A nonprofit website carries more audiences than almost any other kind. Donors want to know their money will matter. Program officers want financials and outcomes. Volunteers want to know what Saturday will look like. Journalists want a spokesperson. And the people you exist to serve want to know whether you can help them, today, without being made to feel like a case.
Most nonprofit sites try to speak to all of them at once from the home page and end up speaking to none of them. A slideshow of program photos, a mission statement written by committee, and a Donate button in a color that does not match anything.
This is the checklist we use. It draws on our work with advocacy organizations, community groups, and public institutions, including the twelve ADA-accessible policy reports we designed for UC Berkeley’s Possibility Lab. It is not legal or fundraising-compliance advice.
1. Decide who the home page is for
It cannot be everyone. Choose based on the organization’s most important relationship this year. For most, that is the donor. For direct-service organizations, it may be the person seeking help, with donors served by a clear path one click away.
Whoever it is, the first screen should tell them in one sentence what you change in the world and for whom, then give them a single next step. Everything else is a click away.
2. A donation flow that does not leak
Every extra step between the impulse to give and the confirmation page loses a percentage of donors. Most nonprofit donation pages lose half.
- Donate on your own domain, embedded, not on a third-party page that looks like someone else’s site.
- Suggested amounts with a short line about what each one does, and an open field.
- Monthly giving as the default or a prominent option. Recurring donors are worth several times a one-time gift.
- Apple Pay, Google Pay, and card. Every field you can remove, remove.
- A thank-you page and email that say what the gift does, not just that it was received. The receipt is the beginning of the next ask.
- Test the whole flow on a phone every month. Donation pages break quietly.
3. The disclosures state regulators require
If you solicit donations online, roughly forty states treat that as soliciting in their state, and many require registration and a specific disclosure statement on the page where you ask. New York, Florida, and several others have prescribed language. The site should carry it in the footer of the donation page at minimum, along with your legal name, EIN, and 501(c)(3) status.
This is a compliance matter your counsel or a charitable-registration service should confirm. What we do is build the disclosure into the template so it appears where required and does not disappear when someone edits the page.
4. The transparency page program officers check
Before a foundation funds you, someone on their staff looks for your Form 990, your audited financials, your board list, and your annual report. If they cannot find them in a minute, that is noted.
One page, linked from the footer: current and prior 990s, financial statements, annual reports as accessible PDFs, board of directors with affiliations, leadership with bios, and your Charity Navigator, Candid, or similar profile. Make it boring and complete.
5. Volunteer and program intake that respects people
A volunteer form should ask what the coordinator needs to place someone: name, contact, availability, interests, any requirements like background checks. Then it should tell them what happens next and when.
A form for someone seeking services is different. It should ask as little as possible, be clear about confidentiality, and offer a phone number and a physical location for people who will not or cannot use a form. If the organization serves people in danger, a quick-exit button and a note about browser history are standard and expected.
6. Stories told with consent
The strongest thing on a nonprofit website is a true story about one person. It is also the place where organizations most often cause harm: a photo taken at a program without a release, a client’s story told in a way they did not agree to, a child’s face used for fundraising.
Every story needs written consent that covers the website, social media, and print, with the right to withdraw. Every story should be one the person would be comfortable seeing on a bus shelter. We learned this discipline over ten years of designing campaigns for Rachel Grant, whose work with survivors of childhood sexual abuse required that every ad be honest about difficulty without exploiting it.
7. Accessibility as a mission commitment
For a nonprofit, an inaccessible website is not just a legal exposure; it contradicts the mission. If you serve the public, older adults, people with disabilities, or anyone using public library computers, the site has to work for them.
Real text, 4.5:1 contrast, labeled forms, keyboard navigation, alt text, captions on video, and tagged PDFs for every report. Our work on the Possibility Lab reports was built around ADA compliance from the first page; the same approach belongs on every annual report you publish.
8. Advocacy tools, when you need them
Advocacy organizations have needs beyond the standard site: petitions, letter-to-legislator tools, action alerts, and event registration. Choose tools that keep the data in your CRM rather than the vendor’s, and be clear in the privacy policy about what you do with a supporter’s information. Match the mailing platform to the CRM so a petition signer becomes a donor prospect without someone exporting a spreadsheet.
9. The boring foundation
Nonprofit sites are attacked as often as any other; donor data is valuable. HTTPS, a maintained WordPress install, a firewall, daily backups, two-factor authentication on every admin account, and a person responsible for all of it. Google offers nonprofits free or discounted tools; use the grant for ads, not for hosting shortcuts.
10. What to leave out
A slideshow. Stock photos of diverse hands in a circle. A Donate button in five places on one screen. A blog last updated before the pandemic. A social feed on the home page. Jargon like “capacity building” and “stakeholders” anywhere a donor might read it.
Case study: Rachel Grant Coaching
A decade of trauma-informed campaigns for a survivor-focused practice.
A nonprofit website should feel like the organization at its best: clear about the problem, honest about the work, respectful of everyone it touches, and easy to join.
If yours is not doing that, we can help. We have worked with advocacy organizations, community groups, and public institutions, and we handle the technical parts so you can stay with the mission.
How we help Nonprofits & Advocacy Organizations →
This article is general information for nonprofit leaders, not legal advice. Charitable solicitation registration and disclosure requirements vary by state; confirm yours with counsel or a registration service before publishing a donation page.