A dozen Web Site Ideas

Careful design of an organization's Web site is an important consideration.
In his chapter "Inspiring Donors Online" in the book Nonprofit Internet Strategies, Todd Baker offers his Baker's Dozen of ideas:

• Establish an overarching goal for your organization's Web site. Usually it's raising money.
• Make an impression. People will remember how you made them feel.
• Write to connect on an emotional level. Embrace clarity, engage the reader and encounter the heart.
• Select the most interesting perspective from which to tell your story.
• Find your organization's voice: a unique blend of charisma, courage, and concern.
• Be persuasive by first making clear the specific action you want the reader to take.
• Be human; don't be an organization. Show the donor that you're people who support a worthy cause and you're looking for folks just like you.
• Illustrate your mission through images and pictures.
• Present a virtual tour of your mission.
• Write in an active and conversational style.
• Stop spending 90 percent of your organization's resources on technology and only 10 percent on the message.
• Give your headlines soul. Headlines that work seize the reader's attention, affect the reader on an emotional level and spark curiosity.
• Understand online human behavior. People who are online read differently than they would with a printed text. Make a good first impression, do not think of a book-reading atmosphere and make each page of the site have an objective with the reader in mind.