Website design for NGOs, foundations and associations

NGO website design starts from a different question than a company website. Here you have to show what the organisation did, for whom, with whom and with whose support, so that donors, volunteers and interested visitors all find what they are looking for. I have worked for foundations and associations: I built the new website of a foundation in Miercurea Ciuc, and I did the full WordPress development of the map-based site of an environmental programme in Bucharest.

NGO website design: what do visitors look for?

Donors look at where the money went. Volunteers want to know where and when they can help. The press and partners look for a short introduction, logos and a contact person. That is why the site structure is built on the projects: each project gets its own page with a description, photos, results and the partners who delivered it, and news and reports link to them. Funder and partner logos appear in groups, the way the grant's visual identity guide requires.

When you need a map

If your projects are tied to places (gardens, collection points, renovated spaces, hiking routes), a map says more than a list. The Muzeul Viu al Bucureștiului site shows 68 environmental projects at 85 points: they can be filtered by category and searched by name, and four themed routes connect them. On every project page a button opens directions to the location. The map runs on Leaflet, so you need no Google account and no paid map key, and the organisers add new points in the admin.

NGOs I have worked on

The Pahru Foundation has been active in Miercurea Ciuc since 1991. I built its new website on a custom theme: master's programmes, news and publications, all editable from the admin. I contributed to the development of the content portal of the Gyergyói Szemle association.

Several editors, clearly separated permissions

In an organisation it is rarely one person who uploads the content. So everyone gets their own account and only sees what their job needs in the admin: the project lead sees their projects, the communications person sees the news. If volunteers edit too, narrowing the permissions is also a security matter. The admin can be in Romanian, Hungarian or English, and you get a short guide written for your own site.

Grants, 3.5% and multiple languages

Grant-funded projects often have to show the funder's logo, the project code and a prescribed sentence about the funding. We set these up once, and they appear the same way on every page concerned. In Romania, Form 230 lets taxpayers direct 3.5% of their income tax to an NGO, and a short subpage with filling-in instructions helps a lot here. If your audience is Hungarian and Romanian, the two languages run on separate URLs. I wrote about this in more detail in the article on multilingual websites.

Prices

A brochure website for an NGO starts at 2,500 RON. A site extended with project pages, a map or several languages is priced by scope, and maintenance is 250 RON/month. The pricing page has the details. If the work is tied to a grant deadline, send me the date too, and I will plan the schedule around it.