The Worst Nonprofit Websites: Are You Making These 4 Critical Mistakes?

A ​“good” nonprofit website is hard to define. It depends on the organization’s goals, audience, mission, and how its key stakeholders define website success. There are best practices to honour, but sometimes it comes down to whether or not a site has that X factor — some hard-to-define quality that makes the content jump off the page.

Bad nonprofit websites, on the other hand, are easy to pinpoint. As nonprofit website developers, we are painfully aware of what doesn’t work. Yet, despite advances in tech, AI, and culture over, we continue to see what doesn’t work being done. Specifically, there are 4 critical nonprofit website mistakes we see organizations making constantly. And it’s time we call them out.

If you’re considering a nonprofit website redesign — or trying to get your board on board with one — use this article as a checklist. How many of these faux pas is your website guilty of? Some are relatively easy fixes while others require deeper work. But all of them should be addressed ASAP.

Mistake #1: Trying to do (and be) everything

We’ve seen it happen time and time again: When everybody in the organization gets what they want, you end up with a website that does a bunch of things mediocrely but doesn’t do anything very well. 

Providing the ideal web experience — one that’s simple, straightforward, and easy to use — means helping your users find what they’re looking for quickly. To do this, you need to define your website’s purpose. What one thing do you want your visitors to do after they land on your website? What are you trying to accomplish?

Ask these questions in an all-hands meeting and you’ll hear multiple answers. (Recruit volunteers! Enrol new students! Secure funding! State our impact! Drive donations!) This is where, as an organization, you must be disciplined. Your site shouldn’t attempt to achieve 10 or even four or five things. It should exist to serve one core purpose, defined by the #1 thing you want your visitors to do at any given time while on your website.

Repeat after us: A website built for everyone serves no one.

Designing a website for multiple audiences or goals

Okay, but what if your organization wants to attract various personas? 

Some organizations, like program-based nonprofits, need to toggle between speaking to users who need to access their services (programs, events, etc.) and reaching potential donors, sponsors, or other stakeholders. 

It is possible to make this work, but it all comes down to“information architecture,” or how your website is organized. As long as you’re clear on the audiences you need to reach, and the actions you want them to take, it is possible to design a site that makes sense for them — as long as you start from the ground up, you can intentionally build a website that works for everyone. The key is to help your users navigate the site by reducing the choices they need to make so they don’t get confused.

The Mayo Clinic does this exceptionally well. By quickly examining their home page we can see that they cater to three distinct audiences:

• Patients and potential patients

• Medical professionals

• Donors
  

They make it easy for their patients to find what they need by putting their main goals front and center. From their website content, we can deduce that, first and foremost, their patients are looking to:

• Request an appointment

• Find a doctor

• Search diseases

If we look at the main navigation, we see they have a whole menu item about care at Mayo Clinic which explains the organization’s benefits to patients and makes the case for why someone should choose them. 

We also see items for medical professionals and a menu item for giving back. Surprisingly, ​“Giving to Mayo Clinic” is not an attention-grabbing call-to-action button, something commonly seen in the nonprofit space, so it’s likely not as important to the organization as the other goals are. (This may be because their donations come from larger funders, so showcasing their research and patient care is more important.)

Mistake #2: Unfocused and cluttered design

Unfocused nonprofit websites are cluttered and confusing with multiple links, buttons, and calls-to-action on each page competing for your attention. As a user, this is a nightmare. You’re pulled in different directions, overwhelmed by information, and confused about what to do. (Not exactly a rave review!)

We’d all love to believe that people want to hear everything we say and take us up on everything we offer. But the reality is that people come and go from websites in seconds. You’ve got to focus their attention fast because you won’t have it for long. With too many things to look at and no clear path forward, there’s a good chance visitors will bounce right off of the site.

3 ways to declutter your nonprofit website:

1. Focus on clear objectives. (One goal per page is the maximum.)

2. Clean up your written content. (Clear is better than clever.) 

3. Reduce the number of links and buttons on each page.

You might be thinking, ​“Won’t reducing our content reduce interactions on our website? Or shorten the time people spend browsing?” The answer is no, not necessarily. Because if you feature everything, you feature nothing. And when you showcase everything you offer, you risk overwhelming your reader. They might not know where to start or feel like they’ll never be able to read all that content. 

If you must include large amounts of information on your website, use this simple card-sorting exercise to improve your website navigation.

We looked at an environmental nonprofit website from an organization we support here in BC. Even though their navigation wasn’t bad, we thought it could be improved. Using the card exercise, we cleaned up their navigation bar and made it much easier to explore the site.

The removed pages could still be accessed through dropdown links in the navigation bar, links on other web pages, and footer links, so nothing was lost. But now, it’s much easier for users to find what they need without getting bogged down in options.

Mistake #3: Focusing on you (instead of your audience)

Often we see nonprofit websites that are org-centric, meaning their website revolves around the organization instead of the people it serves.

This happens when a website focuses on organizational history, awards, or achievements instead of highlighting its impact on the community or how supporters can contribute to the cause. It also happens when the organization’s story is all about them — instead of the impact they’re making or the people making it possible. 

For your website to succeed, it must center on the person visiting and their role in your cause. Shine the light on them and how they can be part of your organization’s mission and the impact you’re making. Your goal should be to inspire people — not just impress them.

Make a Wish does a great job of this. 

Mistake #4: Boring your readers

The fourth and final mistake we see nonprofits make is boring their readers with website content that’s word-heavy or hard to understand.

We understand that organizations have a lot they want to communicate with their website visitors. But the hard truth is that people just aren’t going to read it all. Today, website visitors skim pages. They need quick answers and up-to-date information. Outdated photography, dry blog posts, and word-wall content simply don’t cut it.

(Wondering how well your website grabs attention? 10 second testing pages will tell you exactly how much people understand from your website in a short amount of time. You show the page to an individual for 10 – 30 seconds then ask questions about what the page was about, people’s general impressions, and what stood out to them.)

To counter the ​“boredom” problem, simplify your website content as much as possible. And whenever possible, tell stories. People are drawn to stories, and nonprofits have great stories to tell. Stories draw on our emotions and people give more when they feel connected to a cause or the people it helps.

One way to tell a story is to get creative with your photography and graphics. We often see nonprofit websites using the same generic stock photos as everyone else and it pains us. We get that it’s easy, but having photos of people on your website is so much more impactful. Yes, it will cost more, but it’s an investment that lasts years and connects people to your cause in a way that words never could.

A strong nonprofit website is simple, focused, and inspiring. 

Want your website to stand out, capture attention, and drive action? And avoid making the 4 mistakes the worst nonprofit websites all make? Then here are your marching orders:

1. Define your website’s #1 goal. What action do you most want your highest-priority audience to take?

2. Declutter your website by reducing the information, buttons, and links on your web pages and navigation bar.

3. Focus less on your organization and more on the impact your reader can make. Invite them to join in your mission and inspire them to act.

4. Use photography, visuals, and storytelling to connect with your reader. Give them a reason to care.

Building a better website takes work. But, trust us — when you have a modern, up-to-date website your whole organization is proud of (and benefitting from) it’ll be work you’re glad you did.