INITIAL STEPS
When most people think of nonprofits, they think it’s an organization that generates money through donations. In reality, a nonprofit is another form of a small business. However, a nonprofit organization is usually mission-driven paired with a future outlook and vision for a community or society.
This drive to help others usually starts with one or a few individuals with an idea based upon former experiences that they’ve encountered firsthand from the past. This notion ultimately surges a need to start an organization or movement. Thus, a nonprofit organization is born after going through rounds of paperwork, grant applications, meeting donors, fundraising, and filing out a 501(c)(3) form. The group can now proceed with laying down the groundwork for change.
WEBSITE SETUP
Now that the official certifications have been registered or obtained, a website is needed to represent the organization. The quickest and easiest way is to set up a domain name (.org), select a reputable hosting provider, and launch a site through a content management system such as WordPress.
WordPress is a free and open-source platform that allows you to scale up or down a website’s functionality depending on business needs. There are third-party extensions that can expand the website’s capabilities.
Say you want to monitor donation traffic, take surveys, view details about your user interactions on contact forms, or translate a website to other languages for an underprivileged community that does not speak English. There are plugins out there for you to do all those things.
The options are endless within the WordPress ecosystem. There is a reason why 43% of the internet runs on WordPress.
Everything runs on open-source technology and non-proprietary software. Owning your data (copy, images, videos, etc.) is very important. It should be the first thing to consider besides the pricing point and service provider when setting up a website. It is your right to keep content and to move freely from site to site, server to server whenever you like.
In early March of 2024, Facebook experienced a massive outage that suspended users from accessing their accounts for nearly two hours. Because of this, businesses great and small ran into issues with their customers, social media could not share information, and campaign plans were halted.
If a nonprofit organization runs all data points of interest such as blog posts, public relations news, and events from their own site, people could still grab information from your website if needed. Having your content hosted on other platforms is like renting space and time; a recipe for disaster.
DEFINED TARGET AUDIENCE
According to the IRS, 1.9 million nonprofit organizations are listed in the United States as of a 2022 census. That’s a lot of noise to cut through. How can you stand out from the crowd? One way to become a conduit of information is through frequent blogging; a tried and true classic SEO method.
Learning about your website’s health and tracking user traffic by looking at Google Analytics data is one thing, but observing and understanding your audience is another.
You’ll need to find out who the target audience is by seeing what drove them to the organization in the first place; whether it’s an in-person meeting, online video call, or perhaps a chance encounter with a call to action button that led them to a contact form or survey of interest.
Figuring out where your audience comes from, what kind of help they seek, and what in-depth resource(s) you can provide, are all basic evaluation tactics to help you build trust for your users.
When you blogging be sure to address the passion for your mission and vision often, and reinforce your articles with positivity when writing relatable content that answers users’ and donors’ questions and curiosity. Articles must explain the current state of an organization, promote future projects or campaigns ideas for change, and who and how the organization is willing to help.
If you have board members, staff, or volunteers contributing to the writing, ask them to help explain in detail about factual events to prove your worth so that people will feel more engaged towards future events and initiatives.
This is important not only to obtain grant funding but should be the main focal point for anyone checking out your website and why they should donate to your cause.
PROVIDE A NEWSLETTER
The chances of someone coming back to your site depend on the content you are putting out. Unfortunately, not everyone will do that. So how do you get returning users? One way is to offer a newsletter.
The last thing we want is another email in our inbox. But if you keep things consistent and concise without spamming users and donors, it will help reinforce the nonprofit’s initiative with helpful highlights. A gentle reminder to keep people engaged and to let them know that the organization is out there and is actively working with the community and society.
You’re probably wondering how often a newsletter should be sent out. The typical timeframe is once a month or once a quarter would be a good start. Highlighting details that an organization has achieved during that period, providing testimonials, social media PR links, or a recap of notable blog posts (list titles and links to past articles) that you feel are worth retelling are helpful notifications of recent and upcoming events.
CONCLUSION
So, are you ready to write? Are you ready to start promoting your efforts? Want to share with your local community what you do and how you can help? Start with basic brainstorming sessions with user engagements as the focus.
Keep the niche close to those whom your organization is targeting, and last but not least, always post and share with others. Word of mouth is still the best form of referral when starting small.
Are you ready to share your thoughts and ideas? Do you need help launching the basic infrastructure such as website hosting, domain registration, and website design?
If so, let’s work together and get the foundations going so you can start helping your community!