Your nonprofit’s website isn’t performing. Donation conversions are flat. Volunteers aren’t signing up. Your bounce rate makes you wince. Sound familiar?
A website redesign feels overwhelming, especially when you’re already stretched thin managing programs, fundraising and community outreach. But a strategic nonprofit website redesign doesn’t have to drain your resources or take months of confusion.
This step-by-step plan for nonprofit website redesign cuts through the noise and gives you a clear path forward. Whether you’re tackling this yourself or working with an agency, this nonprofit web design checklist will keep your project on track.
Step 1: Audit Your Current Website
Before you tear everything down, understand what’s actually broken.
Pull your Google Analytics data from the last 12 months. Which pages get traffic? Where do visitors bail? What’s your average session duration? Don’t skip this – you might discover that your “About Us” page converts better than your homepage.
Test every form, every donation button and every call-to-action. Click through your site on mobile. Half your visitors are on phones, and if your donation form doesn’t work on a smartphone, you’re losing money every day.
Ask your team members – and a few donors or volunteers – what frustrates them about your current site. Their complaints are your roadmap.
Step 2: Define Clear Goals
“We need a new website” isn’t a goal. It’s a wish.
Get specific. Do you want to increase monthly donations by 25%? Boost volunteer applications by 40%? Reduce the time staff spends answering basic questions via email?
Your goals shape every decision in your nonprofit website redesign process. They determine your budget priorities, your content strategy and which features matter most.
Write down 3 to 5 measurable goals. If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
Step 3: Know Your Audience
Your website serves multiple audiences – donors, volunteers, program participants, grant makers and community members. Each group has different needs.
Create simple audience profiles. What does a potential first-time donor need to see before they trust you with their credit card? What questions does a potential volunteer have? What proof points do corporate sponsors require?
When you know your audiences, you know what content belongs front and center versus buried in your footer.
Step 4: Develop Your Content Strategy
Most nonprofit website redesigns fail because organizations rebuild the structure without fixing the content. Don’t make that mistake.
Inventory your existing content. What can you keep? What needs updating? What should you delete entirely? That 2017 newsletter archive probably isn’t serving anyone.
Map out new content you need:
- Clear program descriptions that explain impact, not just activities
- Compelling stories that show your work in action
- Transparent financials that build donor confidence
- Volunteer opportunity listings with actual details
- An FAQ section that answers real questions
Write in plain language. If a 7th grader can’t understand your mission statement, rewrite it.
Step 5: Prioritize Essential Features
Every nonprofit wants everything – donation tools, volunteer management, event calendars, email signups, social media feeds, impact counters and more. The reality? You need to prioritize.
Your nonprofit web design checklist should start with must-haves:
- Mobile-responsive design
- Secure donation processing
- Clear navigation structure
- Fast page load speeds
- Accessibility compliance (WCAG 2.2 AA minimum)
- SSL certificate for security
Then add your nice-to-haves based on your goals from Step 2. Want more volunteers? Build a robust volunteer portal. Need event registrations? Invest in calendar integration. Trying to grow your newsletter list? Focus on strategic email capture points.
Step 6: Set a Realistic Budget
Nonprofit website redesigns typically range anywhere from $3,000 to $75,000 depending on complexity, features and who’s doing the work.
Budget for more than just design and development. Factor in:
- Professional photography or stock images
- Copywriting if you don’t have internal capacity
- Ongoing hosting and maintenance
- Staff training on the new content management system
- Potential integration costs for your CRM or donation platform
If budget is tight, phase your redesign. Launch with core functionality and add extra features later. A simple, effective site beats an incomplete elaborate one.
Step 7: Choose Your Team
DIY with a website builder? Hire a freelancer? Work with an agency that specializes in nonprofit websites?
Your choice depends on your technical capacity, timeline and budget. Website builders like Wix and Squarespace work for simple sites and are easy for beginners to pick up, but they limit customization. A specialized nonprofit web design agency typically uses WordPress (a more flexible platform) and brings sector expertise – they understand donor psychology, fundraising best practices and compliance requirements.
Whatever route you choose, ensure someone on the team understands nonprofit-specific needs. General business websites and nonprofit websites solve different problems.
Step 8: Design with Donors in Mind
Your website design should build trust immediately. Donors research before they give, and your site either reassures them or sends them elsewhere.
Place your impact front and center. Lead with what you accomplish, not what you need. Show real stories with real people (with permission, always). Make financials easy to find – transparency builds confidence.
Your donation button should appear on every page. Make giving easy with multiple payment options, recurring donation choices and clear explanations of how gifts are used.
Step 9: Test Before Launch
This step separates successful nonprofit website redesigns from disasters.
Test everything. Click every link. Submit every form. Try to break your donation process. View your site on different browsers, devices and screen sizes.
Have people outside your organization navigate the site. Can they find what they’re looking for? Is anything confusing? Where do they get stuck?
Check page load speeds using Google PageSpeed Insights. Fix anything loading slower than 3 seconds.
Step 10: Launch and Monitor
Launch day isn’t the finish line – it’s mile one.
Set up goal tracking in Google Analytics that aligns with your objectives from Step 2. Monitor your donation conversion rates, form submissions, volunteer applications and other key metrics.
Plan to make adjustments in the first 30 days based on real user behavior. Your assumptions about what donors want might be wrong, and that’s okay. The data will tell you what needs tweaking.
Going Forward
A nonprofit website redesign done right positions your organization for sustainable growth. You’ll spend less time answering basic questions and more time advancing your mission. Your donors will give with confidence. Your volunteers will sign up more easily.
This step-by-step plan for nonprofit website redesign gives you the framework. The execution is up to you. Start with Step 1 today – that audit won’t complete itself!
Your community needs what your nonprofit provides. Make sure your website helps instead of hinders that connection.
