For nonprofits, having a strong online presence is more important than ever. Many people will meet your organization for the first time online, and online revenue is on the rise—it increased by 2% in 2024. Plus, 31% of online revenue took the form of monthly giving, demonstrating a potential for creating long-term relationships with online donors.
Whether you’re creating an entire new website for your nonprofit from scratch or refreshing an existing web page, it helps to see how fellow nonprofits’ websites use web design best practices to improve user experiences and advance their own credibility.
This guide will guide you through the basics of nonprofit web design, share real examples of excellent design, and help you align your website with your digital strategy. We’ll explore:
- Nonprofit Website Design: FAQs
- 11 Nonprofit Web Design Best Practices in Action
- Additional Nonprofit Website Design Considerations
- What Kanopi Brings to Web Design for Nonprofits
Nonprofit Website Design: FAQs
What are the benefits of strong nonprofit website design?
Your nonprofit’s web design is more than just another formality—it’s an important investment in your organization’s relationship with its supporters and its future success.
First, an easily navigable and aesthetically pleasing site gives your organization an air of legitimacy. A well-designed, thoughtfully-constructed site can boost users’ confidence and secure their decision to support your cause.
Credibility is important to individual supporters and institutional funders alike. For individual users, a top-quality site builds their trust in your organization and makes new supporters more likely to engage with your message—either by making a donation or by simply remembering your site the next time they’re looking to support a good cause.
Corporate sponsors, grantmakers, and foundation donors are also more likely to consider your organization a worthy candidate for funding if you have a professional-looking website. Your web design can communicate to funders that your nonprofit is well-organized and make it easier for them to access important information about your organization.
Web design is also helpful because it improves user experience (UX), which is important not only for showing supporters that you’re willing to put in the time and effort to improve their giving experience, but also for attaining higher retention and engagement rates. Your website gives supporters an easy way to get involved, whether that’s through donating online, finding and signing up for volunteer opportunities, or getting involved with fundraising.
What key information should every nonprofit website have?
Any user who comes across your website should be able to easily find basic information about your organization’s operations. These key details reassure users of your organization’s honesty and can inspire or reinforce a decision to contribute to your cause. Here are the resources every nonprofit should offer:
- Resources for services and programs. Many nonprofit organizations have offerings available to all community members. If this is the case for your organization, you should have information about your services and programs clearly listed on your site so that potential beneficiaries can access them.
- Fundraising information. Giving basic information on your current funding needs and disclosures regarding how your organization uses donations gives online donors the confidence to follow through with their gift.
- Proof of impact. Users want to see just how much of a difference your organization makes. Demonstrate your impact by including testimonials, case studies, and statistics that reflect your organization’s greatest successes. Having real-life examples helps users connect with your mission and see the critical need for your nonprofit in your community.
- Accreditations. Assure users of your credibility by sharing any relevant certifications your organization has earned. These might include a high Charity Navigator rating or a Candid Seal of Transparency.
- Annual reports and other key data. These reports reinforce your organization’s impact, demonstrate financial transparency, and celebrate your supporters for their generosity.
- Contact information. You may leave connections and donations on the table if users cannot easily get in touch with someone from your organization. Even if you think you have all the necessary information available on your site, users may have more questions, and it’s important to be there to address them.
How much does nonprofit web design cost?
In short, the cost depends on a lot of factors. Different nonprofits have different site needs and require varying levels of design support. Some organizations with the skill and bandwidth may be able to create inexpensive DIY websites, but most will need to invest in more professional website development. Some key considerations for cost include:
- Refresh vs. full build: Are you building a website from scratch, or just looking to give your old one a makeover? Creating a totally new site will require more time and money, while refreshing an old one may be relatively more straightforward.
- The level of customization your site requires: Larger nonprofits with diverse target audiences they need to impress will likely need a more distinctive branded website with robust custom functionality. Customization costs more than using basic templates, but for certain organizations, this cost is well worth it.
- Ongoing support and maintenance costs: Your organization should budget for certain recurring costs associated with having a website. These include rights to your domain name, hosting fees, a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate, and ongoing maintenance costs for updates, security, and troubleshooting. These costs, too, can vary, depending on factors like your hosting provider or site size.
Typically, it’s worth it for nonprofits to invest in a web design partner. Expert designers can give your site the strong foundation it needs to reach a wider audience and share your compelling mission with the world. Working with a designer can also increase your return on investment (ROI) as a better website advances your organization’s authority and inspires more donations.
11 Nonprofit Web Design Best Practices in Action
1. Simple Online Donation Process
Why it matters
Did you know the average donation page conversion rate is just 19%? The fact is, many donors will consider giving to your cause and then change their mind. This can happen for any number of reasons, some of which are not within your control. However, one major reason donors may turn away from your organization is a complicated giving process.
Hard-to-find pages, convoluted donation steps, or excessive form fields are frustrating and complicated, resulting in donor drop-off. A streamlined process, on the other hand, encourages more donations and inspires generosity.
Who’s doing this well?
charity:water’s site has a clear and simple donation process. Their homepage immediately prompts visitors to make a donation with minimal steps to complete the process; donors only need to provide their name, email, payment information, and donation amount.
