Your nonprofit’s website helps you spread your message far and wide, whether your mission is to provide school supplies to children in need, keep community parks clean and safe, or find homes for shelter animals in your local area.
On top of telling people about the problem you want to solve and the future you envision, you need to share the success your organization has experienced so far on your website! This can inspire more support and build your organization’s credibility.
Not sure where to start? Don’t worry—taking inspiration from the best nonprofit websites, we’ve put together these four tips:
- Share Success Stories
- Leverage Data and Statistics
- Use Compelling Visuals
- Include Testimonials
Celebrating the impact your nonprofit has had on its beneficiaries isn’t just great for your online marketing efforts—it also gives you the chance to reflect on your organization’s journey in delivering its mission. This can be an effective way to identify the parts of your operations that are working the best and motivate yourself and your team to continue moving your mission forward. Let’s get started.
1. Share Success Stories
Stories are powerful tools for highlighting impact because they invite you to become invested in the journey characters take.
To create your own success stories to share on your website, make sure to include all the aspects of a good narrative:
- A central “character” (perhaps a beneficiary) your audience can relate to and root for
- A conflict that your character faces
- A resolution to the conflict
Stories with these key components allow your nonprofit’s website visitors to see how your organization and the people that support it have a hand in bettering your beneficiaries’ lives.
For example, if your nonprofit focuses on animal welfare, you might share the story of how your organization helped rescue a litter of puppies (the characters) from a dangerous situation (the conflict) and find each puppy a stable and loving home (the resolution). Showing how your organization contributed to the resolution of the character’s conflict can be a powerful way to demonstrate just how important your work is.
Here are some tips for strengthening your storytelling efforts on your website:
- Ask for permission. Anytime you want to share someone’s story—whether it be a beneficiary, a board member, an investor, or a volunteer—you need to get their permission first. How your nonprofit has affected an individual’s life can be a very personal matter, and not everyone will want to share. And for those who do give you permission, you’ll be in a better position to collaborate with them on how exactly you tell their story.
- Tell your stories in different ways. The success stories you share on your website don’t always have to be in a written format. Try incorporating video and audio into your storytelling efforts. For example, you might create a video about your nonprofit’s most dedicated volunteer or interview a beneficiary on your podcast.
- Engage your audience’s emotions. Get your website visitors invested in the stories you’re telling by tapping into their emotions. You can do this by using descriptive language, impactful visuals (more on this below), and, for video content, inspiring music.
As you refine your storytelling strategies, remember that your nonprofit doesn’t always need to be the hero of your stories. You can also position your investors, volunteers, and other supporters as being the changemakers for those you serve. In fact, it’s a great way to show your appreciation for all of their contributions!
2. Leverage Data and Statistics
Use data-based facts and statistics to back up the claims you make about your nonprofit’s impact on your website, appealing to your visitors’ logic and ability to reason. Plus, cold hard numbers can often help you objectively quantify your impact.
For example, it’s one thing to say that your nonprofit has helped keep your local environment clean. It’s another thing to be able to share that your nonprofit has led 250 local park cleanups and picked up 13,000 pounds of trash. The latter sounds much more impressive!
Here are some tips for leveraging data and statistics as you showcase impact on your website:
- Offer context. Data is often more powerful when it’s couched in clear context. For example, instead of simply saying that your organization raised $550,000 during its annual campaign this year, include the context that this amount is $50,000 more than last year!
- Provide visualizations. Illustrate data and statistics with a helpful visual, such as a pie chart, bar graph, or infographic. Visualizations will make the information more accessible and memorable for your visitors.
- Regularly update the data you share. Your data won’t help build your organization’s credibility or show the difference you’re making if it’s outdated and inaccurate. Keep your information updated, especially if you have a dedicated “Our Impact” page on your website.
Prepare to share data and statistics that showcase your nonprofit’s impact by tracking key metrics related to your fundraising success and your operations. Not only will you be able to back up your claims once, but you’ll also be able to show positive changes over time as your impact continues to grow!
3. Use Compelling Visuals
Compelling visuals breathe life into the impact stories you share on your website, grabbing your visitors’ attention, evoking powerful emotions, and encouraging action. Plus, visuals make web content much more digestible and easy to learn from—research shows that our brains process images 60,000 times faster than text.
But what types of visuals should you be using on your nonprofit website? According to Cornershop Creative’s design best practices, here are three types of visuals to lean into:
- Images. Your images should be high-quality, colorful, and action-oriented. Your website visitors will be more likely to identify with your mission if you share photos of real people moving your work forward in some way (planting trees in local parks, tutoring students in need, etc.).
- Graphics and illustrations. Depending on the look and feel you’re going for on your site, graphics and illustrations can be great supplements to the images you use. Be consistent with the graphic design style you use to keep your website looking cohesive and professional.
- Color and other design elements. Color can help different elements pop on your website. For example, you can include a colorful background behind text that you want to stand out, or you can use bright colors on your call-to-action (CTA) buttons.
One especially compelling type of image for nonprofits to use is a before-and-after image that clearly shows how your organization and its supporters have had a hand in improving something. For example, you might pair a “before” picture of a trash-littered beach with an “after” picture showing the beach after your organization facilitated a weekend cleanup. Try creating your own before-and-after images to demonstrate how your organization drives positive change.
4. Include Testimonials
Testimonials—whether they come from investors who consistently give major gifts or beneficiaries whose lives were bettered by your services—humanize the impact your nonprofit is having and provide tangible examples of the positive change you’re able to effect.
Here are a few examples of how you can weave testimonials into your web content:
- Record an interview with a dedicated volunteer about why they love serving with your organization. Add the video to your website’s “Volunteer” page to show other supporters why they should register for your program.
- Ask a beneficiary that participated in one of your programs to provide a short testimonial about the program and how it helped them. Include this testimonial on your “Services” page and in your annual report to illustrate the program’s effectiveness.
- Have a prominent investor explain what draws them to your mission. You can include their statement on your homepage to catch visitors’ attention and encourage them to explore more content about what your organization does.
As always, remember to ask permission before sharing any testimonials or direct quotes from your beneficiaries, volunteers, investors, or staff members. Be clear about how you intend to use the testimonial and run the finished product by the individual before using it on your website.
Highlighting your nonprofit’s impact on your website can inspire more support for your mission.
Use these four tips to get started with celebrating all that your nonprofit has accomplished, and don’t hesitate to reach out to experts for assistance. Cornershop Creative recommends working with a nonprofit web design company, as these partners will understand the importance of your organization’s work and be invested in helping you leverage your website to see your mission succeed.
