Funding options for nonprofit websites

Have you thought about how your nonprofit can fund a new website? It can get quite expensive for many nonprofits to overhaul their web presence. You have to factor the cost of developers and designers, or agencies that combine the two. How can you go about with the site if your nonprofit can't presently afford all the related costs? Funding options for nonprofit websites can take a variety of forms:

Options for funding a nonprofit's new website development project.

1. General fundraising
2. Grants
3. Speed the inflow of accounts receivable.
   Examples for accounts receivable ideas: Invoice promptly. Offer incentives to pay early. Write or print on bills “payable upon receipt” or “Net 10 Days.”
4. Make a case to your board for a new website requesting privately solicited funds
5. Initiate special quick-hit funding campaigns designed to generate dollars from long-time supporters.
6. Solicit grants from discretionary funds managed by a foundation’s CEO, program officer, or corporate giving officer.
7. Increase the prices of your products or services for nonprofits that provide such.
8. Package and sell useful information or data that you have that others need. Or, provide such data or intellectual property in a special or helpful package--a book for instance.
9. Obtain short term loans, and use the new website to make a case for fundraising to pay back the loans short-term.
10. Rent office space or equipment to others in order to build an improved digital presence that will help tell your story and build a better fundraising community.

As with all initiatives, presentation is the main starting point. Pitches to your board and stakeholders have to be framed with the following ideas in mind:

How Your Nonprofit Can Fund a New Website

Focus on the website as a capacity building tool that will help your nonprofit more effectively fulfill its mission. - WiredImpact

A New Website is an Investment for your Nonprofit

There are points you can make to inform others of how your website will serve as an investment:

1. Your nonprofit will use the website to connect with new donors and recruit more volunteers
2. An improved website will help pay for itself by raising more money
3. Once a strategy is set in place, a new site will help your nonprofit stand out as a thought leader, and further help gain recognition for the work you are doing.

A New Website Will Work 'Round The Clock

Though it may sound obvious, it's a good idea to place emphasis on the fact that websites work all day, every day. And it can handle hundreds (or even thousands) of people a day. Your website will help spread the word of your organization at all times.

A website can help extend and further your cause

When planning a new website project, consider new uses for your website. How could your nonprofit use web technology to further it's mission. For example, could the website extend your outreach to advocates or cause participants? Could your nonprofit use the web to educate the general public on your cause to a greater degree than the website does currently?

Examples of expanding the use of your website to support your mission:

• Provide a searchable or sortable library of documents that educate specific personas on your cause or how to take action
• Provide interactive tools that enable action through your website
• Provide peer to peer communication or networking tools to better connect advocates and cause supporters