, make sure that button is glaringly obvious. If you want volunteers, make that button jump out instead. 

But please don’t try to get them to do everything, because that’s making me anxious just thinking about it!

3.   There’s no follow through

Some nonprofits are sitting on a gold mine with their donor’s data. They know who gives, they know when they give, but they aren’t doing much about it.

Once you start tracking who lands on your website, you need to start making the most of this invaluable information. If they’re a known contact, send an automated email or even give them a phone call. 

If they haven’t given you their email address yet, serve them display ads as they browse the web in the days and weeks after learning about your organization.

One of the single most effective marketing campaigns for a small or mid-sized nonprofit is a retargeting campaign. These display ad campaigns show ads to people who visited specific pages of your website, with the goal of bringing them back.

Say they made it to the donation page but failed to give during that visit. They didn’t land there by accident, so a timely reminder may make the difference between a donation and a missed opportunity.

4.   It’s stuck in the ‘90s 

I grew up in the ‘90s, and it was a good time. However, your website shouldn’t give ‘90s style, and it’s likely going to turn younger generations away if it does.

Do a content audit and see how much of your material is still relevant. Are you speaking in terms that work today? This is going to go a long way in making your mission relevant to your community.

And the words should go hand-in-hand with the design. A modern website that’s easy to navigate, includes a clear ask, and tracks the people who make an effort to get there will go a long way in bringing your nonprofit far into the future.

5.   Too long; didn’t read

Your nonprofit probably has stories that could fill up books. And books are a great place to put those stories—your homepage isn’t.

You can make some of your blog posts longer, if the story needs the extra space. But your mission should be able to be communicated in a couple of sentences on the homepage.

The digital landscape rewards the direct. People are being bombarded with a lot of information online, so it’s unlikely that they’ll read 1,000 words during their lunch break, unless it’s answering the specific question they’re asking.

Think about how busy your life is. How can you better serve your audience by respecting their time and getting straight to the point?

6.   Each email is handwritten

If your website is set up correctly, an email should go out automatically when someone donates or requests more information.

If your operation works at the speed of handwriting, you’re likely not in a good place to scale up your donations or efforts. And that’s a shame because we think more people should hear about your work and donate to it.

With modern email automation, you can put a personal touch into every thank-you email without waiting for a staff member to put a stamp on it.

If you have a large enough team and you can call each and every donor, that’s amazing. But even if you’re able to do that, the instantaneous automated email is going to be more timely and show that you really value their partnership.

Run with one of these tips today

There’s no shame if you think your website could use improvement in all 6 of these areas. It’s a part of the nonprofit mentality to always want to improve.

Our recommendation is to pick some low-hanging fruit and try to make some progress over the next couple of weeks. When you see how much change you can make that quickly, it might encourage you to move onto the next challenge—that is, after you celebrate your work on the first.

Marketing often falls on the back burner when the work is as important as what you do. And we totally get it. But we want your team to have bigger margins and a more generous budget next year, and that means that this might be the time to make a little progress on your website.