Dear Nonprofits,
It shouldn’t be this hard.
This hard to do good in the world.
This hard to get people to care about your cause.
This hard to work in social good without burning out.
This hard to find your people – the ones who light up when you share your mission.
But it is.
And building a great website is consistently one of the hardest projects
a nonprofit has to tackle.
Finding a website partner is tough enough. But then you’re expected to become a copywriter, a designer and a programmer just to launch the website your cause deserves.
But what if it wasn’t this tough? Imagine something radically easier:
A world where every nonprofit can build a website effortlessly.
No tutorials.
No frustration.
No dead ends.
Just maximum impact.
That’s what we’re building here at Wired Impact. Not a website approach that’s incrementally better. But something that’s never existed before.
It won’t happen tomorrow. But it’s where we’re heading. And the heart of our entire approach is ease of use.
Why Ease of Use?
Our focus on “radical ease” has been years in the making.
The best hammer is useless if it’s too heavy to lift. And the website design space is riddled with these heavy hammers.
That’s why we ruthlessly prioritize ease of use. Because a feature doesn’t matter if it’s too hard to use.
Most tools prioritize endless features and settings over ease of use. They drown nonprofits in complexity, forcing changemakers into reading tutorials instead of changing lives.
Lots of flexibility and customization is great for power users, like designers or developers. But it doesn’t help the average nonprofit create an amazing website that moves their mission forward.
We’ve been helping nonprofits build websites since 2009. And most struggle with the same few issues:
- Editing their website is too hard
- There’s never enough time to focus on their site
- They’re unclear how to get the most out of their website
Our focus is on solving all of these challenges.
If a nonprofit is spending less time building and updating their website, there’s more time and focus available for mission-critical work.
If something is frustrating, it’s natural to avoid it. If we want nonprofits to actively update their websites and get the most out of them, working with the site has to be delightfully easy.
We always hear changemakers blame themselves when they can’t figure out how to do something with technology.
If you can’t figure out how to use a tool, the tool has failed. Not you!
As tool builders, it’s on us to make sure that doesn’t happen (and fix it when it does).
Why Nonprofits and Websites?
We’re focused on nonprofits and websites for a few key reasons.
Most nonprofits exist because society is constantly failing our most vulnerable communities. They’re a lifeline for people who are otherwise being underserved, underrepresented and undervalued.
That’s why we’ve been working solely with nonprofits since 2012, even when others said it was “a bad business decision.” Because it’s not just a business decision. It’s a moral one.
A website has the power to transform a nonprofit.
It can save you time.
It can streamline your processes.
It can turn casual visitors into active supporters.
It can help you build genuine connections with your community.
We believe every nonprofit deserves access to this kind of website.
We should know. We used to be a web design agency ourselves.
We had to constantly tell small and mid-sized nonprofits they weren’t a fit for our custom website services. And we didn’t have a great recommendation for them, so we decided to build it.
Custom websites are expensive since everything is designed and built from scratch. They also typically take a long time to launch.
Some nonprofits truly need this kind of site. But many don’t. And for those organizations, justifying the high price and long timeline often doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.
Nonprofits are unique, and so are their website needs. They have to balance more audiences. They use different tools than businesses for things like donor management or recruiting volunteers.
We often hear from orgs when they’ve outgrown a DIY approach and need something tailored to the needs of a nonprofit.
This isn’t just a dream here at Wired Impact. It’s the future we’re actively building, and why we’re so passionate about building it.
If it resonates, we’d love for you to join us, as a client, team member or partner.
And if you ever feel like we’ve strayed from this path, hold us accountable. Because we’re not just trying to build better websites. We’re building the tools nonprofits need to change the world.
Here’s to a future where every nonprofit has a website they’re proud to share!
David Hartstein and Jonathan Goldford
Co-Founders of Wired Impact