How To Ensure AI Agents Can Find Your Nonprofit.

a simplistic drawing of a wizard

The first results of a search on most web search engines now is from Artificial Intelligent agents – AI. And many younger people, when they want to ask a question about a nonprofit, don’t look at the nonprofit’s web site; instead, they ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity or some other AI agent for the information.

Sometimes a nonprofit or community group ranks well on a search of its name or some other phrase, like volunteer in Louisville, Kentucky, on Google, Bing or Duck Duck Go, but then barely gets mentioned in AI-generated answers, or the info provided by AI is outdated or even completely inaccurate.

Your nonprofit, NGO, or other community program needs to do an AI visibility check on various search engines and AI agents to see what your results are at least twice a year. You may find that you need to engage in some activities to improve the results that come from AI agents.

How do you do that? My new web page offers detailed, specific advice.

Also see:

Dos & Don’ts of Using Artificial Intelligence at Nonprofits.

Artificial Intelligence – friend or foe for nonprofits?

Nonprofits, don’t cede creativity or curiosity or customer relations to AI, & keep your use of AI ethical.

Horrific experience with AI: a warning for others.

Nonprofits, you still need someone managing communications (& who knows how to do it)

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

An online discussion group for current & former United Nations Volunteers renewed (no official UNV affiliation).

When I worked at UN Volunteers HQ in Bonn, Germany, directing the United Nations Online Volunteering service and co-managing the UNITeS initiative,  I would regularly recommend to any employee within earshot that UNV needed to start an online community for former and/or currently-serving UN Volunteers. I said it would be great for UN Volunteers to share their experiences, and we could use their positive feedback in a whole range of communications products. I said it might help us identify problems we were overlooking. And I warned that, if UNV didn’t start such a group, officially, that someone would start one that was unofficial, and over which UNV would have no control.

UNV never took action, and so unofficial online communities for UN Volunteers popped up on LinkedIn, Reddit, and probably some other places as well, though none ever enjoyed much popularity.

I’m pleased to note that the UNV subreddit, which was abandoned some years ago, has been revived – by me. It is not an official UNV outlet and has no formal affiliation with UNV. But like the Peace Corps subreddit and the Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) subreddit or the Girl Scouts of the USA subreddit, because it’s not official, members can speak more freely. Note that I am enforcing confidentiality and privacy rules.

If you are a current or former UNV, I hope you will join. I would really like to see more current and former UNVs post and comment than all the How do I become a UNV posts, which can kill an online community.

Until more people start posting, I’ll be trying to post at least once a week with something on-topic.

Also see my other blogs regarding UNV:

Resources from my time at United Nations Volunteers

Prepare now to leverage International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development 2026 (2025)

History & Evaluation of UNV’s Early Years

UN Volunteer requirements – but with no guidance? (2023)

Misconceptions re: VSO, UNV & Peace Corps

UNV 2023 Annual report

United Nations Volunteers says, when it comes to onsite & online, “They are ALL volunteers”

20 years ago, when everything changed for me (2020)

Thoughts on new UN paper re: Volunteering Practices in the 21st Century (2020)

United Nations site for people with disabilities is inaccessible (2019)

United Nations scales back online volunteering program (2019)

NetAid: 20 years later (2019)

UN mobilizes volunteers to research contribution of volunteerism in fragile communities and post-conflict environments (2017)

Frank description of what it’s like to work in communications in the UN (2017)

UNV announces Online Volunteering Award 2015

I’m thrilled with UNV’s 2015 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report – Transforming Governance

Initial feedback on UNV plan to integrate volunteerism in development (2014)

Suggestions for mutual aid societies in Afghanistan: acts of survival as well as resistance.

the shadow image of a bird in a cage

Mutual aid is a voluntary, peer-to-peer exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit for people in a particular neighborhood or region. It’s sometimes called neighbors-helping-neighbors. It’s usually informal: there’s often no government agency or nonprofit organization organizing it, though that does happen. And it’s usually not some huge, well-organized network: it’s usually something done spontaneously, without careful, long-term planning.

