1. You know your audience
As with all communications projects, you cannot create a good charity website if you do not know who you are creating it for. Are you targeting individual donors, service users or partners? Perhaps it’s a mix of all three. Either way, it is important that you understand their characteristics, motivations and reason for visiting your site. What do they want from you, and what do you want from them? Find the answer to these questions, and you’ve got a strong starting point for website structure, design and content.
Need some inspiration? We love how Home-Start UK tailor their site around different ways to engage.
2. It makes sense on a mobile
According to Google, 40% of mobile consumers turn to a competitor’s website after a bad online experience – and with 50%+ of online traffic mobile-driven in the first quarter of 2020, that’s an audience you do not want to lose. Think layout, load-time, quick-access information and limited scrolling. Mobile usage needs to be part of your design process from the start. Without it, your charity will miss out on a HUGE share of the digital market.
Get out your mobile and browse South West Lakes Trust, their device optimisation is great!
3. There’s a clear call to action
Every page should have a purpose. In fact, you might find there are several purposes. Whether you’re promoting a service, calling for volunteers, event participants or donations, make sure that your call to action is clear, and that each page sign-posts users to their desired destination. Once you’ve got your basic structure, test your routes. If people can’t find what they’re looking for in a few simple clicks, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
We think Melanoma UK have done a great job of directing visitors to their donate page.
4. You’re campaign ready
Whether it’s your summer appeal, Giving Tuesday or the Big Give Christmas Challenge, all campaigns need a landing page to match. Don’t be afraid to get creative with content! Live campaign totalisers and social media walls are a great way to add a sense of urgency and encourage users to engage. Videos can also help catch people’s attention. It doesn’t need a high production value. ‘Love is a Gift’ cost just £50 to make and was watched by 50 million people worldwide. Who wouldn’t want that on their landing page?
5. Your donate page ROCKS
You’ve done it! They’ve made it to your donate page. But your job isn’t over yet. With studies putting the drop-out rate for online donations between 50% and 70%, you need to think carefully about how the process will work. There’s a lot the sector can learn from online retailers here. Streamlining your content and keeping your page Simple, Savvy and Secure is a great way to boost donor conversion rates and make the most of online charity payments.
Creative Youth Network have built a great online payment page.
6. It’s accessible
22% of the UK population is disabled. Yet according to Purple, every year businesses lose £11.8 billion because their website hasn’t been optimised for disabled users. Every single page you create needs to be fully accessible, including your donate page. Use alt tags in your imagery, describe the links you brand off to, ensure the layout is friendly with clear use of headings and sections. Don’t exclude this important market. Make sure your charity website is open to all.
We love how accessible Scope have made their website design.
7. You’ve nailed SEO
Attracting the right visitors to your charity website and ensuring potential donors can find it among the competition is a huge part of your website’s success in generating funds.
For the non-techy souls out there, SEO can feel like a bit of a mystery. It doesn’t have to. From basic crawl accessibility, to content, page titles and keywords - Moz.com do a great job of explaining the basics. So take some time out to do your homework, find your keywords (there are LOADS of free research tools online) and plug into Google SEO console. Design your website and content with SEO in mind!
8. It’s integrated and ready to catch that data
With so much online action, it is important to catch incoming donation and consent data. The easiest way is to use a dedicated non-profit website builder like Access NFP Website Suite, and (or) sync your website with your charity CRM. Tools like Access thankQ make it quick and easy to build a 360o view of online donation activity and campaign analytics (it even allows for live campaign monitoring!). Check your data to find out what did and didn’t work and use these lessons to create a charity website that WOWs.
It isn’t easy – designing a website that meets all these different criteria, and it is important you have the right tools for the job. It might be tempting to go it alone, but remember, a charity website is an investment. But that doesn’t mean it has to cost the earth. Rather than outsourcing your project, you might find that using a bespoke charity website builder gives you more control over content and cost. Do some research and weigh up your options. Whichever path you choose, be sure to travel with these eight checkpoints in mind!