Non-profit websites: donations, volunteers & boards

A non-profit website has multiple audiences to serve at once: donors who need to trust you with their money, volunteers who want to get involved, board members who need access to documents, and the community you exist to serve. Balancing all of those needs — on a tight budget — is the core challenge.

This guide covers what a non-profit website needs to accomplish, the legal and compliance considerations that apply specifically to non-profits, and the features we most commonly build.

What non-profit websites need to do

Non-profit websites typically serve three distinct groups:

1. Donors and funders — they need to understand your mission, see your impact, and have an easy, trustworthy way to give
2. Volunteers — they need to find opportunities, sign up, and stay engaged
3. The community you serve — they need to find your programs, services, and how to access them

A fourth audience — your board of directors — often needs a secure, private area for meeting materials and governance documents.

Typical website goals

Compliance & legal considerations

501(c)(3) status and required disclosures

Organizations described in section 501(c)(3) are, in the IRS's words, "eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions in accordance with Code section 170" — so a donor who itemizes may be able to deduct their gift. Saying clearly who you are on your donation pages, including your legal name, helps donors and grant funders find you in the IRS's own records. Many organizations publish their EIN (Employer Identification Number) for the same reason.

State charitable solicitation registration

Many US states require a non-profit to register with the state before it solicits donations from that state's residents, and many of those also expect a periodic renewal filing. Because your website is accessible nationwide, an online donate button can put you in scope in states you have never set foot in. This is commonly called "state charity registration" or "fundraising registration." Thresholds and exemptions vary widely by state, so treat it as a state-by-state question rather than one rule.

This is a legal matter outside the scope of website design — but we mention it because many organizations are surprised by it. Your state's charity regulator (usually a bureau of the attorney general's office or the secretary of state) is the authority for your own obligations, and the National Council of Nonprofits keeps a useful plain-English overview of charitable solicitation registration.

Donor data privacy and security

Donor data — names, email addresses, giving history, and especially payment information — is sensitive. Your obligations include:

• PCI DSS for any card payments. Using a hosted or embedded checkout from your processor keeps card numbers off your own systems and cuts your obligations down sharply, but it does not remove them entirely — see PCI compliance basics
• Never selling donor data to third parties. For most non-profits this is an ethical and donor-trust obligation rather than a statutory one: California's attorney general states that "the CCPA generally does not apply to nonprofit organizations or government agencies," because the law reaches for-profit businesses. Grant agreements and your own privacy policy can still bind you, and a non-profit with a commercial arm may be a different story
• Secure storage — donor records should not live in unsecured spreadsheets or generic email inboxes
• Transparency in your privacy policy — tell donors plainly how their information is used, and then do what it says

We write privacy policy templates tailored to non-profits as part of our project scope — but always have your attorney review the final version.

Accessibility requirements

Two things often get mixed up here. Section 508 applies to federal agencies themselves — it requires them to make their own technology accessible, and the current 508 standards were harmonized with WCAG 2.0. It does not bind you because you hold a federal grant.

What does apply to a grant recipient is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which covers any organization receiving federal financial assistance. Agencies write their own Section 504 rules, so the detail depends on who funds you. HHS has gone furthest: its rule now requires a recipient's web content and mobile apps to meet WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA, starting 11 May 2027 for a recipient with fifteen or more employees and 10 May 2028 for one with fewer, unless it can show that compliance would cause a fundamental alteration or undue burdens.

Separately, the ADA reaches nonprofits that run something open to the public — ADA.gov's own examples of public accommodations begin "Businesses, including nonprofits, that serve the public." So accessible design is rarely optional and always the right practice. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the sensible target either way; see ADA & WCAG: web accessibility compliance.

Grant funder visibility

Many foundation and government grant funders will look at your website as part of their due diligence. A professional, up-to-date site that shows clear programs, measurable outcomes, and financial transparency (annual reports, Form 990) makes that review easy, and removes an obvious reason to pass you over.

Recommended features

Tech & integrations we use

Common pitfalls

• Burying the donate button. Your donate button should be prominent on every page — not just the homepage. Making it easier to find is usually the single cheapest improvement available to a non-profit site.
• No recurring giving option. A monthly donor keeps giving without being asked again, so over a few years they are worth far more than the same person giving once. If you don't offer recurring giving, you are leaving money on the table.
• Outdated program information. Visitors researching your organization — donors, grant funders, volunteers — form their opinion based on what your website says right now. Outdated program descriptions or stale numbers undermine trust.
• No Form 990 or annual report available online. Careful donors and grant funders look for these. Make them easy to find.
• Donation form that opens a new tab to a third-party site. Every extra hop is somewhere a donor can drop out, so we embed the donation form in your own site wherever the platform allows it.

Common questions

Should we use a dedicated non-profit donation platform or Stripe directly?

Dedicated platforms (Donorbox, GiveWP) add features like recurring giving management, tribute donations, and donor management on top of a payment processor. If you have simple needs, Stripe alone can work. If you want to grow your online giving program, a dedicated platform usually earns its cost. We help you choose based on your volume and goals.

How do we handle in-memory or tribute donations?

Tribute donations (in memory of, or in honor of, someone) are a meaningful gift option for many non-profits. We build tribute donation flows that collect the honoree's name, notify the family if desired, and route the gift to the appropriate fund.

Do we need a separate landing page for each fundraising campaign?

A campaign-specific page usually does better than sending every donor to your general donation page, because it can name the goal, the deadline, and what the money buys. A dedicated page for your year-end campaign, your capital campaign, or a specific program creates that context. We build these as needed, and they can be turned off after the campaign ends.

How private is the board portal?

We build board portals as password-protected sections of your WordPress or Webflow site. Access is limited to people you add. For highly sensitive governance documents, we can integrate with Google Drive or a dedicated board management tool instead.

Can we show our Charity Navigator or GuideStar rating on the site?

Yes, and we recommend it. These badges signal transparency and accountability to potential donors. We can add the official embed code or badge image to your site.

Related guides

• Accepting payments online
• Recurring payments & subscriptions
• PCI compliance basics
• Landing page anatomy
• GDPR basics for businesses
• Data privacy basics for your business
• Web accessibility basics
• Email not sending or receiving?
• Writing a great About page

Learn more

• IRS: Charities and nonprofits — official IRS guidance for 501(c)(3) organizations
• IRS: Charitable contributions — written acknowledgments — exactly what a donation receipt has to say
• National Council of Nonprofits: Charitable Solicitation Registration — an overview of state registration requirements for fundraising
• Charity Navigator: charity ratings and donor resources — a charity rating and donor research service