4 Elements of Effective Nonprofit Website Design
There’s an art to asking people to donate their time or money — the examples below offer a look at how to do it well.
By Emily Rubio
At their core, the best nonprofit websites empower visitors to contribute to positive change in the world and invite users to become part of the solution. But achieving that outcome requires strategic content, seamless UX and compelling storytelling. Here are four ways to integrate these best practices into your nonprofit’s next website redesign.
1. Unique Opportunities for Engagement
Nonprofit: Cedille Records
When Cedille Records a nonprofit classical music record label dedicated to Chicago-based musicians and composers, tasked Casual Astronaut with creating a new-and-improved content hub out of a “clunky and slow” website, they had a few goals in mind: To enrich the site’s user experience, put the organization’s mission front and center — and make visiting the site a lot more fun. To deepen engagement with the organization’s niche audiences, the revamped website design offers the opportunity for local performers and composers to potentially join the Cedille fold, while making it easier than ever for their community of supporters to learn about local musicians and support their efforts.
While large amounts of money and terms like “bequest” and “endowment” are commonplace in the world of philanthropy, they may inadvertently act as gatekeepers to new audiences.
2. Connecting the Esoteric to the Tangible
Nonprofit: Olmsted Network
One of the challenges that nonprofits and foundations often face is presenting their work in a way that makes sense to the average consumer. While large amounts of money and terms like “bequest” and “endowment” are commonplace in the world of philanthropy, they may inadvertently act as gatekeepers to new audiences. This is especially true for organizations like the Olmsted Network, which may not be a household name for most people. To combat this, we worked with their team to design a website that focuses on the organization’s public benefit and distills its mission into a simplified tagline: “Parks, Places & People.” Complemented by captivating illustrations and lifestyle photography, the new website and content strategy are a celebration of public parks and green spaces — as well as goldmine for scholars and admirers of Frederick Law Olmsted — and a call-to-action for people who want to ensure that future generations have access to these iconic outdoor spaces.
3. Messaging that Speaks to New Audiences
Nonprofit: Tucson Symphony Orchestra
There’s so much more to the symphony than just classical music, but communicating that message can be a challenge. In order for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra to achieve its mission of “building and enriching community through the experience of live music of the highest quality,” it needed a website that could connect with audiences beyond their existing subscriber base. As C/A set out to redesign the site, we kept this goal top of mind and, now, the top-level navigation menu includes an “Education and Community” category where parents, teachers and aspiring musicians can find resources, events and information tailored to their needs. This provides logical entry points for new users and positions the symphony as an organization that adds value to the community beyond live music performances. We also built a new content hub that includes in-depth looks at performances, music programs and their significance, profiles of musicians (both veterans and those just getting their start), TSO’s impact in the community and more. The content hub’s editorial sensibility provides a gateway that introduces new users to all that TSO has to offer while leading them closer to conversion points and deepening the community’s connection to the organization.
4. Storytelling that Makes an Emotional Appeal
Nonprofit: University of Arizona Foundation
The University of Arizona Foundation does important work, with 71 percent of its budget coming from private gifts and research contracts. But their website was dated and provided a poor user experience for donors, so they asked C/A to design a site that would both speak to their existing donor audience and attract a new generation of support. To offer donors a rich mosaic of the many ways their gifts provide students a world-class education — from transformational research to bold new university-wide initiatives — we designed an interactive, sortable content hub, with stories that allow website visitors to explore an ever-growing collection of articles that highlight how a donation becomes a life-changing opportunity.
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Emily has nearly a decade of writing and editing experience across industries and formats. She has managed content marketing programs for global brands, financial institutions and mom-and-pop retailers. A Boston University grad, she works to connect the right language to the right audiences without sacrificing editorial quality. Prior to her work in marketing, Emily was a writer and editor for publications including the Boston Globe and the Associated Press.
At home in Richmond, Emily can be found enjoying takeout, television adaptations of fantasy novels (when available) and the company of her two tiny dogs.