Nonprofit Website Engagement: What's Going Wrong?
Introduction
Nonprofit organizations rely on their websites to inform, inspire, and engage supporters. Yet many nonprofits struggle with high bounce rates – on average 60-70% of nonprofit website visitors leave after viewing just one page (a good bounce rate is 40% or below). If potential donors or volunteers aren’t sticking around, something is clearly going wrong. First impressions happen in an instant (visitors judge a site’s visual appeal within 50 milliseconds), and an outdated or frustrating web experience can drive supporters away. In this post, we’ll explore common nonprofit website engagement pain points and how to fix them. We’ll also look at solutions – from design upgrades to content management – and show how Morweb’s nonprofit-specific tools can turn your website into an engagement engine. Real examples and testimonials from organizations like yours will highlight the difference these changes can make. Let’s dive in!
Common Website Engagement Pain Points for Nonprofits
A high-quality college website plays many roles, from informing prospective students about your academic offerings to nurturing a tight-knit and engaged alumni community. These exceptional websites use a combination of attention-grabbing content, user experience, and multimedia to wow their different audiences:
1. High Bounce Rates and Short Visits
If a large portion of your website visitors leave without exploring other pages, your engagement is suffering. Unfortunately as mentioned earlier, nonprofits average a 60-70% bounce rate, significantly higher than the ~40% considered healthy. This often means visitors aren’t finding what they need or lose interest quickly. Several factors can contribute to a high bounce rate: confusing navigation, lack of clear calls-to-action, or irrelevant content. Slow load times are a major culprit as well – 25% of users will abandon a site that takes more than four seconds to load. For nonprofits, every lost visitor could be a missed donation or volunteer sign-up. A high bounce rate is a clear signal that something about your site experience isn’t connecting with your audience.
2. Outdated Website Design Undermining Credibility
Your website’s look and feel have a huge impact on how supporters perceive your organization. An outdated website design can severely hurt credibility – 75% of users admit to judging an organization’s trustworthiness based on its site design. If your nonprofit site hasn’t been refreshed in years, it may appear stagnant or out of touch. In fact, the average website lifespan is only about 2 years and 7 months; beyond that, styles and user expectations change enough that your site can start to feel “stale.” Many nonprofits fall into the trap of letting their sites sit unchanged for too long. When donors see event pages from 2019 or a design that screams 2015, they may question your nonprofit’s vitality. An outdated website not only fails to engage – it can actively drive supporters away by diminishing trust.
3. Poor Mobile Experience
Take a look at your website on a phone – is it easy to read and navigate? If not, you’re likely losing engagement. Over half of all nonprofit website visits now come from mobile devices. Supporters increasingly interact with your organization on smartphones and tablets, and they expect a smooth experience. If your site isn’t mobile-responsive (for example, text requires zooming or buttons are too small to tap), visitors will get frustrated fast. They might bounce and never return. Mobile usability isn’t just about convenience – it affects conversions too. For instance, about 25% of donors complete their nonprofit donations on mobile devices. A donation form that doesn’t work well on a phone could be costing you a quarter of your potential online donations. Even beyond donations, think about volunteers signing up or people reading your blog on the go. In today’s mobile-first world, a poor mobile user experience is a critical engagement killer.
4. Difficult Content Management (CMS Usability Issues)
Behind every effective nonprofit website is an easy way for staff to update and manage it. If keeping your site updated is a headache, engagement will suffer as content grows stale. Many nonprofits use general-purpose platforms or older content management systems – in fact, 58% of nonprofits use WordPress as their CMS (with others on Wix, Squarespace, etc.). While popular, these platforms can require significant technical upkeep (plugins, updates, and sometimes custom code) that small nonprofit teams struggle to maintain. If your team has to “call the web guy” for every little edit, your site likely isn’t updated frequently with fresh news, events, or stories. This leads to outdated information (violating the trust of users who rely on your site) and missed opportunities to engage. The result is a website that doesn’t reflect your current mission or campaigns. When supporters visit an events page that hasn’t been updated or a blog with no posts in months, they’re less likely to stay involved. Difficulty managing your website internally is a root cause of many outward-facing engagement problems.
5. Lack of Accessibility for All Visitors
An often overlooked pain point is web accessibility. If your website isn’t accessible to people with disabilities, you could be excluding a significant portion of potential supporters. Around 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. has some type of disability – whether visual, hearing, cognitive or motor. Common issues include images without alt text for screen readers, videos without captions, poor color contrast, or forms that can’t be navigated via keyboard. When a donor with low vision or an older volunteer with limited tech skills encounters these barriers, they may leave in frustration. Inaccessible websites not only hinder engagement – they can also violate legal standards (such as ADA or AODA in Canada). Ensuring your site meets accessibility guidelines is critical to providing an inclusive experience. If your site isn’t designed for everyone in your audience, you’re inevitably losing engagement from those who find it unusable.
