40 of the Best Websites of Non-Profit Organizations
Published June 1st, 2009 in Galleries
Budget limitations are common with non-profit and charitable organizations. As a result, organizations often compromise on the need for an effective and attractive website. However, the websites shown here represent some of the most well-designed websites of non-profits. These organizations prove that non-profits can have great websites, and we hope it serves as inspiration for your own work.
You may also be interested in:
- 10 Keys to Effective Non-Profit Organization Websites
- Design Inspiration: 25 Non-Profit Websites
- 50 of the Best Church Website Designs
- 35 Excellent Church Websites – Part II
- 25 Outstanding Church Websites – Part III
If your organization is looking for an affordable and professional website, please see the free websites that we have to offer for non-profit organizations and churches.
Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research
The Society of Publication Designers
Revive Africa (this site is no longer online)

Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association
New York City Coalition Against Hunger
Aldersgate Camp and Retreat Center
Greater Maple Valley Community Center
For more design inspiration please see:











































142 Responses
Just the right article at the right time. I have been designing websites for Non-profit Organizations for the past 1 year, and am really enjoying it. Just got one more to design and was lacking creativity when you showed these wonderful inspiring websites.
very nice post !!
thanks
Nice, thanks! You get bored of those narcisistic portfolios sites in evey single list…
I just finished up this one… think it’s list worthy
http://www.worldconcern.org
Just finished http://www.cfimonline.org. Wonder if it could have made the list…
The biggest problem facing not-for-profits when approaching the subject of web design is that they don’t have any money.
It’s important to show examples like above to demonstrate how a vivid online presence can really boost their organisation
Connected to above, the SEO Book put out a guide called ‘The Non-profits Guide to Search Engine Marketing’ a little while back:
http://www.seobook.org/
Thanks for picking wfp.org and pointing us to other great designs!
Great post !
It’s good to see NGO give attention to design.
And I’m happy to discover lot of NGO with your post !
bye
JC.
There are some really nice designs here. I’ve done work on the http://www.shelter.org.uk but this has given me some new fresh ideas.
This collection will be very useful. In my experience, non-profit and community groups have the best intentions but not always the best understanding of what’s required for a really stand-out web design. These examples will help immensely.
Sonali,
Good, I’m glad it could help.
Adam,
Looks good.
Tracey,
I agree. Hopefully this showcase can help a little bit with that.
very useful, helpful and interesting article!
Nice, thanks! Good sites
Fabulous post.
Great gallery, thanks for putting it together! I do a lot of design work for non-profits, and this is definitely a great list to look at for inspiration!
Wow. Very nice list. Inspirational. Great mix of technologies. Have a look at this one I did and let me know what you think. Thanks.
http://honormen.org
you forgot mbayaq.org
Surprised I don’t see samaritanspurse.org here.
A lot of these look really great, definitely going to dig deeper and hopefully find some inspirational bits to steal…err, borrow
Hi… Normally I don’t really like design round ups, but with this one there is something special I think.
The charm about well designed Non-Profit Organizations and Charity websites is that there is a lot of emotion going on. I feel it for sure! Off course they thrive on emotion “feel-goodness” but nevertheless this compilation makes me want to donate… right now!
Out of the many type of sites on the internet, we often overlooked NGO’s sites. I love One and Carbonica. These are the sites that deserve more traffic considering what they are doing for the society.
Great list. I like how many of the sites have a completely different feel and look. All of them carry the trend of having top navigation.
Thanks for this list. I would suggest http://www.charitywater.org as well.
Very nice collection
I believe every web designer should create at least one non profit website free each year. It’s the least we can all do. I’m currently working on a site for a local wildlife carers organization and will post it when done.
This is a great list and it couldn’t have come at a better time for me. I work for a non-profit and am currently involved in the redesign of our web site. Thanks for the inspiration!
Hi Everyone,
Thanks for the positive feedback on this post and for the suggested sites. Maybe there will be a follow up at some point that would include some of the sites suggested.
hey, i think this one is good too
http://www.humanityfirst.org
Brilliant collection thanks for sharing an inspirational list.
