Digital First Impressions: Your Nonprofit's Homepage

Your homepage is the face of your nonprofit. Whereas advertising and marketing appeals will doubtless be supporters’ first impression of your nonprofit, your homepage tells supporters every part they should find out about your nonprofit (whether or not it’s intentional or not). To enhance guests’ expertise in your homepage, learn to construct and preserve an accessible homepage with a contemporary design that displays the delicate nonprofit behind it. 

If you happen to don’t have expertise in internet design, upgrading your web site can appear to be a monumental job with the potential draw back of breaking core functionalities. That will help you confidently lead your nonprofit’s homepage improvement, this text will go over:

The primary three sections will focus on key elements of your homepage, permitting you to take the primary steps in direction of creating and sustaining a higher nonprofit web site. The final part will then focus on actionable steps you and your staff can implement to repeatedly enhance and improve your web site. 

Design tendencies change, and whereas your present supporters have a transparent concept of what an internet site ought to appear like now, their expectations might shift sooner or later. When you design your web site, proceed to maintain up with technological and design adjustments within the nonprofit sector to be able to have your homepage constantly make an excellent first impression. 

However first, you’ll want a strong grasp on the necessities. Let’s dive in.

Homepage Options 

When guests come to your web site, what would you like them to see first? Almost each nonprofit ought to have a couple of core options on its homepage, however the order and presentation of these objects will have an effect on how your guests have interaction along with your web site. 

Listed below are a couple of must-have options in your homepage:

• Primary details about your nonprofit. Primary data contains the title of your nonprofit, your contact data, and an abbreviated mission assertion or abstract of what your group is. Moreover, take into account spotlighting a challenge your nonprofit is at present engaged on or has just lately accomplished. Maintaining common information updates in your web site offers guests examples of your work, whereas additionally assuring them your nonprofit remains to be lively. 
• Navigation bar. Your navigation bar ought to be close to the highest of your homepage, ought to be apparent to guests upon first look, and may include hyperlinks to key pages in your web site. Put your self in your homepage guests’ footwear as you take into account the labels in your navigation bar, particularly when you have nested objects. Conduct person testing by having customers follow navigating your homepage to make sure they’re making the precise assumptions about what content material is below every label. 
• Hyperlink to your donation varieties. Donating ought to be as straightforward as doable for guests. Many nonprofits have massive, brightly coloured donation buttons positioned someplace close to the highest of their homepage. Others have the donation type already open in a sidebar or over their hero picture to let guests enter their donation data with out navigating off their homepage.
• Hyperlink to your volunteer/contact varieties. Much like your donation type, your homepage ought to function a “Work with Us,” “Get Concerned,” or “Volunteer,” hyperlink someplace above the fold (or close to the highest of the web page). You’ll want to differentiate your volunteer type out of your careers web page, when you have one. Careers and job alternatives are typically linked in your webpage’s footer if you’re recruiting. 
• Emblem. Your complete web site ought to symbolize your nonprofit’s model, and putting your emblem entrance and heart will make it clear to guests what homepage they’re on. Your emblem ought to make an look on each web page in your web site (often within the higher proper or left nook), however may be bolder or take heart stage in your homepage. 

Think about your viewers and the way your viewers interacts along with your nonprofit as you start the design course of. Are your supporters from a selected space? Have they got particular jobs? Are they from a selected technology? Take the time to analysis your viewers and conduct person interviews to be able to perceive who your web site ought to attraction to. 

Homepage Design 

Whereas experience helps, you possibly can create a gorgeous, fashionable web site with out being an expert web site designer. You’ll simply have to comply with a couple of customary greatest practices and thoroughly take into account how design will affect your customers’ expertise.

Your web site’s design ought to improve the data in your homepage relatively than being incidental. Resolve what you wish to draw your guests’ eyes to as you take into account your design decisions for:

• Photos. Your web site ought to have high-quality photographs, graphics, or different visible media. Alongside along with your emblem, take into account making a most important hero or banner picture that evokes emotion whereas additionally informing guests about what your nonprofit does. For instance, an environmental nonprofit might need photos of volunteers planting bushes or eye-catching graphics showcasing what number of bushes they’ve planted over the previous yr. 
• Colours. Select colours that align along with your nonprofit’s model. Along with coloring menu bars and part dividers, take into account implementing gradient overlays to provide your homepage a constant colour palette. Nevertheless, you should definitely go away white area in margins and between sections to provide your guests’ eyes an opportunity to relaxation. 
• Textual content. Textual content design contains your headers, paragraph line-length, and use of bullet factors and numbered lists. Robust textual content design contains clear headers, brief line lengths, and provides readers breaks between blocks of textual content with white area and listed content material. 
• Structure. As talked about, take into account what order to place your options in. Some web sites use vertical column layouts to show a number of data without delay, whereas others act like a social media feed, permitting guests to scroll till they discover the content material they need. Your structure impacts how viewers navigate your web site, so prioritize navigation and comfort above all else by decreasing muddle and making certain your navigation bar is at all times accessible. 

