Most nonprofit boards review financial statements, program outcomes, and strategic plans. Very few have a standing conversation about the website. Yet the website is often the first point of contact for donors, funders, volunteers, and community members. An unhealthy website quietly erodes every other investment the organization is making.
Why website health is a board-level concern
The website affects fundraising, credibility, and the organization's ability to fulfill its mission. A slow or broken donation page directly reduces revenue. A site with outdated staff listings or stale content creates doubt about the organization's activity level. Accessibility failures may create legal exposure under the ADA. These are governance issues, not just technical ones.
Board members don't need to understand the technical details. They do need to ask whether these areas are being monitored and addressed, the same way they ask about financial controls or program evaluation.
The questions every board should be asking
Here is a short list of questions worth raising at least once a year:
- When did we last conduct a formal website audit or health check?
- Is our donation page working correctly and converting visitors to donors?
- Is the site accessible to people with disabilities?
- Does our site load quickly on mobile devices?
- Who is responsible for keeping content current, and how often is that happening?
- Do we have a plan for the website before our next major fundraising campaign?
None of these questions require technical knowledge to ask. The answers will quickly surface whether the organization is actively maintaining its web presence or leaving it on autopilot.
The cost of deferred maintenance
Website problems compound over time. A site that is five years past its last review typically has dozens of broken links, outdated content, accessibility violations, performance issues, and security vulnerabilities. Fixing each of these individually is manageable. Fixing all of them at once, under pressure before a campaign, is expensive and stressful.
Boards that treat website health as an ongoing maintenance budget rather than a one-time project spend less overall and avoid crises. A modest annual review budget prevents the much larger cost of emergency remediation.
A GoodSiteReport audit gives board members and executive directors a clear, plain-language picture of website health with findings prioritized by impact, not technical complexity.
What to look for in a staff report on the website
If your executive director or communications staff presents on the website, here is what a useful report should include: whether the site has been audited recently, what issues were found and which have been addressed, current performance metrics (traffic, donation page conversion rate if available), and any known issues that require budget or board attention.
A report that says only "the website is fine" with no supporting data is not sufficient oversight. That's not a criticism of staff. It often means no one has given them a framework or resources to report on it properly.
Website health as part of board onboarding
When new board members join, include a brief walkthrough of the organization's website as part of their orientation. Ask them to visit it as a stranger would, without any prior knowledge of the organization, and share their first impressions. Fresh eyes are one of the most valuable and underused tools for identifying usability problems.
A new board member who can't figure out how to donate or find contact information within 30 seconds has just shown you what a first-time visitor experiences.