In response to the regular emails I receive asking for my views on what website designs I recommend as “best practice” I’ve decided to put together a list of ten twelve high quality, non-profit or cause-related websites in terms of design.
To some extent, this post updates my earlier post from late 2010 showcasing eight union websites. I’ve said repeatedly that unions should not benchmark themselves against other unions in terms of design (for traditional and digital communication material) — but rather against the non-profit sector generally.
[box border=”full”]Click on the screenshots to go to the website.[/box]
Allstate Teen Driver Program
Good example of a strong call to action, combined with a simple explanation and compelling photo.
Amnesty International Australia
Strong brand and excellent use of social proof (227,814 supporters), as well as nice use of tabs to get lots of info on the homepage without crowding everything.
Birdlife Australia
This site has three main calls to action and a lovely scrolling image feature that really highlights their cause.
Chisholm TAFE
I’ve added in Chisholm because I think they’ve done a good job of simplifying their homepage to make it as simple as possible for visitors to find the most important information they’re after. All the extraneous information is accessed through menus.
Connect a Million Minds
This is a corporate “cause” site, which stood out because of their clear calls to action, nice icons, and lots of white space.
Counterspill
A fantastic interactive site with striking visuals. A really first class campaign website.
Cut Nukes (Global Zero)
A simple but effective campaign site that highlights the cost of nuclear weapons, this site also matches and builds on the Global Zero brand identity.
Donate Life
I think this site does a great job of getting to the key hurdles of organ donation — the decision and the discussion. The strong visual hierarchy also helps with the large amount of information.
Visit Greenland
A national tourism site that matches amazing photos with clear calls to action to answer visitors’ main queries (i.e. what to do in Greenland).
I Had Cancer
A community for people who had cancer or is currently fighting it, it does a great job in focusing on joining and putting community members front-and-centre.
Invisible Children
Home of the Kony 2012 video (and run on WordPress), this site does a great job of prominently highlighting major campaigns in a strong visual style.
Rally (social fundraising)
Rally is a fundraising service, but I’ve showcased their site here because it shows how simple a campaign site could be: one email field and a button.
