Your website is a public face of your organisation. It is important that it accurately represents who you are. Here are some questions to help you evaluate whether you have an effective website.

TECHNICAL - Does your site load quickly?
- Does your site read well on a mobile phone or tablet?
- Have you tested the site on different computers and web browsers?
- Do you use good tracking software, like Google Analytics, to draw stats on your website visitors? This is crucial to helping you understand how your website is being used.
DESIGN- Is your logo and name clear to read?
- Is there an accessible, easy-to-find tagline?
- Are the colours and style in line with your organizational brand?
- Are the images appropriate for your work? (NB: Avoid blurry, confusing cellphone photos at all costs!)
HOMEPAGE- Can a visitor tell who you are and what you do in a few seconds?
- Do you feature images of people?
- Is the impact and/or context of your work easy to gauge?
NAVIGATION- It is easy to find important content in the site?
- Are the menu items clear and intuitive?
CONTENT- Is your text written for the web, in clear, concise language, using bullet points and descriptive headlines?
- How fresh is your content? Are the dates on your most recent posts less than a month old?
- When is the last time you updated the “about” section of your website?
- Do you include first-person stories in your site? Your case studies, or examples of how you impact individual people, is much more valuable in encouraging people to support your campaign than stark facts and figures about an issue. These stories also work well to promote your content on social media.
DONATION- Is there a clear donate button on the homepage?
- Have you created a compelling case for why people should donate to you, and presented this on the donate page? This page should include examples of the impact of your work and the potential impact of the donation, case studies, and specific donation requests, for example:
o R50 will buy one week of food for an animal in our care
o R100 will contribute to veterinary bills
o R1000 will be invested in our building fund, to help upgrade our facilities
CONNECTIONS- Is it easy for people to find your contact info?
- Are links to your social networks easily accessible?
- Are visitors encouraged to sign up to your newsletter?

Overall

Do you clearly explain why your work matters? Most non-profits clearly explain all what their programmes are, but not WHY they have initiated them. Provide context and examples, and show the real-world impact of what you do. Showing your impact is crucial to building support, whether to raise awareness of advocacy work, encourage volunteers to assist, or to raise funds. Unsure how to bring these objectives to life? Have a look at these guidelines to help you along.

Additional Resource: Click here for some guidelines to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your website.


Author:

Written by Ruendree Govinder. For more about Ruendree and her work in the sector, view her practitioner profile here or visit The Non-Profit Network for additional resources.