Your website is the face of your nonprofit. It helps keep your current constituents engaged with your cause and extends outreach to potential supporters. It’s a hub for visitors who want to learn more about your mission, find opportunities to get involved, and make donations. But if you don’t keep your website updated, your charitable community won’t see the continual progress of your organization, said Firespring. A responsive, evolving online presence is vital to keeping your advocates engaged with your mission.
Keep things new
The first rule of maintenance is to update your content at least once a week. Make sure to date your entries so readers can see that your stories, news items, and blog posts are current. The importance of your organization’s work will more easily resonate with your audience if your landing page doesn’t appear to be a historical artifact. Further, an active website is likelier to turn up on the first page of an Internet search.
If you’re curious which types of content have the highest readership, use the analytics tools in your business management software. These will help you decide how to best deliver news and narratives to your constituents.
While your mission statement is more static than other pages, it still needs occasional revision as your organization grows. A clearly stated and accurate mission statement is a necessary step toward drawing in donors, reminded Nonprofit Hub.
User-friendliness counts
Updates aren’t the only ingredient for keeping your audience engaged. You also need a user-friendly design that’s optimized for mobile. Your readers want to intuitively navigate your landing pages, and that means clearing out the clutter. Bullet points and headings will make content easy to read, said MarketingProfs. It’s important to remember that websites look different on desktop screens than on mobile devices, so designing your website for mobile is in your best interest. If your budget can’t accommodate a web designer, you can manually create a mobile-friendly site by choosing readable font sizes and sticking to a one-column layout.
Make sure that your donation button is at the top of the landing page, for there’s no guarantee users will scroll through to find it on their own. Speaking of navigation, make sure you include a search bar so that users don’t have to do a lot of work to find what they’re looking for. Perhaps they remember reading the first half of a blog post earlier in the day and want to return to it. Make sure they’re able to continue their interest in your cause.
Make it memorable
Don’t forget to use graphics to break up the text. Most readers have short attention spans, and visuals are a very straightforward way to engage constituents. Infographics deliver concrete facts about your good work, and curated pictures can show the real-life stories of people helped by your organization. While on-the-go users don’t always have time to read a full article on their phone screens, they can scroll through a pictorial narrative, easily remembering the emotional impact of images.
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