Nonprofit organizations don’t operate like for-profit organizations. Should they be designed like them? There are many reasonable questions a designer might encounter upon striking up a professional relationship with a not-for-profit company. What sort of hierarchy will best suit the website? Are there special rules for designing a nonprofit logo, as opposed to a for-profit one? How much, if anything, do you charge? As nonprofits become more tech savvy, these quandaries are only going to become more regular in the design community. We spent some time thinking them through, and here’s what we have to say. Web design for nonprofits If you’ve ever designed a website for a for-profit company, you’re probably more than familiar with the term “call to action.” Often considered to be the crux of the website, this is the component that urges the visitor to buy whatever service or product the company is selling. Pretty important. But a nonprofit isn’t really “selling” anything, is it? This question is best answered by dividing the world of nonprofit companies in three. There are: Those which sell Screen Shot 2014-11-24 at 7.04.06 PM One type of nonprofit relies heavily on small donations from regular people, sometimes locally, sometimes all over the world. It is typically involved in charity work—for example, the Food Bank of New Jersey shown above. To achieve its mission, this type of nonprofit needs to essentially sell its mission or idea to potential donors, much in the way that a for-profit sells a product. This being Phone Number List the case, the website will take a similar form, with a central call to action (“click here to donate” or something like that) surrounded by information about why you should—for example, photographs of people who will be benefitted, or compelling data about the cause. Those which inform Screen Shot 2014-11-24 at 7.09.06 PM Another type of nonprofit might also do charitable work or pursue some other such noble cause, but gets its funding primarily from major donors or grants, and so does not rely as heavily on “converting” casual website visitors. Consider Dadaab Stories, which is committed to bringing awareness to life within a Somalian refugee camp by telling the stories of its inhabitants. That being the case, this type of nonprofit is best served by websites that concentrate more on the nonprofit’s “story”—telling how it started, showing what it has achieved, and providing information about how people can get involved. Those which invite Screen Shot 2014-11-24 at 7.10.03 PM A third type of nonprofit is an organization like the Public Art Fund that provides some sort of public good to a specific communities.