Every charity and nonprofit organisation should have a website. There are around 170,000 registered charities in the UK, and at least another 20,000 not-for-profit organisations have charitable status. In the digital age, the importance of an effective online presence can’t be overstated.
A well-crafted website serves as an online home base and the cornerstone of an organisation’s digital presence. An extremely useful tool for a charity, a website can be employed to help boost fundraising efforts, inform and engage supporters and volunteers, and effectively convey their mission and inspire action.
As Charity Digital explain, getting your website right is one of the most important steps you can take as a charity. Can web design help drive better engagement and greater support for charities and non-profits online?
In this blog, we’ll explore some of the key benefits of a well-designed website for charities and non-profits. We’ll show why charities should see their website as a powerful tool that can have a transformative impact, including encouraging more donations, promoting events and memberships, and amplifying social impact more widely. Can harnessing the power of web design be used to boost the credibility and trustworthiness of a charity? We’ll examine how investing in a great website design is becoming more and more important for charities seeking to reach bigger audiences, champion inclusion and accessibility, have more of an impact and thrive in our interconnected world.
Charity Websites: Harnessing Web Design, Building Trust and Credibility Online
Charities and non-profit organisations are navigating an increasingly crowded digital world, competing for attention, engagement, and support online. The 2023 Charity Digital Skills Report found that 79% of charities say improving their website and online presence is a key digital priority. The report also found 59% of charities consider improving their online fundraising as a key digital priority. Charities and non-profits face a big challenge to stand out in a crowded digital landscape.
Focusing on web design and user experience design can be extremely effective in helping charities to build distinctive and memorable online spaces that will support them in achieving their goals.
Web designers can play a vital role in helping charities meeting these challenges, by creating compelling and professional websites, and designing user-friendly user interfaces that generate better user experiences. Research shows that 75% of people will judge an organisations credibility based on their website design. Developing a quality, well-designed website that generates more positive digital engagement will boost a charity’s credibility and help them make more of a positive impact. A website can be designed and optimised to achieve desired goals and influence site visitors to get more involved, whether that is by encouraging them to become volunteers, or making a donation to support what the organisation is doing.
At Grinning Graphics, we understand the power of web design. A professional, well-designed website can offer invaluable support to charities and non-profits as they strive to make an impact and reach more people. Below, we’ll explore in a bit more detail some of the key benefits that professional web design can offer charities, including offering superior user experiences and greater accessibility for their site.
Charity Web Design: User Experience, Accessibility, and Responsive Design
A website is one of the most powerful marketing tools around. Studies show that charities and non-profits that invest in marketing have more of an impact, including increasing the money they raise, and the number of supporters and volunteers they recruit. Websites that deliver superior user experience have much higher conversion rates. 88% of users say they would be less likely to return to a website after a single negative user experience. 94% of users would mistrust a website because of certain design elements. One study found that 38% of users would abandon a website if the content or layout was unattractive.
Below, we will outline some of the most important benefits of effective web design for charities, benefits that would have the biggest impact for charities looking to reach and engage with a wide range of potential supporters and volunteers.
Superior User Experiences
User Experience incorporates how a user interacts with and experiences a website, particularly focusing on ease of use and utility. In User Experience Design, web designers focus on users’ perceptions, emotions, and responses. Using established principles of design and psychology, user experience design emphasises users’ experience and level of satisfaction with the product or service. The objective is to improve ease of use, functionality, enjoyment, and accessibility. Successful user experience design plays a significant role in determining user satisfaction and generating better user engagement, and is an essential element of an effective website design.
Greater Accessibility
Accessibility is an inclusive approach to website design that aims to provide equal access to the web for everyone, including people with visual, auditory, or cognitive disabilities. By employing web accessibility best practices in the website design, including web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) charities and non-profits can ensure they engage with and connect to wider audiences online, ensuring more people can access their site and fully engage with their content, while also demonstrating their commitment to inclusivity.
Responsive Design
Responsive design is becoming more and more essential. The rise of mobile and other web devices means it’s now critical for charities and non-profits take steps to ensure their website is adaptable, that it provides positive user experiences on a variety of different devices. Around 60% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. Ensuring your charity website is enabled with responsive design ensures your site and content will be accessible and optimised across a range of different devices and screen sizes, and that more people can engage with your organisation.
Superior user experiences, a greater focus on accessibility, and implementing responsive design are important aspects of a professional and effective website design. A website design that values and integrates these elements will be a real asset for a charity or nonprofit organisation, and will be a highly effective tool to help drive website visitors to take desired actions like making a donation, signing up to a newsletter, or learning more about what the charity does and the impact it makes.
Conclusion: Web Design – Helping Charities and Nonprofits Achieve their Digital Goals
As we have seen, a professional, well-designed website can bring a wealth of benefits to a charity or non-profit organisation, providing a unique, user-friendly digital space to help build a community online, fostering better connections and stronger engagement. A well-designed website will boost an organisation’s trust and credibility, raise visibility, and help to engage and recruit more volunteers and supporters. By focusing on creating great user experiences, delivering greater accessibility and responsive design, web designers can deliver website designs that help ensure more visitors will engage with the charity’s content, supporting fundraising efforts, service delivery, and outreach.
At Grinning Graphics, we’re proud to have worked with a range of different charities and nonprofits to develop website designs optimised to support their goals. Delivering superior user experiences, responsive design, and prioritising accessibility, we create and develop unique, professionally designed websites and user interfaces.
Whether you’re looking to maximise donations, educate people and raise more awareness about your cause, or help engage and recruit more volunteers and supporters, our web designers will work with you to optimise the website design to better serve your charity mission and engage your target audiences more effectively.
Are you a charity or non-profit looking to improve your organisation’s online presence?
Are you interested in working with web designers to develop a new website?
Contact us today to book a free website design consultation.
