Tour the Bloomerang Giving Platform   Take the Tour

Building a nonprofit website? Don't forget the FAQ page

Kindful
July 21, 2020

If your organization doesn’t have a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, you could be missing an easy opportunity to improve your supporter experience. An FAQ page is a simple, low-cost tool that can make your nonprofit more accessible and encourage more supporters to engage with your cause.

In this post, we’ll walk through some of the best nonprofit FAQ page examples and explain what makes a great FAQ page. We’ll also share some tips for writing and optimizing your own FAQ page.

Why should your nonprofit have an FAQ page?

An FAQ page serves several important functions for your nonprofit:

  • It saves you time. An FAQ page can answer common questions from donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries so that your staff don’t have to respond to the same questions repeatedly.
  • It improves supporter trust. Transparency is important for building trust with donors. An FAQ page is a great place to share information about how your organization uses donations, your financials, and your programs.
  • It helps with SEO. FAQ pages are rich with keywords and conversational phrases that can help your website rank for more search terms.
  • It encourages more people to donate or volunteer. By answering common questions and reducing friction, an FAQ page can nudge potential supporters who are on the fence into taking action.

Examples of nonprofit FAQ pages

Charity: Water

Charity: Water’s FAQ page is a great example of a well-organized, donor-centered FAQ page. Their questions are grouped into clear categories: About Us, Donations, Projects, and The Spring (their monthly giving program). Each question is answered clearly and concisely, and the page is easy to navigate with a table of contents at the top.

One thing that stands out about Charity: Water’s FAQ page is that they address questions about how they use donations, including specific information about their overhead costs and how 100% of public donations go directly to fund clean water projects. This kind of transparency is incredibly effective for building trust with potential donors.

Feeding America

Feeding America’s FAQ page is a comprehensive resource that answers common questions about their programs, how donations are used, and how supporters can get involved. They organize their FAQs into categories, making it easy for visitors to find the information they’re looking for.

One highlight of Feeding America’s FAQ page is that they include a variety of ways to get involved at the bottom of the page, including donating, volunteering, and advocating for hunger-related policies. This is a great way to use your FAQ page as a conversion tool to encourage action beyond just answering questions.

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity’s FAQ page is organized into several distinct sections based on different supporter types: homeowners, volunteers, donors, and ReStore shoppers. This personalized approach helps visitors quickly find relevant information without wading through questions that don’t apply to them.

The page also includes a prominent search bar that helps visitors find specific answers quickly. This is particularly helpful for organizations that have a large number of FAQs.

World Wildlife Fund

WWF’s FAQ page is a clean and simple example that focuses on a few key questions about the organization’s mission, history, and impact. While it’s less extensive than some of the other examples, it covers the basics and maintains a clear, accessible writing style throughout.

Tips for creating your own FAQ page

Now that you’ve seen some examples, here are some tips to help you create an effective FAQ page for your nonprofit:

Collect real questions from your audience

The most effective FAQ pages answer questions that your audience actually has. Start by reviewing the emails and social media messages your organization receives. What do donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries ask about most often? Your FAQ page should be built around these real questions, not questions you think people might have.

Keep your answers simple and conversational

Write your FAQ answers in a clear, conversational tone. Avoid jargon or technical language that might confuse readers. Each answer should be concise and direct, ideally answering the question in a few sentences to a short paragraph.

Organize questions by category

If you have a lot of FAQs, organize them into categories to make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for. Common categories for nonprofits include Donations, Volunteering, Programs, Events, and About Us.

Use your FAQ page as an opportunity to direct visitors to other useful pages on your website. For example, an answer about how to donate might link to your donation page, or an answer about volunteering opportunities might link to a volunteer sign-up form.

Review and update your FAQ page regularly

Your FAQ page should be a living document that you review and update regularly. As your organization grows and your programs change, new questions will emerge and old answers may become outdated. Set a reminder to review your FAQ page at least once a year.

Add FAQ schema markup for SEO

To help your FAQ page rank better in search results, consider adding FAQ schema markup to your page. This structured data can help search engines understand the content of your page and display your questions and answers directly in search results, increasing your visibility and click-through rate.

An FAQ page is one of the simplest and most effective ways to improve the experience of visitors to your nonprofit’s website. By answering common questions clearly and transparently, you can build trust with potential donors and volunteers and encourage more people to get involved with your cause.

Schedule a live demo with Bloomerang, and we’ll show you how easy it is to create and automate reports, utilize online and offline fundraising tools, quickly integrate and access all your data, and ultimately create more time to engage your donors.
Filed Under:

Additional Resources

November 23, 2020
A survey of nonprofit professionals breaks down the top four email platforms — Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Emma, and Gmail — by use case, features, integrations, and price, with a clear recommendation for tools that sync with your CRM.
December 29, 2020
Monthly donors give more over time and cost less to retain. Practical tips for setting up recurring donation infrastructure, identifying candidates from your existing database, and converting one-time givers — ideally within their first few months.
September 5, 2017
From first hearing about your cause to becoming an advocate who recruits others, donors move through four stages. Here's what to do at each one — awareness, consideration, decision, and evangelism — to keep them moving forward.
Get the latest resources on fundraising, communication, nonprofit insights, and more.