Avoid Web Site Stagnation

It’s hard to imagine that early Internet powerhouses such as Amazon.com were founded as recently as 1994. Overnight, it became apparent that an online presence was essential to seem credible in the corporate sector.

As a communications firm that works exclusively with nonprofits, we’ve found that mission-driven organizations, by and large, have arrived at the Internet party more than fashionably late. Today, I chuckle recalling meetings during which board and staff members at mid-size and large organizations insisted, “Our donors won’t ever be online” as recently as a few years ago. Even those who built sites in the late ’90s rarely built or budgeted for something more dynamic than a static site — essentially a bare-bones online brochure — until a few years ago. Most of the small to mid-size nonprofits I’ve spoken with say they built their first Web sites sometime between 1998 and 2003.