Big thanks to Matt Stempeck from EchoDitto, Affinity Labs, Luke Warren, and CODEPINK for their parts in the Tuesday, June 19 NetSquared Meetup group (NetSquared home site)! The night's theme was Pimp My Nonprofit as the wonderful ladies from CODEPINK shared their website with the group.
Jodie Evans, Dana Balicki, and Rae Abileah bravely put their CODEPINK 
website up to the scrutiny of some of DC's best online marketing minds. Group members offered helpful suggestions for the team on ways to improve their site.
Here's some highlights of the evening that can help you pimp your own nonprofit's website!
- While this might seem obvious, make sure your homepage actually tells your readers about your organization and what it is you do. You might be surprised how many nonprofits' websites are fairly ambiguous as to what they are.
- Make your email capture box highly visible and easy to locate. If your site's emphasis is grabbing names, use alternating shades of color and prominent placement on your homepage to make sure visitors can see it and will want to give you their name. Do not make them click to sign up!
- When collecting information, separate users' home phone numbers and cell phone numbers. Take both numbers for a possible text messaging campaign in the future!
- Move the site search up to the top right of the page, freeing up your main content area.
- Emphasize the most important news items, not just the latest. If there's a story that really puts your nonprofit in the best light possible, make sure that's the story people read first!
- Our good friend Alan Rosenblatt suggested having members, or donors, do a video blog of why they feel your nonprofit is important. Post these videos on your main page as a unique, interactive way to share your nonprofit's message. SplashCast Media and Searchles can help you out.
- Ana Maria Cuenca from NGOConnect shared that in her experience visitors only read 160 words of your website before deciding whether or not it's worth looking at further. Make the first words they read the one's with the most impact and importance.
- If you have profiles on social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook, make sure icons that link to those are on your home page. Users of that site will recognize those icons and add your organization as a friend!
- Use the "Google Universe "to your advantage.
- Google Analytics shows you where your site's visitors are entering your site from. Tailor your site to best serve this population.
- Google Calendars is an easy way to get your nonprofit's events directly to the people. Lots of people use Google Calendars as their personal calendar, and are more likely to see your nonprofit's event here rather than on other services.
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