Why Your Nonprofit’s Website Needs To Be Responsive

What does that even mean?  If you are like us at BoardAssist, understanding what having a responsive website means may not be obvious to you.  That’s why we turned to our good friends down at nonprofit Tech Impact in Philadelphia to educate us, and hopefully our readers, on why all our websites need to be responsive.  Thanks Tech Impact!

 

Why Your Nonprofit’s Website Needs To Be Responsive

Huh? Responsive?! You mean my website needs to be able to talk to web visitors all by itself?

Not exactly. What it does mean, however, is that your website needs to be able to talk to devices.

A responsive website is one that, depending on the type of device a web visitor is accessing your site from, whether that be a smart phone, tablet, or laptop / desktop computer, the website functions and displays correctly.

And functioning correctly can mean a variety of things. Displaying webpages properly, reading easily, all the links working properly, have image display fully, making it easy on potential donors to access and give via mobile devices, among myriad other variables.

Why is this important? The Internet is changing constantly, and users are beginning to gravitate heavily towards mobile. The problem is, websites are not responding to these new devices with smaller display sizes and is frustrating this new generation of Internet users.

Here are a few more reasons why your nonprofit’s website needs to be responsive yesterday.

1. Mobile Internet use is booming

   With mobile web use adopting growing 8x faster than Internet use itself did between the 1990s through the early 2000s, making sure your nonprofit’s website is mobile ready is imperative.

   Here are a few more stats that might blow your mind courtesy of Pew Internet

   • 91% of American adults own a cell phone
   • 55% of American adults own a smartphone (compared to 35% in 2011)
   • 67% of cell phone owners find themselves checking their phone for messages, notifications, or calls—even when they don’t notice their phone ringing or vibrating.
   • 44% of cell phone owners have slept with their phone next to their bed because they wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any calls, text messages, or notifications during the night

2. Donors, donors, donors

   With donations via the Internet increasing substantially in 2013, and expected to continue that upward trajectory in 2014, so too increase the amount of donations that are flowing to nonprofits via mobile. However, if a website requires a potential donors to make more than 3 clicks before getting to the donation page, chances are good you can kiss that donation goodbye.

   Internet users, and mobile users specifically, want instant gratification. They don’t want to work to give. A mobile optimized site with an easy to find “Donate Now!” button is key to converting the most possible donors.

3. Did you get my email?

   More emails are opened via mobile devices today than on traditional computing platforms like desktops and laptops. If that call-to-action message in your latest email blast directed potential donors back to your non-responsive website, chances are good the majority of those individuals were on a mobile device.

4. Social media

   Over 50% of Facebook’s referrals come from mobile devices. While over 80% of Twitter’s is via mobile devices. Chances are good your nonprofit is spending at least a portion of its marketing budget on a social media strategy. If your website’s not responsive, you’re probably not making the most of those referrals you’re trying desperately to attain through social channels.

 

 

This post originally appeared on the Tech Impact blog.  Tech Impact is a nonprofit whose mission is to empower communities and nonprofits to use technology to better serve our world. At Tech Impact, they believe technology can do amazing things. That is why they have partnered with hundreds of nonprofits organizations around the world since 2003: to help each one realize the potential of technology to achieve their mission.