Mutual aid activities can be focused just on helping others to obtain food and medicine, but they can also be acts of resistance: they can be focused on helping people specifically who are being marginalized or oppressed by the government or by some or even a majority of people in an area.

This resource, Suggestions for mutual aid societies in Afghanistan: acts of survival as well as resistance, reviews many different examples of successful mutual aid networks, including those that were done in response to inequities and repression and those that were done in defiance of the government or societal norms. It offers several ideas for creating grassroots mutual aid networks as a way to build solidarity with other Afghans, to survive the evils of the Taliban, and to reduce the suffering of people.

A free, detailed guide on effectively engaging & supporting volunteers.

graphic representing volunteers at work

Where can you find a free, detailed guide on effectively engaging and supporting volunteers at a nonprofit, NGO, school, government agency, community program, etc.?

My web site.

There is an entire section of my web site devoted to various aspects of volunteer engagement: creating assignments, recruiting volunteers, recruiting specific types of volunteers, how to support volunteers (so their work is actually useful and they keep coming back), how to keep volunteers safe, how to keep everyone else safe when they’re around volunteers, and on and on.

There’s information about volunteers from the corporate world, group volunteering, tech-related volunteering and volunteers who are immigrants. There’s even information about groups who actively campaign against volunteering and volunteerism.

And the information on these pages aren’t just from me: I also link to web sites, blogs and books by other people, each an expert in at least some aspect of volunteer engagement or a related subject, each worth listening to.

Why give it away for free? Why not put it all into a book? Because that’s how passionate I am about volunteerism, about wanting to dispel myths and harmful traditions, about wanting what makes volunteer engagement worthwhile and what makes it effective to be far better known.

That isn’t to say there aren’t good books out there about volunteer engagement, and that you shouldn’t read them. And if you want to know where to find the books I recommend, this section of my web site will help.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Forget pursuing a magical number of years of experience: here are things that will distinguish you when applying for humanitarian development jobs.

two shadows of humans talk together, with a globe behind them.

Most of the posts on subreddits like r/UNPath, r/InternationalDev (International Development) and r/Humanitarian are from people that want to know the magic number of working at a particular United Nations agency, or the magic number of internships, or the magic university degree that will land you a job at the UN or other big INGO.

Here are better ideas for distinguishing yourself when applying for these jobs:

  • Have experience doing locally what you want to do internationally. Want to work with refugees? Work, professionally or as a volunteer, with immigrants and refugees in your own geographic area/country – not just with food delivery, but with helping them enroll kids in school, helping a family member find a job, helping someone navigate enrollment in a government aid program, etc. Want to be focused on emergency housing? Work on initiatives in your own community that address emergency housing – not just after disasters, but also for people experiencing homelessness. Public health? same. And represent this work on your CV explicitly.
  • Have experience addressing community pushback or hostility or skepticism to ANYTHING. Could be a new housing development, the closing of a school, a proposal for a data center, the opening of a clinic providing abortion services, the opening of a mosque, the elimination of a program at the local school, changes in zoning laws, and on and on. Show that you have at least witnessed this kind of pushback / hostility for yourself and the efforts to address it – but having been a part of a committee dealing with such, or part of an advocacy group pushing for change, is even better.
  • Show experience where you have raised money, mobilized in-kind resources and/or saved money for a cause, a public school, a local nonprofit, etc. Even raising money for a for-profit endeavor is worth mentioning.
  • Show your experience to make and stay within a budget, stretch resources, etc. at a company or organization.
  • Show experience where you have worked with local elected officials, local unelected government officials, local business owners, etc. to change a rule, or introduce a rule or law, or to get them to collaborate on something.
  • Show experience working with programs that address the needs and challenges of a diversity of people and people who are particularly at-risk: people with disabilities, immigrants for whom your local language isn’t their native language, people leaving incarceration, people with HIV/AIDs, people who are in a religious minority in an area, seniors/the elderly, etc.
  • Survived a program or department or agency restructuring, downsizing or moving from one place to another? Or a radical rehaul of all software your agency used? Talk about it: were you involved in communicating layoffs? Organizing the packing up and moving of an office? Helping staff transition to the new system or new place?
  • Be able to work in at least one language other than English. Having proof, like passing the B2 DELE in Spanish, is really helpful. Being able to work in three languages is particularly attractive – even if you cannot communicate with a local population, being able to communicate with donors in their native language is very, very attractive.
  • Have designed and led a successful project: overseen the revamp of a web site so that it is mobile ready and fully accessible for people with disabilities, overseen and expanded a volunteer engagement program that supported literacy activities, expanded a children’s summer theater program, led a successful Women’s Build for your local Habitat for Humanity, researched and made recommendations regarding the walkability of a neighborhood or community, including with regard to people with mobility issues, helped lead a petition drive to change a local ordinance or law, led a successful voter registration drive, and on and on.

