As the Director of a nonprofit organization, I wanted to create an informative and professional website to represent our mission and share our story with visitors. However, as someone without experience creating websites, I wasn’t sure where to begin. Here are the steps I took to get started on our new web page.
The first thing I did was evaluate our goals for the site. What did we want visitors to learn or do when they visit? We determined we wanted to share information about our services, upcoming events, ways for people to get involved, and how to donate. With clear goals in mind, it was easier to plan the structure and content.
Next, I looked at other nonprofit websites that we admired for design ideas. Taking notes on features like layout, navigation options, and use of imagery helped me visualize what might work best for our organization. I also looked at their content to get a sense of how other groups communicated similar information.
With goals and examples to reference, I began researching website builders and content management systems (CMS) that would allow non-technical staff to easily update the site. An intuitive interface was important since staff time is limited. I settled on a user-friendly CMS after testing different free and paid platforms.
After selecting a CMS, I created an outline for the site structure and pages needed. Things like “About”, “What We Do”, “Get Involved” were obvious main sections. From there, I broke down what specific sub-pages and content each would contain. This gave me a blueprint to guide the buildout.
Images are critical for nonprofit sites, so I also began collecting and organizing photos from past events that depicted our work and community. Selecting quality, informative images to represent each page was a big part of bringing the site to life visually.
Starting with a CMS and outline allowed me to delegate initial webpage creation tasks to staff. I provided training on adding and formatting content within the CMS framework. Going forward, keeping the site fresh will be a shared responsibility among our small team.
Creating a first website involved more steps than I anticipated as a non-designer. But taking time to define goals, research options, and plan the structure made the process more organized and successful. I hope these tips help other organizations get their online presence started on the right foot.
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