4 Pages Your Nonprofit Website Should Include

Yes, your nonprofit needs a Home page, an About Us page and a Contact page.  Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s talk about a few other specific pages that may be a bit less obvious but can hugely benefit a nonprofit organization.

Impact Pages

It’s essential for nonprofits to share successes publicly and compellingly.  Make the impact you’re having in the community easy to find.  You don’t necessarily need to call these pages “Our Impact;” tailor the name of your pages to whatever it is that you do.  Just make sure visitors can locate them easily and will be moved by whatever it is they find.

Care.org Example

Care.org has a nice page outlining the work they do around the world, broken out by type of project, allowing website visitors to find the type of work they’re most interested in learning more about.  Giving users choices increases the likelihood they’ll find an aspect of the work you do compelling, hopefully leading them to ultimately engage with your nonprofit in some way.

Staff Pages

Unique pages for each member of your staff can be quite an undertaking, especially if your nonprofit is large.  But taking the time to create such pages can be worthwhile for a variety of reasons.

1. Show Your Organization’s Personal Side
Your organization is a collection of passionate people working together to fulfill your mission.  Some website visitors may want to know more about these people.  Have each staff member write the content for their page, highlighting specifics that make them unique and showcase their passions.

A list of facts is boring.  Let each staff member’s unique voice shine through.

2. Share Ways to Connect with Staff Members
You can put links to your staff members’ social media accounts, allowing website visitors to connect with members of your staff.  Doing so can help to create a more personal connection to your organization and make it seem more accessible.

Many people prefer to connect with individuals as opposed to organizations on social media.  Providing links to individual staff social media accounts allows such people to begin to establish a connection with your organization.

3. Beneficial to Search Engine Optimization
Creating individual staff pages can also help boost your search engine optimization efforts since you’ll potentially be able to rank for searches for members of your staff.  Individual pages dedicated to one staff member will likely rank far better than a single staff page with every staff member listed.

Water.org Example

Water.org uses their Staff and Partners page to showcase the individuals that make up their team.  An interested user can click through to individual pages about each staff member to find out more info.

They don’t have links to social media accounts for each staff member.  But hey, nobody’s perfect.

Financials Page

Many website visitors will want to see your financial information prior to getting involved in supporting your organization.  In fact, one study on high-performing nonprofits found the individual donors and financial advisors say “financials” are the number one piece of information they look for prior to making a decision to donate.

Clearly showcasing your financials can go a long way in building trust with a potential supporter.  You can include any information you think users may find helpful, including but certainly not limited to:

• Your Form 990
• Your Annual Report
• Your 501(c)(3) Documentation

Charity:water Example

Charity:water has an awesome Financials page on their website, showcasing a variety of information aimed at building trust in the organization.  A visitor can find years of financial reports, details on their financial model and a link to their profile on Charity Navigator.

How to Help Page

Most nonprofits have a variety of ways for interested people to support the organization.  Create a page outlining the various ways that individuals can support your nonprofit.  Giving visitors options will increase the likelihood they’ll find a way to get involved that suits them.

National Wildlife Federation Example

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) uses their How to Help page to outline a variety of ways people can support their cause.  From simply donating to including NWF in your will, the organization provides options that may appeal to a wide range of visitors.  Each option also links directly to more information as well as a way to take action.

This list is by no means exhaustive.  But including these four pages can help increase the success of your nonprofit’s website.

What do you think?  Are there any other pages nonprofits should be sure to include on their websites?  Let me know in the comments below.

Photo courtesy of Horia Varlan, Flickr