No one can have ALL of the aforementioned experience (and I laugh when someone tries to tell me that they have done ALL of the above). But any one of those things makes a person stand out when applying for jobs. Doing any of those things shows what you are capable of far better than a number of internships, or number of years in a role.

For those of you who have been on hiring committees, or reviewed applications for INGO jobs, what would you add?

And also remember: it is absolutely the worst time ever to pursue a career in international development. Foreign aid budgets have been slashed around the world. Many countries are impossibly behind in their United Nations dues. There is no amount of individual or corporate philanthropy that can make up that massive, devastating funding gap. You are competing for far, far few jobs than there were before 2022, and with far, far more people, many of them seasoned professionals. Have a backup plan.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Keys to Success in a Court-Ordered Community Service Program.

image of a panel discussion

Court-ordered community service, where a person convicted of a crime is ordered by a court to provide a certain number of labor hours to a nonprofit, community of faith or government agency. is common in the USA and, as an Internet search will show, is growing in popularity in other countries such as Malaysia, Ghana and India.

According to a 2019 survey of those involved in such sentencing in the USA, the potential to reduce the negative impact of monetary sanctions was the most commonly identified benefit of such mandated community service.

“When we asked courts to identify commonly recognized reasons for using community service mandates, the majority of participating courts responded that community service mandates should serve as an alternative form of payment for court fines and fees (76 percent) or as a means to reduce the imposition of court fines and fees altogether (54 percent). Another half (49 percent) of respondents endorsed the idea of “repairing harm to the community” as a reason for community service mandates, while 42 percent reported that community service mandates are, or should be, used as an alternative to jail sentences.” (See footnote at the end)

It’s worth noting that none of the respondents in this survey said that the reason for court-ordered community service was because nonprofits, non-government organizations (NGOs), religious groups and charitable organizations need the time and labor of such people, nor that these programs are asking for such volunteer placements.

For a court-ordered community service to be successful, in my opinion,

  • the nature of the service and its completion needs to satisfy the court,
  • the program must not be over-burdensome to those charged with administering it,
  • the program must have written, well-communicated policies and procedures in place to keep it free of corruption (such as people ordered to do community service being able to make donations to the nonprofit in lieu of actually doing their community service hours),
  • the program needs to have a variety and abundance of community service roles, so that a variety of schedules, availability and skills or limitations can be accommodated and the person can complete their community service within a reasonable time frame,
  • the program needs to be done in full partnership with the nonprofits, NGOs and other organizations that are expected to engage these court-ordered volunteers, providing all the training that’s necessary, offering real-time assistance, not over-burdening host organizations with paperwork, etc.

In my opinion, to make all of the above possible, these are the keys to success in court-ordered community service programs:

