Wednesday Website Wisdom: How To Optimize Your Nonprofit Business Website

As an iconic ~~insurance spokesperson~~ camel once said, “Guess what day it is?!”

That’s right, it’s time for some more hard-won ~~Humpday~~ Wednesday Website Wisdom …

While we don’t feel strongly about who you go to for your insurance needs, we DO have a lot of insight about the best way to optimize a website for a nonprofit business.

Before we dive into everything you need to know about creating and hosting a nonprofit website, check out previous Wednesday Website Wisdom editions covering the following sectors:

We’re going to get to the keys to optimizing your nonprofit business website shortly, we promise, but first, we’d like to highlight the many valued nonprofits we are proud to support. We encourage you to check out each and every one via the links below:

Tips, Best Practices For Your Nonprofit Business Website

Now, let’s dive into the tips we recommend based on years of experience designing, building and hosting a number of nonprofit business websites.

1. Invest In Paid Media (especially Google Ads)

Why save the best tip we have for last? I know, I know – I’m not the first person to tell you about Google or Meta Ads.

But did you know that Google offers a nonprofit grant of $10,000 per month?? If not, click here now to explore that program.

This is a massive, easily attainable benefit that a lot of organizations are unaware of. I can’t recommend it strongly enough, and Colophon is determined to shine some much-needed light on this high-impact tool for growth.

To get started, just 1) use that link above, 2) create a Google account using your nonprofit domain and 3) upload your certifications & website requirements. After Google reviews and verifies (as always with grants and big tech, prepare for the occasional hoop to jump through), you’ll be able to dramatically increase your organization’s visibility on Google.

At Colophon, we can help educate you and your organization on this process and manage your PPC campaigns to maximize reach & visibility. If you’re interested, please get in touch today!

2. Make Your Mission Statement CRYSTAL CLEAR

We don’t use caps lock lightly around here.

Explaining what we mean by “crystal clear” probably isn’t necessary, but let’s talk about why it’s so important.

As a nonprofit, donations are your lifeblood. A succinct mission statement that spells out precisely what your organization is about is a non-negotiable to get potential new donors (or even past donors) to feel assured when donating to your cause.

In case we haven’t made this dramatic enough, it would not be hyperbolic to say that if your mission statement doesn’t perfectly encapsulate your purpose, then none of our other suggestions here really matter.

Here are a couple of quick tips on how to ensure your mission statement is getting the job done:

Ask as many people as possible to read it and let you know if there are ways it could be more clear. We all think our own writing is clear. But the only way to know for sure is to let your audience be the judge of that.
The location and presentation of your mission statement is also crucial. The more front and center (above-the-fold), the better.

3. Establish Trust By Showing Off Your Credibility

If I had a dollar for every time I said, “show, don’t tell,” I’d have, I don’t know, a lot of dollars.

I digress, but my point here – which goes hand in hand with the emphasis on the clarity of the mission statement – is that it’s absolutely imperative to showcase your organization’s credibility to your audience.

For many companies, the best (and simplest) way to do this is by spotlighting testimonials and/or key partnerships. We recommend devoting entire pages to both and featuring each one on your homepage. If you don’t already have some testimonials handy, reach out to anyone you’ve worked with – they should be happy to brag about you!

We also highly recommend a “Team” or “About us” page. Here, you should include bios and headshots of your staff members. In the bios, be sure to include some personal information in addition to their work experience to make your team more trustworthy and relatable.

4. Load Up The Website With Clear Calls To Action

CTAs are a crucial aspect of any business website, and the nonprofit sector is no exception.

If anything, CTAs facilitating the process of donating might be more important than CTAs for for-profit businesses.

The more places on your website where a potential donor can click to make a contribution and/or get in touch with you, the better. So, be sure that no matter what page of your website a visitor has landed on, it is easy to get in touch, both by phone and by email.

5. Engage With Your Audience Via Various Channels

This one might be on the self-explanatory side, but it’s worth pointing out all the different ways we recommend engaging with your audience. Below are a few great ways to stay in touch with your partners, donors and everyone else in your community:

Cultivate an email list and send out a quarterly newsletter to your subscribers. Each edition should explain what’s new at your organization and feature the latest testimonials from your partners. This is also a great place to solicit donations while providing an up-to-date explanation of exactly what you need and why. Be sure to embed links where donations can be made right in your newsletter. Did we mention there’s no such thing as overdoing it when it comes to CTAs?
Keep your blog up-to-date. And if you don’t already have a company blog, you should create one ASAP. Post regularly and remember that personal, easy-to-read posts will likely draw the most engagement.
Social media is your best friend. Regularly contact your audience via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and any other platforms where you have a presence. You might be amazed when you see how fruitful regularly posting can be.

To sum all that up, our five tips for anyone running a nonprofit — whether you’re about to launch a website for your nonprofit business or you’re looking to improve your current site — are below:

1) Invest in paid media (click here to check out the $10,000 Google Ads grant for nonprofits)
2) Spell out — and prominently feature — your mission statement
3) Demonstrate your credibility by highlighting testimonials and key partnerships
4) Fill the site with clear CTAs to ensure that it’s easy to donate and/or get in contact with you
5) Stay in touch with your audience via newsletters, social media and your company blog