Social media is a great way to reach an audience. It provides a place to showcase your strengths, connect with possible volunteers and donors, and create engagement for your organization.
However, being active only on social media without a website may be doing your nonprofit organization a disservice. Increase credibility and earning potential by creating a dynamic online strategy that includes a professionally designed website.
A website adds credibility
Believe it or not, consumers (and donors) view a company or organization with a website as more credible.
As a matter of fact, 84% of consumers believe a business with a website is more credible than one that only has a social media page.
Quite frankly, if your organization only has a social media account, donors may question the legitimacy of the organization and therefore not donate for fear it’s a scam!
Explain your history, mission, and more on a website
A website is the ideal place to elaborate on your history, mission, and management.
Explain your organization to help connect donors and volunteers to your story
This page should tell a story and contain visual interest like videos and images where appropriate. Recycle Bicycle, a Harrisburg, PA nonprofit, includes a robust history page on their website. Make sure you link to your donors and volunteer pages from this page.
Explain your mission to help drive donations and volunteers to your organization
Many nonprofits include their mission right on their About page. Once you explain why you do what you do, you might also share some of your successes. The National Audubon Society does a great job of this on their About page.
Store important documents on the site to maintain transparency and increase credibility
Remember, many donors want to see measurable results. Where is their money going? How many people are they helping? Posting reports and information on a website can keep donors in the loop, thus increasing overall donations.
Add email to add credibility
What does this mean? An email address of helpinghands@gmail.com is less trusted than an email address of info@helpinghands.org.
Further increase your organization’s credibility by choosing an email address that uses your domain name. Once you purchase a domain name and choose a host for your website, you can set up a professional email address.
A website can increase donations
While you can run a temporary fundraiser on your Facebook page, you can have a permanent donation stream by placing a donation button call-to-action on your website.
Humans are wonderfully generous creatures, but they are also often lazy. Think about why Amazon is so successful. It is because making a purchase is just one click away.
Making it easy for people to donate via your website gives them little excuse not to donate.
Anedot makes the online giving process simple. Add a button or form to your website that allows you to
- Accept regular donations
- Accept one-time donations
- Offer convenient payment methods like Apple Pay, PayPal, Debit/Credit cards, and ACH
- Accept donations from anywhere
You can take it one step further by providing different giving amounts and making recurring giving an option online.
Check out how well Renaissance Mechanicsburg outlines different ways to give:
DOWNTOWN FRIEND - Their lowest giving plan
- 3-Year Commitment – $2,500
- Monthly – $69
- Quarterly – $208
- Annually – $833
RENAISSANCE CLUB - Their highest giving plan
- 3-Year Commitment – $1,500,000
- Monthly – $41,667
- Quarterly – $125,000
- Annually – $500,00
By outlining the donation amounts like this, donors can visually understand how quickly their gifts can add up.
This is a great way to show how smaller donations can make a big impact over time!
Make sure you are found
A social media account cannot be optimized like a website can. Search engine optimization is the process of tweaking the content and technical aspects of a website to ensure the site is found in search.
Being found in search can increase your donor pool, increase your volunteer pool, and increase your overall ability to accomplish your mission.
Social media and website make great partners
Social media is a great place to share your story, your accomplishments, and your testimonials. It is a great place to engage with your donors, volunteers, community and beyond.
Use social media to your advantage to promote your website and vice versa. If you run a blog from your website, you can promote each post on your social media channels.
If you run an active social media campaign, consider embedding the feed right on your website. It’s all about cross-promotion so people who find you on social media can learn more on your website.
People who land on your website first will see how active you are on social media and can follow you there for regular updates. It is definitely a win-win.
Get started today
Establish your place in your industry with a professional website. A website does not have to be expensive or difficult to maintain.
There are plenty of do-it-yourself options available. However, there are also many web design companies that offer free or low-cost website design services to nonprofit organizations.
CourseVector, a Central PA website design firm, offers website design services to nonprofit organizations built using the WordPress Content Management System.
Using WordPress to design your website offers ease-of-use, scalability, and adaptability. It is used by Fortune 500 companies and mom-and-pop shops alike. It also offers an army of support. If you get stuck, chances are you can Google your issue and find several videos and blog posts that offers solutions to keep your organization running smoothly.
→ Do you use WordPress? Learn how to add a donate button to a WordPress website!
A website doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. Create a website for your nonprofit today!
Written by: Jennifer Mariani, COO CourseVector
CourseVector, a family-owned business in Central PA, offers website design, hosting, and SEO services and more to businesses, municipalities, and nonprofits. In addition to honest pricing, their team offers free website design to several nonprofit organizations each year! CourseVector is your passport to all things web!
80 Community Service Ideas for Nonprofits
