What to Look for in a Nonprofit Web Design Agency

Nonprofit website design agencies generally aren’t one-size-fits-all, and it’s important to select one that aligns with your organization’s needs, goals, and approach. Look for the following characteristics in the team you partner with::

• Sector-specific expertise. Review the agency’s client lists and portfolio to ensure they’ve completed many nonprofit web design projects. Experience working with organizations in your organization’s space is a plus, since they’ll have a deeper understanding of your mission, brand landscape, and unique needs.
• Effective management of core website functionalities. Your partner should have a strong command of mobile optimization, accessible design, and integrations with common nonprofit software like fundraising databases and donation processors to make the most of your site and ensure all potential supporters can find the information they need.
• Alignment with your required scope of services. Whether you’re planning a complete website overhaul or you just need minor updates and maintenance, your chosen partner should be able to propose solutions that align with your organization’s desired timeline and budget..
• Ability to collaborate well with your team. Although your partner is the expert in website design, you’re the expert in your nonprofit’s mission and values, so you’ll need to work together to create a well-crafted site that accurately reflects your organization.

The process of launching or redesigning your nonprofit’s website may seem daunting, especially if you try to do it on your own. The agency you partner with should make the process as low-stress and exciting as possible so you end up with a website that you’re both happy with and that converts supporters!

Top Nonprofit Website Design Agencies

At Loop, we’ve been inspired by the work of many website designers over the years. So, we’ve compiled a list of our favourite nonprofit-specific web design agencies to help you pick the best one for your organization. Read on to browse the full list!

Loop: Design for Social Good

We’re constantly inspired by the designers on our team at Loop. We design and develop websites specifically tailored to the needs of nonprofits and social enterprises, and we’ve honed expertise in driving engagement and providing the resources social good organizations need to spread awareness about their causes.

During our website design process, we work alongside your team to ensure your website speaks to your nonprofit’s specific mission and diverse audiences. We follow these general steps:

1. Discovery: We analyze your organization’s online presence and survey its main audiences so we can develop a detailed creative brief to guide website goals, design, and integrations.
2. Site Navigation: Based on your goals and audience needs, we develop an interactive sitemap and menu design, which we’ll refine collaboratively for optimal user experience.
3. Style Guide: We’ll create a guide outlining the visual elements, such as colour schemes, typography, and media guidelines, that define your brand’s online representation (ensuring a consistent, professional, and recognizable look throughout the site).
4. Mockups: Combining the sitemap and style guide, we’ll make visual prototypes for each page and then gather feedback from your team that we can use for design refinement.
5. Content: We assist your team in gathering and optimizing written and media content, providing templates and tips for effective communication.
6. Development: Using WordPress, we build a fast, search-engine-optimized, and user-friendly website with a library of customizable drag-and-drop rows and modules for  easy editing.
7. Page Build: We upload all content into WordPress, adding custom features like donation widgets, event calendars, maps, resource libraries, and CRM integrations or multi-language support as needed.
8. Testing and Launch: After we conduct thorough testing for functionality and compliance and implement any final edits, your website is ready to launch!
9. Training and Support: Once your site is live, we provide your team with in-depth and accessible training, backend access setup, resources, and ongoing support services so you can keep up with website maintenance.

Loop works with each nonprofit individually, listening to their and their audiences’ needs. We’ll ensure the website reflects your organizational identity and is equipped with the tools necessary to maximize your web presence. Plus, we offer branding services, annual report creation, custom iconography, and email and social media template development to further reinforce your mission and impact through design.

Featured Nonprofit Website Design Projects by Loop

Double Up Food Bucks

Double Up Food Bucks is a Michigan-based nonprofit and core member of the Fair Food Network. They help those who rely on SNAP assistance gain additional access to healthy food by matching their fruit and vegetable purchases dollar for dollar.

While developing Double Up Food Bucks’ new website, the Loop team visited the various grocery stores and markets where the program is accepted to see its mission in action. This provided firsthand experience with the nonprofit’s audience, allowing us to develop a website design that would engage the right people and help build connections between Double Up Food Bucks and the community.

Oxfam Canada

Oxfam Canada is a national branch of the global nonprofit Oxfam, an organization with the mission of “fight[ing] inequality and patriarchy to end poverty and injustice.” This organization already had an established brand they wanted to lean into when they turned to Loop for help developing their website.

