What Nonprofits get Wrong on Their Websites: A Conversation with Pixel Lighthouse
- Jessica
- 5 days ago
- 8 min read
I connected with Andrea Mie Hattox and Austin Hattox through The Nonprofit Hive, a free online space to find community in the nonprofit sector. Together, they run Pixel Lighthouse, a nonprofit website agency that helps nonprofits tell stories, show impact, and encourage action. They’ve had a busy year helping several organizations refresh their brands and attract more supporters, so I was excited to hear Andrea’s thoughts on how websites can enhance volunteer engagement.
JPP: You started Pixel Lighthouse as a couple. What's the story there, and what pulled you toward helping nonprofits specifically?
AMH: Pixel Lighthouse came together very organically! Austin and I had been freelancing separately in the for-profit world for many years, he as a software developer, and me as a copywriter, and things were going well enough…but we were both getting pretty burned out on work that felt very corporate and transactional.
We knew there had to be a different path, one that would give us the same flexibility we loved about freelancing but more control over the kind of work we were ultimately contributing to.
JPP: What do you mean by that?
AMH: Well.. does the world need another sales page or another drip campaign or another web application for another random company selling another random product? Maybe.
Did I want to be the one putting it out into the world? Not really.
JPP: Got it! Yeah, it’s weird existing in this capitalist world.
So, you took your combined skillsets and brought them to the nonprofit world.
AMH: Yes, and as soon as we started seriously looking into nonprofits, we kept noticing the same thing: many organizations do incredible work, but their websites don’t reflect it. They can be world-class experts in their domain and yet have a website that says, “We have no idea what we’re doing.”
We'd see so many nonprofit sites that were confusing to navigate, or they'd bury their impact under jargon, or the story just got lost somewhere along the way.
Austin had the technical side, I had the creative piece (messaging as well as design), and together we could create a personally fulfilling work environment that would help the world in a meaningful way.
JPP: It’s great that you’re doing this work because I know that big name branding agencies charge $100,000 or more for website redesign, and that price tag is simply out of reach for smaller nonprofits.
From our previous conversations, I know that a huge part of Pixel Lighthouse’s process is focused on clarifying nonprofits’ messages to connect with supporters. What does that look like when you're working with organizations that rely on volunteer contributions?
AMH: You remember well! A core piece of our process involves mapping out the visitor journey. For volunteer-focused organizations, that journey needs to answer very specific questions that potential volunteers have in their heads.
Someone interested in volunteering is asking things like:
What would I actually be doing?
How much time does this require?
Do I have the skills you need?
What happens after I sign up?
Is this a meaningful opportunity for me, or will I be treated as nothing more than a warm body?
Is this opportunity a pathway to belonging and community?
Our approach is to answer these questions before visitors have to ask them, which means going beyond a generic "Get Involved" button.
We help organizations show what volunteering actually looks like through photos, specific role descriptions, and volunteer testimonials. We encourage the organizations we work with to include helpful FAQs, an explanation of how volunteering works, and a clear next step to express interest.
Alongside sharing all these facts, we design so potential volunteers feel how volunteering with this specific organization will tap into something deeper: how it will help volunteers live their values, find their community, and become the people they want to be.
JPP: I worked with a client last year to redesign their volunteer webpage, doing what you just described, and this work takes quite a bit of time!
For organizations that just don’t have that time to invest right now, what's one small change you'd recommend for their website today that would make it easier for someone to raise their hand and say, "Yes, I want to volunteer"?
AMH: They could add a short paragraph right above the volunteer expression of interest form that answers the questions already going through someone's head.
Something like… "We're looking for folks who are passionate about the arts and can commit 4-6 hours per month helping with [specific activities]. After you submit this form, our team will reach out within 3 business days to schedule a brief phone call and answer any questions. No prior experience needed! We'll provide training!"
Those few sentences accomplish a lot. They help people self-select so no one is wasting their time. They eliminate the "Did my form submission disappear into the void?" anxiety. And, they make the commitment feel concrete and doable instead of vague and overwhelming.
JPP: That’s a great tip. It’s so important for volunteer candidates to see themselves as part of the organization, or to self-select out before they send in a ton of information!
AMH: I also recommend adding a photo or a video to help make a real, human, emotional connection surrounding the volunteer experience. Something co-created with real existing volunteers is ideal.
JPP: We’ve talked about what works, so let’s talk about what doesn’t. In your opinion, what are some of the biggest website traps nonprofits fall into, especially when it comes to engaging potential volunteers?
AMH: Honestly, Austin and I often see that the volunteer page is an afterthought. It's buried somewhere in the navigation, or it's just a generic "Get Involved" page that tries to cover volunteering, donating, and membership all at once. Potential volunteers can't find what they're looking for, or end up assuming there are no volunteer opportunities, so they leave.
JPP: That’s something that drives me nuts! I’ve been to so many nonprofit websites that have navigation buttons for “Donate” and “Join”, but none for “Volunteer”, even when their organization obviously relies on volunteer support to operate!
