Your nonprofit’s website

Hannah Brazee Gregory | February 21, 2008

Get into the service mindset - treat your website like a program.

Anything you offer on your website, be it static content or an interactive feature, can and should be considered a service, and therefore held to the same standards you apply to any other service your organization offers.

Examples of services offered by most websites include:

• Providing contact information for the organization or for individual staff members
• Supplying information about the organization and its work or areas of expertise

Among nonprofit websites, common mistakes to avoid are:

• Burying valuable services so your audiences can't find them
• Wasting time and resources that could be spent on valuable services
• Diminishing visitors' confidence in your ability to understand what they value, causing opinion of your organization to diminish
• Not keeping sites up to date

If your nonprofit is unable to avoid these common mistakes, you are better off with no website, or a one-page, manageable website.

If you want a website that is more than an "online brochure," there are several necessary features.

Recommended features of all nonprofit websites:

• News Section
• News releases, kept up to date
• Tip: use a web-optimized news release service (such as PR Web) or a blogger service (with RSS feeds)
• A way to capture information and grow mailing lists. At bare minimum, capture email addresses.
• Tip: Use an email marketing service to help you capture and maintain your lists, and make sure you are following rules and regulations.

Hannah Brazee Gregory is a nonprofit marketing communications expert and founder/managing director of Shoestring Creative Group. Hannah can be reached at contactus@shoestringgroup.com or 888.835.6236.

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