They also offer suggested donation amounts, with options for both recurring and one-time donations clearly accessible. Take note of the number of payment options available; charity:water accepts card payments along with PayPal, stock, and even cryptocurrency. Their assurance that each donation is secure also lets donors know their site is legitimate and their gift protected.
2. Clear Calls to Action
Why it matters
Your nonprofit’s website should do more than educate users on your mission and activities—it should invite and inspire each visitor to become more involved in your cause. Whether that’s by donating, volunteering, or subscribing to your newsletter, users need guidance on how to take the next steps in their involvement with your organization.
Good CTAs clearly explain to enthusiastic supporters how they can help promote your cause, increase your conversion rate, and encourage engagement across the board.
Who’s doing this well?
Feeding America’s site invites users to engage in a wide variety of ways. The homepage asks visitors to give before they even have to scroll, and the navigation bar on the top menu offers the opportunity to “Take Action.”
The “Take Action” page first impresses upon the reader a sense of urgency, sharing Feeding America’s mission and its progress towards its goal of ending hunger in the United States. Scroll a little further, and you’ll find these CTAs. These messages are concise, visually appealing, and action-oriented.
3. Consistent, Aesthetically Pleasing Visual Branding
Why it matters
Like it or not, your branding is a significant part of what users will remember from their interactions with your site, so make it count. Cohesive branding communicates your organization’s professionalism and builds trust with users, which is especially important for mission-driven organizations.
If your branding is clear enough, users are more likely to remember your organization and return to it later, even if they only interact with your site briefly. This recognition can boost donor retention and loyalty by helping supporters understand what makes your organization unique.
These benefits ultimately result in increased engagement with your organization and growing revenue.
Who’s doing this well?
The Malala Fund exemplifies branding that is both aesthetically appealing and cohesive across the site. Certain colors, shapes, and fonts repeat across the site, which provides a consistent experience for a user navigating through different pages. There are also graphic elements throughout, including pictures and videos. However, the page doesn’t look overcrowded, and the branding isn’t distracting. The overall look is distinctive, and doesn’t appear to have come from a template or to emulate any other organization.
Even when presenting statistics, the graphics follow the same color scheme. This consistency keeps the content aesthetically pleasing and allows the reader to focus on the information.
4. Compelling Storytelling
Why it matters
You likely already know the value of stories when communicating with supporters—stories humanize your impact and emotionally engage your audience, increasing the likelihood that they’ll choose to give. When you can’t directly communicate with a potential supporter or funder, your stories speak for you, showing users why your cause matters and how your organization makes a difference.
Who’s doing this well?
To Write Love on Her Arms makes storytelling a core part of its site. Using multiple media types, including writing, videos, and podcasts, it tells stories of hope. While most of its stories do not directly discuss TWLOHA’s services, it speaksfor itself by telling individual stories that demonstrate the importance of seeking help for mental health.
5. Streamlined Navigation
Why it matters
Forcing users to traverse the entirety of your website just to find the one piece of information they need will create frustration and cause drop-off. Ideally, visitors should be able to find what they are looking for in just one or two clicks.
Creating a website with intuitive navigation encourages users to engage more deeply with your site, guiding them along a path to your desired outcome. A strategically organized website also improves your search engine optimization (SEO), allowing both users and search engines to browse your site more efficiently and access key information about your mission.
Who’s doing this well?
Doctors Without Borders streamlines its navigation by limiting the number of headers and consolidating them in a single collapsible menu bar. It prioritizes key pages and groups similar pages so that users can quickly find basic information.
Once you navigate to a new page, the site offers breadcrumbs—visual aids at the top of the page that show a user’s journey through the site—that help users retrace their steps. The site also provides a search bar, which enables users to find more specific information.
6. Mobile-Friendliness
Why it matters
These days, most people will be viewing your website from their phone or tablet. If your site is slow, difficult to navigate, or unattractive on mobile devices, they’re unlikely to stick around or switch to a different device. Plus, a sizable number of donations come in through mobile devices, meaning performance is key.
Improve your user experience—and your SEO—by creating a site optimized for mobile use. The more concise your mobile forms are, the better.
Who’s doing this well?
The Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) has a site ideally designed for mobile devices, but that wasn’t always the case. COTA used to have an inaccessible site with slow loading times until they chose to work with Kanopi Studios to rebuild it.
Today, COTA’s site has all of the features of a great mobile site. The written content and photos easily adapt to different screen sizes, the pages load quickly, and the navigation buttons are large enough for touchscreen users. It also has a collapsible menu and short paragraphs, which both prevent cluttered screens.
7. Accessibility
Why it matters
Over 25% of Americans live with disabilities. Creating an accessible site demonstrates that you care about your supporters, builds trust with all users, and ensures that anyone can engage with your mission. While building your site, ask yourself how each aspect would help or hinder a user living with disabilities.
Who’s doing this well?
