Nonprofit Website Redesign Checklist

A successful nonprofit website redesign starts with decisions about people and programs. Use this checklist to define the work before comparing proposals, then keep it alongside your launch plan.

1. Define the actions your visitors need to take

List your main audiences: program participants, families, donors, volunteers, partners and staff. Choose the most useful action for each audience, such as finding eligibility information, registering for a program or reaching your donation platform. Review your current navigation against these tasks.

2. Inventory content and assign an owner

Make a spreadsheet of current URLs, page purpose, content owner and whether the page should be kept, combined, rewritten or removed. Identify outdated program information and unused documents. Assign someone to approve copy and obtain permission for images and testimonials before development begins.

3. Map donations, forms and integrations

Document the tools used for giving, email, events, volunteer intake and donor management. Check what happens after each form is submitted, who receives it and how records reach the appropriate system. Agree on confirmation messages and a fallback contact method when an integration is unavailable.

4. Include accessibility and mobile testing in the scope

Test keyboard navigation, visible focus, form labels, error messages, text contrast and headings. Check important journeys on a small screen. Give informative images useful alternative text and keep decorative images out of screen-reader output. Define which pages, documents and third-party tools are included in accessibility review.

5. Preserve useful URLs and search context

Retain established URLs where practical. Where a page moves, map the old address to its closest replacement and test the redirect. Write a descriptive title and heading for every important page. Check that production pages are crawlable and that the sitemap lists the URLs you want indexed.

6. Agree on maintenance and measurement

Clarify who manages hosting, domain renewals, backups, security updates and content edits. Define useful measurements such as completed inquiries, volunteer sign-ups or visits to program information. Test tracking without sending private participant details to analytics services.

Before launch

• Approve content and check every primary call to action.
• Test forms, donation links and staff notifications with sample data.
• Check redirects, page titles, sitemap, mobile layout and fallback contacts.
• Confirm backups, staff access, training and a rollback plan.
• Assign responsibility for post-launch fixes and Search Console review.

Tellap provides nonprofit website design and development. If your project also includes staff workflows or program reporting, explore custom nonprofit web applications or discuss your redesign priorities.