The Good News is: Your Probably Need to Write Less

Most of the nonprofit websites I work with start out with way too much content. 

Of course they do. You do so much good work and you want people to know about it. You want the people who participated to know that their efforts were appreciated. And you want donors to know what you are capable of doing. 

But presenting too much information up front is probably hurting your cause. Here’s how. 

It hides the real value of what you do. Website users tend to want to do very little “work” to find the information they’re looking for. It is our job as web designers to make sure their is a clear path for them. 

It transfers the overwhelm of running a busy nonprofit to your audience. Whatever is going on behind the scenes, you want the experience of interacting with you to be uplifting. 

It puts the pressure on your audience to parse the information. It’s like saying “I don’t have time to figure this out, you do it.” Whether you particularly want that job or not, it is your responsibility to help your audience understand what you do, understand its impact, so that hopefully, they’ll want to support it and you can keep doing it. 

That means leaving a lot of stuff out. If it isn’t directly helping your cause, it is hurting. In the end, it is way better to have your audience assume you are doing all sorts of cool stuff that they don’t know about, than to provide direct evidence that your organization is a disaster on wheels, rampaging through the streets without direction.

Aim for clarity above all. This is what we do. This is the impact we have. Here’s how you participate. Here’s how you can make a donation. If it isn’t crystal clear, leave it out.