Associations and non profit organizations may spend up to $50,000 to re-design a website (including software and staff costs). Yet, too often, three to five years later, the organization is in the same place, needing to re-design the website again.
Here are five reasons why this happens:
1. The website isn’t tied to your strategic plan
Most associations or non profits create strategic plans every three to five years, outlining the organization’s future direction. Yet, very few have a strategic direction for the website, which is the very tool that drives awareness, revenue and membership to the organization.
To learn more about aligning website development with your strategic plan, click here.
2. Your communications professional is in charge of the website
The average non profit has one person responsible for communications, whose job is to also manage the website, without any formal training or support. Communicators want to do a good job, and so take it upon themselves to learn on the job, and pick up skills along the way.
But the fact remains that communications professionals are not trained to be website managers. Improving a website’s effectiveness is a task that requires a ton of time and expertise. The average communications professional is already busy with such tasks as marketing, promotion, photography, branding, event planning, and even occasional fundraising. Website management becomes just another task to be slotted into a day, and is not the communicators’ primary focus.
Savvy non profits will put in extra support and hire professionals with expertise on website management. Unfortunately, too many non profits do not have the budget, or even the awareness of how to support their website’s growth.
3. Website management has become more complicated
It used to be that all you needed to update and improve your website was a little bit of HTML and Javascript. Now wherever your members go online, static, brochure-like websites have been replaced by dynamic, personalized, searchable tools where they can immediately get the information or products they need, with the least amount of hassle. Of course, your donors, volunteers members expect the same from your website.
In order to compete, websites now need to put in place analytics monitoring, user experience based design, conversion, content strategy, personalization and automation. The list keeps growing. The websites of the future will in no way resemble what they do today, and organizations need to be prepared.
4. You need more than tech skills to effectively manage your website.
To manage a successful website project, communicators need to be effective translators, who understand the needs of their non profit and are able to translate those needs to technical vendors. Essentially, we are digital project managers, who need a wide variety of skills.
Such skills entail knowing how to create an entire strategy for the website and align it with your communications plan. You also need to know how to work with vendors, find software, get consensus from the Board and other stakeholders. Then, manage the website development process itself, which includes launch, training, and ensuring the website is meeting its goals post launch. It’s a big job, and will only get bigger. Non profit communications professionals need to be prepared.
4. Associations focus on maintenance, not improvement
Too often, organizations assume that content updates or monthly technical updates are enough to sustain their websites. To remain competitive, non profit websites need to be tied to strategic goals, and actually help the organization get more members, donors, awareness and revenue.
Continuous improvement is the process of measuring your website’s performance, and then putting in place steps for improvement. Maintenance, on the other hand, keeps the website in the same place. It’s the reason why, all of a sudden, your organization doesn’t have a place to add new content. Or, why, after a while, members start to complain about the website. Continuous improvement constantly monitors and measures members’ engagement with the website, helps them anticipate future needs and be proactive about impending changes.
5. We need to be realistic about impact
Website improvement may seem like a low priority, given the number of fires non profit staff put out daily. It requires that the mindset of non profit leadership changes from seeing websites as an expense, to an investment that needs to be nurtured and supported, so it actually yields a return for the organization.
And here we come to the reality. Most small staff organizations are not intentionally ignoring their websites. The realities of budget, staffing, and priorities often get in the way. Of course, it would be great if all non profits had staff teams of 10 or more to manage the website, and increase the impact of the good work they do. Instead, small staff organizations need to become more innovative and deliberate on how they choose their resources and where they place their priorities.
How TAGb Consulting can help
TAGb’s aim to help non profit communications staff create better websites by providing support, training and resources that work with your time and budget. I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to put your heart and soul into a job, because you’re proud of how your work is making an impact. My goal is to make your website management easier.
Get the help you need. Have a look at the blog, workshops, and services. Get in touch.