To choose a nonprofit web design agency, ask twelve questions before you sign: how much of their work is with nonprofits, whether they build to WCAG 2.2 AA by default, who owns the site when the project ends, what maintenance includes, and how they’ll measure results. The right agency answers every one of them plainly — and puts those answers in writing.
A website redesign is one of the larger purchases most nonprofits make, and it usually lands on someone (an executive director, a communications manager) who has never hired a web agency before. Agencies know that, and their pitch decks all sound alike. The fastest way to tell firms apart is to ask the questions the sales deck doesn’t answer. Here are the twelve we’d ask, and what good answers sound like.
Does the agency actually understand nonprofits?
1. How much of your work is with nonprofits?
Nonprofit sites have jobs that corporate sites don’t: donation forms, volunteer sign-ups, program pages that have to satisfy funders as well as first-time visitors, and editors who inherit the site with no training budget. An agency that lives in that world brings answers before you’ve asked the questions. If most of a portfolio is e-commerce or SaaS, part of your budget will go toward teaching them your sector.
2. Can you walk me through a donation flow you’ve designed?
The donation page carries more weight per click than anything else on your site, and donor retention is the weakest link for most organizations. So the answer can’t stop at “we embedded the form.” Ask for a specific project and what they changed based on results: fewer steps, better mobile giving, a clearer prompt for recurring gifts. If your own fundraising strategy is still taking shape, our nonprofit fundraising guide is a useful place to start before you brief anyone.
Will the site be accessible, and can they prove it?
3. Do you build to WCAG 2.2 AA by default, or as an add-on?
Accessibility sometimes shows up as an optional line item on proposals, and that’s a red flag twice over. It excludes visitors who use screen readers or keyboard navigation, and it creates real legal exposure, especially for organizations with government funding. WCAG 2.2 AA should be the default standard, built into design and code from the first wireframe rather than retrofitted at the end.
4. How do you test accessibility?
Automated scanners catch only part of the picture. A good answer includes humans:
- Keyboard-only navigation of key journeys, especially the donation flow
- Color-contrast checks during design, not after development
- A screen reader pass on every template before launch
- A plan for keeping the site accessible as your team adds content
If the answer is “we run a plugin at the end,” keep interviewing.
Who owns the website when the project ends?
5. Do we own everything (code, content, and design files)?
Some agencies build on proprietary platforms you can never leave, which quietly turns a design contract into a long-term dependency. Everything should be yours: the domain registered in your organization’s name, a hosting account you control or can move, full admin access, and the design source files. Get each of those named in the contract before work starts.
6. Is it built on a platform our own team can manage?
WordPress is open-source, which means any developer can work on your site and your editors can publish without filing a ticket. If an agency proposes a custom or closed CMS, ask the uncomfortable question directly: what happens to the site if we part ways? The answer tells you a lot about how they think about your independence.
What happens after launch?
7. What does maintenance include, and what costs extra?
Every site needs security patches, plugin updates, backups, and the occasional fix when an update breaks something. Ask what’s covered by the monthly retainer, what’s billed hourly, and where the line sits between “maintenance” and “new work.” We’ve written a full breakdown of what website maintenance costs nonprofits if you want to sanity-check the quotes you receive.
8. Who do we call when something breaks?
A donation page that fails on the last day of December is not a support ticket — it’s lost revenue. Ask whether you’ll have a named contact or a queue, what the promised response time is, and whether that promise appears in the agreement. A commitment that only exists verbally doesn’t exist.
How will you know the site is working?
9. What will you measure, and what will you set up before launch?
“It looks much better” is not a result. Before launch, the agency should configure analytics with conversion events on the things you actually care about: completed donations, volunteer sign-ups, newsletter subscriptions, contact form submissions. Ask to see a measurement plan from a past project. If success was never defined, it was never achieved.
10. Can you help us grow traffic after launch?
A redesign without a traffic plan is a better-looking version of the same quiet site. Ask about search visibility, content, and whether they work with the Google Ad Grant, the program that gives eligible nonprofits up to $10,000 per month in search advertising. An agency doesn’t have to do all of this itself, but it should have a clear point of view on what comes after launch day.
Who will you actually be working with?
11. Who is on our project team?
The people in the sales call are often not the people who build your site. Ask for names and roles, whether they’re employees or subcontractors, and who your day-to-day contact will be. You’re not being difficult; you’re finding out what you’re buying.
12. What does your process look like, week by week?
Listen for a concrete rhythm (discovery, design, build, testing, training) and for honesty about what slows projects down (usually content, and usually on the client side). If you’re comparing several firms, a clear brief makes their answers comparable; our guide to writing a great nonprofit website RFP walks through how to structure one.
The 12 questions at a glance
| Question | A good answer | A red flag |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Nonprofit work share | Most or all clients are nonprofits | Portfolio full of unrelated industries |
| 2. Donation flow example | Specific project, specific changes, results discussed | “We integrate with your platform” |
| 3. WCAG 2.2 AA | Default on every project | Priced as an optional add-on |
| 4. Accessibility testing | Manual and automated testing | “We run a scanner at the end” |
| 5. Ownership | You own domain, code, content, design files | Anything proprietary or licensed back to you |
| 6. Platform | Open-source, editable by your team | Closed CMS you can’t take with you |
| 7. Maintenance | Written scope of included vs. extra | “We’ll handle it as it comes up” |
| 8. Support | Named contact, response time in contract | Verbal promises only |
| 9. Measurement | Conversion events defined before launch | “You’ll get an analytics dashboard” |
| 10. Growth | Point of view on SEO, content, Ad Grant | Silence about what happens after launch |
| 11. Team | Named people and roles | Undisclosed subcontracting |
| 12. Process | Clear phases, honest about delays | “We’re flexible” |
If you’re still building a shortlist, our roundup of nonprofit web design agencies compares firms that specialize in the sector, a reasonable starting bench for these twelve questions.
Nonprofit web design agency FAQs
What’s the difference between a nonprofit web design agency and a general agency?
A nonprofit specialist designs around donations, volunteers, and program storytelling every day, so they arrive with patterns that already work for organizations like yours. A general agency can build a good site, but part of your budget goes toward teaching them the sector.
How much does a nonprofit website cost?
It varies widely with scope: a template-based build costs a fraction of a fully custom design. Give every agency the same written scope and ask for itemized pricing so the quotes are actually comparable.
How long does a nonprofit website project take?
Template-based builds can launch in a matter of weeks, while fully custom redesigns usually run several months. The honest variable is content: projects stall waiting on copy far more often than they stall on design.
What is WCAG 2.2 AA?
WCAG 2.2 AA is the level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines that most organizations treat as the practical standard. It covers things like color contrast, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support, and it builds on the 2.1 AA benchmark most accessibility policies reference.
Do we need an RFP before contacting agencies?
Not always. An RFP helps on larger projects because it forces you to define scope and makes proposals comparable, but for smaller builds a clear one-page brief often works just as well.
If you’d like one of the agencies you vet to be us: Elevation has worked exclusively with nonprofits since 2007, partnering with more than 1,000 organizations, and WCAG 2.2 AA is our standard on every build. Take a look at our UX and UI design services, and if it seems like a fit, tell us about your project — we’re glad to answer all twelve questions, in writing.