  • There must be clear guidelines on what a person that is sentenced to community service may, and may NOT do, as a part of that service. For instance, some jurisdictions prohibit people from performing court-ordered service with religious communities, while others allow it. Some allow online volunteering to fulfill court-ordered service and some do not.
  • Those sentenced to court-ordered community service should be given a list of organizations they could contact about performing their service, and told explicitly if they are limited to only this list or if they could seek placement with other organizations not on the list, but that meet the court’s requirements.
  • Those sentenced to court-ordered community service must be given ideas for community service that are easy to reach from their home or before or after work, that can be done at a variety of different times and on different days (as people’s schedules vary), and that provide childcare.
  • There must be a way for an officer of the court to verify community service hours, in terms of where the service was performed, how many hours were performed, and what the person did for this community service. This verification takes more than a signature on a form: it also requires someone to call the agency where service was supposedly performed and confirm information on forms, as well as someone ensuring that the agency meets the requirements of the court for community service.
  • Those sentenced to community service should be able to count hours where they are interviewed by the agency expected to involve them in community service and for any training they have to undergo for this service.
  • The court must be explicit regarding whether or not someone who is to do community service can make a donation to a nonprofit, NGO, charity, community of faith, etc., in lieu of some or all of his or her hours. Is it allowed that someone sentenced to community service could pay the nonprofit or NGO $10 for every hour he or she needs for community service? This is a growing, controversial and unofficial practice in many parts of the USA, one that courts are struggling to address.
  • If online volunteering is allowed to meet community service requirements, it must meet all of the same standards as onsite community service: there must be a way to verify community service hours, in terms of how many hours were performed, and what the person did for this community service. This verification takes more than a signature: it also requires someone to call the agency where service was supposedly performed and confirm information on forms, as well as someone ensuring that the agency meets the requirements of the court for community service. Someone needs to ensure it is real online volunteering and actual labor, not an AI automation doing the work, or a nonprofit or NGO that, in exchange for a fee and a claim that the person watched some videos and wrote some essays about them, gives a person a certificate claiming a certain number of hours completed.
  • The nonprofits, charities, NGOs, communities of faith and others expected to engage court-ordered community service people must receive:
    • training in how to create volunteering activities for court-ordered community service
    • training in how to work with people doing court-ordered community service
    • training in the basics of volunteer support and engagement
    • support for their questions and concerns when working with someone doing court-ordered community service
  • There should be a survey of nonprofits, NGOs and other organizations who engage community service volunteers for them to share their experiences with such with the courts, so that challenges can be identified and problems addressed.
  • Nonprofits, NGOs, charities, etc. have the right to say no to court-ordered community service people, as they do with any volunteer. No organization has an obligation to engage with a court-ordered community service people, as they do with any volunteer, unless they have signed an agreement that they will do so. Organizations may say no because they don’t have time to supervise and support an additional volunteer, because they have nothing for that particular person to do as community service, or because of a negative experience with court-ordered community service volunteers.
  • The best way to increase the number of organizations engaging court-ordered community service people is to fund those nonprofits, NGOs, charities, etc. to do so. Creating activities for someone to do takes time. Supervising and supporting someone takes time. Filling out paperwork takes time. That time should be funded.

I base all of the above on:

researching court-ordered community service since the late 1990s.

working with court-ordered community service folks myself.

You can see other things I’ve written about court-ordered community service here.

What would you add? Or what do you think is actually not that important?

(Footnote) Court-Ordered Community Service: A National Perspective. by Sarah Picard, Jennifer A. Tallon, Michela Lowry, and Dana Kralstein, July 2019, Center for Court Innovation, New York, New York.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

The ICT4D subreddit has been restarted!

nine reddit emojis

The ICT4D subreddit (an online community on Reddit) was started in 2011 by someone – not me. But it was abandoned in 2017. Nothing has been submitted to this posting for posting since 2018 – until now. I stumbled upon it a while back and went through the official process to take it over as moderator.

The ICT4D subreddit is being restarted as of today, June 15, 2026. It’s new description is this:

ICT4D stands for Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) for Development. ICT4D refers to the application of ICT to economic development, humanitarian aid & development, & to causes that help empower a particular demographic or all people to address challenges, have greater access to education, protect their environment, etc. It is a term popularized by various United Nations initiatives.

Examples of ICT4D:

  • Activities to help build the digital literacy skills of an underserved group (seniors, women living in rural areas, etc.).
  • A computer lab open to the public at a public library.
  • An app to help refugees navigate various challenges.
  • Farmers working with drones and GIS to gather information that can help estimate crop yields with real-time satellite data.
  • An app that allows people to track and report on birds in people’s yards.
  • Producing IT materials in local languages.
  • Smart phones used to organize activists in real time.

