Nonprofit Website Design: Pages That Help Supporters Take Action
Most nonprofit sites do a good job explaining the mission and a poor job making it easy to support.
The common pattern
A nonprofit website is usually built to satisfy every stakeholder. The board wants the history. Program staff want their programs represented. A funder needs the impact numbers. Everyone is right, and the result is a site where a first-time visitor cannot find the one thing they came to do.
The fix is not a redesign. It is deciding what each page is for, and letting the pages that exist to convert actually convert.
The pages that carry the weight
The homepage
A visitor should understand who you serve, what you do, and where they fit — without scrolling. Most nonprofit homepages open with a mission statement written for the board rather than a stranger.
The donation page
Usually the least-designed page on the site, and the one carrying the most revenue. Every extra field, every unexplained amount, every moment of doubt about where the money goes costs completions.
Program pages
Written for participants and referrers, not for funders. A parent looking for a program has different questions than a grant officer.
The impact page
Specific and recent beats comprehensive and undated. Numbers from three years ago read as a program that stopped.
Ways to give
Monthly giving, in-kind, volunteering, and estate options are often buried. People who cannot write a check can frequently do something else.
What to fix first
If budget is limited, the donation page returns the most per dollar spent. It is a smaller job than a redesign and the effect is measurable immediately.
Second is the homepage’s first screen. Third is whatever page your Google Ad Grant traffic actually lands on, which is frequently not the page anyone assumed.
Not sure where yours is losing people?
The Conversion Leak Scorecard works for nonprofit sites — donor journey, donation page friction, proof placement, and follow-up.
Get the Scorecard