Nonprofit Website Trends for 2022

It’s officially 2022— happy New Year! Does your nonprofit have any New Year’s resolutions? If so, add refreshing your nonprofit website to the list. Let’s get your nonprofit’s website plans in motion. 

2022 will be full of new website trends that can boost the performance of your nonprofit website. 

After researching this year’s website predictions, we’ve broken down this year’s trends into three categories: Design, Storytelling, and Community. 

Design

Minimalism is key 

Across the board, everyone is predicting minimalistic, clean designs to take center-stage in 2022. Modern, fresh page layouts with crisp whitespace are going to dominate this year, along with larger, bolder title fonts and lightweight typography. Web designers will find balance between what is minimalistic and simple and what is dull, and innovate designs that are bold but don’t overwhelm. 

2021 was the year of “more”: more design elements, more intense color palettes, more pushing the boundaries with symmetry and grid layouts. 2022 will lean on the delicate side, but it shouldn’t be mistaken as “boring.” Think smoother, refined, sophisticated. For your nonprofit website, this means more symmetry, bold brand colors, stronger imagery, and easy-reading layouts. 

Gradients 

Though many web designers prefer more simple solid color blocks, gradients are going to be popular in 2022. Gradients, while more colorful, provide a unique visual that isn’t overwhelming or disruptive. Gradients can be used in textboxes, in grid layouts, overlays for imagery, the list goes on! The three main types of gradients are linear, radiant, and freeform— we recommend you don’t use more than one type of gradient on a single page. That crosses the line into flashy. 

Horizontal scrolling 

In 2022, user scrolling experiences will trek into the non-traditional. While vertical scrolling is the norm and is the default for web designers, a trend in 2022 websites will be horizontal scrolling. Though it sounds a little weird, horizontal scrolling provides a pleasant experience for users that is both new while feeling natural. The main goal of this function is to catch the eye of the reader, and it does! It makes the user feel like they are reading from a book. 

For an example, this would fit in with your nonprofit website if you have image galleries for a fundraising event with testimonials or anecdotes for each picture. It’s important to note the possibility of accessibility issues with horizontal scrolling, so make sure to research this function to see if it helps or hurts your nonprofit website.

Storytelling

Embedded videos on the homepage

Nothing tells a story like a video. For your nonprofit, you know telling the story of your mission is crucial to engaging your communities and potential donors. While original photography is a fantastic asset for your homepage, videos are even better. 

For nonprofit websites, testimonial videos or interviews with volunteers and/or individuals your organization has impacted positively are great opportunities to show your mission working realtime in your communities. Embedding them on your website homepage ensures that this story will be front and center, the first thing people lay their eyes on when exploring your site. 

Integrated social media accounts

According to the 2019 Global NGO Technology Report, 96% of American nonprofits state that social media improves online brand awareness. Connecting your nonprofit social media accounts to your website is key to connecting all branding efforts. Even if it’s just plugging your social media links at the bottom of your homepage, or adding a “Follow Us!” button with links to your accounts, little calls to action like that will improve your branding. Social media icons can be included in a navigation menu, or listed in a vertical menu on the side of your homepage, it’s all design preference! 

Additionally, this provides readers with yet another facet for understanding the mission of your nonprofit— social media is a great platform for storytelling and should be used to its full potential. 

Community 

Create member portals for donors 

A popular theme in 2022 will be cultivating a sense of community. For nonprofit organizations, community is the backbone of their mission. Nothing could be achieved without the help of donors, volunteers, community members and your nonprofit team. Those who spend countless hours working with your team to achieve a community goal should feel like they are “VIPs” of your nonprofit. By this, we mean having a place for them on your website where they can login with a unique username and password, and be able to see how many hours they’ve volunteered, amounts they’ve donated, and so on. 

Creating a member portal for your website not only gives donors and volunteers access to important information, but it gives you another avenue of contact and can increase collaboration between members. Additionally, you can list event registration information, nonprofit news, and other content through the member portal exclusively for your members. This will build a stronger sense of community with people your nonprofit regularly interacts with— personalized content builds community trust. 

Websites optimized for interaction

As stated above, community is the center of all nonprofit initiatives. Providing personalized content and interacting with your audiences and website visitors online will foster a sense of community in the New Year. 

To do this, you can build a live chat box into your homepage. This pop-up button will appear when new site visitors click onto your site and will offer a prompt that encourages visitors to use the chat box if they have any questions about your nonprofit or how to get involved. If real-time communication is unrealistic for your team, you can install a human-like AI chatbot. AI chatbots communicate with people like humans, they understand user intent and can answer questions that people have if you provide them with the data. If that option isn’t in your budget in 2022, try embedding contact forms more frequently across your website so website visitors know that if they have a question, they can get it answered in a timely manner. 

2022 is going to be busy— a year full of growth and new goals for nonprofits everywhere. Take note of this year’s website trends and make plans to optimize your website so it reaches its potential for your mission! 

Contact Us

2022 is YOUR year to get your nonprofit website in check. Ready to make the leap into a new year of web opportunities and chances to grow? Contact us today for a FREE 15-minute consultation to achieve the website of your dreams.