Picture this:
Someone in your town just moved here from out of state. They want to get involved locally — volunteer, donate, maybe join a club. They open Google and search "food pantry near me" or "Lions Club [your town]." Your Facebook page doesn't appear in those results. Your website would.
Facebook handles the people who already know you exist. Your website finds the people who don't yet.
Quick answer: Yes. A website does three things Facebook can't: it appears in Google search results, it gives you a place to accept donations you own and control, and it establishes credibility for people who find you for the first time and want to verify you're real before they give money or show up.
What Facebook Does Well (and What It Doesn't)
Facebook is genuinely good at staying connected with your existing community — people who already follow your page, attend your events, or know someone who does. If you post about an upcoming fish fry, your members see it. That's real and valuable.
What Facebook doesn't do:
1. Appear in Google search results for new people When someone searches "nonprofit near me" or "[your cause] [your town]," Google returns websites — not Facebook pages. Facebook pages occasionally appear in branded searches (someone looking specifically for your organization by name), but they rarely rank for the kind of exploratory searches that bring in new supporters.
2. Accept donations cleanly Facebook has a donate button, but the money goes through Facebook's payment processing, which takes a cut and sends funds on Facebook's timeline. You don't control the process, the data, or the donor relationship. Many donors are also hesitant to enter their card information into Facebook.
3. Establish first-impression credibility When someone finds your organization for the first time and considers donating or volunteering, they'll look for a website. Its absence signals — fairly or not — that the organization isn't established or professional. A clean, simple website eliminates that question immediately.
The Four Things a Website Does
1. Google discoverability This is the biggest one. A website with your organization's name, location, and mission makes you findable by people who don't already know you. Over time, search engines index your site and surface it for relevant local searches. Facebook pages don't accumulate this kind of search authority.
2. A donation page you own Your website's donation page accepts money directly into your bank account through a payment processor of your choice. You control the process, you own the donor data, and you can see exactly who gave and when. No platform intermediary.
3. A permanent home for your information Your website doesn't change its algorithm. It doesn't reduce how many followers see your posts if you don't pay to boost them. It doesn't change its layout every six months. Your hours, mission, contact information, and donation link are exactly where you put them, for anyone who looks.
4. Credibility for first-time visitors A website signals permanence. It says: we exist, we've put in the work to have a real online presence, and we're worth your time and money. For a donor considering a $100 gift to an organization they've never met, this matters more than most organizations realize.
"But Nobody in Our Club Uses Websites"
Your members might not — but your potential donors and volunteers do.
The audience for your website isn't the people already in your club. It's:
- The person who just moved to town and is looking for a way to get involved
- The local business owner who wants to sponsor a community event and is doing research
- The foundation program officer reviewing your organization before approving a grant
- The family who heard about your food pantry at church and wants to give before they forget
These people will look for a website. If there isn't one, some of them will move on.
What a Website Actually Costs
This is where the numbers often surprise people.
A professionally built nonprofit website typically costs $2,000 to $5,000 upfront from a web designer, plus $50 to $200 per year for hosting and domain.
Platforms like Wix or Squarespace let you build one yourself for $16 to $30 per month — if you have the time and the inclination to design and write it.
Potluck builds your website automatically from the information you enter during setup — organization name, mission, logo, contact info — and hosts it for $9 per month on a custom domain. It also includes your donation page, so you don't need to set up a separate giving platform.
That's not a sales pitch that belongs in a guide — but it's an honest answer to the cost question, because "I don't know what it would cost" is one of the main reasons small nonprofits put off having a website for years.
The One Situation Where Facebook Alone Might Be Fine
If your organization is entirely internal — a private group where all members already know each other, you collect no outside donations, and you have no interest in recruiting new members or volunteers — then a website may not be a priority. Some organizations genuinely are that self-contained.
But if you raise money from anyone outside your immediate membership, recruit volunteers, or want to grow — you need a website. The cost of not having one is invisible but real: it's the donations that never came because someone couldn't find you, and the volunteers who never showed up because they couldn't verify you were real.
Where to Start
- Register a domain name. Your domain should be your organization's name or a close version of it — organizationname.org is the standard for nonprofits.
- Choose your approach: build it yourself (Wix, Squarespace), hire a designer, or use a platform built for nonprofits.
- Start with four pages: Home, About, Donate, Contact. That's enough. You don't need a blog, an events calendar, or a member portal to start.
- Connect your donation page. This should be the first thing you set up, because it's the thing that makes the website financially worth having.
Common Questions
Will a website replace our Facebook page? No. They serve different audiences. Your Facebook page keeps existing members and followers engaged. Your website finds people who don't know you yet. Run both — they do different jobs.
Do we need to update it constantly? No. A website with accurate, current information about your mission, contact details, and donation link is valuable even if you don't post to it weekly. Update it when something material changes. That's enough.
Can we just use a Facebook page as our website? Technically yes. Practically, you'll miss the people Google sends to a website and never sends to a Facebook page, and you'll leave your donation page in the hands of Facebook's payment system. Most organizations outgrow "Facebook as a website" the moment they start trying to grow beyond their existing membership.
Potluck builds your nonprofit's website automatically and includes your donation page, so you're not managing two separate platforms. See how it works. Free to start.
See also: How to Build Your Nonprofit's Online Presence — the full picture of what your digital presence should look like.