After an extensive consultation process, Loop worked with their team to develop a website that embraces visual storytelling and donor engagement while meeting strict web accessibility standards. The focus on visual storytelling helped create a website that embraces shared human experiences and rallies support for gender equity, climate justice, and poverty relief.

Planned Parenthood Toronto

Planned Parenthood Toronto (PPT) is a community health centre that aims to foster an inclusive, holistic approach to sexual and reproductive health for young people aged 13-29. With a focus on Toronto’s underserved populations, PPT’s goal is to empower young people to take control of their health. Their Loop-created brand and website boldly reflect their mission and the diverse communities they serve.

Working closely with the PPT team, Loop built a website that captures their growing services and commitment to addressing social determinants of health. The bright colours and dynamic logo draw youthful audiences in, while the strategic call-to-action buttons and supportive  messaging help them access essential information and services with just a few clicks.

Hyperakt

Hyperakt is a nonprofit brand design agency based in Brooklyn, NY. Their team uses the process of co-design, working with rather than for their clients. This emphasis on collaboration helps their teams work together to develop web design strategies that allow nonprofits to succeed online.

Hyperakt does incredible work in the criminal justice space, using storytelling strategies to spread awareness about their nonprofits’ missions. This aligns with the agency’s goal of “branding for a more just and joyous society.”

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is the ACLU affiliate that serves the state of New York, focusing on “strengthening democracy, promoting equality, pursuing justice, and protecting privacy and autonomy.” Hyperakt worked alongside the NYCLU to develop a new brand that evokes the boldness and diversity of their approach to advocacy. They then translated that brand into a highly interactive and eye-catching website so the organization could “deepen their relationships with allies and supporters” across the state.

Wide Eye

Wide Eye is a nonprofit website design firm based in Maryland that conducts work in the political advocacy and democracy spaces. They understand that advocacy causes need to be eye-catching and attention-grabbing to succeed.

Because Wide Eye works in the advocacy space, they specialize in developing bold, eye-catching content. They lean into the spirit of design and innovative technology to combine their client’s mission of activism with credibility, inspiring support for the most critical social causes.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

REFORM Alliance is an advocacy group which “aims to transform probation and parole by changing laws, systems and culture to create real pathways to work and wellbeing.” They turned to Wide Eye to create a site that effectively showcases their successes in justice system reform while alerting visitors to the gravity of the work that still needs to be done. Their site features bold animated typography, clear calls to action, and lots of current news to help visitors stay up to date on their work and relevant social issues.

Almanac

Almanac is a nonprofit website design firm based in St. Louis, MO. They refer to themselves as a “creative crew of dreamers and risk-takers” who “ move purpose-driven brands to clarity.” They specialize in creating audience-centred designs that engage people and help them see the organization’s value.

Almanac focuses on strategy, starting by analyzing their clients’ goals, then determining the design and content needed to achieve those objectives. This process allows the agency to define success in a collaborative format alongside their nonprofit partners.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

The Opportunity Trust is an organization dedicated to helping the children of St. Louis, MO gain access to education and opportunities that will help them thrive now and later in life. This organization had already developed and established its brand in its community, but the team found some of their processes and programs were challenging for their audience to understand. They turned to Almanac to design a website that clearly explains these concepts through concise language and detailed animations.

Firebelly

Firebelly describes itself as a “socially conscious creative studio specializing in strategic design.” The team recognizes the value of sharing their clients’ passions, and that additional motivation drives them to help their clients succeed.

This agency is skilled at developing engaging and interactive web experiences that clearly communicate the mission of the organizations they help. They take a large amount of client-provided information and organize it clearly throughout their websites. This allows each nonprofit’s audience to better understand what the organization does so they have all of the information they need to take action.

Girls Garage is a nonprofit that seeks to empower young girls and gender-expansive youth through carpentry, welding, architecture, and related skills. They turned to Firebelly for help communicating this mission and reflecting their brand on their website. Firebelly was able to use images, illustrations, and typography to visually represent the organization’s hands-on emphasis and communicate its mission and opportunities for involvement to its audience.

Cosmic

Cosmic is a web design agency that works with social impact organizations. It’s based in Santa Cruz, CA, and helps its clients use design to stand out among their competitors. Their team is dedicated to using web design to spark real change.

Cosmic’s web design projects typically feature bright colours and engaging animations to drive success for their clients. They use storytelling strategies to communicate organizations’ stories in a way that emotionally compels their audience to take action.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

Arts Council Santa Cruz County’s purpose is to “nurture and invest in artists, culture, and the arts throughout Santa Cruz County.” Their team turned to Cosmic to develop a website that reflects their welcoming, open nature when it comes to the arts community. In addition to its vibrant imagery and bright green call-to-action buttons, a distinguishing feature of the site is its resource hub, which allows visitors to “choose their path” and learn more about the organization’s services for artists, arts educators, and art lovers.

