A great web design for non-profits should be visually-stunning, responsive, and intuitive to use. More specifically, the site should be specially designed to easily inform key stakeholders (corporate sponsors, donors, potential volunteers, community leaders, etc.) and keep donations rolling in. That’s why all non profit organizations need to keep these tried-and-true tips in mind when redesigning their websites in 2019.

Tip #1. Make your Mission Clear

As a non-profit, you have a core mission, or what you stand for as an organization. Do you have a mission to eradicate a particular disease? Is your main goal to ensure everyone has water, shelter, food, etc.? This should be something that your visitor should get within a few seconds of landing on your website. It’s a no-brainer to add a dedicated page for your mission, vision, and core principles. However, go the extra mile and make sure that a brief mission statement is clearly shown on the home page.

Tip #2. Make Sure your Web Design is Mobile-Ready

More than 60 percent of online traffic comes from mobile phones. What’s more, online users are now spending an average of 5 hours on their mobile gizmos. That’s why you need to optimize your nonprofit website for mobile.

How so?

• Use bigger, more legible fonts
• Avoid cluttering your pages with complex elements
• Use vertical web-page layouts because they are easy to browse with a phone
• Test, test, test — with your smartphone, tablets, and other mobile devices

Tip #3. Ensure Site Navigation is Simple yet Intuitive and Fluid

Navigation buttons should be readily available from all site pages, making it easy for users to navigate from page to page. A poor web design that’s hard to navigate will frustrate visitors who’ll flee your site and go elsewhere. That’s a lost chance to turn a visitor into a donor, volunteer, etc.

• Only use 1 level of drop-down menus
• Avoid jargon, and keep your menu titles brief (preferably 3 words or fewer)
• Include a side/top navigation bar that’s accessible and visible on every page.

Tip #3. Stay on Top of Site Security

The last thing that donors and other non profit stakeholders is a website that can pose a potential risk to their sensitive information and breach their privacy online. That’s why your web design should include cutting-edge encryption and anti-hacking security technologies like SSL, HTTPS, and more. All transactions/donations, login credentials, communications, and other aspects of the site should be fully encrypted at all times to fend off eavesdroppers, hackers, and other forms of cybercrime.

Tip #4. Give a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

Your non-profit web design should ensure that the “Donate Now” button is apparent. If anything, it should be visible at the top with visually-appealing graphics. Whatever the case, don’t hide your donation button and other CTA’s that are relevant to non profit organizations.

Tip #5. Design the Website for Fast Load Speeds

Potential donors don’t have the patience for sites that load slowly. In fact, websites for non profit organizations that load more than 2 seconds will suffer massive abandonment. After all, 45 percent of web visitors say they’ll quit a website that load longer than 3 seconds.

To make sure your non profit website loads in a snap:

• Compress and resize all images
• Ditch use of flash player for CSS and HTML implementation
• Reduce the number of custom fonts, plugins, and scripts running concurrently on your site.
• For more, read our post about how to easily speed up your website https://thousand.plus/blog/7-easy-things-you-can-do-to-speed-up-your-website-2019

There you have it – 5 crucial tips you can use to spruce up your non-profit website. When doing so, keep mobile donor users, load speeds, security, and ease of use in mind.