The main goal of your nonprofit website is to raise support for your cause.
In order to do that, it’s important to incorporate certain design elements that help you engage visitors and make it simple for them to donate, volunteer, or support your organization in some other way. Here’s a closer look at some of the most effective elements that can boost your organization’s visibility.
High-Res Images
One of the trickiest parts of spreading the word about your organization online is immediately capturing the attention of visitors. You have a better chance of doing this when you use high quality images that let visitors know about the cause you support right away. These images give visitors a way to emotionally connect with your organization and learn about your priorities before they’ve even read the rest of your content. It is important not to rely too much on generic stock images. Oftentimes, this can be misleading or confusing, especially if the images you choose don’t communicate something specific about your particular message.
Social Media Updates
Instead of simply having links to your social media accounts show up on your site, post updates from these accounts right onto it. This gives visitors a chance to glance at the latest updates, then head over to your social media pages to connect with your organization. Some plugins allow visitors to comment or share without leaving the page, which will help increase traffic and will keep active, interested users around. This is especially important for nonprofit organizations, as it is these users who are most likely to become donors and volunteers.
Mobile-Friendly Donation Options
With people spending more time online on their phones and other devices, more and more sites are becoming mobile-friendly. Having a mobile-friendly site does not only make your site easier to use; it can actually boost your search engine ranking. You can take advantage of this huge, but still accelerating, shift in the web market if you make mobile-friendly donation options available. This will allow visitors to make a donation right away, instead of waiting until they’re on a laptop or computer.
Action Centers
Action centers let visitors know how they can help nonprofits. Setting up an action center on your organization’s home page and other pages on your website gives visitors a simple and convenient way to know what actions they can take to help, such as making a donation, signing up as a volunteer, signing and sharing a petition, or even emailing their congressperson directly. An action center is a key tool for converting interested users into active users.
Interactive Features
While visitors could learn all about your cause just by reading straightforward content on your site, that won’t necessarily convince them to support it. They might even lose interest after reading a paragraph or two. Adding interactive elements, such as searchable databases, maps, graphs, and quizzes can encourage visitors to stay on your site longer and find out more about your organization, its message, and what they can do to help out.
When you need to update your nonprofit’s website, don’t hesitate to contact Hub & Spoke. We’ll help you improve your site, so you can reach out to more people to support your cause.
