Online websites are not just an advertisement for organizations. Websites are an excellent platform for raising brand awareness and acquiring customers. Similarly, non-profit organizations use low-cost options such as websites to increase social awareness, raise funds and find volunteers. According to Non-profit Hub, every charity should treat its website as an investment. Spending an amount on the website helps in finding more volunteers and donors.
Social media platforms are playing a massive role in raising awareness these days in the effort to help many disadvantaged people globally. Having a website and getting people to share on social media platforms like Facebook can help increase the potential of reaching out to the targeted audience base. Sharing charitable information with a verified website and a verified social media handle plays a crucial role in raising funds and spreading awareness.
For a charitable organization, these are five must-have website features:
- Social media buttons
Every website must have social media buttons. It is a great marketing tool if the charity happens to be active on other social media platforms. The social buttons on the website will allow visitors to share valuable content on social media. Integrating other social media platforms enables organizations to raise funds, create awareness and pick up volunteers. It is free advertising that every non-profit organization can take advantage of.
The social media posts can update the latest volunteer schedules or share the funds raised in any campaign. Vice versa, it can leave the backlink to the website donation page for the audience to contribute.
Charities like the Make-A-Wish foundation or WE Charity use the YouTube platform to share their activities in video form. This Non-profit has been honoring children’s wishes since 1980. Children’s videos where they are seen receiving gifts are shared on the channel and the foundation’s website. By sharing the videos on various social media platforms and its website, the foundation increased its interaction with the audience. Its fundraising increased substantially to $ 400 million in 2020.
- “Donate” Buttons
A non-profit organization’s website should have a donation button. Usually, one can see the donate button on the homepage. However, it is useful to have the “donate” button featured on every web page, as research by Microsoft has proven that any message repeated between six to twenty times is most likely to be remembered by the viewer. By repeating the donate button on each web page, visitors will be more likely to remember the cause.
- Mobile optimized website
Many non-profit organizations have a well-designed website but poor mobile landing page SEO. As more people access the internet through smartphones, the website must be mobile optimized with easy navigation and webpages fitting to the mobile screen size. It will allow users to donate for the cause if they can access the donate button on the webpage while on the move. While designing a mobile website, it is crucial to put the services page upfront, including the charity organization’s mission statement, where to volunteer, and how to donate.
- Events Calendar
For a charitable organization, it is essential to have a calendar of events. However, the calendar needs to be updated from time to time on its website. It may not be possible to organize events all the time on social media. However, one can have an interactive calendar on the webpage with an attendance feature so that visitors can click if they are attending or not. Upcoming events can be highlighted on the webpage and also shared on other social media platforms.
- Volunteer Registration
All non-profit websites should have online forms which are interactive and allow submission of user experience. Online forms for event registration, member registration, submission of blogs, donations, and contact forms make it simple for volunteers. It seems that there is more active participation from visitors and volunteers through online registrations.
The above five steps are no rocket science, and its simple implementation will ensure higher donations and more volunteers over time.
Conclusion
The digital platform is the best resource for tapping an unlimited audience for charities of all types and sizes. The website and social media reach are tremendous as they are direct and eliminates the need for intermediaries.
For example, non-profit organization like Project C.U.R.E. is the largest supplier of medical supplies and equipment to developing countries globally. It ranks fourth in the top-notch charities list, and one knows exactly why. Their website has a clear Call-to-action button placed just below its mission statement. A visitor will know what the charity does and how to support it as soon as one lands on its home page. The website also highlights the countries where it operates, and one can navigate over the countries on the map to see the value of supplies donated. It is another example of showing the scale of the charity efforts and the impact resulting from it.
Finally, numbers do not mislead. The statistics of charities have shown that while the overall charitable donations have increased by 4.1 % in the last few years, online donations increased by 12.1%, clearly showing the power of the digital medium.
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