I’m proud that my organization, MIFA, is on the list. Thanks a lot for the recognition. It really helped that we had a great design firm in Speak! Creative to help us put it all together. They have 2 sites on the list, so they really are a great asset to the Memphis community. http://www.speakcreative.com
Thomas
Thanks. They are looking very good. Well done
Fantastic list – it’s so refreshing to see a list of well designed sites dedicated to a good cause rather than web design companies and portfolio sites. I hope to see more posts like this one!
Nice collection.It looks good.It is useful for web designers who recently working on design.Thanks for Sharing such a nice stuff.
Good collection, some graphics are really nice and Interesting. http://www.twloha.com, http://www.mifa.org and reviveafrica.com are my preferite!
Churchmedia.cc designed a couple of these sitess and they seem to be the best. Also included should be http://www.ru4children.org
What strikes one at once is the sincerity and the nobleness of purpose in each of these designs. Some of the designs are truly fascinating. I was touched by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Hey Vandelay Design great post! It is nice to see spotlight given to NGO design. We are honored you included a few of our designs on the list and would love for you to take a look at our latest launch today http://sowerofseeds.org
Thanks again for this great post keep up the great work!!
Thanks for posting Revive Africa, Here’s Life Mission Africa (the just recently changed their website) & Glocal Ventures. If you extend this list, our team, Church Media Group (http://www.churchmedia.cc), just launched two more Non-Profit sites: http://www.ru4children.org & http://www.sowerofseeds.org. Thanks
Ismael,
I came across ru4children.org a few days ago and had never seen sowerofseeds.org, which is a great design. Good work!
Hi Everybody, I write from Venezuela, I see that there are many graphic designers ready to help nonprofit foundations. I have one here in Venezuela, we are just starting and want to have a web site or something where people can see our work. If any of you could help with this would greatly appreciate it. You can contact me by this address: efrainbaritto@gmail.com Thanks.
Great list! I’d like to add http://www.cooltheearth.org/ to make 40+
We just lauched a non-profit oragnization catering to the needs of African children and youths, and I have a logo desinged. We’re looking for someone to design a web site for the oraginzation.
Hello Momodu Jalloh, contact Church Media Group at http://www.churchmedia.cc. We have launched several non-profit organizations. 3 of them are listed on this list.
Great to find non-profit websites in here. Hope they can keep up with the vision of keeping it that way.
Thanks for the inspiration. I am gust planning a website for a cause (justice for imprisoned innocent man)
Beautiful list of websites. Thanks for adding in a Calgary based organization.
So much eye-candy! Thank you! I am impressed at how non-profit organizations are getting more and more aggressive with their online presence, and I’m real happy for them! Speaking of amazing websites, I was at a summer festival the other day and found out about an organization called SCELF. I took their brochure and looked at their website and it’s incredible! It’s possibly the most beautiful non-profit website I have -ever- seen in my life! You should take a look at their website at http://www.scelf.org to see what I mean. A little heads up, it’s all 100% flash so beware of lag if you have a slow computer.
Again, nice list!
Hey everyone! If your interested in non-profit organisations or charities you might want to visit http://bestchristiandesign.com. It’s a new web gallery launched this week, showcasing the best Christian websites from around world!
I’m starting a non profit and it’s SO hard! It deals with mentors of the metaphysical, but so few people want to get involved. They always want to just solve their own problems, and that it. I’ve contacted a few web design companies, but have gotten no replies yet. I decided to do it myself, but found out that i have little to no talent. I’ve been searching the internet for inspirations. I’m at a total loss as to what to do to make it a really nice website. At the moment, i’d be happy with anything as long as it’s attractive and got people interested in communitcating between the different groups.
These lists of other organizations really helps me out. Thanks. =)
I came across ru4children.org a few days ago and had never seen sowerofseeds.org, which is a great design. Good work!
Some great sites for non-profits.
Great collection of sites. I would also suggest looking at http://www.jolkona.org (Jolkona Foundation). They seem to be taking a very interesting approach to giving. The impact section has some interesting visualizations.
Can you all review our website…it is %70 finished.
Any feedback is appreciated
Nice sites. So warm, touching)
Great collection! My favorite is is Africa Tour. Very creative and organized.
What a wonderful idea! We also have an initiative to help out Non-Profit Organizations, but it’s involving our social media platform, Eve Social. We’d love to discuss with anyone interested in how we can help.
