At this point, every nonprofit organization has a website. A donate button. A link to contact information. But honestly – why do people visit your website? It sounds like a simple question, but within it involves the need to analyze your audience, to assess your organizational strategy, and to consider how your visitors need relate to your intended outcomes. But assessing why people visit your site is equally important for creating more opportunities to accomplish your goals – how can visitor behavior be better utilized to fit the needs of your organization?
From our experience, here are the three main reasons that people might visit a nonprofit website, as well as ways to incorporate these use cases into opportunities for your nonprofit.
Where the Money Goes
Financial transparency is of great importance to more and more donors and volunteers. While there are flaws in some of the methodology behind charity rankings, it is still important to show how your organization uses the money donated through fundraising or grants. By showing how your money is managed, you create a greater sense of trust for those unfamiliar with your organization.
Additionally, by better establishing where money goes, it makes for an easier fundraising ask. By explaining how you use outside contributions to accomplish your goals, you have the opportunity to highlight how important these donations are – and how your visitor can help your nonprofit reach its goals through an investment.
Contact Information
It sounds simple enough, but too many nonprofit website bury their contact information. Similar to transparency, having information on how to directly contact your staff, or thorough descriptions of the work that they individually do, makes for a better user experience.
Your staff, whether it’s two people or two hundred, are the literal face of your organization. Give your visitors the opportunity to get to know you and contact you easily.
In doing so, be sure to track incoming requests not only in an effort to provide competent customer service, but also to provide additional numbers to donors and grant providers about how people connect with your organization. Learning where your incoming requests are coming from is vital for understanding your impact in your community.
Access Your Resources
For many of the nonprofits we work with, much of their work is in providing educational resources to the public about their cause. When people are accessing your site, are they looking for handouts, trainings, or links to other sites? How accessible is this information? How up to date is it?
Additionally consider what of your resources are the most popular – are there opportunities to create additional learning opportunities on that page? How can you keep users on your website longer and, to be direct, to get them to read and do what you want? By creating campaigns around the areas where your visitors are most likely to go, you stand a better chance at connecting with those individuals you would like to reach.
Why do people visit our website? Besides learning more about us, the data shows that our audience appreciates our links of the week:
- Joann Collins at Event 360 reviews how support of participants has changed from website and eCommunciations.
- Seven nonprofits are helping Twitter test their new Buy button. The NonProfit Times shares the details.
- Apple dominated the tech news cycle this week and their mobile payment platform could be important for nonprofits. Robert Hof at Forbes provides details about the program.
- Blackbaud created a slideshare guide to raise more money from appeals.
- Twitter vs. Facebook is a constant debate for communicators. Juan Jose Mendez at Social Media Today discusses the impact on branding.
- Amanda Clark at B2C highlights three challenges from many online marketing campaigns.
- Website benchmarks can be a tricky subject. Brett Meyer at Thinkshout dives into some data.