{"id":19982,"date":"2020-08-28T13:09:01","date_gmt":"2020-08-28T17:09:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qgiv.com\/blog\/?p=19982"},"modified":"2021-06-01T14:18:41","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T18:18:41","slug":"8-top-notch-tips-from-a-nonprofit-website-whisperer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qgiv.com\/blog\/8-top-notch-tips-from-a-nonprofit-website-whisperer\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Top-Notch Tips from a Nonprofit Website Whisperer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rachel Clemens is the nonprofit website whisperer. She\u2019s the Chief Marketing Officer at Mighty Citizen, a company that focuses on branding and marketing for nonprofit organizations. Rachel recently presented a webinar with us, which she called \u201cAnatomy of a Nonprofit Website: Why Your Donors Aren\u2019t Giving (More) Online<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are 8 top takeaways from her session!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give your website a primary goal<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Choose one primary goal for your website. One! If you could ask people who land on your website to do one thing for you, what would it be? Would you ask them to donate? Volunteer? Buy a membership? Make that one goal the focus for your home page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why choose only one primary goal? Well, including multiple calls to action dilutes each of them. Having one primary focus ensures your message is strong and compelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try the 5-second test<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

How do you know if your homepage effectively communicates your mission and primary goal? Try the 5-second test!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conduct this test, recruit someone who doesn\u2019t work for your organization to look at your home page. Give them 5 seconds\u2014no more! If they can\u2019t tell you what your organization does and how they can get involved at the 5-second mark, it\u2019s time to go back and work toward making your mission and calls to action clearer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Use donor personas to build an appealing website<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Not sure what content to include on your website? The first step toward writing great copy is establishing some donor personas. Donor personas are profiles you build that represent large groups of your donors. Thinking about how to appeal to a sea of faceless people is intimidating. Thinking about how to appeal to Donna, your 45-year-old mother of two who loves your children\u2019s programming, is much easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you looking for a place to start? Check out our donor persona development checklist<\/a>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understand your user\u2019s journey<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

How do your supporters move from being potential donors to highly engaged donors? Understanding that process will help you build a great user journey for them. According to Rachel, your donors\u2019 user journey probably looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When you have a good grasp on how your donors learn about your organization and begin supporting you, you can make sure all your campaigns contain each important step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile-friendly is a must<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Most of the traffic to your website comes from people on their smart phones. This is especially true if you\u2019re pointing people to your site from channels like Facebook or email!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine you just shared an inspiring Facebook post about how your donors can meet a big need. Someone read that post while they were browsing Facebook on their phone, and they tapped the link to donate. Suddenly, they went from being on a mobile-friendly app to an awkward donation form where they have to pinch and zoom and scroll to make a gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t let that happen! Always make sure your donation form is mobile-friendly. If you\u2019re using a Qgiv form, your donation form is already optimized for mobile devices. If you want to be extra-sure it\u2019s as mobile-friendly as possible, take a look at this article about designing forms for mobile devices<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put your story first<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

What makes donors connect emotionally (and stay emotionally connected) with your mission? Well, much of that process is driven by oxytocin, a hormone sometimes called the \u201clove hormone.\u201d It\u2019s responsible for helping us form emotional bonds to people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The easiest way to connect your donors and your mission is by telling stories about the people your donors will help. When we read stories about people, our brains produce oxytocin and we feel an emotional bond to the person in the stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raise more money by placing people-centric stories front and center on your nonprofit\u2019s website. You\u2019ll inspire oxytocin release in your audience, which will help them bond with your clients and inspire them to give.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Craft a great hero message<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

A hero message is a statement that appears in a prominent place on your homepage. It\u2019s usually displayed along with a large main image (the hero image) and is a distillation of your organization\u2019s messaging and purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good hero message:<\/p>\n\n\n\n