BEFORE WE START

What your website will need from you.

I don’t charge by the page or by the word. The build price covers moving your content in whether you have four pages or fourteen, and I tidy the writing as I go.

The one exception is a very large archive: hundreds of documents, or decades of newsletters, that need their own organization. If that’s you, I’ll say so and put a number on it before we start.

So the question isn’t how much you have. It’s whether a few key things exist. They’re listed below, sorted by the kind of site you need.

Illustration of a folder with organized photos and documents

Three sizes of site

Everyone needs what’s in the first card. The other two build on it. Most organizations are the middle one, and our first conversation settles which you are.

Small town buildings, for a small steady presence
THE ESSENTIALS

A small, steady presence

For all-volunteer groups that mainly need to be found and trusted. Four or five pages.

  • Home
  • About us, and who runs it
  • What we do, on one page
  • Contact, with a form a person reads
  • A way to give, if you take donations
Browser window with a heart, for the typical non-profit site
THE TYPICAL NON-PROFIT SITE

Programs, people, and a way in

What most of my clients need: the essentials, plus a page for each program and a clear path for volunteers and donors.

  • A page for each active program
  • Get involved: volunteer, donate, join
  • Events, if you hold them
  • News, if someone will write it
  • Board and staff
  • Annual report or financials
A group of people, for a site with members
THE BUSY SITE

Members, resources, a moving calendar

For organizations with members, a resource library, or a calendar that changes weekly. Same flat pricing, more planning up front.

  • Membership tiers and how to join
  • A resource library, grouped and named
  • A calendar you already keep
  • Newsletter archive, or a decision to skip it
  • Sponsor and partner logos
  • Anything in a second language

The words and the files

Rough is fine. Bullet points are fine. True sentences in an email beat polished paragraphs that took a month.

The words

  • Your mission, twice. One sentence for the top of the homepage, one paragraph for the About page.
  • Who you serve, and where. The towns and the people, in words. Neighbors and search engines both look for this.
  • The one thing you want visitors to do. Donate, volunteer, sign up, or call. Pick one.
  • What you do. A paragraph per program or service, written for someone who has never heard of you.
  • Who runs it. Names and roles for board and staff. Funders check.
  • How to reach you. An address if you have one, and an email that a person reads.
  • Anything true on your current site. Point me at it and I’ll bring it over.

The files

  • Your logo, the best version you have. Ideally .svg, .ai or .eps, or a large .png with a transparent background.
  • Five to ten photos of your people, place, or work, with permission to use them. Your own photos beat stock.
  • Brand colors or a style guide, if either exists. If not, we start from the logo.
  • The domain login, or the name of whoever holds it. The domain ends up in your organization’s name.
  • The hosting login, if you have a site today, so nothing is lost in the move.
  • Your registration line. The sentence that says you’re a 501(c)(3) or state-registered non-profit, for the footer and the donation page.

Scattered across three laptops and an inbox? That’s common. Organizing it is part of what I do. Send what you can find.

What the bigger sites add

The typical non-profit site adds

  • Each program: who it’s for, when and where, and how to join.
  • Volunteer roles, a sentence each, and who to contact.
  • Your donation processor account, or the decision to open one. Donations never run through the site itself.
  • Upcoming events: title, date, place, and a ticket link if there’s one.
  • Three to five news items, or a decision that nobody will write news. A news page from 2023 is worse than none.
  • Two or three short quotes from people you’ve helped, with permission.
  • The latest annual report or financials, as a PDF.

The busy site adds

  • Membership tiers with prices and what each includes.
  • Resource files named the way a stranger would search for them, in six groups or fewer.
  • The calendar you already keep, so the site shows it instead of duplicating it.
  • A newsletter decision: keep everything, keep two years, or link to where it lives.
  • Sponsor and partner logos, with permission to show them.
  • Second-language content, and who will keep it current.
  • For a dense archive: an afternoon with me to plan it. This is the one case where content size changes the price, and you’ll have the number before we start.

Things people think they need

  • Stock photos
  • A tagline workshop
  • A list of keywords
  • A sitemap diagram
  • Finished, polished copy
  • A committee to approve every sentence
  • A new logo before the website can start

If any of these is holding you up, skip it. The website doesn’t need it.

How to hand it over

A shared folder with the logo and photos, and one document with the words, labeled by page or program. Order and spelling don’t matter.

If talking is easier than typing, we do it in a conversation and I take the notes. Everything you send stays yours, backed up, and organized when we’re done.

Folder icon

Half of it is enough to start

Answer the ten-question intake and say what you already have. You get one flat number in writing. For Rhode Island and Massachusetts non-profits, a new website currently includes a free year of care.

Browser window with a heart