The best one is World Food p.
Thanks for great listing.
Really good stuff posted here! Lots of talented, concerned artists (designers) with lots of great comments.
Would anyone be interested in assisting our organization in taking our web presence to a new level?
We are a nonprofit humanitarian food relief organization with a global reach. We develop and produce food products specifically for use in hunger relief. While I recently just went live with a new version of our Joomla based site, I am still not satisfied with our ability to really portray who we are to existing and future potential distributing partners of our food, or to existing and future donors.
I want to get us totally away from Joomla altogether because it is very limiting on design and is somewhat complicated and frustrating to update and maintain. The preference would be a site designed in Dreamweaver in such a way that we can maintain/update it as needed once it is designed with minimal to moderate design skills in-house. Really, I’d like to be able to just change out pictures, buttons and text while pretty much leaving everything else alone once its up and running.
Our budget is meager for this type of thing, but the need is great!
I’m really very useful to follow a long-time see this as a blog here Thank you for your valuable information.
Andrew of http://www.worldconcern.org,
I love your website. Please send me your contact info for a future project, vsmith389@gmail.com.
Thanks
Thank you so much for this great list of sites — I like that they are all very different. It would be interesting to know what the price tags were or if any of them were done in house.
Please check out this nonprofit campaign website we launched this past summer:
http://www.findyourmission.org
It is really amazing what kind of services they can now offer through a great design.
thank very much.
Good job. I love nonprofit work. Check our site too, http://www.wpdprojects.org
Thanks.
lol. Very good thing. Hi Vandelay, how many time did you research all non profit organication web design? I appreciate your work, Very good!!
This list is great and the sites are even better! Thanks for putting this all together.
Another great non-profit’s site is http://www.charitywater.org
Really great selection. I really like the wiser website, it’s so well designed. Also, it’s in wordpress, which makes it easy for the organization’s staff to update content.
Thanks for this compilation! Although it’s Non-Profit Organizations, but many of them have a decent enough design and excellent functionality of the site!
These are all great designs. I think this is hte third such compilation of best non-profit websites. It is great to see these, but it makes me wonder about the smaller NP, who don’t have large pro bono agencies to crank out great sites or large enough budgets to get sites of this caliber. Finding great design solutions when you have a tiny budget.
I agree with Neeta. The sites on this gallery are beautiful and impressive, but how does a non-profit with a not-so-great web design budget do something like that? The best we’ve been able to do is what you see at http://www.breedlove.org using Joomla. We just don’t have the in-house expertise to go beyond that, and not enough budget set aside to really improve on the calibre of what is posted on this gallery. What’s the answer? Pro bono? If so, where do you find that kind of person willing to put in that kind of quality work?
David,
I think the answer is that with a tiny budget an organization can’t expect to have a website like these. I come across people all the time who want a website like some other specific site, but they don’t have the budget for it. Pro Bono work is a possibility, but I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve had organizations contact me because of problems with volunteers who are designing or running the site. And in most cases volunteers are not going to be able to create something top notch. There are some affordable options (such as premium WordPress themes, or systems like http://cloversites.com) but websites are like anything else in life, you generally get what you pay for.
Excellent! We’ve to do everything possible to ensure that non-profit web design is done professionally and affordable. Our CEO is very passionate about non profits and sometimes he has agreed to some outrageous discounts. He is very passionate partly because of his involvement with a foundation that he has founded.
Hi,
These sites are great but I think good design also should take into account usability issues and sites such as Ducks Unlimited have repeated navigation headings and other usability issues that should have been addressed by the designer. If a site is great to look at and draws in visitors that is great work but if once the visitor is there he or she has trouble navigating the site that detracts from the overall design.
I also wanted to say as a disclaimer that I understand non-profits often have a tight budget in creating a web site. But in general website design of any kind needs to take into account the importance of usability issues as part of the design.
good collections
http://www.LetTheArtSpeak.com
check out this non-profit site…
Fantastic list – it’s so refreshing to see a list of well designed sites dedicated to a good cause rather than web design companies and portfolio sites. I hope to see more posts like this one!
Thanks for some great inspiration.. excellent sites!
Nice collection of sites here. All these websites/organisations deserve only the best (designs) – good comes to the good!