Solutions to Improve Nonprofit Website Engagement
Bringing your website up to par may sound daunting, but you can tackle these issues step by step. Here are practical solutions to common engagement problems, along with resources and tools (including those from Morweb) that can help:
- Redesign with a modern, user-centric approach. If your site looks outdated or isn’t delivering results, it may be time for a redesign. A fresh design focused on user experience can instantly boost credibility. Prioritize clean layouts, up-to-date visuals, and intuitive navigation. Remember, visitors form impressions in seconds, so polish that home page! (Many nonprofits aim to redesign every 2-3 years to keep up with trends.) Tip: When planning a redesign, ground your decisions in data – review your analytics to see which pages have high bounce rates or where users drop off. For inspiration on when a revamp is necessary and what to consider, check out our guide on nonprofit website redesign. A thoughtful redesign can reduce bounce rates and make supporters more likely to explore your content.
- Make your site mobile-friendly and fast. Ensuring a mobile-responsive design is non-negotiable in 2025. Your website should automatically adapt to different screen sizes and orientations so that it’s just as effective on a phone as on a desktop. Test your pages on mobile devices or use Google’s mobile-friendly test tool. If anything is hard to read or interact with on a small screen, fix it now. Likewise, optimize your page load speeds by compressing images, minifying code, and leveraging a good host or CDN. Even simple steps like eliminating heavy autoplay media can improve load times. Faster, mobile-optimized sites keep visitors around longer. Morweb users have an advantage here – Morweb’s platform automatically produces responsive designs and optimizes images for speed. But whatever platform you use, invest the effort to be mobile-ready. You’ll engage a much wider audience and improve your SEO (search engines favor fast, mobile-friendly sites).
- Refresh your content and keep information up-to-date. Content is king for engagement. Audit your website for any outdated material – remove or update anything obsolete (old event pages, past staff, outdated statistics). Then commit to a regular content update schedule. Even posting a short news update or blog article once a month can signal to visitors that your organization is active and thriving. Ensure that your latest success stories, upcoming events, and current campaigns are front and center. Also, make sure your navigation menu makes it easy for people to find key information (About, Programs, How to Help, Contact, etc.). A clear content strategy and site structure will guide visitors to engage more deeply. If you have limited capacity, focus on the high-traffic pages first – for example, keep your homepage and donation pages fresh, and archive anything that’s no longer relevant. Remember, about 94% of nonprofits do have mobile-optimized sites, so if you don’t keep content fresh, you’re falling behind peers in offering a modern experience.
- Adopt a user-friendly CMS for easy updates. One of the best long-term solutions for engagement is empowering your team to manage the website easily. Consider using a nonprofit-specific content management system that doesn’t require coding knowledge for day-to-day edits. The right CMS lets non-technical staff add new pages, edit text, upload photos, or create blog posts with a simple editor. This means your site can be updated in real-time, without waiting on outside help. As a result, content stays current and engaging. When evaluating CMS options, look for features like drag-and-drop page builders, in-context editing (so you can see changes as you make them), and robust support. Security and reliability are also key – you want a platform that handles updates and backups so you don’t have to. Morweb CMS is one example of a platform built for nonprofits, featuring an intuitive live-editor and nonprofit-specific features like built-in donation forms and event management. Moving to an easy-to-use CMS can eliminate the bottlenecks that kept your site stagnant. The easier it is to update your site, the more often you will – and engaged supporters notice that fresh content and responsiveness.
- Implement accessibility best practices. To truly improve engagement, ensure that everyone in your community can use your website. Conduct an accessibility audit (or have an expert do one) to find and fix barriers. Key steps include adding descriptive alt text to all images, captioning videos, using headings and labels for screen readers, choosing high-contrast color schemes, and enabling keyboard navigation for all interactive elements. Aim to meet at least WCAG 2.1 AA standards for accessibility. Not only will this expand your reach, but it often improves the overall user experience for everyone (for instance, clear navigation and readable fonts benefit all users). Many improvements are simple – like ensuring form fields have labels or link text is descriptive. For a deeper dive into web accessibility for nonprofits, see our post on user-friendly web accessibility design. If you’re not sure where to start, Morweb offers accessibility support – from site-wide audits to adjustments that make your site ADA/WCAG compliant. Embracing accessibility will show your commitment to inclusivity and can significantly increase engagement from individuals who previously found your site difficult to use.
By addressing these core areas – design, mobile, content management, and accessibility – you’ll create a far more engaging experience for your visitors. But what if you want a solution that ties all of these together? That’s where choosing the right platform can make a big difference. In the next section, we’ll look at how Morweb approaches these challenges holistically for nonprofits.
How Morweb Helps Solve These Website Challenges
Morweb is a website platform and CMS designed specifically for nonprofits, and it was built with the above pain points in mind. Here’s how Morweb can help your organization turn a problematic website into an engaging online presence:
- Modern, Mission-Focused Designs: Morweb provides professional, customizable nonprofit website themes and custom design services to ensure your site looks credible and up-to-date. Our design team understands nonprofit branding and user experience, so your website will make a great first impression and guide visitors to take action (donate, volunteer, etc.). No more templated, cookie-cutter site – your Morweb site can truly reflect your mission with a clean, modern design.
