Designing for Non-Profits

Many non-profit organizations have a need to create a website. In order to correctly promote and get their audience hooked onto their cause they need to portray the right effect. This is quite dependant on their web design. A non profit website differs from a retail business by the fact that a business will have pictures of product it sells in addition to other website's products. A non profit will host little or no outside advertisements and usually relies solely on donations to function.

A non profit website will want to describe the services it provides that benefit others in a way that persuades the readers to get more involved in the workings of the organization. Many times posting a video clip of a happy recipient of the charity or a sick patient who has benefited from the holiday gifts will touch upon the hearts of readers to donate to the cause.

Because most of the resources of a non profit organization comes from sympathetic readers it is vital that the 'make a donation' button is placed in a prominent, easy to get to location. It is additionally important that the methods of payments and the pages to register to donate are designed as simply as possible, the smoothest navigation and all because one glitch in the processing and your prospective benefactors may just turn away.

It's a great idea to offer some sort of 'choose what you want to your money to be used for' option. Firstly it's a good way to get your visitors involved in the myriad elements your organization deals with and additionally people appreciate knowing what exactly their money is being used for. Say someone wishes to donate 100 dollars, give them the option to choose what their money should be used towards. For example, a toy basket for an ill child, 2 nights of supper for a needy family, or 2 hours of rehab therapy fora car accident victim (depending on your organization of course.) This may encourage people to donate more than they planned when they see how the costs of the good you are doing really add up.

The main thing is to truly express the mission of your organization in a clear manner to portray exactly how you help people. The text, wording, and design can greatly influence the amount people will donate and the involvement they will choose to have. Design wisely!