Any nonprofit organization worth its salt keeps a close watch on costs, making sure that every dollar possible can be invested in the core mission of the organization. When your work depends heavily on the good will of donors and volunteers, any expenditure beyond that core mission must be clearly justified, and the funds of course have to come from somewhere. At the same time, you can clearly see the value of an active Internet presence in supporting your organization's work. What's an ambitious yet cost-concious organization to do?

Wouldn't it be great if there were some way to do this for free? Well, maybe there is.

Now before we get too far, we should point out that for the most part, your grandfather was right: You get what you pay for. Keep that in mind when you are looking for free solutions to your web development needs.

Below you'll find some “free” website solutions that may cost you no cash outright, but you will of course be paying for it — if not in cash, then with your time, and that's time you might have spent more productively on raising money, finding a sponsor, or expanding your programs. While it is certainly possible to do an adequate website design without spending truckloads of money, more often than not you'll find in the end that you would have been better off contracting a professional firm to do it.

Design is only one part of creating and operating a website. You'll also need to think about hosting, learning and managing the chosen website technology, creating and updating content (text, images, etc.), and utilizing the website to achieve your goals. You'll need to consider your design in the context of all these areas in order to create a successful Internet presence.

We strongly encourage you not choose a free design template from the Internet if you don't know how to modify it to your needs. It will end up sitting pretty and lonely on your computer, and where's the fun in that?

With that said, and assuming you're reading this with more time available than funds, here are a few ways to create a free or almost-free website design for your nonprofit organization:

1. Recruit a volunteer to design your site

Finding a good volunteer takes time, clearly established standards, resourcefulness, good judgement — and the willingness to say goodbye to those who are not up to par. In our experience, this last one is often very hard to do for a nonprofit manager with limited resources clinging to any volunteers willing to help. But without establishing clear expectations and website standards, you won't get the results you want. It can then be even harder to let that volunteer go without hurt feelings. If you just go out there and say, “Hey, can anyone put together a website for me for free?” then don't expect pretty results.

So your first job is to treat this as a professional project, regardless of the final price tag, and determine the purpose of your website, then the clear functions and content of each page, addressing all your needs. You might not know every detail, but make your best effort to write down everything you can think of.

One place to start is by asking yourself the kind of questions a design firm would ask. Have a look at our project overview form to see what kinds of questions we ask of our new clients. Write down the answers for yourself, and use this as a starting point for clarifying your project goals.

Also remember: focus on content more than on the design. We get a few raised eyebrows with this one now and then, since after all we are talking about design, but a successful website will have a subtle and aesthetic design that supports valuable and unique content. The best design in the world will languish without meaningful content to fill it out. And an obsessive focus on “spicing up” a design with things like flashy colors, wild fonts, or too many moving images in your design will distract your visitors from your core message.

Second, in order to pull off a good free website design, you will need to find a volunteer who has free time, motivation, and experience — usually hard to come by in one package. If you're lucky, you may be able to find a professional who does this for a living and is willing to do it for you pro-bono . Some firms allot a certain amount in their annual budget for such work, in an effort to give back something to their local communities. It never hurts to ask.

Some places you can find a good volunteer:

• Your local nonprofit association's resource guide — there may be several web design firms listed.
• Professional web design groups (including online associations/resources like www.freelancedesigners.com or www.guru.com)
• Find an IT company to sponsor your website (or more) and have them do it for you.
• As a last resort, the Website/Graphic Design departments of close-by universities and colleges may be interested in your project as an educational opportunity for their students.

2. Connect with agencies promoting volunteerism in technology

Here are two great opportunities for nonprofits seeking assistance with web-related projects. If your timing and location are right, you may want to consider one of these options.

Give Camp: Give Camp is “a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations.” Camps are organized and scheduled locally, and projects are selected from local nonprofits who have specific needs. You can find out more about this great project at GiveCamp.org.

Catchafire: If you're in a major metropolitan area, Catchafire may be able to help you locate a skilled professional in your area to help with your website design project. They do charge a very small fee to match organizations with a volunteer, but it's a fraction of what you'd expect to pay for professional design work. You can learn more at Catchafire.org.

3. Almost Free Design: Website Design Templates

Finally, you may find that strictly free options are more limiting than you had hoped. One option to consider is the “almost-free” solution of website design templates. There are many web-based website design templates available that will cost you only a few dollars yet produce basic but professional webpages for you. It's the next best thing to free and you will receive many added advantages.

This doesn't let you off the hook for doing a clear needs assessment to guide you before you start any design work, nor for creating relevant content that will catch your audience's attention. But if you find that your needs are fairly basic (that is, a primarily informational site without complex dynamic functions or login/password protected pages) then you should look at the possibility of doing it yourself with templates.

Take a look at our library of ready-built website design templates to see the kinds of options that are available for just a few dollars. You might also want to look into our low-cost turnkey website design packages for ways to leverage a templated design into a full-scale website solution; still a great value, but moving slowly away from “free”, and after all, “free” is what we're talking about at the moment.

If you feel inclined to tackle a project like this, we encourage you to explore these options. If think you might like us to help you save time and money by having it done professionally, we encourage you to learn more about how we work and then get in touch to see how we can help.