Nonprofit Website Design Strategies:
Nonprofit website design for users that wishe to accept donations directly on their site, there are technical issues to consider first. Placement of a typical “call to action” graphic is of utmost importance, and should be done so to provide optimal viewing capability. Colors can be manipulated to stand out and direct attention to the area to click and initiate the donation process. Catch phrases need to be carefully tailored to compel visitors to take action, much like excellent marketing language in the business world.
With nonprofit website design, another consideration is the actual design and placement of the donation button on a webpage. It has been found that donation buttons which contain both a picture of the “crisis” or “need” that the nonprofit addresses, along with the “agency response” to that crisis, are more likely to have successful donations, higher trust by users, and longer time spent on the website than buttons containing only one of the aforementioned pictures, or text alone such as “Donate Now,” “Make a Gift,” or “Help Our Cause.” Transactional trust is the driving force in successfully implemented donation websites, and this includes both a trust of having a secure online transaction as well as knowing the money donated will truthfully go towards the cause for which it is advertised. “The current research suggest that aid agencies can and should do more than simply provide a donation button with the words ‘Donate Now.’
E-commerce strategies for nonprofit website design are in the infancy stages, but are showing great potential for fundraising on websites. The most successful to date is Mission Shopping, sometimes called Mission Inspired Gifts. This method incorporates the power and trust of a typical online shopping cart system yet changes the “face” of each product to compel visitors to purchase a service either individually or as a gift to another. Mission Shopping is popular with existing organization donors, who can purchase gifts of charity services for friends and relatives. There is great potential for this type of donation system to take on viral proportions quickly. It is proven to also be very compelling to acquire new donors as well.
The technical aspects are fairly simple. An organization first determines which services it would like to offer as gifts online, such as “one month’s food for a starving African child,” and develops enough services to fill a shopping cart system. The most important next step is to portray that service in a compelling and highly effective manner, including clear pricing and donation button. Examples of good nonprofit website design follow:
Nonprofit Website Design
Nonprofit Website Design
