Westchester Land Trust

Nonprofit staff and board members share a common passion for their organizations’ work and often speak to each other as “insiders,” using jargon or shorthand for the programs and issues they work on. For instance, social service organizations might talk internally about “at-risk” audiences or “partner organizations.”

But how inspiring — or even comprehensible — are these terms to people who are less connected to the organization?

This month, we’re looking at the Web site for the Westchester Land Trust, a site struggling with this “insider” versus “outsider” approach to communicating.

WLT’s work focuses on protecting land in partnership with private property owners, helping communities create new parks and preserves, and fostering sound land-use planning rules. Westchester County, which is just north of New York City, struggles to balance the needs of its suburban, commuter-lifestyle residents with its desirably rural nature.

Some great points
WLT’s tagline is “Preserving Westchester’s Land and Communities.” The organization does a terrific job demonstrating the “land” part of its work online through gorgeous images of bucolic Westchester landscapes.

WLT’s homepage also makes a good first impression with clear navigation, a search box, two easy ways to donate online and a simple “What We Do” box that boils down its work into three short points. Owls hoot, water trickles and wind blows audibly as images move in and out of the top of the page. A prominent display of the Better Business Bureau and the Contribute 200 logos demonstrates up front that WLT is a trustworthy nonprofit deserving of support.

The “Latest News” section on the site provides a reason to return, assuming it’s updated with some regularity. At the time of writing, the news items all were a bit organization-centric, using that insider point of view rather than featuring news items that might be of interest to those less connected to WLT. For example, a more casual visitor to the site might want to hear about recent legislation affecting the preservation of land or zoning rather than a successful fundraising event. It’s fine to incorporate some insider news items, but the trick here is balance.

Ways to improve
WLT’s greatest opportunity to improve its site might be to explore ways of humanizing its work: connecting people to land more clearly — and thus making a stronger connection between land preservation and how the site visitor benefits from it. In other words, demonstrating the “community” part of the tagline.

For instance, there are only a few images around the site that feature people working or enjoying the land. But these photos highlight the human benefit of land preservation much more effectively than a stunning landscape can.

For a good example of photography demonstrating benefits, WLT might look at the Land Trust Alliance Web site (www.landtrustalliance.org). The Land Trust Alliance is a national network of local land trusts, of which WLT is a member. It does a great job of humanizing the work of a land trust through images (and more) on its Web site. It has pictures of farmers, bird watchers, hiking children and the occasional straight-up nature shot without people, clearly demonstrating who benefits from the organization’s work.

Similarly, the language on WLT’s Web site could be more outsider or audience-centric. Right now, it’s a lot of “we do this” and “we do that.” Instead of telling visitors (donors, residents, farmers, neighbors) what it does, WLT should consider language that demonstrates how they can benefit from its work — for example, by enjoying the parks it’s helped create.

In fact, WLT’s Web site is most successful on pages where it puts its focus squarely on its audience. In the “Visit a Preserve” section, the language shifts and speaks to visitors directly (“If you prefer a big, wooded preserve with long trails …”). The accompanying photo features an educator and children clearly benefiting from WLT’s work. Bravo!

Try this
To ensure that fundraisers are connecting to the needs of their audiences online, try this simple exercise. First, make a list of the questions clients, donors, the media, policy makers or other audiences might have when they visit your site — e.g., “How can I make a donation?”, “Where can I find information about that trail I want to hike?” or “Should I make a gift to this organization my board member friend told me about?”

Then assess the site against these questions. How easy are they to answer? Will audiences find what they’re looking for quickly and meaningfully? Nonprofit organizations help people. Keeping those beneficiaries in mind when creating any communications materials, including Web sites, is the surest way to demonstrate the value of your work to that other vital nonprofit constituency — donors. FS

Sarah Durham and Dan Gunderman are founder/principal and director of copywriting, respectively, at New York-based consultancy Big Duck.