It’s easy for nonprofits to feel disconnected from their online audiences. The internet can feel impersonal and cold, a place where robots talk to one another without needing much human input. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

To better connect with your audience and bring your mission to life for new and returning website visitors alike, we recommend taking steps to humanize your website. This means adding originality, warmth and relatability to your website.

Humanizing your website can:

• Make your organization and mission feel more real and urgent to supporters.
• Create a more engaging and relatable user experience.
• Help form emotional connections with visitors, strengthening your supporter stewardship efforts.

Let’s explore five tips for making your website’s content more approachable, with examples from Kanopi’s roundup of the best nonprofit websites.

1. Create original content.

Original, high-value content with a human touch is essential in the era of AI-generated content. AI-generated content is not inherently bad for SEO or user experience—rather, content that is poorly written, overly generic, inaccurate or thin can risk SEO demotion and poor user engagement. However, AI-generated content runs a higher risk of these cardinal SEO sins.

Creating original content with a distinctive perspective based on your organization’s years of industry experience can help your website’s content rank highly on search engines. By filling your website with valuable educational content that meets your audience’s search intent, you can make your website more trustworthy and authoritative.

It’s imperative to take a balanced approach by ensuring that all content, whether AI-written or not, is overseen by multiple individuals on your team. Take these steps to add a human touch to the content-creation process:

• Fact-check your content. Ensure any statistics you use come from a trustworthy source, such as an academic journal, government resource or newspaper article.
• Use your organization’s unique tone. Make sure your content sounds like you by incorporating your unique tone of voice.
• Add insights from subject matter experts (SMEs). For example, let’s say you’re writing a blog post about the impact of climate change on your local community. You could interview a researcher from a nearby university to incorporate credible quotes and research into your content.

Examples:

Check out these nonprofit blog examples for inspiration about the level of expertise and originality you should add to your content:

• Amnesty International: This nonprofit uses its blog to make its position on international issues known, such as in this post speaking out against crackdowns on media freedom.
• Cool Green Science (The Nature Conservancy): This blog post combines compelling visuals and data to highlight recent research about using flower mats to reduce pollution.
• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society: This recent blog post helps break down how new legislation impacts kids with cancer.

These blog posts are effective because they leverage each organization’s unique perspective and area of expertise.

Think of your nonprofit’s cause area and how you can incorporate your unique and credible insights into your content. Are you an environmental organization that can help break down recent studies for a wider audience? Are you a human rights organization that can interpret recent legislation with the help of a lawyer in your field? Leaning on your expertise and authority will increase your audience’s trust in your organization and make your content much more valuable.

2. Use authentic visuals.

Authentic visual storytelling introduces website visitors to the real people who power your organization’s mission and benefit from your services. Any visuals you use on your website, such as photos, videos or infographics, should:

• Be authentic (not stock imagery). Stock photos or videos that appear overly posed or cliche can come across as disingenuous. That’s why it’s more effective to use images taken by volunteers or staff members that showcase the real people involved with your organization. If you choose to use stock images, intentionally seek out inclusive and diverse images on platforms like Pocstock or The Gender Spectrum Collection.
• Show people’s faces. Photos with faces are more positively received by audiences and attract more engagement on social media platforms.

Examples:

• CARE uses authentic, attention-grabbing hero images on its homepage and donation form.

• charity: water’s homepage giving form also features an eye-catching hero image, making the most of blank space to incorporate a streamlined donation form.

Choose your organization’s most compelling, striking images to include on high-value pages like your homepage and donation form.

3. Strike a conversational tone.

One of the most effective ways to encourage website visitors to see the real people behind your mission is to speak to users like a friend. Incorporating a casual, conversational tone into your content can make your website more relatable and welcoming.

We recommend taking these steps to make your website’s written content more relaxed:

• Write like you speak. Write for the web by using more casual language than you do in other communications, like grant applications or direct mail letters. Feel free to use contractions, and read over your content to swap out overly formal words for more everyday ones.
• Avoid jargon. For example, if your nonprofit’s blog is focused on healthcare content, consider spelling out industry acronyms and avoiding overly technical terms.
• Don’t be afraid to use humor. When used appropriately, humor can make your content feel personable and engaging.

Examples:

• The Girls Who Code website and blog use simple language to define the nonprofit’s vision and goals. This tone makes the website more accessible for young visitors interested in learning more about the organization’s programs.

• The Sunrise Movement is a 501(c)(4) political advocacy organization dedicated to stopping the climate crisis and promoting racial and economic justice. The organization is powered by youth activists, so its website uses direct, inclusive language to inspire young people to get involved.

• Movember is a movement to support men’s health by growing a mustache in the month of November. The website leans into the quirky aspect of this challenge with lighthearted language and imagery.

4. Give community members a platform to share their stories.

Fundraising research shows that one of the top seven reasons why donors continue giving to nonprofits is because they receive information about who their gifts support. Supporters want to understand exactly who your organization helps using their gifts and how.

Allow beneficiaries to share their stories and express themselves in their own words on your website. You can spotlight their points of view by:

• Interviewing community members for blog posts.
• Interviewing community members for engaging on-site videos.
• Featuring podcast or audio interviews with beneficiaries who want to share their stories but don’t want their faces shown.
• Sharing artwork community members created to express their mindsets.
• Sharing poetry or other works of creative writing written by beneficiaries.

Examples:

• Habitat for Humanity’s 2021 annual report is an effective example of showcasing artwork created by beneficiaries. The report includes drawings and first-person narratives from children whose families moved into homes built with Habitat’s help.

• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital features patient stories on its website. Each story includes photos, videos and direct quotes from the patient and their family members.

Showcasing first-person narratives on your website allows you to create a more personal connection between community members and readers, establishing greater closeness and encouraging potential donors to contribute.

5. Make your nonprofit’s team approachable.

According to research from Stanford University, you can enhance your website’s credibility by demonstrating “that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.” Stanford’s Web Credibility Project recommends spotlighting the real people who work for your nonprofit with employee bios that include information about staff members’ families or hobbies.

In addition to employee profiles for your staff members, you can showcase your nonprofit’s team through content like:

• A robust About page.
• Staff spotlight blog posts.
• “Meet Our Team” videos.

Provide email contact information for visitors to reach out to staff members with questions. Also, prove to website users that there are real individuals behind your site by engaging with comments on your blog posts.

Examples:

• The Climate Reality Project’s “Who We Are” page includes bios for the organization’s board of directors, branch managers and staff.
• The Nature Conservancy’s “Our People” page plays a similar role, linking to staff member bios and opportunities to connect with staff members on social media.

Pages like these help build stronger relationships with donors, members and other supporters because they can directly connect with staff members and see how your nonprofit’s team fits into your organization’s mission.

Giving your website’s content a friendly, welcoming vibe can help you increase site traffic, raise more through online fundraising and foster long-lasting supporter relationships.

Refresh your website on a regular maintenance schedule to ensure it remains accessible and open. Update your site’s images, videos, staff bios and blog content as needed to maintain your content’s authenticity.