What a nonprofit website needs to turn visitors into supporters
A practical checklist for nonprofit websites, drawn from the giving platform Solve + Create designed and built for Gamerosity.
Most nonprofit websites explain the mission well and then leave visitors with one option: a generic donate button. When we designed and built the website and giving platform for Gamerosity — a community-powered nonprofit that delivers custom Hero Packages to kids in cancer treatment — we started from a different question: what are all the ways someone might want to help, and how do we make each one simple? Here is the checklist that came out of that work.
1. Give every kind of supporter a clear way in
People arrive with different intentions. Some want to give once, some want to give every month, some want to ask for help, and some represent a company. A single donate button serves only one of them.
For Gamerosity we organized the site around the ways people get in the game: families can nominate a child for a free Hero Package, supporters can fund a Hero on campaign, and monthly Sidekicks can have a Hero's back all year long. Corporate sponsorship and get-involved pages give businesses and volunteers their own path.
2. Make the people you serve visible — with care
Giving becomes personal when supporters can see who they are helping. The Gamerosity Hero Wall shows live campaigns, and a Funded Heroes gallery celebrates the kids whose packages are complete.
Visibility also carries responsibility. Heaven's Heroes honors the kids who live on in the community's hearts — a reminder that a nonprofit site should be designed for the hard moments as well as the happy ones.
3. Build recurring giving into the structure
Monthly giving gives a nonprofit predictable support to plan around. Rather than hiding it as a checkbox at checkout, Gamerosity's Sidekicks program has its own identity and purpose, so choosing to give monthly feels like joining something.
4. Connect in-person events to online giving
Events are where enthusiasm peaks. We built a live event giving board for Gamerosity: donors give from their phone and watch their Hero light up on the big screen. The moment someone is moved to give, the path is already in their hand — and the whole room sees the result.
5. Offer more than one way to support
Not every supporter wants to make a donation. A hope-forward merch store gives people something to wear and share, and a Hero Map helps the community see the reach of the work. Each one is another door into the mission.
6. Give the team tools to run it
A giving platform is only as good as the team's ability to keep it current. Behind the public site, Gamerosity has a private admin dashboard for managing Heroes, the store, orders and team communications — so updating a campaign doesn't require calling a developer.
A quick checklist for your own site
Can each kind of supporter — one-time donor, monthly giver, family in need, business, volunteer — find their path within a click or two?
Can visitors see who or what their support reaches?
Is monthly giving its own clear program?
Can people give in the room at your events?
Is there a way to help that isn't a donation?
Can your team update campaigns, products and stories without technical help?