Is your nonprofit organization’s website telling a story, or is it just a collection of isolated pages?
As your nonprofit’s digital home base, with the proper care and attention, your website can serve as your primary online storyteller. The content on your website can narrate who you are, your cause, what you do, and the impact your organization is making, helping visitors connect emotionally with your work. By delivering a cohesive brand story, your website content can reinforce trust and identity, guiding people toward deeper engagement with your organization.
Telling your nonprofit’s story through your website content.
To tell a cohesive story through your website content, lean on your brand. I recently wrote about using your brand as a framework to unlock creative ideas. To help you improve your website content, think about how you can convey the key elements of your nonprofit’s brand narrative through your content:
Identity: Make it easy for a website visitor to quickly grasp who your nonprofit organization is, the stand you take, the values you bring to your work, and the role you play in your space. This information can be surprisingly hard to find or nonexistent on many nonprofit websites.
Purpose: Clearly position and explain your cause and the challenges you address, either through a brief yet prominent overview or a more in-depth section. Don’t make assumptions about what your audiences already know; some visitors will be just beginning to understand your cause, and others will need clear signals that they are in the right place.
Approach: Feature content that explains your organization’s approach to providing solutions (your model). Describe the programs, services, advocacy, research, funding, capacity building, or other solutions you’re implementing to achieve your goals. Share why you’re taking this approach and what makes it unique or effective.
Impact: Offer content that highlights the difference your organization has made or aims to make. Provide evidence of your impact through outcome metrics and stories of transformation. Help visitors understand that your organization is making a genuine difference, inspiring them to be part of your story.
Is your nonprofit’s website telling the whole story? Reflection questions
Are you ready to assess whether or not your nonprofit’s website content is telling a complete story? Reflect on these questions:
1. How is your organization’s core identity telegraphed to first-time visitors?
Is your identity, including what makes you distinctive, quickly and clearly conveyed, or do visitors have to dig for it?
2. Is your nonprofit’s cause or issue presented prominently and clearly?
Can visitors easily determine that they’re in the right place for the cause they care (or are curious) about? Do you offer sufficient — and sufficiently prominent — content explaining your cause or issue, its significance, and urgency?
3. Can visitors quickly and easily understand your approach and solutions?
Where can visitors learn about your nonprofit’s model and the specific solutions you’ve chosen? Can they easily understand why you’ve chosen this approach and why your organization is well-positioned to provide these solutions?
4. Can website visitors easily understand your nonprofit’s impact?
Does your website include evidence of your organization’s progress and success? Does your website content include compelling stories of change, success testimonials, and impact data?
Use these reflection questions to evaluate your current content and identify opportunities for improvement. Do the pieces of your nonprofit’s website content add up to a coherent narrative, or are there gaps in your organization’s story?
Your nonprofit’s website can be a vital storytelling tool that can transform visitors into engaged community members. Ensure that your site effectively communicates your identity, purpose, approach, and impact to invite deeper connections and foster trust with your audience.
Marlene Oliveira is a communications advisor and copywriter specializing in three fundamental areas: brand messaging, website content, and storytelling. She has worked in the nonprofit sector since 1999, including a two-year crash course in a grassroots role and six years as the national communications manager at a large Canadian health charity. Since 2008, Marlene has been solving content challenges for a wide variety of nonprofit organizations through her consultancy, moflow.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s alone and do not necessarily represent those of CharityVillage.com or any other individual or entity with whom the authors or website may be affiliated. CharityVillage.com is not liable for any content that may be considered offensive, inappropriate, defamatory, or inaccurate or in breach of third-party rights of privacy, copyright, or trademark.