What are some other common issues?
AMH: I’ve got one for you: absolutely no sense of what volunteering looks like.
No photos of volunteers in action, no descriptions of specific roles, no testimonials or stories. People can't picture themselves there, so they don't take the next step.
JPP: To me, that’s also a flag about volunteer experience. If current volunteers love being there, they should be happy to share a testimonial or take part in a photoshoot, and organizations should be proud to share that!
AMH: Yes, an absence of real engagement would make me wary too. Other things that make me wary have to do with what it takes for the organization to trust me or make things smooth for me. Some nonprofits make it way too hard to say yes, like:
The expression of interest form asks for too much information upfront
The process isn't mobile-friendly
They say, "We need help with X, Y, and Z,"... and stop there. They don't paint the picture of what a volunteer experience actually offers in terms of impact or connections or joy.
These approaches aren’t compelling and come across as super transactional.
JPP: Let’s chat about another barrier to website engagement: language. I'm Canadian and many of the nonprofits I work with serve audiences in both English and French. What should organizations keep in mind when designing bilingual websites?
AMH: I think the most effective bilingual websites are those that feel equally thoughtful in both languages. And that can look like many different things:
Professional translation of all key pages on the site
A total re-write of a clever headline whose charm gets lost in translation
Choosing a brand font not because it “looks nice” but because it renders attractively and legibly in both languages’ character sets
The inescapable reality, of course, is that the more customized a website experience is for multiple languages, the more resources will be required. Professional translation can be costly (and/or time-consuming if done in house).
Think about it this way: every page that’s manually translated equals another piece of content that needs to be updated over time!
JPP: Yikes! That can feel insurmountable for small teams with limited budgets. What can those organizations do?
AMH: Some nonprofits opt for automatic translation through something like Google Translate. This isn’t perfect, as we know, but it can be worlds better than offering no multilingual content at all.
Many translation widgets do allow for manual edits as well, which can be a good middle ground in terms of cost, time, and quality of results.
Either way, the language switching feature should be obvious and easy to find.
And, at the very least, the most critical pages and calls-to-action should be available in both languages.
Finally, it’s important to check that linked PDFs (like a volunteer code of conduct, handbook, or conflict of interest declaration) are available in both languages. It won’t matter if the rest of the page is in perfect French if the main action you want people to take is not also in French.
JPP: Okay Andrea, we’ve all heard that old adage… what gets measured matters. When you’re looking at a website’s success, what tells you how the site is doing beyond pageviews or clicks?
AMH: We look for evidence of engagement and forward motion through the visitor journey.
We look at how many pages visitors view per session. If people consistently bounce after just the home page, that’s a hint that the content isn't compelling them to explore further.
Time on page matters. If someone spends 10 seconds on your "Volunteer" page, that's too short to take in information and build trust. We want to see 30 seconds up to several minutes.
Scroll depth is another great metric. It shows how people are using that time on page: are they reading through the content… Or just kind of sitting around?
Exit pages are helpful as well since they reveal where people are leaving from. If your "Volunteer" page is a major exit point, something's not working.
JPP: What about form metrics? We chatted briefly about only including questions on an expression of interest form that are absolutely necessary. How will I know if my form is still too long?
AMH: Form completion rates tell us a lot too. Are people starting your volunteer form but abandoning it? That suggests friction.
You can also look at newsletter signup rates from the “Volunteer” page. That may indicate that people are interested but need more information before committing.
The bottom line is we're looking for signs that visitors are moving from passive observers to actively engaged in some way. Pageviews and clicks are part of that story, but they’re definitely not the fullest picture.
JPP: Zooming back out, what digital trends do you think will shape how nonprofits attract and retain volunteers in the next few years?
AMH: I think we're going to continue seeing a shift in how people discover volunteer opportunities, and nonprofits in general, with the increase in AI searches through ChatGPT, Claude, and similar tools.
We’ve both heard from our clients and experienced in our own business the ways that AI search is overtaking traditional search engines. So, nonprofits will be missing out on talent if their volunteer opportunities are not clearly articulated in ways that AI can understand and surface to users.
At the same time, I see heightened emphasis on authenticity too. We’ve all seen the “obvious AI writing” that’s saturating the internet, and it can be alienating to feel like everything is made by robots.
There’s a big opportunity to emphasize the deeper meaning behind volunteer opportunities, particularly the human connection, the sense of real-world belonging, and the fulfillment that can only come from living one’s personal values.
The more organizations can tap into these identity-driven reasons for volunteering (and somewhat ironically, also express them effectively online for the purposes of AI…), the easier it will be to attract and retain volunteers.
JPP: You have given me a lot to think about, as usual! Thank you! Where can folks find you online?
AMH: The best place to connect with us is through our website (Pixel Lighthouse), where you can learn more about our process and book a free strategy call if you're interested in exploring a website project.
Austin and I are both active on LinkedIn as well, and we love connecting with anyone who works in, for, with, or around nonprofits! We love learning from the sector and expanding our networks.
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