Special Report : A Walk Through ?a Web Site Audit

Today, Web sites are like opinions — everyone has one. This is certainly true for just about every nonprofit organization in the country.

But it's one thing to have a Web site that tells the world who you are and what you do, and quite another to have one that invites and facilitates online gifts. In the course of conducting many audits of nonprofit organizations' Web sites, I've found a surprising number are simply not fundraising-friendly. And I've found a couple that are downright hostile toward donors who want to provide online gifts.

Ridiculous, you say. Why would any nonprofit do that? In most cases, it's unintentional and simply a matter of not knowing any better. And in one instance it was because the objectives of the organization were in direct conflict with applying the kinds of practices that enable donors to give online quickly and easily. Even though there was a solution to meet those same objectives while still making it easy for donors to give online, this organization simply was insistent on continuing its confusing and cumbersome online giving process.

While I can't do anything else to help organizations like that one, I do know I can help you evaluate your Web site to make certain it's doing all the right things to be as fundraising-friendly as possible. So, to that end, I thought it would make sense to walk you through much of the process I use when conducting a Web site audit for my nonprofit clients. This should help you evaluate where you are and address any areas that may be hindering your donors from giving online.

Keep it friendly
In order for a Web site to be fundraising-friendly, it first has to simply be friendly. Is it easy to read and easy to navigate? Do the design, color palette and layout support these essential functions? If not, then it doesn't matter whether you've made it easy to give an online gift, because visitors to your site won't be around long enough to make one.

That's why I begin a Web site audit by first looking at overall content, design and navigation. Does the site use minimal copy and short paragraphs? Does it use easy-to-read fonts? Is it graphically designed to lead the eye to key information and images? Whenever possible, does it enable content to be "above the fold," which means visible and readable without needing to scroll down the page? Is the main navigation bar clearly ?visible? If so, are all the site's primary content pages clearly and logically ordered on the navigation bar? Does the site employ pull-down menus on the home-page's navigation to facilitate viewing primary- and secondary-page content headings without clicking to the pages? Does the site's navigation employ the "three-click rule," meaning can you get to any page on the site by making no more than three mouse clicks?

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