4 Tips to Turn Your Nonprofit Website into a Grant Magnet

Put yourself in a potential funder’s shoes. When they land on your nonprofit’s website, are they greeted with detailed impact stories, clear positive outcomes, and transparent financial information? If not, it could be time to revamp how your nonprofit advertises its grant management practices.

75% of supporters look for “concrete information about a charity’s achievements” before donating, and 17% of donors say a nonprofit’s website is the resource that inspires them most to give. As a result, your organization’s website is a critical resource for displaying your mission and attracting grant funders to your cause.

The nonprofits that do this best build long-term relationships with grant funders and win more funding over time. Let’s explore four tips to turn your nonprofit website into a grant lead driver.

1. Build a “Funders & Partners” landing page.

Current and potential grant funders should not have to look at your website with a magnifying glass to learn about your current and past community partnerships. The first step in turning your site into a grant magnet is to make partnership information as easy to find as possible.

We recommend building a “Funders & Partners” landing page to spotlight all the organizations your nonprofit works with and the mutual success of these relationships. Follow these steps to get started:

Feature grant funders and corporate partners prominently.

Acknowledge their role in your success by including their logos, short descriptions of the organizations, and highlights from the shared impact you achieved. For example, include photos from a 5K/fun run event sponsored by local businesses or a video recap of a recent animal shelter expansion project funded by a grant.

Enable potential funders to assess compatibility.

Clearly state what your organization looks for in collaborations, such as shared goals, mutual accountability, or community alignment. This specificity allows potential funders to evaluate whether your organization is a good fit for their grant opportunities.

Review relevant examples.

United Way’s Funders & Partners information is an excellent example of an effective partnerships landing page. The page includes a list of all partners with their logos and information about their collaboration. Website visitors can also read about current promotions, such as their partnership with Lyft to expand transportation access.

Additionally, the charity: water brand partnerships page effectively appeals to potential new partners with a list of eye-catching statistics describing the impact of partnerships to date. Brand partner highlights illustrate the unique and mutually beneficial ways that the nonprofit has partnered with corporate sponsors to drive shared philanthropic goals. 

Review these pages and other examples from organizations similar to yours to get inspiration for your online resources.

Maintain the page over time.

Update your partnerships page as your projects and programs progress and evolve. Prioritize enhancing it as part of your regular nonprofit website maintenance process.

For example, you can run performance reports using tools like PageSpeed Insights to ensure the page loads quickly on mobile and desktop. You should also update the page quarterly to include new promotions or partnership case studies.

2. Streamline the funder journey.

According to a Clutch survey, 94% of respondents say that simple navigation is the most important website feature. If potential funders can’t access your grant information quickly and easily, they’re more likely to leave your website altogether rather than try to dig through your navigation to find what they’re looking for.

Include the following elements on your website to create a clear, convenient user experience for potential funders:

• Simple navigation. Make your partnerships page prominent in your main menu and link to it from other webpages, like your case studies or testimonials, so funders can quickly see who you’ve worked with and what the collaboration was like.
• Compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Kanopi Studios’ guide to nonprofit website design explains that “Creating an accessible site demonstrates that you care about your supporters, builds trust with all users, and ensures that anyone can engage with your mission.” The WCAG is a great resource for designing an accessible website that includes features such as alternative text for images, high contrast colors for easier perception, and keyboard navigation.
• Clear calls to action (CTAs). Include “Partner With Us” CTAs that lead to easy-to-find contact information or inquiry forms so interested funders can get involved with your organization. Your forms should make the next steps clear—for example, your confirmation page could say, “Thank you for your interest in partnering with us! Our partnerships manager will be in touch within 48 hours to schedule a meeting.”

Evaluate key metrics such as the bounce rate and time spent on your partnership landing page, as well as the conversion rate for your inquiry forms. Use this data to evaluate whether you should maintain your digital strategy or adjust your approach for greater success. For instance, if you’re seeing low conversion rates for your contact form, remove unnecessary questions and ensure that it’s mobile-friendly.

3. Share multimedia stories about successful grant partnerships.

Your website’s grant information should go beyond listing funders and partners—it should tell compelling impact stories. Share human-centered narratives that bring your mission to life through community voices, staff reflections, and funder testimonials.

Make your stories more interactive and enticing by keeping these tips in mind:

• Use engaging formats. Add photos, infographics, maps, short videos, or even an interactive timeline to capture website visitors’ attention and make your impact tangible. For instance, include an interactive map on your partnerships landing page to demonstrate how generous grant funding allowed you to expand your reach to support more local schools in your community with library resources.
• Highlight results for both sides. Show not only how your community benefited, but also how you advanced funders’ goals through your partnership. Perhaps you were able to achieve mutually beneficial goals by leveraging a grant from a healthcare foundation to expand your mobile oral health clinic. Explain how you advanced the shared goals of expanding dentistry access to your rural community.
• Spotlight what makes your mission unique. Highlight how your organization plays a pivotal role in your community through your efforts to fill a gap in services or support. For example, perhaps your nonprofit is the only organization that provides free fruits and vegetables to people in your community who live in a food desert. Demonstrating your unique impact will help your nonprofit stand out to potential grantors.

Make your stories feel personal by including direct quotes or video clips of your nonprofit’s stakeholders. You might include a podcast interview with a long-time grant funder your organization has worked with or a short-form video interview with a community member who got back on their feet with help from your nonprofit’s temporary housing program.

These elements help website visitors feel more connected to your mission and the people involved in bringing it to life.

4. Highlight measurable outcomes.

According to the Give.org Donor Trust Report, 67% of donors say that trusting a charity is essential before they decide to give. Use your nonprofit’s website to demonstrate that you’re a responsible steward of grant funds, with a robust grant administration approach that focuses on keeping funders updated on progress and maximizing funds to support your mission.

Increase audience trust by taking these steps:

Show your track record.

Incorporate charts, infographics, and interactive maps on your partnerships page to present outcomes in a more accessible and engaging way than raw data. Use compelling narrative writing to transform data into easily digestible stories that inspire and inform. Those same infographics can then be used on social media to promote your cause, creating cross-pollination of content.

Don’t just share that your community garden helped feed 50 families in need this year—share photos and direct quotes from a parent with three kids under the age of five who was able to keep their family healthy thanks to your organization’s program.

Additionally, use other communication platforms, such as email and social media, to reinforce your message. For example, you could share an excerpt from your annual report via email to highlight the progress made on your community garden initiative, which was funded by a generous grant from a major individual donor.

A cohesive and consistent approach to reporting impact will enhance your organization’s credibility and help you reach a broader audience of current and potential funders.

Integrate transparency.

According to YPTC’s guide to nonprofit financial statements, “When you share your nonprofit financial statements in your annual report, [donors] receive information that allows them to determine whether your nonprofit has stewarded their contributions responsibly and assess your organization’s ability to continue providing its core services.”

Make financial reports, such as your statement of financial position and statement of activities, easily accessible on your website. Include these documents on core pages such as your partnerships and annual report landing pages.

Highlighting this information across your website will show potential funders that your organization values transparency when reporting financial and grant information.

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Your nonprofit’s website should be more than just an online hub for your donation page. By turning it into a holistic educational resource about the impact of your community partnerships, you can boost audience trust and reassure grant funders that your nonprofit is a worthy investment.