You should check out the Haiti Children Project… http://www.haitichildrenproject.org/
These all look great! Especially like the Not For Sale site but I came across this site the other day and personally think it takes the cake, check it out… http://www.doublexeffect.org
Out of colors is great site Common Good Radio – is my favorite color, which for some reason I try to use all site design with a few exceptions. There is much to learn – thanks!
Wonder if Tree of Wishes – Wish Support Community http://www.treeofwishes.com be considered in any of the categories, as it was created for non profit – more as a hobby.
Thank You
Thank you! I was trolling for hours around the web and your collection has been the best. Will use some of these elements as inspiration on a current project.
We just finished redesigning Opportunity International’s Website at http://www.opportunity.org – Any feedback from the community?
Thanks!
Superb collection …If you are interested in non-profit organisations or charities web portal from nepal, you might want to visit http://www.educatenepal.org. It’s a new web site on helping charity organization in nepal raise their fund through website
I often think that some of the not for profit firms have great websites. Most don’t but a lot do.
Great collection, there is a good post on this on smashingmagazine.com too. I’m putting together a pro bono site for an NPO at the moment, and the reference reallyh helped!
Thanks!
Wonderful post and comments… thank you!
I am on the board of directors for Partners of the Americas and we are finally redoing our website… It is currently hosted with ESX and costs us $5,000 a year. Here is the link to the site… http://partners.net
Is this a reasonable cost? We are adding a database portion to it this year but we’re looking for other ideas, possible designers and hosting services.
I would greatly appreciate any ideas. My email is alisonmckellar@gmail.com
Thank you!
Alison,
The costs are going to totally depend on the situation and what is being done. Without knowing the details I can’t say what is a reasonable price.
Allison,
It does depend on how many pages, graphics, etc is being done. But it should not be $5000 PER year! That is outrageous, unless, you will be doing major changes and additions. $5000 for a website is reasonable, but only once! Additional changes, whatever should be between $50-$125/hr and that’s it. Hope this helps!
like like like .. my favorite one is “Dalit Freedom Network”
awesome ….but i was looking for some indian heritage culture design
Interesting, how many stand designs similar level? The price “on a turn-key basis” – with imposition and integration under a cursor thus interests. Thanks.
Really nice list – I am gonna spend some time visiting. Thanks.
It appears I’m reading this pretty late. Do you have an updated list? I’ve found the majority of articles helpful.
I think http://www.huc.edu/SJNM should be part of it…
Nice! i love the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Anything Michael touches turns to gold!
Awesome collection, my fav is “Amnesty International”, coz of how they contrasted yellow… it makes that session eye catching. nice design.
Nice! i love the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Anything Michael touches turns to gold!
I love your choices, these websites are amazing! I wrote a blog about what should be on nonprofit organization’s websites and I included a link to your website for some design examples. If you want to check it out, here is a link! http://bit.ly/g1zflI
Thanks for this list of sites- they’re very good. I frequently search the internet for new design trends and organization inspiration.
surely will help me in designing one for my own NGO!! thanks!
i like http://www.religionscultures.org it is very nice
Hi there,
Have you seen http://www.odyssey.org.uk – what do you think about this site?
Just curious that out of those 40 sites, most of them are actually not that great but just from BIG charities; there are much better websites of smaller charities out there (to my eyes).
Open for feedback though
Cheers
Ruben
Ruben,
Odyssey’s site looks good. The post is 2.5 years old, so I’m sure there are plenty of other sites that have come along in that time that are worthy of being on the list. I wouldn’t say that the sites on this list aren’t good and are just there because of being big organizations. At the time this collection was put together I do feel like these were 40 of the best sites out there for non-profits. Of course, there will always be some that are left out because we simply haven’t seen them.
Very inspiring collection!
@Ruben – I would agree with you that there are plenty of other charities out there that have come a long way. Some of the more notable ones since this posting include
Raising The Village – http://www.raisingthevillage.org
Charity Water – http://www.water.org
Invisible Children – http://www.invisiblechildren.org
These are just some of the charities that I follow and I know for a fact they are nowhere near or as large some of the bigger charities out there. Just check out their financial statements. It also shows the small guys can also get nicely designed sites nowadays for a decent price.
I’d like to nominate http://www.livingoceans.org to the list.
Inspiring list, I’ve bookmarked it. Thank you.