I Need to Build a Simple Site for Our Nonprofit - What Platform Should I Use?

There's a large range of website builders out there. Which website builder you choose is important because it is a commitment. This post is going to assume that you're going the DIY method and that you don't have the budget to outsource the development of a website. If you do, I've helped other organizations develop their RFP for their website as a service and would be more than happy to have a conversation with you about it.

Our organization uses Canva Pro or Google Workspace - can we use their site builders?

If your organization uses Canva Pro or Google Workspace, you may have seen that they include site builders. It can be tempting to use those rather than getting a subscription to another platform, but I would proceed with caution.

These sites are good for conveying one-way information and have limitations in their ability to grow with your organization. Some of the limitations to consider:

• If you're hoping people will find your organization through a web search or through the recommendation of an AI chatbot, these sites won't get you there. They have limited ability for you to optimize the site for search engines or for answers from AI.
• Neither offer strong eCommerce integration, so if you're hoping to collect donations or to sell event tickets, you'll need to use a third-party site for it.
• Google Sites doesn't offer great flexibility for designs; Canva does. But neither offers great options for things like blogs, contact forms, or strong mobile optimization.

So you know what's best for you, but I would consider these limitations before you start building your site on one of these platforms or paying for another.

Another organization I know uses Wix; should I use it?

Wix is a very popular option; many get pulled in because of their free forever advertising. Consider with the free plan that:

• You can't use your own domain, so you'll have a Wix domain like this: username.wixsite.com/sitename
• There will be a highly visible Wix banner ad at the top and bottom of the page.
• The ability to accept payments isn't included in the free plan (fine if you're linking out to a donation form on Zeffy or CanadaHelps or another platform).

The good thing though, is that through TechSoup (region-dependent) you can get a 70% discount for two years. In Canada, the payment plans start at about $21 per month, but if you want the payment functionality, you have to go up a level to $33 per month. These prices are before the TechSoup discount.

Wix offers a pretty blank canvas for you to design a site. You can use a template and then customize it completely. I would choose Wix if the organization has someone with a good eye for digital design and if the organization has a vision for what they want the site to look like.

Being able to customize the site a lot can be great, but it can also lead to your site looking too amateur if you change it too much. But in terms of ease of use, Wix is user-friendly.

I've had a lot of people welcome SquareSpace, is that better for me?

SquareSpace offers a free trial for two weeks, not a free forever plan like Wix. So you will start paying sooner rather than later.

The pricing of SquareSpace seems comparable to Wix, but their starting plan at $21 CAD per month includes payments, unlike Wix. So you may not need to go up to the $32 per month plan. They don't have a clear nonprofit discount like Wix, but people online have said they contacted support for a promo code, which they could use on their first payment.

I recommend SquareSpace to people who don't have much design experience and want a site that is hard to make look bad. SquareSpace has a lot of professional templates, and customizing them is fairly rigid compared to Wix. This decreases the chances of you making a change that looks bad. You'll also probably go live faster compared to if you go with Wix.

Wrapping It Up

There are a ton of other options out there, so feel free to shop around. If you use another platform that you'd recommend to others, I would love to hear about it. My recommendation if you want the easy route is SquareSpace. But my recommendation if you have a specific vision for your site that you want to execute is Wix.