- Instant Mobile Responsiveness: Every website built on Morweb is automatically mobile-responsive and optimized for different devices. You don’t have to do anything extra – pages will resize and reformat beautifully on phones, tablets, and desktops. Morweb also optimizes image sizes and site speed across devices, so you won’t lose visitors to slow loads. This means you can confidently welcome the Fifty-plus percent of users who come via mobile, knowing they’ll have a smooth experience.
- User-Friendly CMS (No Coding Required): Morweb’s CMS is extremely easy to use for non-technical staff. It features a drag-and-drop live editor that lets you edit content right on the page and see updates in real time. Adding a new event, updating a program description, or publishing a blog post is as simple as typing into a template or dragging in a widget – no HTML or developers needed. By removing technical barriers, Morweb empowers your team to keep the site fresh and engaging. One client described Morweb’s nonprofit CMS as “unique [and] empowers us to easily make changes while providing friendly support when we need it” – no more waiting weeks for small edits!
- Built-In Nonprofit Features: Unlike generic website builders, Morweb comes with functionality tailored for nonprofits out of the box. This includes modules for donations, event registrations, membership management, resource libraries, and more. You can easily create online donation forms, integrate your CRM, launch fundraising campaigns, and display impact statistics – all without custom development. These features help turn your website into an interactive hub that encourages visitors to get involved. Plus, all modules are maintained by Morweb, so they stay up-to-date and secure without extra effort on your part.
- Accessibility and SEO Tools: Morweb has a strong focus on accessibility and search optimization. The platform includes built-in accessibility tools and widgets – for example, an accessibility menu that allows users to adjust font sizes, contrast, and other settings to improve readability. It also enforces best practices like alt text reminders, heading structure, and ARIA labels to help make your content perceivable to all. On the SEO side, Morweb provides easy fields for meta titles/descriptions and auto-generates an XML sitemap, helping your content rank higher on Google (so new supporters can find you). By taking care of accessibility and SEO behind the scenes, Morweb ensures your site reaches the widest audience possible and keeps them engaged.
- Ongoing Support and Maintenance: When you build your site with Morweb, you’re not left on your own. The Morweb team provides ongoing support, training, and security updates. We handle hosting, backups, and CMS updates for you, so your site stays secure and fast over time. If you ever have questions or need help, our support staff is available via phone, email, or chat – essentially becoming an extension of your team. This means no more worrying about plugin updates breaking your site or scrambling to patch security issues. Morweb’s “set-and-forget” maintenance philosophy lets you focus on your content and mission while we take care of the technical heavy lifting. The result is a worry-free website that continuously delivers a great user experience.
In short, Morweb addresses the key issues that commonly plague nonprofit websites: it keeps your design modern, your mobile users happy, your content management simple, and your site accessible and functional – all with expert support at your back. But you don’t have to take our word for it. Here’s what real nonprofit professionals have said after upgrading their websites with Morweb.
Success Stories from Nonprofits Like Yours
Morweb is a website platform and CMS designed specifically for nonprofits, and it was built with the above pain points in mind. Here’s how Morweb can help your organization turn a problematic website into an engaging online presence:
“Our site is modern, ADA-compliant, and responsive. For our team, the site is much easier to edit than our old one. The Morweb team is super responsive, usually fixing issues within an hour or two. I highly recommend Morweb for nonprofits and small teams looking for an easy, intuitive CMS and great customer service.”
– Elizabeth Galatz, Director of Communications, Minnesota Community Action Partnership
“The changes MorWeb made to our site on both the front and backend tripled our online inquiries in less than six months. Great partners, great customer service and a great value. Highly recommend!”
– Tim Demeter, Digital Marketing Specialist, Alverno College
These are just a couple of examples of how the right website solution can dramatically improve engagement. Nonprofits across the U.S. and Canada have transformed their online presence through better design and technology – and seen real-world results like more inquiries, higher event sign-ups, and growth in donations.
Conclusion – Don’t Settle for a Site That Undermines Your Mission
Your nonprofit’s website should be a powerful tool for outreach, not a source of frustration. If you recognize any of the issues discussed – high bounce rates, an outdated look, poor mobile usability, difficult updates, or other engagement roadblocks – it’s time to take action. By implementing the solutions above, you can turn your website into a dynamic platform that keeps supporters informed and inspired. And if you want an all-in-one solution that makes it even easier, consider leveraging Morweb’s nonprofit-first web tools.
Ready to improve your nonprofit’s website engagement? Don’t let an underperforming website hold back your impact. Request a free demo of Morweb to see how a modern, nonprofit-focused CMS can help you create an engaging, accessible, and effective website. Let’s make your website a place where supporters love to connect with your mission – and watch your organization’s impact grow!
