Website Design for Charities

Website design for charities is about making an impact, spreading your message and sticking to your principles. Website design can be challenging for any organisation but harder for charities when the common style is geared towards corporate brochure sites or e-commerce retail. Charities and non-profits need to offer something different when viewing their website, so it’s vital you create a gorgeous design without compromising on the charitable actions you need to promote. Read on to learn the key areas to consider when planning your dream charity website design.

Website Design for Charities & Non-profits

While all websites should follow user experience and industry best practices, charities have an exciting opportunity to make their websites much more interesting. Since they fall outside the usual business style of website, they can create something more unique for their unusual area.

Clear on your message

As I’ve discussed at length in my article, Copywriting for Charities: A Guide, having a clear message is key to success. A charity website needs to have the main purpose of its site front and centre. This may involve several stakeholders and different actions, but each should be straightforward and clearly visible. Consider who the main audience of your website is and what action do you want them to take. You can then apply this message clearly to each. Here are a few areas to consider in a website’s design.

• Your top navigation should get users to the action you want them to perform quickly.
• The homepage is usually the most visited page of a website. Does it direct users clearly to the main message and key actions?
• Does each page have a clear objective, message and call to action? If not, why not? Consider whether that page is useful at all or could be condensed.
• Do you want purchases or donations? Make sure it’s clear how to do this.

Gorgeous looks & useability

Just because it’s a charity website doesn’t mean the site should look ugly. Beautifully designed websites can help your charity gain more donations, funding and volunteers. Just like a business, a gorgeously designed website can make you appear more professional and successful. This builds trust, which will encourage your audience to act. But creating a stunning site shouldn’t be the only goal; a well-designed website is really all about the user experience. Ensuring that your users can get from point A to point B on your site easily and take action should be the primary goal of any quality website design.

Here are some beautiful charity websites for some inspiration: Rights4Children, Emmaus, and Rethink Mental Illness.

Sticking to your principles

Charities are amazing organisations with many fantastic people putting in a lot of effort to help others in the world. As an organisation, it can be easy to focus on all the good work you do but not always apply to your internal operations. Website design for charities should be about creating a usable site that helps you achieve your goals but one that doesn’t compromise principles. Here are some areas many organisations fall down on and what you can do to align your site with what you believe.

• Green credentials – If your charity works in the environmental sector, make your website as eco-friendly and energy-efficient as possible. Sustainable hosting, eco-conscious web designers and selective use of tech can help your charity stay as green as possible.
• Privacy – Does your website have a privacy policy, cookies banner, full contact details and address? These are all legal requirements, and you need to abide by them as a charity. It’s essential if your charity works with children, victims of crime or injustice, or digital safety. If you’d like to take privacy to the next level, consider an ethical alternative to Google Analytics. I use Fathom Analytics (Affiliate Link)
• Inclusivity and accessibility – If your charity works with marginalised communities, then designing your website with accessibility and inclusivity in mind should be top of the agenda. While all website designers should do more to make website accessibility a standard, charities with this focus should ensure they lead the way.

Hire a Website Designer for your charity site

If you need website design for charities, look no further. I offer website design and development to charities, non-profits and social enterprises. As an ethical marketer, my principles are everything to my business, I practice what I preach and create charity website designs that help you reach your goals but still look fabulous doing it. If you want to learn more about my work, visit my portfolio page. You can also read a case study about a non-profit website rebuild for more insight into how I work in the third sector. And if you’d like to learn more about SEO, copy or website design for charities, read more on my blog.