Let's talk about best practices that will improve the calls to action on your nonprofit website. We want to keep people engaged in exploring what your organization has to offer.

WHAT ARE CALLS TO ACTION?

CTAs suggest that the website user take a specific action such as click on a link, sign up for a newsletter, donate to a cause, or do something else.

Calls to action are also called CTAs. You want to be sure you have a CTA on every single page of your website. That doesn't mean it's necessarily a button. It could just be a link at the bottom of a text passage. It could be a few words that are linked. It could be a little box that has some related content in it. It could just be a question to get people thinking, perhaps maybe your call to action is to think more deeply about a topic.

Of course, your CTA could be a button that says "apply now" or "get help now” or whatever it happens to be.

Let's look at a few nonprofit site examples.

Example 1

So here's a great example of a beautiful website. Look at this lovely bird and baby bird. I'm very impressed with the imagery on this website.

Screenshot of the Defenders of Wildlife homepage with a parent and baby bird, that says Restore Protections for Migratory Birds. There is text below the main headline which pushes the Call to Action button, “below the fold.”

Unfortunately, the call to action is actually off the page on my laptop. It's down “below the fold.”

What do I would probably do instead is remove one of the smaller sentences. Keep the text tighter so that the call to action button is up top so that nobody misses it. Right now I have what we call a false bottom, where I don't necessarily even know that there's content below the image. You want to avoid that. You want to make sure any button is up high AND that we can see it on mobile “above the fold” as well.

Let’s be above the fold as much as possible for our calls to action, especially on main pages.

This can be a challenge because there are lots of devices of different sizes nowadays - the fold is a moving target. Look at your content on various sized devices and try to get CTAs up high on all of them. When you're doing something like a longer article, it makes sense that the call to action would be farther down the page.

Another thing to mention is that the CTA button could stand out a little bit more. Using the orange or purple brand color might be a better choice to catch the attention of the viewer.

Example 2

This screen is from the University of Oregon about Black History Month. They've got this interesting button called Celebrate and Recognize.

University of Oregon’s homepage says Black History is History. Resilience and Joy: What can Black History Month mean in these times? Button labeled “Celebrate and Recognize”

The great thing is that the call to action is front and center. It's pretty unmissable in many ways. I do wish it were yellow from the get go and not only when I scrolled over it. But I think it will definitely attract clicks due to its location.

Notice that this site and the other example above offer one call to action at a time.

Keep it simple and give people the one action you want them to do, not four different choices. This typically turns out better and does encourage more clicks.

It helps if your button can be a little bit more descriptive about what I'm going to click on. When I consider clicking on "Celebrate & Recognize," I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to get. I'm going to bet it's somewhere great, but I don't necessarily know what to expect. The “information scent” on this button could be improved.

Example 3

Let’s look at the Australian Cricketers Association.

Homepage of the Australian Cricket Association. Main title says Mooney and Smith top of 2021 Australian Cricket Awards with a white read more button. There’s a picture of a man in a suite looking at the camera, it’s either Mooney or Smith.

I really want them to have a bigger logo so I can really read that without any problem whatsoever. But I give them a high five because they have a very clear call to action here. This looks like a news story. It's very clear that if I click on this, I will be reading more about these cricket awards. That is helpful and descriptive.

Often in our buttons, it would be great if we could put something like read more about blah, blah, blah. But sometimes the button space doesn't allow for that. So sometimes your buttons have to be really short and sweet, like "read more" or "learn more.”

If that’s your situation, make sure the short (but vague) CTA is very closely positioned with the title or item. Make it very clear what somebody would be reading more about.

Example 4

Here's an example from a tennis organization in Britain. They have an article about tennis coaching at home. If I scroll through the article, there's lots of things to engage with in the article, which is great. It even has a quiz on it, which is cool.

At the bottom where the red arrow points, they're really encouraging people to keep up with them. Great job, tennis people in London, you've done a good job with your CTAs!

Your Nonprofit’s Calls to Action

Now think about the calls to action on your nonprofit website. Ask yourself:

Do you have a call to action on every page?
Do they stand out well either as buttons or links?
Are they descriptive so people know where they're going to land after clicking on that thing?
Are you making sure they're really up high on mobile as well as desktop/laptop?

Having great CTAs means you're more likely to get clicks. The website visitor will be guided along a good path. This should help your organization AND those who are visiting your site.

Join us for further learning at the UX for Nonprofits Facebook group and grab your 3 FREE UX lessons to Drastically Improve Your Nonprofit Website.