Latest NPO Website Design Trends

We’ve designed and built a lot of websites over the past decade for the largest and smallest nonprofits. Website trends faded in and out, and some came back in style again, and we’ve learned a lot of lessons about how to design websites that mobilize people to take action, boost donations, and advocate conversions through optimized landing pages.
How can nonprofits supercharge their websites in 2019? Here are eight of the best website trend that you can immediately explore on your own nonprofit’s website.

1. Go Bold
There’s a big debate in the web design community about whether softer and more muted color palettes vs bolder colors will dominate design in 2019. If you are an advocacy nonprofit, go bolder. Given the political climate and upcoming 2020 elections, it’s imperative that you get and hold visitors’ attention. This does not mean every page of your website should be shocking color palettes with no white or lightly colored backgrounds. Instead, use bold colors and graphics that pop to highlight critical content you want users to prioritize or take action on. There are a few ways to do this well, with some of the most effective methods being. Check the below image.
FUNDRAISING CALLS-TO-ACTION
To draw more visibility to Defenders of Wildlife’s legal defense fund and raise more money to fund their lawsuits against the Trump Administration for failing to protect wildlife, Rad Campaign designed a large and “in your face” call to donate on a black background with bright yellow text using 6 different gift strings. It was placed on every page of the site to reach donor prospects no matter what page of the website they were on. To avoid being too intrusive, the call to action disappeared as users either scrolled down the page or clicked the “X” to close it. The fundraising call to action resulted in a significant increase in donations compared to just promoting fundraising ask in the homepage hero area.

2. Incorporating Micro-interactions
One of the big design elements that keep people addicted to platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and dating apps is micro-interactions to entice the user. These micro-interactions are where the user takes some sort of action and the website or app reacts to trigger a user response that’s often emotional. For example, every time you are on Facebook and someone comments on your Facebook post, you’re alerted via a beeping sound to prompt you to go and read it. Or, when you check Facebook, you may see a “thumbs up” on your latest post or a red icon showing how many notifications you’ve received. This is done intentionally to trigger a response and, in turn, additional action from the user.

3. The BIGGER the Text, the Better
Do you remember when large hero areas started to dominate nonprofit websites? While they are still widely used, large text on hero images and headlines with creative fonts are also now dominating websites beyond just the homepage hero area. Over the years, designers have felt pigeon-holed by the web, but with advances in web development, it’s easier for creative designs to scale across devices and screen sizes. Designers are taking creative freedoms to go bigger and bolder with typography to draw users into key content across website pages.

4. Massive Calls to Actions
On average, you have 5 seconds to engage someone visiting your nonprofit’s site and in that time, you have to tell them your mission, why they should care, and what they can do to get involved. One key method to hook people quickly is to push them to a prominent call to action that’s timely, deeply connected to your mission, and provides target audiences with something they find very valuable. Many advocacy organizations already use homepage hijacks during year-end fundraising and rapid response campaigns, but they can do a lot more with calls to action throughout the year focused on the different ways their constituency can make an impact.

5. Chatbots
Most nonprofits aren’t using chatbots as part of their arsenal of communications tools yet, but it’s something nonprofits should consider to test if it’s a good fit. For example, chatbots could be helpful if your organization has a dedicated customer support staff for an eCommerce store, program, or service people use or pay for. In these cases, chatbots can automate customer support functions for most FAQs or queries. For more complicated queries, the chatbot could direct these questions to the appropriate customer support team for follow-up.

6. Personalization
You don’t have to be Amazon to take advantage of website personalization. Nonprofits can also tailor their website to deliver personalized content to their donors, advocates, volunteers, and the media. Personalization can lead to the increased time spent on websites and, ultimately, more donation and advocacy conversions.

7. Video and Podcast Content Rules
In addition to providing another way for constituents and the media to consume your content, depending on their viewing preferences, Google is now featuring search page results with video content higher than standard web pages that don’t integrate video. Nonprofits have access to some of the most incredible and impactful stories on some of the toughest issues facing this world. Staff should be empowered to tell these stories through multiple mediums, including podcasts and videos.

8. Social Proof
Airbnb, Amazon, and Yelp all rely on social proof to help their audiences make decisions based on the experiences other users have shared. To put this in marketing terms, social proof is a tactic to optimize conversion rates.
There are a variety of ways nonprofits can use social proof on their websites to build more trust with their audiences, such as:
The Customers - Integrate ratings and reviews into your eCommerce store to encourage people to make that purchase and seal the deal. Studies have shown that nearly 70% of American shoppers sought out reviews before making a purchase online.
The Community - Highlight the number of advocates, donors, and volunteers who have joined your nonprofit to support your mission.
The Impact - Illustrate how your nonprofit has made an impact on the community you serve. For example, charity: water has been consistently transparent about sharing their data and their mission to bring clean, safe drinking water to every person on the planet.

Conclusion
An effective nonprofit website is consistently probably the greatest device in your promoting store for creating brand mindfulness and building a local area for giving guidance.
To make a nonprofit website design that addresses the issues of your intended interest group, first comprehend who precisely that client persona is.
Then, consider including the following must-haves as your nonprofit website best practices:
==> Engaging images, graphics, and video
==> Effective use of white space
==> A prominent, global Donate button
==> Responsive design for desktop and mobile devices
==> Strategic search engine optimization
==> Consistent blog content publishing