I slowed down as the voice on Google Maps directed me toward my final destination in downtown Denver. At this time of day, I would be lucky to find parking. I circled the block twice and fretted about the time I was losing. I got lucky when a car half a block away left its spot and no one else took it before I got to it and slid into place.

I glanced at my watch. Fifteen minutes should be enough time to find Save-N-Care, drop off my donation, and get back to my car, I thought.

I paid the meter and headed inside. Inside the foyer, I looked for the directory to make sure I was definitely in the right building. Something didn’t feel right. I finally spotted what I was looking for between the two elevator doors, so I reached for my binoculars. Remembering that I didn’t have a pair of binoculars, I realized how incredibly tiny the directory was.

When I pushed the elevator button, it didn’t light up, which I thought was weird. I pushed it again. And again. Then perhaps maybe twelve more times, until with a sigh, I relented and headed up the stairs. Two roaches were in a corner smoking a cigarette, and I high-tailed it up to my floor, slamming the door behind me.

A sign as tiny as Tom Thumb himself greeted me as I entered the hall. Still without my binoculars, I’m wasn’t sure what the sign was directing me to do. I stared down the hall, noticing the doors only came up to my waist. I blinked. What kind of Wonderland was I in?

I pulled out my phone to give Save-N-Care a call, but no one responded. “Forget this.” I hung up. “I’m not going to give my money to an organization that obviously doesn’t care about saving anything!”

This doesn’t actually happen . . . or does it?

Of course an actual physical organization wouldn’t have signs so small you would need a magnifying glass to read them or nonworking buttons or an entrance most people wouldn’t be able to fit through. However, this is the exact experience I encounter on over half of the nonprofit websites I visit from a mobile device. This is completely bizarre to me, considering that the first smartphone was invented over twenty years ago!

The connection between organizations and the humans they are reaching has been evolving. The potential for social change and new opportunities has never been more promising, yet so many organizations are not responding accordingly. Pun intended.

“The world is being re-shaped by the conference of social, mobile, cloud, big data, community, and other powerful forces. The combination of these technologies unlocks an incredible opportunity to connect everything together in a new way and it’s dramatically transforming the way we live and work.” —Marc Benioff

How many people use mobile anyway?

• 64% of American adults now own a smartphone of some kind, up from 35% in the spring of 2011. For many, these devices are a key entry point to the online world. /The Pew Report
• 67% use their phone to share pictures, videos, or commentary about events happening in their community, with 35% doing so frequently. /The Pew Report

• 70% of mobile searches lead to action on websites within one hour. That’s assuming that the website is mobile-friendly, otherwise 40% will choose another result. /TechCrunch Report
• People searching online using a smartphone will increase from 800 million to 1.9 billion users in 2015. /Business2Community Report

5x

• Customers are five times more likely to visit a competitor after having a frustrating mobile experience.
  /npENGAGE
• 72% of web page views are on smartphones.

• You have 3–5 seconds on mobile to get a user’s attention. 55% of visitors spend fewer than 15 seconds on your website. Every second counts.

48% of users say that if they arrive on an organization’s site that isn’t working well on mobile, they take it as an indication of the organization simply not caring. /MarginMedia

Here’s the takeaway:

You have an incredible cause, a mission, that THING you are passionate about, and it is vital to the betterment of society. When people visit your website and it’s not responsive, it feels like you don’t care. How absolutely detrimental this is to your cause!

If you really care about your mission, make sure you are communicating that. You only get one chance to make a first impression, make it a good one.

If your visitors feel like you don’t care, we’d love to chat with you 

Also, check out our unique website building discovery process.