Non-Profit Tips

Don’t confuse web design with football either. Or sex. Or anything else. This topic does not apply to personal sites or other sites that aren’t accountable — movie sites, band sites, art sites, etc. This is Non-Profit Tips and I talk about sites where the focus is making money, getting contributions, or disseminating information — non-profit, governmental, and not-for-profit organizations.

Many NPO web designers confuse the web world with the real world experience of dining vs eating. When you dine it’s all about setting the mood — good conversation, the ambience of a fine restaurant, great wine, and enjoyable company. That’s fine for dining, but in the world of the web there’s no need to set a mood. It’s like eating at a fast-food restaurant where you’ve got to get calories in your body because you don’t have time to dine. You’ve got to be at a client meeting in an hour or a donor is showing up for a tour in 45 minutes. Dining gets in the way.

You don’t need to set the mood for people who visit your site. They’ve clicked a link or a banner ad and they’ve already made the commitment to see what’s on your site. They don’t need Splash pages, Flash pages, Mystery Meat Navigation Mystery Meat Navigation occurs when, in order to find specific pages in a site, the user must mouse over unmarked navigational "buttons" — graphics that are usually blank or don’t describe their function. JavaScript code then reveals what the real purpose of the button is and where it leads., or whatever silliness you think will put them "in the mood" to get them to look at your site. They’re already there and the sooner you give them what they came looking for, the better. They want what they want NOW. On the other hand, when you’re creating banner ads or Google AdSense ads you need to set the mood because you’re trying to entice them to visit your site. Let me put in really simple terms:

Banner and text ads = dining
Your web site = fast food (without all the baggage fast foods represent)

There are, unfortunately, certain non-profit organizations that can effectively use Splash pages to get potential donors "in the mood." I say "Unfortunately" because as soon as I make an exception, everyone thinks it applies to them. No, it doesn’t. It only applies to brilliantly creative designers like the one who created the old Splash page for the Literacy Volunteers of America.