How to Build a StoryBrand Nonprofit Website

You shouldn’t have to struggle with messaging, design, technology, or fundraising software to create a nonprofit website.  

When you start with a StoryBrand Certified Guide Approved template design from Aespire Websites Made Simple, you are one step closer to a nonprofit website that helps you engage donors, raise funds, and make an impact.

There are three steps you must follow to create a nonprofit StoryBrand website:

• First, know and understand your supporters. When you think about the hero in your nonprofit story, it’s the donor who wants to feel like they make a difference about the cause they care about.  Think of them as a champion — for your cause, for change, for the people your nonprofit organization serves.  What does your champion want, and how does your nonprofit or charity help them achieve it?
• Second, create a clear narrative and brand story with the StoryBrand framework. Invite your champions into a story of change. Stories capture the imagination, speak to the heart, and engage the minds of the listener.  When you invite donors and volunteers to be part of the story of change your organization makes, they become the hero that creates that change.  
• Third, select an easy-to-use platform that will grow with your nonprofit and not limit your options to help you build a StoryBrand nonprofit website.  For example, My Lasting Legacy helps community foundations capture and share nonprofit community foundation donor stories so they can increase their asset base and inspire future donors.  Begin with a beautiful design template to get you started or hire an agency and ask them to design your site on the easy-to-use Websites Made Simple platform so you can spend less time on technology and more time advancing your mission.

When nonprofits begin to build their StoryBrand website with the Nonprofit Design Template, they can start to engage younger donors as champions.  Younger donors are ready and willing to donate. Younger donors and champions grew up analyzing the world through the lens of modern technology and global connectedness. Naturally, that environment majorly shaped the way these younger donors engage with things on a daily basis, which includes how they interact with your nonprofit.

Donors are more than just checkbooks – they are people. Until an organization truly understands its donors and embraces the fact that they are a key part of the mission, the organization will always be hindered in its work. Talk with donors. Get to know their passions and desires.

For donors, institute a regular practice of calling and asking how the organization can serve them. Don’t ask for anything in return. Learn what makes them come alive and then, over time, match their personal talents and passions with the cause. But be careful not to adjust your mission to serve the needs of one or two major donors. Instead, respond to the needs of all of your donors.

When your website communicates clearly that you understand your donors, their needs, and what they care about as it relates to your cause, you will keep donors and volunteers engaged and active. 

When your Nonprofit StoryBrand website meets your donor’s needs, you’ll spend more time thanking them for their support and less time actively engaged in never-ending fundraising appeals.