Common among nonprofit professionals or ministry leaders is the phrase "behind the technology curve." We all agree organizations suffer the case, however many believe an online presence helps solve it. That depends on how you maintain a valuable presence.

Organizations are right to secure a presence on the Web, but few are doing so effectively. If your organization has not incorporated fund-raising into your Web site operations, you have yet to utilize the powerful fund-raising tool at your fingertips.

To be successful online, you'll need to:

• Structure your website for effectiveness
• Receive online donations
• Involve your visitor immediately in your mission
• Get professional, affordable Web site development help

These are the first, crucial steps for positioning yourself to generate revenue.

Structuring your Web site

In this endeavor perhaps more than in any other, you may want to mimic the practices of successful for-profits. They realize that when a visitor comes to their home page, they are one click away from leaving. Understanding this is crucial to your Web site's success. Having a one-page Web site or failure to draw your visitor deeper into your site can cost you valuable support in terms of dollars or membership. Try to instead build your Web site while wearing your visitor's eyes. Why is he here? He could be a potential donor, member, or venue for your advertisements/events. The first mistake we all make, for-profits and non-profits alike, is to assume our visitor wants to know about us. Whether he knows it or not, he wants to know how you (your organization, your services, your message) can benefit him. Even those looking to donate money or volunteer time want to aid only those organizations they feel compelled to lock arms with. The benefit they want could be anything - including pure, simple satisfaction.

Make a list for each targeted visitor. What does the drinking public want to see? What do members and donors want to see?

Members want to know how their membership is benefiting your mission, what they can do to help, and how membership with your organization can further their own personal or professional mission. Members want networking capabilities, a sense of community within your organization, updates on your successes, your failures, your goals. Donors want to know what their money will allow you to accomplish, how useful donations have been in the past, and how you appreciate them when they've made a donation.

By keeping your visitor in mind, you build a site suited to their tastes and needs. Once attracted, your visitors will gravitate back to your site again and again.

Receiving online donations

Another concept most organizations toy with, but rarely implement, is the infamous ‘donation button.' At merely the thought of receiving money online, your mind may tumble in the whirlwind of merchant account fees, transaction fees, set-up fees, and Web site integration/programming fees (or maybe you don't even get that far!). You can easily get bogged down in just the thought of it. But don't fret. There are several Web sites out there called Charity Portals that will not only process your online donations for little or no fee, but also provide your organization with a listing on their site and a donation button for yours, both of which will attract donors.

Be aware, though, that allowing a charity portal to process your donations may save you money, however, there are some drawbacks. By placing a charity portal's donation button on your site, you receive the donation, but in making that donation, your donor is immediately taken to the charity portal's Web site, away from your own. You have little or no control over the look and feel of the donation page, and unless your donor is bent on coming back, you've lost him. And you lose your chance to build a long-term relationship with him as well.

The cost-effective solution to this issue is a transaction service. Available at very reasonable cost, transaction services like TransactU from ServiceU allow for full customizability and control over your online donations and any other online commerce or event transaction you would like to have. Though costing more money up front than a charity portal, transaction services keep your donors in your Web site and give you full administrative control over the look and feel of your donation page, as well as allowing you transaction reporting capabilities, automated gift receipting, etc.

Involve your visitor

Tori Amos once said that the art in storytelling is making our story (always fascinating to ourselves) interesting to other people. The same applies to missions. Always the driving force in our own lives, our missions are not always paid attention to by others. The art in designing your Web site is to engage your visitor in your mission - the moment he arrives.

If your mission is to feed the homeless, consider the following alternatives:

• Simply providing your mission statement.
• Depicting a homeless person's ragged, exhausted face slack from deficient hope. Next to this picture, a short vignette written by or about a person living on the streets.

The first alternative tells your visitor what you're about. The second shows him, and immediately involves him emotionally.

Professional Web site development

No, don't worry. A good Web site does not require professional Web development assistance. You can receive excellent advice on creating your own site from resources like TechSoup.org. However, there are major benefits to asking a Web developer for help.

1. Your Web site won't be an online brochure

We have to face it, most of us don't talk compu-speak. If I can't make it happen in Word, then it isn't going to happen. A professional programmer, however, can create an interactive Web site that can engage your visitors both visually and physically. They can create drop-down menus that appear when you hover your mouse over a selection. They can animate small graphics that draw your visitor's eye to important links or information. And most importantly, they know what looks good, what doesn't, what works, and what won't.

2. Experience

When it comes down to it, the most important benefit to having your Web site professionally developed is their expertise. Not only do you acquire expert programmers, but you receive advice and ideas on your site's content and structure. Web developers understand the art behind getting someone to your site, keeping them there, and bringing them back again.

And these two benefits provide many others:

• Traffic
• A professional image
• Ideas on valuable information and ‘goodies' you can offer at your Web site
• Graphic art that is professional and appealing
• A memorable Web site that people won't forget

These several ideas on maintaining an online presence aren't the only ways to generate funds online, and though maintaining a Web site is somewhat crucial to online fund-raising, it is only the beginning.

Jaime Mintun is an account representative with Titako, Inc., which offers consulting, marketing, project management and data processing technical support. She deals primarily with nonprofit organizations, including churches and parachurch ministries.