An effective website can improve your organization's ability to reach a variety of audiences, invite them into a productive, ongoing relationship, as well as enable users to interact with your organization in ways that improve their experience and lower your costs. Our basic website project can help your organization develop its first professional quality web presence.

Your website needs to reflect your brand essence – your authentic and distinct place in your community – and also provide an experience that anticipates the specific needs of visitors to your site. We begin by conducting research to better understand your target audience and your vision for the website. Then, taking advantage of your current marketing and communications strategy, we will craft a custom site that not only reinforces your mission and vision, but also enhances your relationship with each user. Because it is designed with flexibility in mind, the site can evolve as your organization grows and changes.

The impact of each project varies but many clients report one or more of these results:

• Increased online donations
• Improved relationship with potential donors and funders; higher conversion rate of leads
• Increased online volunteer recruitment
• Increased efficiency providing information to prospective clients and volunteers
• Greater staff efficiency with web content maintenance

• Discovery interviews with a range of your staff
• A requirements brief that details your needs and our suggested approach
• Website design, content development and programming for 10-15 static HTML pages
• A live website
• A logical structure for your site and an architecture to support its growth if appropriate
• Training on how to update the site
• Our website Service Grants are specifically scoped to design and develop a forward-facing, content-based public website and as such explicitly exclude server-side database and application development, and the analysis and selection of web hosting providers

Our Basic Website project will be most successful under certain circumstances. We recommend you apply if your organization has met the following requirements:

• A clear sense of your audiences and the key messages you wish to communicate to each (If not, our Key Messages & Brand Strategy Service Grant may be a better place to start)
• A clear brand identity (If not, our Visual Identity & Brand Strategy Service Grant may be a better place to start)
• Existing staff or an ongoing consulting relationship that provides your organization with some website technical capabilities
• Needs that can be met with a 10-15 page professional-quality, static html website. If you require a more complex site, our Advanced Website may be the better Service Grant for your organization.
• Staff that can invest the necessary time to make the project succeed:
  • Executive Director: 10-15 hours total
  • Day-to-Day Contact: 3-5 hours each week
  • Collaborator for our Writer: 20-30 hours total
  • Technical Contact: 10-15 hours total

Your Taproot Foundation team will be staffed by marketing experts who have made a personal commitment to strengthening the nonprofit sector. Visit our volunteer roles page for additional information about Marketing and IT volunteer roles.

If this project appeals to your organization and you have the recommended items in place, please review our grant process and criteria, and then apply. If you have questions about the grant or your eligibility, please contact us.