a website for associations and nonprofits: members, volunteers, 5x1000

business · 2026-10-29 · 4 min

most association sites are built around the story of the founders and forget what people come for: joining, volunteering, and checking where the money went. if the fee, the shifts or last year's accounts take more than two clicks to find, the visitor leaves and does not write to ask.

membership and volunteering are two paths

a member pays a fee and expects a card, services, a vote at the assembly. a volunteer gives hours and expects a shift, a contact, a place to start. two pages, two forms. on the first: what the fee covers, when the year starts, how to renew, whether the card comes by post or email. on the second: which activities, which days, what is needed, and the name of the person who answers. a long generic form asking for a motivational letter loses both.

5x1000: one page, one code

the tax code must be text, not an image: readable on a phone, selectable, written with the spaces the form expects. three lines on how the signature works, one on the deadline. no promises about what that money will save, no slogans about changing the world with a signature. link the page from the home page in the autumn, when people fill in their taxes.

transparency: accounts and numbers

a page called transparency with statute, deed of incorporation, registration in the national register of the third sector, and the annual accounts as a real PDF, not a scan of a printout. one file per year, with the year in the name. three lines above it: where the money comes from, where it goes, what changed. if the numbers are bad, write that too: an association that only publishes good years is not believed in the bad ones.

accessibility and events

many associations work with public bodies, and for them an accessible site is a requirement, not a courtesy: readable contrast, alternative text, headings in order, PDFs a screen reader can read, forms with visible labels. events get one page, updated: date, place, cost if any, how to sign up, places left. announcing it only on facebook means the people who do not use it never hear about it. for the signup ask name, email, phone and what you need — how to collect leads.

faq

do we need a privacy policy if we only have members?

yes. you are processing names, contacts and often payment records, and members are people, not an inherited mailing list. a short notice in plain language, a purpose for each form and a way to ask for deletion are the minimum. being a nonprofit does not exempt you.

should we publish the accounts even if they are small?

yes, and small accounts take half an hour. a one-page statement with income and expenses by category is enough; what matters is that it exists, is dated and matches what you tell people. hiding it makes the 5x1000 campaign harder.

how do we get people to volunteer?

say what the shift looks like and what happens in the first hour. become a volunteer asks for a decision; saturday morning, food collection, two hours, paired with someone asks for two hours. then answer within a day.