Top tips to maximise your charity’s website

Could your charity’s website be performing better? In this blog, we’ll identify the top tips to not only enhance your analytics but improve the overall user experience of your website. Implementing these tips can have a direct impact on your donor retention and brand advocacy, as well as communicate your charity’s objectives in a clear and concise manner.

Identify user personas

When planning navigation and content, it is important you identify the different types of users that visit your website. For example, a donor will have different priorities to someone who may be diagnosed with a condition. Their priority may be medical information and locating a support group whereas a donor is likely seeking fundraising information. By considering all of your personas, you can tailor each user journey to provide a personalised experience that is optimised for each individual. 

Strong donations platform

The donation experience is an extremely important aspect of charity web design. Making the giving of donations a seamless process will drive giving and retention. According to KissMetrics, 47% of people expect a site to load in less than 2 seconds and 40% will abandon it entirely if it takes longer than 3 seconds. This means that a complicated, slow donations platform could be significantly affecting the amount of donations you receive. 

We offer a bespoke donation platform that offers a fully customisable solution integrated with the Django CMS.  The donation platform supports single and regular giving, including data capture of Gift Aid mandates. Other key features supported by the donation platform include: appeals support, pay-in fundraising, supporter groups, Google tag manager / tracking.

Charitable giving is often an emotive experience regardless of how big or small the donation is. It is important your donations page clearly communicates not only your charity’s mission but how donations are spent. Charities should be well versed in storytelling, painting a picture of the difference a donation as little as £5 can make, can encourage donors to engage with the charity’s cause. 

Cross-promote related content

‘Related content’ is a powerful tool - take The Brain Tumour Charity website for example. If a visitor to the website has been diagnosed with a tumour called ‘Glioblastoma’, after reading the page that coincides with this tumour, the user is offered a series of suggested pages. In this case the related content options are: Q&A with Dr Jason Adhikaree, Glioblastoma, High grade glioma - all of which will benefit the user and prompt their next move on the site. 

Providing relevant, useful ‘related content’ is a key strength of the charity and helps to build a strong user journey. By demonstrating a consideration of their users’ needs, it helps to build the charity’s reputation as the number one source of brain tumour information. 

Geolocation

Geolocation can be implemented to offer a personalised user experience based on the user’s location. This can be an extremely powerful tool when trying to raise awareness and participation in local fundraising activities. It also ensures that visitors have access to the most relevant information no matter where they are in the country.  

Leverage social feeds 

With today’s fast paced digital world, a successful business plan should embrace social media and is proving to be one of the best ways for charities to communicate with their audience. Interacting with donors in a live, social environment not only encourages advocacy, it persuades other users to engage with your cause. It is important to ensure your social media profiles are optimised on your website’s homepage - the simpler they are to access, the more likely it is users will visit them. 

If you would like to discuss how these tips could work for you, contact us to speak with one of our specialists.