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Critical Tools Required for Building a Successful Website
Dell Fascione, Vice President, Marketing
August 2010

The opportunity to build a new website for your organization can feel both overwhelming and exhilarating.

One thing’s for sure: to successfully map, design, create, write, edit, test and launch a new site, your institution needs the attention of a capable, inside leader – someone who has strong management and communications skills; is a superb motivator, well respected by her peers, managers and senior staff; and is a proven detail-oriented project manager.

Although a website is a “living” communication medium that requires constant modification, it’s critical that your site be as accurate and complete as possible when launched. It must be timely, convey your mission, reflect well on your organization, and meet the needs and expectations of your staff, publics and constituents.

In most cases, nonprofits need outside technical expertise and marketing consultants to help guide and execute a new site. However, every organization needs a great project manager who:

• makes the website her top priority
• is the chief communicator about the project to all stakeholders
• takes ownership of the site’s integrity
• makes certain that staff, vendors, consultants and other stakeholders commit to, and are held accountable for, their roles and responsibilities with the project
• makes sure the site map, design elements and written copy are appropriately vetted by stakeholders to ensure the layout and content are thorough and accurate
• takes full responsibility for achieving the goals and objectives of the site on time and on budget!

All too often, the job of managing a major website overhaul falls on the shoulders of an already busy staff person; this can end in disaster. When this project doesn’t get the support and attention it needs, you risk the following:

• limited understanding and commitment to the project within your organization, leading to staff frustration and significant schedule delays
• a lack of team dynamics and leadership necessary to create a successful site
• inefficient use of staff, vendors and consultants, which translates into wasted time and money
• content that is not properly scrutinized, requiring you to rewrite, re-edit or reconstruct entire webpages
• an end product that doesn’t meet the basic needs of your organization

In addition to assigning a strong and committed project manager to your website overhaul, here are five other important things to have in place before you start:

• Your organization’s marketing platform and brand identity must be well developed, vetted and tested for effectiveness.
• Leadership and staff must be on board and committed to the project.
• Key leaders must be in agreement with the direction and planned outcomes of the site.
• A specific budget and timeline for the project must be approved by all stakeholders.
• Your organization must be committed to providing the resources you’ll need to successfully manage the ongoing, day-to-day responsibilities of a robust and dynamic public site.

Building a new website is a lot of hard work, but with the right project manager in place and an all-hands-on-deck approach, you’ll have the right tools to accomplish your goals and achieve a new level of success that benefits your entire organization.

Schultz & Williams is a national consulting firm based in Philadelphia; providing management, fundraising and marketing consulting for nonprofit organizations, along with full-service direct marketing, database and creative/production services.