A Complete Guide to Charity Websites

With insight from internet specialists Oblongata, national newscaster Charity Digital present what you need to know about charity websites.

Charities are starting to transform and introduce some if not most of their work through the digital arena, where an online presence is important for their organisation to deliver its products or services effectively.

So, having a high quality and accessible website is now essential for a charity to do things like organising events, recruiting volunteers, even receiving donations with ease and success.

A well-designed website would improve on a charity’s visibility, its reputation, and its fundraising potential; but creating that effective charity website design does require careful planning to put it in place.

However, creating the essentials of an effective and easy-to-use website that can boost visitors, profile, and funds can be easier than you think.

Who is Your Audience?
When you start looking at the design, it is important to know who would be visiting the website, or what sort of visitor you are aiming to attract.

Are you looking to grab the attention of donors? Are you recruiting volunteers for your cause? Is your website there to provide guidance and advice to those that need your help? Or maybe it’s a combination of these and more?

By understanding who you want to visit the website, you can create it to provide an experience that matches their needs or what they can expect from the site.

Content is King
Probably obvious, but this aspect is especially important for a charity to think about when their digital presence is often aimed at inspiring action, whether this is to ask for donations or to sign up for their good cause.

Content should be easy to read, easy to access, and be compelling enough to convey the charity’s mission and vision successfully.

The use of powerful storytelling can also engage visitors, showing them why they should support the charity’s activities and its objectives; and use of real-life examples can often send that message home too.

Charity web designers should also consider that visitors would normally scan content, rather than read anything that is in-depth; so, it would pay to deliver their message as bite-size chunks, with easy access to topic areas or subheadings when it’s possible.

‘Site Map’ not a real Map
A charity’s website should be designed so that visitors can find what they’re looking for quickly and easily, in a clean and uncomplicated layout.

Easy-to-follow navigation would help with that, like having key aspects of the charity (their ‘About Us’ page, ‘How to Donate’ section, their ‘Contact Us’ page, etc.) being easy to recognise from the Home Page or related pages.

Having a clean layout with natural and easy navigation can greatly enhance the user experience on your site and help encourage future use and revisits.

National newscaster Charity Digital, with insight from internet specialists Oblongata, present everything you need to know about charity websites.

Covering the above elements and more, they offer guidance on what charities need to consider in their website to not only provide some inspiration to web visitors, but also help with a charity’s online presence and drive their charitable mission forward.

To read the guidance, visit the Charity Digital website.

Source: mva.org.uk