Five Things Your Nonprofit Homepage Should Communicate
The hard truth: Your nonprofit organization’s website homepage is not a brochure, but a decision point for the visitor.
When someone lands on the homepage, they are in the process of deciding whether to give, volunteer, if this organization that serves their community, or if they should look further. They're typically making their decision quickly, with limited context, and they're making it based almost entirely on what your homepage communicates in less than one minute.
UX research on nonprofit websites consistently shows the same gaps: organizations that communicate what they do but not why it matters, or why it matters but not who specifically benefits, or who benefits but not how to get involved. This information is typically hidden in a lot of text or on different pages, neither of which will capture the reader’s attention.
Here are four things your nonprofit homepage should communicate.
1. Who you serve specifically
The answer people are looking for does not include vague responses, such as "underserved communities", or "people in need." The actual group(s) of people that you serve should be described with enough specificity that someone who is that person recognizes themselves, and someone who isn't understands why this organization exists.
Vague mission language doesn’t communicate anyone, and in turn, doesn’t help anyone. When language is too broad to be specific, it's too broad to be meaningful. A donor or community member scanning your homepage can't connect to "underserved communities." They can connect to "families experiencing housing instability in the greater Portland, Oregon area."
The more specifically you name who you serve, the more clearly the right people see themselves in your mission, which can help them understand why your organization matters.
2. Proof with numbers
People want, and need, a result with a name and/or number attached to it. This is the story that you are inviting people into, to believe in.
When organizations make claims of impact without numerical evidence, they miss out on building trust in the impact. In nonprofit UX research on first-time giving behavior, donors consistently report that concrete impact data is the single most influential factor in their decision to give for the first time. Avoid claims such as "we've helped thousands of families", include claims such as "347 families housed in 2025".
3. One clear call to action
Most nonprofit homepages have four or five calls to action competing for attention, such as donate, volunteer, learn more, get help, subscribe, contact. Each one represents something the organization needs from visitors. The problem is that presenting all of them at equal weight creates a cognitive load problem.
But research on cognitive load shows that when too many options are presented simultaneously, the likelihood of choosing any of them decreases; your website visitors may not choose the best option because they’re all the “best” option, so they may choose nothing.
Every nonprofit homepage needs one primary call to action: the single most important thing a first-time visitor can do, and make it the most prominent interactive element on the page.
4. Who is behind the organization
People give to other people, they do not give to a brand. This means that including a photo of your team, your founder, or the community members your organization serves is not only important, but makes a difference in how your organization is funded.
Including a photo of your team, your founder, or the community members your work serves builds more trust on a homepage than almost any amount of copy.
You don’t need professional photography to achieve this. In fact, candid photos captured on a smartphone will do the trick. A genuine photo of the actual people behind the work, in the actual space where the work happens, consistently outperforms polished stock imagery in nonprofit UX testing.
The homepage as the whole conversation
For many nonprofit organizations, the majority of first-time visitors will see the homepage once and make a decision, and they won't go deeper unless the homepage gives them a reason to.
These four things are not comprehensive strategy for designing the homepage, but are the minimum in what a nonprofit homepage needs to do for a first-time visitor to understand, believe, and act.
Take the next step
Want to know if your nonprofit homepage is doing this work? Download the free Website Checklist, 10 questions that help you evaluate your online presence through a first-time visitor's eyes.
→ Get it free at wellfolkdesign.com/resources