The most common usability problems on nonprofit websites have nothing to do with visual design. They're structural: navigation that doesn't match how visitors think, calls to action that compete with each other, language that assumes familiarity the visitor doesn't have. Each of these creates friction, and friction costs you donors, volunteers, and community members.
Here are the most impactful changes you can make to improve usability on your nonprofit website.
Simplify your navigation
Most nonprofit websites try to put too much in the main navigation. When visitors see eight or ten top-level items, they scan rather than read, and they often miss the thing they were looking for. Aim for five to seven navigation items at most, using labels that match the language your visitors actually use, not your internal terminology.
If your navigation includes items like "Our Theory of Change," "The Work," or "Initiatives," consider whether a new visitor would understand what those mean. Navigation labels should be self-explanatory to someone who has never heard of your organization.
Make the next step obvious on every page
Every page on your site should have a clear primary action. On the homepage, that's usually "Donate" or "Get Help" or "Learn More About Our Work." On a program page, it might be "Apply" or "Refer Someone." On a news page, it could be "Support This Work."
Pages without a clear call to action are dead ends. Visitors who reach a dead end leave. Add a primary call to action to any page that doesn't have one, and make sure the most important action on the page is visually distinct from everything else.
Cut jargon from your content
Nonprofit organizations often write for their peers, funders, and internal teams rather than for the people they're trying to reach. Jargon, acronyms, and sector-specific language create distance. If a first-time visitor has to pause and wonder what something means, you've lost momentum.
Read your homepage out loud. If you stumble on a phrase or have to explain it to yourself, it needs to be rewritten. Plain language is not dumbing down your content. It's respecting your reader's time.
Reduce form fields
Every field in a form is a reason to stop filling it out. Volunteer signup forms, contact forms, and newsletter signups that ask for more information than they need create friction that reduces completion rates. Ask only for what you actually need and what you will actually use.
For newsletter signups, a first name and email address is almost always enough. For volunteer interest forms, a name, email, and availability field covers the basics. Save the detailed questions for a follow-up after someone has already indicated interest.
Test your site on your own phone
Spend five minutes walking through your most important pages on a mobile device, not a browser simulation but an actual phone. Try to find your contact information. Try to donate. Try to navigate back to the homepage from a program page. What you notice in that five minutes will tell you more about your usability than any audit report.
The most common usability problems we find in audits are also the most fixable: unclear navigation, missing calls to action, and content written for insiders rather than newcomers.
Use descriptive link text
Links that say "click here" or "read more" give visitors no context about where they're going. Descriptive link text like "Read our 2025 impact report" or "Apply for our housing assistance program" tells visitors exactly what to expect before they click. This helps usability for all visitors and is also an accessibility requirement for screen reader users.
Check your reading level
Most nonprofit website content reads at a level that's higher than necessary. Tools like the Hemingway Editor can give you a reading level score and highlight long, complex sentences. The goal isn't to oversimplify it's to make your content accessible to the widest possible audience, including people for whom English is a second language or who have learning differences.