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Defining Strategy & Vision.

Building a great nonprofit website starts with a clear strategy and vision. Defining your website strategy means balancing your goals, your audience’s needs, and your resources—without losing sight of what matters most. These articles share practical ways to shape a strategy that works for your nonprofit.

Best of the web 2025 🎆✨
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Best of the web 2025 🎆✨Defining Strategy & VisionFeaturedTip

Best of the web 2025 🎆✨

It’s that joyous time of year when my inbox is flooded with the “10 best of the year” lists from all the (many) eNewsletters I’m subscribed to. I actually love these because they’re a great way to spot trends and…
Building your nonprofit brand: A place to begin
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Building your nonprofit brand: A place to beginArticleDefining Strategy & VisionFeatured

Building your nonprofit brand: A place to begin

Nonprofits today are thinking about their brands more and more, and that's a good thing. They're looking closely at the stories they’re telling, the experiences they’re creating, and the way people feel about them. Those perceptions, feelings, stories, and experiences…
🎯👥 Define your audiences and brand
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🎯👥 Define your audiences and brandDefining Strategy & VisionFeaturedProject Management & StrategyTip

🎯👥 Define your audiences and brand

 The very first conference presentation I ever gave in the nonprofit world—at a very early NTEN gathering nearly 25 years ago—was called “Branding Through Websites.” The idea wasn’t new then, and it still holds up: everything on your site shapes…
Defining a shared vision for your website project
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Defining a shared vision for your website projectArticleDefining Strategy & VisionFeaturedProject Management & Strategy

Defining a shared vision for your website project

Your nonprofit is taking on a new website project. You think you have a pretty good understanding of what's important…but are you sure? And do others in your organization share that understanding? Misunderstandings from the beginning can really trip your…
Webinar: Preparing for your next website project
Webinar: Preparing for your next website projectChoosing Website FirmsDefining Strategy & VisionProject Management & StrategySubscriber OnlyVideoWebinar

Webinar: Preparing for your next website project

(30 min, free subscription required) Launching a new website can feel overwhelming before you even get started. In this session, we’ll walk through the essential steps to set your project up for success. You’ll learn how to define clear goals…
🌟🧭 Align your project team with North Star goals
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🌟🧭 Align your project team with North Star goalsDefining Strategy & VisionFeaturedPrioritizing TasksTip

🌟🧭 Align your project team with North Star goals

When you start a website project, it’s easy to get lost in features—better search, new menus, bigger photos. But those aren’t goals. Real nonprofit website goals are the outcomes you want to achieve, like increasing donations, helping more people find…
📈 ⚾ The case for rough ROIs and ballpark budgets
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📈 ⚾ The case for rough ROIs and ballpark budgetsDefining Strategy & VisionFunding ProjectsTip

📈 ⚾ The case for rough ROIs and ballpark budgets

“Return on investment” (ROI) may sound like a boardroom buzzword, but it’s really just asking: Is this project worth it? When it comes to nonprofit website projects, many leaders get stuck trying to calculate exact financial benefits. The truth is,…
Website tradeoffs: staff time, money, scope and polish
Website tradeoffs: staff time, money, scope and polishArticleDefining Strategy & VisionProject Management & StrategySelecting Technologies

Website tradeoffs: staff time, money, scope and polish

When you're planning a website, you need to find the right mix of three important things: the staff time you spend on it, the money it costs, and the scope of your final site. And then there’s a four element—…
Eight underused technology roadmap tactics
Eight underused technology roadmap tacticsArticleDefining Strategy & VisionProject Management & StrategySelecting Technologies

Eight underused technology roadmap tactics

In the nonprofit sector, we underuse many useful technology planning methodologies. Too often, the process of defining what will be included in a technology project—like a website or a new implementation—is based more on a gut feel and a prayer…
Defining priorities via digital cardsorting
Defining priorities via digital cardsortingArticleDefining Strategy & VisionPrioritizing TasksProject Management & Strategy

Defining priorities via digital cardsorting

Here’s a scenario that might sound familiar: You have a complicated website that hasn’t gotten much love in a little too long. Your staff have different perspectives about what’s most important to take on. You want to begin with some…
Updating website features in bite-size chunks
Updating website features in bite-size chunksArticleDefining Strategy & VisionProject Management & StrategySelecting TechnologiesSitewide improvements

Updating website features in bite-size chunks

Too often, nonprofits think about the functionality on their website as something that’s built in a big redesign project. They then leave it alone for years, or even until something breaks. This “big bang” approach has a lot of downsides,…
Using engagement pyramids to define nonprofit websites
Using engagement pyramids to define nonprofit websitesArticleDefining Strategy & VisionFundraising & ConversionProject Management & Strategy

Using engagement pyramids to define nonprofit websites

When you're creating a vision or roadmap of a website for your nonprofit, it can be tricky to balance your organization's goals with your audiences goals. Creating an Engagement Pyramid can be really helpful in thinking through the right way…