Teal Media

Based in Washington DC, Teal Media is a woman-owned and led nonprofit website design agency. Their mission is to “partner with nonprofits to create brands, build websites, and drive support for game-changing missions.” In addition to their core web design and branding services, the Teal Media team also helps their clients develop and execute digital marketing strategies via social media, email outreach, search engine optimization, and paid advertising support.

Teal Media is dedicated to seeing nonprofits succeed in the digital space long after their website design projects are completed. They’ll set up custom dashboards to monitor site performance over time and train the nonprofit’s team in digital marketing best practices so they can continue to make progress on their own. Plus, the agency offers a community program called “Friends of Teal” where clients can interact with each other and access specialized resources anytime.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

PFLAG is the largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization in the United States, with more than 325,000 members and supporters across hundreds of local chapters. The organization partnered with Teal Media to design a central website that showcases its mission of ensuring all LGBTQ+ individuals are “safe, celebrated, empowered, and loved.” The site draws visitors in with its vibrant imagery and colour scheme and encourages various audiences to engage from the start with clear navigation options.

Purpose

Purpose is a web design agency focused on promoting social good. They work with organizations, activists, businesses, and philanthropies with the goal of “moving people to remake the world.” This agency’s projects spread awareness about a multitude of issues, including climate change, poverty, and voting rights on a global scale.

Purpose does more than help individual organizations succeed. Their team connects clients with other organizations that have similar missions so that everyone can come together to make a change. Then, they create the messaging and design tools that bring their clients’ shared causes to life.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

Purpose developed the BreatheLife campaign in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. To help the campaign achieve its goal of halving the number of deaths that occur each year due to air pollution by 2030, Purpose helped build dynamic educational resources. These include a video that shows how pollution impacts children across the world, a guide where people can find the pollution numbers of their own countries, and infographics that share information about the dangers of air pollution.

Fat Beehive

Fat Beehive is a social impact web design agency from London, United Kingdom that has been “helping charities, NGOs and ethical companies with websites, branding and digital services for over 26 years.” They specialize in open-source website building, user experience design, audience research, and integrating sites with CRM and member management software.

Fat Beehive describes themselves as “delightful, ethical, [and] digital,” which they practice internally and externally. Not only are they highly selective about the businesses they partner with (charities and social enterprises are nearly all welcome), but they also work hard to treat their staff well and are ranked among the top 10 best places to work in the UK.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

Action Against Hunger is a humanitarian organization working to alleviate life-threatening malnutrition and food insecurity in 55 countries. The UK chapter turned to Fat Beehive to refresh their outdated, difficult-to-use website. The new site’s bold font choices and calls to action emphasize the severity of the issues the nonprofit fights against. Plus, the site provides a straightforward, accessible user experience to help visitors learn about the organization’s key initiatives, successes, and needs.

Cornershop Creative

Cornershop Creative is a web design agency with the mission of helping nonprofits make the most of their online presence. In their words, “Designing innovative, impactful, and great-looking websites for organizations on a mission to change the world is our team’s bread and butter.”

This creative agency takes a holistic approach, providing everything nonprofits need to create and maintain a strong online presence. They not only help with the initial design of an organization’s website but also provide integration assistance with e-commerce and CRM solutions, ongoing maintenance, optimization, and content strategy.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

Florida Conservation Voters is an organization that encourages people to leverage democracy to promote environmental protection and create healthy communities for the residents of Florida. They came to Cornershop Creative asking for help creating two different websites to promote their campaigns. Cornershop worked with them to migrate their existing information to these new sites, ensuring multilingual functionality and creating a clean, navigable experience.

Kanopi Studios

Kanopi Studios is a web design agency that works with various organizations, including nonprofits, healthcare institutions, corporations, and universities. Their team understands that an organization’s website is more than just an educational resource—it’s a key platform for engaging your audience and encouraging them to get involved.

Kanopi takes a strategic, technical approach to web design. They focus on a website’s underlying use and strategy to create structures and content that will meet the organization’s needs. They operate on a platform of continuous improvement, conducting a continuous cycle of brainstorming, learning, and iterating for their clients.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

The Covenant House is a nonprofit that provides housing and resources for unhoused youth across North and Central America. The organization set aspirational marketing goals to get the word out about its services and turned to Kanopi Studios to help achieve them. Kanopi worked with their team to determine both long-term goals and short-term wins. By making key updates to the existing site’s code and integrating key solutions, Kanopi helped The Covenant House achieve its awareness objectives.

