Why Charity Websites Struggle to Attract the Support They Need for Success

1. They don’t show the passion behind the mission

So many websites are designed with form and function as the primary focus, but visitors aren’t buying an appliance from you. When you only talk about the nuts and bolts of what you do, the visitor may feel your cause is well meaning, but they are unlikely to be moved to invest in it or partner with you. They want to know you are passionate about your mission because it makes a real difference.

Don’t just share facts and figures, show your passion by telling the stories that get you excited by your work. It’s tempting to believe that no-one will stay around to read a story on a website, but people read long blog posts every single day, it will be a relief to read an uplifting story. So make an emotional connection, show your passion and demonstrate the good that you do. Let people know the personal impact your team has on the world, and they will want to be part of it too.

I worked with a local church who had a website full of information about the times of the services and groups they held. They had a decent amount of traffic but very few enquiries. I worked with them to change the narrative to focusing on how their belief fuelled everything they did, from their counselling services, the courses they ran, to their community work.

They changed the upfront messaging of the site from facts and figures, to why they did what they did. The first pages in the menu were now focused on answering questions and telling real life stories, how lives had literally been turned around.

The result was that people were staying on the site longer, and engaging. They’d get in touch wanting to get involved because they saw a church actually working to help people. The reality was that the church was doing all the same things as it always had, but now people could see the good they were doing and were inspired to be a part of it. Even current members came up and said “wow I’ve never heard that story before, it’s amazing. I want to help if I can”.

So often when we hear of good work our reaction is warm, it’s good that someone is doing that work, but it goes no further. But when we hear stories of how an individual’s life has been changed, then we get stirred, we understand that this work is significant, and we all want to be part of something significant.

2. They haven’t developed enough credibility and trust

Too many times a charity will have their site designed by an agency who is used to designing for corporate conversions, with tactics that are designed to create a desire to purchase and a fear of missing out. This is not compatible for a charity looking for supporters not customers. It disenfranchises supporters as it give the false impression that the charity is more interested in revenue than helping people, leading them to question if they can trust you with their money.

The other extreme is that they try to save money and get a family member who “knows a bit about computers” to build them a site, but this often leads to an under developed site that doesn’t have consistent design and misses a lot of the important backend features websites need. Visitors spot these problems immediately and start to question the quality of the charities work and whether their money might be better in someone else’s hands.

A professionally designed site can help increase your credibility which can also help when applying for grants and funding, but you need to avoid the money chasing tactics that turn people away. Give readers a consistent narrative that inspires them by what you do, motivates them to be a part of it, and gives them a clear way to get involved.

Finding the right balance between sharing your mission, showing care, and asking for support can be the difference between your mission struggling, or succeeding.

A few years ago I worked with a retired executive who had spent his career managing multimillion pound projects, and now he wanted to pass on his knowledge by training others. Although he had a good professional network he always came up against the same response, “Let me know when your website is online and I’ll pass on your details”. He was losing opportunities to even speak to people because his contacts considered the absence of a website to be a lack of credibility. He also knew his credibility wouldn’t be any higher if he attempted to build a website on his own.

We worked together to create a website showing not just his qualifications and experience, but his passion for training up others and why he wanted to spend his retirement helping people.

As soon as we launched he was able to confidently pass on the website address to his network and got some really positive feedback. Within a week he had booked 2 clients through referrals within his network.

A website can be the difference between people taking you seriously or not, so not any website will do. You want to make sure your design and information are current so people can see you are still active and making a difference.

3. A neglected website turns potential supporters away

When juggling all the things that demand your urgent attention, it’s very common to expect the website to just keep ticking along, but websites aren’t the same as they were 20 years ago. A website has the potential to be a powerful tool in your organisation, but the truth is a neglected website soon becomes a broken website.

You’ll want to create a security plan to make sure your website is always available. It’s crucial to keep the website software up to date to keep it secure and scan for malware to prevent your site being blacklisted by Google and other services. Also take off-site backups regularly so if anything happens to your site or even the hosting server you can upload your files to another server right away, especially if you are using shared hosting where you are vulnerable to other poorly maintained site on the same server.

I was recently referred to a client who often spends time working in one of the poorest nations in Africa, with sketchy access to the internet and emails. On one occasion she arrived back in the UK and found that the website was down, but not only that, a potential backer had emailed her two weeks earlier to let her know the site was down and they couldn’t find the information they were looking for. The web host wasn’t doing any proactive work to make sure the site was working, so the site had been offline the entire time.

I took over the hosting and maintenance of the site and also setup uptime monitoring. If the site is ever down for more than 5 minutes I get a notification and jump on it. After receiving the first monthly report showing 99.9% uptime she responded saying “Thanks so much! It’s really helpful to see this and very reassuring.”

A website is often the first place people go to find out more about you so you want to make sure it is online and free from malware, otherwise potential supporters and champions will find someone else to support.

People want to support amazing charities

Let the world know what you do, but more than that, let them know why your work is so important and the real life impact it has. There are so many people who would love to be part of a mission to make the world a better place and support you by either donating their time or their money, so make it clear how they can join you and make a difference.

If you know the work you do is making a real difference, but you are struggling to get the support you need, then it’s time to change the way you tell and present your story, and I want to help you succeed. Get in touch or book a call to hear more of my stories of how I can coach you to leverage your best stories, build sites that excite current and future donors, and support you with proactive service plans that mean your site is never neglected.

What is your charity’s best story? Let me know in the comments below, I love hearing of people making a difference and would love to promote your story.

Finally, as you were reading this you may have thought of a friend or network