As you add design parts, take the time to verify your web site meets accessibility pointers. Add alt-text to pictures, transcripts for movies, and guarantee mandatory fields on donation varieties are marked by one other visible help than simply colour alone. 

Homepage Upkeep 

After constructing your nonprofit’s homepage, you’ll need to conduct common upkeep on it. It’s best to usually add new content material to your web site to be able to present your exercise to your supporters, however including new pages with out correct upkeep can result in damaged hyperlinks, complicated web site hierarchy, and lengthy load occasions. 

Not all web site upkeep requires you to have data of coding (although it will probably assist), and there are various routine operations you possibly can full your self. Cornershop Inventive’s information to nonprofit web site upkeep supplies a guidelines of things that features:

• Changing outdated hyperlinks. Outdated and damaged hyperlinks could make guests doubt your web site’s safety, which can trigger them to hesitate when inputting their monetary data into your donation type. Click on all usually used hyperlinks and take a look at hyperlinks to new pages to maintain your guests in your web site and away from 404 Error messages. 
• Checking loading occasions. In case your homepage takes longer than two seconds to load, guests might not trouble to attend, shedding you web site visitors and potential donations. Lengthy load occasions may be brought on by massive picture information or pointless plugins. Try this information for extra details about what you need to search for (and keep away from) in a WordPress plugin. 
• Actively testing varieties. Observe coming into your data into your donation, volunteer, and registration varieties to make sure data is flowing by way of to your CRM correctly and that there are not any pointless steps slowing down the method. 

Staying up to date on web site and on-line greatest practices requires time and routine analysis. In case your homepage has an issue you aren’t outfitted to deal with, attain out to skilled web site consultants for recommendation. For instance, critical points like a safety failure require quick consideration and warrant bringing in outdoors assist to guard your donors’ safety and your repute. 

Steps for Enchancment 

Implement the practices on this information as a primary step in direction of forming a greater digital first impression. Keep in mind, although, that creating and sustaining an up-to-date web site requires constant analysis on new know-how and internet practices.

As you enhance your web site, begin trying into further enchancment methods akin to:

• Attending coaching programs. As nonprofit know-how evolves, the record of issues to be taught grows together with it. Coaching programs can train you how one can take advantage of the instruments you will have and doubtlessly begin tackling duties in-house that  you beforehand needed to outsource. 
• Hiring a advisor. You might resolve that your nonprofit doesn’t have the time and sources to construct and design your homepage. On this case, look into internet design consultants specialised in nonprofits to find what you want and what choices are on the market. If you happen to’ve by no means labored with an exterior skilled earlier than, this information to nonprofit consultants outlines necessities to remember.

Preserve your finances in thoughts as you get to work in your web site. Designing, coding, and sustaining an internet site can shortly turn out to be costly, so you should definitely create an inventory of must-have elements and a finances to make sure nothing important is forgotten with out spending greater than mandatory. 

Your homepage’s guests are used to fashionable internet design and can strategy your web site with particular expectations of what a homepage ought to look and act like. Whilst you wish to give these guests a singular expertise, guarantee they discover your web site straightforward to make use of, modern-looking, and safe. 

Design your web site with comfort of use and your model id in thoughts, and usually replace it to verify the trouble you set into its creation by no means goes to waste resulting from loading occasions or damaged hyperlinks. With a strong internet design basis in place, you’ll be capable to begin bringing all the different pages in your website in control, too. Better of luck!

Concerning the Creator

Ira Horowitz

With 15 years’ expertise, Ira is an skilled in nonprofit on-line communications and on-line fundraising. His work has resulted in elevated funds and resounding supporter engagement for a whole lot of organizations.

Ira oversees our challenge administration staff and works with purchasers to supply our purchasers with the very best closing product. He additionally manages all of our strategic engagements and helps information nonprofits to find out their long-term technique objectives for on-line communications.