Branding & Web Design for Nonprofits: Best Practices
How your non-profit can connect better with donors through your brand and website
Fundraisers, door-to-door campaigns, and petitions are some of the many creative ways nonprofits work to spread their message. As visionary, world-changing organizations, they are always seeking ways to further their mission. One frequently overlooked way to do that, however, is through quality branding and design.
Though it may seem surface-level, the benefits of paying close attention to your visual identity can make a huge difference, from increasing your donations to boosting engagement on social media. A well-designed logo, website, and visual identity will help a nonprofit stand out from the crowd, build trust and loyalty with its audience, and form lasting emotional connections.
Why is branding and design important for nonprofit organizations?
According to a survey from Double the Donation, 39% of respondents indicated that they were most inspired to give by social media. Social media can help nonprofits raise awareness and garner donations for their cause. However, social media is a competitive landscape. It can be challenging to stand out in the sea of other brands and influencers competing for users’ attention.
One of the best ways to stand out on social media is to use branding to your advantage. A well-crafted brand will help your organization’s message to be noticed. Plus, when your audience interacts with your high-quality content, they’ll notice that quality and will be more likely to trust your organization as a result.
If you’re wondering what best practices you should keep in mind when you’re working on your nonprofit’s branding and visual identity, I’ve included some of my best advice and some examples below!
Design for functionality
Functionality means that everything should work, and it should work well. If your website takes forever to load, your donation forms don’t work, or it’s difficult to navigate your site on a mobile device, this will deteriorate trust with your audience and make them less likely to engage with your organization.
One important example of functional design is ensuring navigation on your site is simple and clear. It should be easy for site visitors to find what they’re looking for, whether that’s your donation form, a volunteer sign-up form, or more information about your organization.
On social media, embracing functional design could mean including links to your important forms in your bio section so they’re easily accessible to followers, and always double-checking to ensure your links are working correctly.
Creating a functional design doesn’t just benefit your audience — it benefits your team, too. For example, rather than copying and pasting information from your website forms into a CRM, you can design your site to be integrated with your CRM so all information is automatically added there. Investing in functional design can save your organization time and effort.
Make the call to action easy to find
A call to action is a button on your website that “calls” or prompts a site visitor to take immediate action. Examples include “Donate”, “Sign Up”, “Join Now”, and more.
Your call to action button should be the easiest button to find on your website. Don’t make your audience go searching for it! To help your call to action button stand out, use a contrasting button color and make sure it is visible on your homepage without requiring a site visitor to scroll.
Make your mission clear
Your mission should be featured front and center on your website and in your branding. With compelling visual elements, you can evoke emotion within your audience and tell your story. These visual elements can include photos, graphics, videos, images, color, typography, and more.
If the answer to the question above is no, then visual design could be low-hanging fruit to create a more intentional impact with your audience.
Stay consistent with your branding
Maintaining a consistent brand across all channels (your website, social media, and print materials) is only possible if you take the time to clearly define your brand. It’s important to maintain consistency in order to establish credibility and build brand recognition.
Don’t forget that your brand also encompasses the voice and tone used in your website copy, in your captions, in mailings, and more. Choose a voice that matches your visual identity and the best practice is to use it consistently.
Brand guidelines also help various members of your team sound like a unified voice. If you have volunteers who run their own chapters of your organization, brand guidelines can be a very helpful tool. With a clear brand, it doesn’t matter who is speaking or creating content on behalf of your nonprofit, you will still be able to appear to the world as a unified movement.
Design with your audience in mind
When creating your visual identity, it’s critical to design it with your audience in mind. It can be tempting to follow trends, but it’s far more effective to attune your website and branding to your audience’s interests and values.
You can learn more about your audience in a few ways. Using data from previous donors, sending out surveys to your email list, or creating a focus group are all great ways to determine what your audience values the most about your organization and what kinds of things motivate them to take action.
It’s also important to keep your visual design accessible so everyone is able to access your website and understand your mission. Maintaining sufficient contrast between your text color and background color to improve readability, adding descriptive alt text for all images on your site, and using clear, simple language are all great ways to make your brand more accessible to all.
Examples of effective nonprofit brand and website design
The following are a few examples of nonprofit clients who we’ve with worked at Sereth Design to create a sensational, refined, and thoughtful website/brand. At Sereth Design, we value working with heart-led brands who are pursuing world-changing goals. Below are a few examples to serve as inspiration for effective branding.
Kutoa Project
The Kutoa Project is a counseling, therapy, and education service center in Nairobi, Kenya, that provides therapeutic social services in a safe, faith-filled environment. Their work is accomplished by equipping Kenyan youth who have been affected by violence, abuse, homelessness, trafficking, disease, or loss with therapeutic services. The Kutoa Project works to meet and support those affected by traumatic experiences right where they are while offering healing through hopeful, purposeful, and faith-filled counseling services.
The branding we designed for the Kutoa Project was inspired by Kitenge cloth, an East African, West African, and Central African fabric. The fabric is worn often, and its patterns are vibrant and full of life. Similarly, Kutoa Project seeks to bring life and renewal back to those who have experienced trauma. The symbols within the icon each symbolize various values for Kutoa Project: safety, faith, growth, and hope. Overall, the brand is created with vibrance, energy, comfort, and joy in mind.
Watumull Children
Watumull Children’s Education is a nonprofit that helps provide affordable, quality education for children. The founder, Chitra Watumull Wright, has a big goal: for every child in our world to have access to a primary and secondary education.
Their joyful, playful, fresh, and youthful website now invites donors on a journey and tells their organization’s story in a compelling way. The website was designed with children’s book design in mind — lots of illustrations, fun shapes, patterns, and bright bold colors. To keep the feeling of school in mind, we also incorporated ruled line paper and a teacher’s handwriting (resemblant to Chitra’s!). The end result is a site and brand that is fun, exuberant, and engaging: exactly how Chitra is, and how she wants every school around the world to be.
Want to work with us?
If you’re ready to explore what it looks like to create a thoughtful, refined, and sensation brand for your non-profit, we’d love to chat with you. You can inquire about your project here.