Elevation

Elevation is a full-service digital agency that offers a variety of marketing services for nonprofits. Their team members are experts in website development, SEO, content marketing, graphic design, branding, and privacy. They bring all of these skills together to help nonprofits create a comprehensive strategy that gets the word out to their audience.

Elevation starts each project by assigning an expert content strategist on their team to align with nonprofit clients about their goals and ideal outcomes to create a website that will support those outcomes. They work closely with the organization to define editorial guidelines and ensure everything is in line with its vision and mission as they work.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

The American Brain Tumor Association (ABTA) is a nonprofit that focuses on education, support, and research about brain tumours. When their team decided their website needed a reboot, ABTA had changed and expanded its audience, so they partnered with Elevation to redesign their site to appeal to a wider range of visitors. The Elevation team was able to create clear navigation to lead to resources for brain tumour patients, survivors, and their loved ones, as well as healthcare providers and research professionals. They also created new digital content that matched each visitor’s intent and purpose.

Ironpaper

Ironpaper is a web design agency that helps B2B organizations, both for-profit and nonprofit. It focuses on helping organizations convert more audience members into clients and engage them further with their causes.

Ironpaper’s approach prioritizes analytics more than most. Their team studies conversion paths on their clients’ websites and determines which design decisions will increase lead conversion rates. While they don’t work solely in the nonprofit sphere, this analytics mindset can be a useful way to look at a nonprofit’s online revenue generation strategies, particularly in relation to providing services.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

Jazz at Lincoln Center is a nonprofit that seeks to “entertain, enrich and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy.” They partnered with Ironpaper to create a new website design, develop an online ticketing system for their music events, and integrate their site with a POS system to increase conversion rates. Through these changes and a carefully laid strategic plan, Jazz at Lincoln Center increased subscription sales by 500%!

Constructive

Constructive is a nonprofit design agency composed of strategists, designers, technologists, and advocates. They offer several services to their nonprofit clients, including brand creation, web development, content strategy, consulting, and training.

This agency relies on extensive user research and testing to make sure their design strategies will be effective for their nonprofit clients. Their team members talk to real people to understand what the nonprofit’s audience is looking for. Then, they test different designs and strategies with supporters to determine the best courses of action to recommend to their clients.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

Climate Impact Lab is made up of a team of economists, climate scientists, data engineers, and risk analysts with the mission of slowing climate change through education, research, and action. They turned to the Constructive team to help align their website with their current focus areas, and in response, Constructive built a data tool that shows how climate change impacts poverty and other social issues. These choices have helped Climate Impact Lab gain traction and engage audience members in their new campaign.

Boxcar Studio

Boxcar Studio is a full-service web design and development agency located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their small, dedicated team focuses on serving nonprofits and educational institutions. They “design and develop…sites in-house from start to finish with an eye toward elegant interface design and accessibility.”

This agency focuses on helping organizations create a “virtual storefront” that showcases their mission and encourages engagement. They also take a holistic approach to branding, working with nonprofits to design a full set of messaging and visual guidelines to use across their websites and marketing materials.

A Nonprofit Website Design Project That Inspires Us

The Monroe County Library System is dedicated to community involvement and education. They needed a website that would communicate this passion and convey their mission to the residents of Monroe County, MI. Boxcar Studio worked with the library system to develop a site that is not only branded in line with its educational mission but is also easily navigable to help audience members find the resources they need.

Wrapping Up: Additional Resources on Nonprofit Website Design

Loop’s team is constantly considering and celebrating the positive strides that the creative community is making in the world of nonprofit web development. This helps us learn about new ways of approaching challenges that nonprofits face, which allows us to deliver the best possible design and branding services to our partners.

For more information on nonprofit web design, check out these resources:

• The 25+ Best Nonprofit Websites: Our Inspiration Roundup. Explore even more of our favourite nonprofit website examples designed by the Loop team and other agencies.
• 14 Nonprofit Website Best Practices to Maximize Engagement. Learn about the industry best practices that nonprofit design firms use to create high-quality websites.
• Nonprofit Branding: Our Complete Guide and Best Examples. Discover the key elements of nonprofit brands and the importance of branding to effective website design.