1. Make the site mobile. More than half of your website’s visitors will be on mobile devices — and that number is expected to rise. This makes a responsive website design imperative. A professional nonprofit web design firm will make your site mobile-friendly with a framework that automatically adjusts to mobile devices. It will keep layouts vertical, display large fonts, create large buttons and minimize other elements on pages for optimal mobile viewing.
2. Help users find what they need. When someone comes to your site, it should be easy to get answers to questions right away. Make navigation intuitive with a top or left-side navigation bar on every page. Keep that navigation menu simple, with no more than six items. Consider typical questions users will have when they come to your site, and make the answers to those questions easily accessible.
3. Build for speed. The slower your pages load, the greater the chances a user will get frustrated and leave — not to mention slow-loading pages are less appealing to search engines. Professional nonprofit web design services involve trimming your site, compressing images, bypassing Adobe Flash Player and avoiding extraneous fonts or scripts.
4. Call to action. If the main goal of your site is to have prospects contact you, subscribe to your email list or make a donation on the spot, you need to make it easy for them to do so. Include a prominent donation form throughout the site — bonus points if you can make that a matching gift tool. Likewise, make your contact information highly visible, too — so it’s easy for prospects to find your phone number and address.
5. Use professional photography. To wow your website visitors, skip stock photos and invest in professional, emotionally charged images that highlight your organization. From photos of those you serve to photos of staff and volunteers at events, you want to convey your organization’s value through images.