Humane World for Animals, a nonprofit focused on animal protection, used Kanopi’s services to create a highly accessible website for all users. The result is a user-friendly online resource that offers high color contrast between foreground and background colors, optimizing the site’s legibility, particularly for users with dyslexia and/or visual impairments. Images on the site also include alternative text, which allows users with screen readers to understand exactly what each graphic element includes.
The project won a Web Excellence Award for Accessibility.
8. Trust Signals
Why it matters
Your organization can give users confidence to invest in it by demonstrating transparency and providing proof of its legitimacy. Logos from your partners, security badges, financials, and testimonials can all build your credibility with new visitors and reinforce established supporters’ decision to remain involved in your organization.
Building trust with users can have a big impact on your organization’s funding potential. 59% of donors consider trust to be the most important factor in their decision to give to a nonprofit. If you invest in earning their confidence, they’ll invest in you.
Who’s doing this well?
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has trust signals in the site’s footer, where they’re clearly visible but not distracting.
The site provides links to its four-star rating from Charity Navigator and the Silver Transparency seal from Candid to prove that it earned these accreditations. The Silver Transparency link offers access to financial information, such as the organization’s revenue and expenses over the past year.
Additionally, listing the brand partnerships, especially with a reputable company like Subaru, signals to users that ASPCA has been well-vetted.
9. High Performance
Why it matters
No one wants to deal with a site that never seems to load. Page speed tries users’ patience, resulting in a higher bounce rate and damaged conversion rate. Small delays can have big impacts; the bounce rate can almost double if users have to wait three seconds rather than two for a page to load.
Furthermore, a slow site will negatively impact your SEO ranking, making it harder for users to find your site.
Who’s doing this well?
Kanopi’s work with PEN America boosted their performance rating to a whopping 98. This indicates that their speed has increased through image optimization, browser caching, and enabling compression.
10. Strong Visual Imagery
Why it matters
Images are a surefire way to grab users’ attention. However, not all images are equally effective. Original, emotionally resonant photos enhance credibility and visual engagement far more than stock photos.
Who’s doing this well?
Girls Who Code has a wide variety of relevant images on their site. Pictures of volunteers and beneficiaries adorn their site and humanize their mission. Even their blog’s feature images are unique because they feature recurring colors and shapes as visual motifs.
11. Ongoing Maintenance and Performance Enhancement
Why it matters
Creating a website isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it venture. Nonprofit websites need regular updates, testing, and refinement—especially during campaign seasons or platform updates. Practicing good site maintenance is vital to your website’s continued success.
Who’s doing this well?
Since Kanopi helped build their site, First Tee has maintained its content and sleek look, as demonstrated by its consistent content updates and strong performance score. Remember to continually update your security, back up site data, and ensure all links are functioning properly.
Additional Nonprofit Website Design Considerations
Before you start building or redesigning your site, ask yourself these questions:
- Which CMS platform will you use? Popular platforms include WordPress and Drupal. Both platforms have their benefits; while WordPress offers ease and flexibility, Drupal offers more customization options and security measures for larger nonprofits.
- How will you integrate your website into the rest of your digital marketing efforts? Using digital marketing tactics like email and social media to direct users to your website is a great way to drive engagement and increase donations. In addition, improving your SEO will bring more viewers to your site.
- How will you incorporate AI and personalization into your website? Viewers love to feel like your website speaks directly to their wants and needs. AI can help make this a reality with technologies like chatbots that answer users’ questions or personalized call-to-action buttons based on users’ browsing habits.
- How will you continually test your website to identify issues and opportunities? Using a variety of testing methods—including performance checks, manual and automated accessibility tests, user heat maps, and A/B testing—will help you stay on top of your game and address any issues that should arise.
- What security measures will you take to keep your website (and visitors’ data) safe? For example, tools like Drupal can keep your site safe by enabling two-factor authentication, setting a password policy, and encrypting sensitive information.
What Kanopi Brings to Web Design for Nonprofits
Our website designers and developers have extensive experience working with nonprofits like yours. When you use Kanopi, you gain access to offerings like:
- Deep audience research and persona development
- Drupal and WordPress expertise
- Baked-in accessibility
- Interactive design
- Mobile-first approach
- User and content testing
Our services can help your organization create a brand new website, or we can work with your existing code to refresh or rebuild an old site. Even if your site has custom or complex code, we’ve got your back.
Final thoughts
Your nonprofit’s website is one of the most important points of contact between you and your supporters. It tells the story of your organization, demonstrates the importance of your work, and invites users to become a part of your story. Making your site as user-friendly and professional as it can be is a step towards your organization’s future, so take advantage of this chance to expand your reach and build your impact.
Want to learn more about creating a successful site for your nonprofit? Check out these additional examples:
- The 30+ Best Nonprofit Websites to Look to for Inspiration. These top-tier examples will teach you more about what makes a great nonprofit site.
- UX for Nonprofits: Best Practices for Clearer Communications. Use these tips to create the best possible user experience.
- Drupal for Nonprofits: Is This CMS Right For You?. If you’re looking for a new CMS, use this guide to figure out if Drupal is the right fit.
- Using WordPress for Nonprofits: The Ultimate Guide. WordPress is one of the most common CMS platforms for a reason—find out what it can do for your organization.
