Author: Max Waldburg
At exSite we appreciate that an NGO’s website has to appeal to a variety of stakeholder groups. Such groups range from individual beneficiaries to high level government officials which all have very different needs and objectives. exSite has experience in helping NGO’s communicate with their online audience by refining website content, enhancing charts and creating infographics. We also offer a full planning and strategy service, digital branding and web design, as well as CMS development and site build to support our clients from initial concept to launch and beyond.
Important things that NGO’s should consider when designing their websites:
- A mission statement: A quick tagline to sum up what the charity (or charitable event) is about.
- How sponsors will be helping: Let your users know what you do with their money once they sponsor. They will want to know how they are making a difference to someone’s life.
- Photo’s of people the sponsors will be helping: Help users identify and visualise the people they will be helping.
- Donate button: The donate button is most likely the most important asset of a charity website so it should be prominent and obvious. This is the ultimate end goal for users.
- Donations to date: If the website is for a specific charitable event, show how much the charity’s raised to date. Current sponsors get to see how useful they’ve been while possible sponsors can see that there are other people already helping and the campaign is active.
- A funding goal: If applicable share your goal. Having a target gives people something to aim for.
- Keep in touch: Sponsors will want you to keep in touch as they now have a vested interested, so make sure they can. Let people sign up and send them an occasional newsletter about what the charity is up to. This will also be helpful when it comes to looking for future donations.
Whilst a website is a combination of content, design and technology, the success of a website will be defined by the user experience, and its alignment with your objectives so the design, structure and content of your website are key.