Are you applying ICTs to economic development, humanitarian aid & development, &/or to causes that help empower a particular demographic or all people to address challenges, have greater access to education, protect their environment, etc.? This subreddit is a place to talk about that. Please write your testimonial yourself & remember that AI should assist your writing, but not author it here.

Up-to-date statistics about the digital divide and recent information about ICT4D-related initiatives are also welcomed.

I’ve had a focus on ICT4D since before I knew it had an acronym. And was it really 25 years ago that I was in my first year working at a United Nations agency, directing the UN Online Volunteering service and helping to manage the United Nations Information Technology Service? Wow.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.

Nonprofits, you still need someone managing communications (& who knows how to do it)

a primitive figure, like a petroglyph, shots through a megaphone

A county in the state where I live is considering laying off several emergency response administration staff, including the communications person, due to a severe funding shortage. The thinking is that another agency can step in and lend some staff for the job when the need arises.

A local nonprofit decided that it didn’t need a dedicated communications person and handed the job off to a staff member with no training in such. The result: social media posts that don’t say the same thing as the web site, incorrect dates announced for events or deadlines, public online complaints going unanswered, an annual financial report where the numbers, literally, did not add up, lack of signage at events, lack of photos of program activities, no notice at all about the traffic pattern in front of its thrift store being significantly altered such as to prevent left turns into the parking lot, and more. But, hey, look at the money saved by not paying someone for this job!

I’m watching a nonprofit now, one that has long had a reputation of inclusion and celebrated its focus on equity, give up on having its web site materials up-to-date in both English and Spanish, and no longer take steps to ensure its web site updates are accessible to people with disabilities. Why? Because they no longer have a communications person who is driving those priorities.

I’m watching a nonprofit post its images for events on social media without putting the most important text in the body of the post or putting in alt text, thereby not only excluding people who use screen readers but also missing out on search engine optimization, which not only affects how many people actually find the event but also will mean if, some time in the future, they need to go back and see how they marketed something, they will have a difficult if not impossible time finding that post, as there’s nothing for a search engine to search for (there’s no text!). Why aren’t they doing this? Because they no longer have a communications person who is driving those priorities.

I’m seeing a disturbing trend among nonprofits and government agencies thinking that communications can be done by just anyone: another person on staff who has other responsibilities and no training can just pick up the work that used to be done by someone in that position, or a volunteer intern, with little or no experience, can do it, or how about an AI tool to write content and post it, respond to clients, etc.?

Communications staff don’t just create and post messaging. Communications staff also are engaging in activities to LISTEN to what is being said. They are reading and analyzing feedback. They are building relationships with others to help amplify messaging and to create listening channels back to the organization. They are building trust with the community, and their work affects everything: fundraising, partnerships, volunteer engagement and more.

It is bizarre and disturbing to see so many organizations and programs decide they don’t need a dedicated, trained communications person – a human – even part-time, in this era of mass misinformation and mass misunderstanding, both of which have led to people being openly hostile to government and nonprofit programs that have enjoyed wide, bipartisan public support for generations.

If management at or funders of your nonprofit or government agency are rethinking having a dedicated communications person, then they don’t understand what a communications staff person does, and everyone who believes that a communications person is fundamentally important to a program needs to get busy now educating them on that.

Does your communications manager ever present to staff or the board about trends they are seeing in customer communications or complaints? Or talk to your staff or board about communications challenges and how they have been handled? Do you do more than just present statistics on visitors to social media or web site; do you also provide examples of feedback, or show how social media posts affect ticket sales or event attendance? Are you asking every new donor, every event attendee and event new volunteer, “How did you hear about our program?” and then reporting that back to senior management?

Also see my other recommendations on nonprofit communications.

Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product

How to do a fundraising, volunteer recruitment or other video on the cheap for your nonprofit.

What is your social media manager doing?

Prepare now to leverage International Year of Volunteers for Sustainable Development 2026

Why the Verboort Sausage & Kraut Festival is successful as a fundraiser & community event & what you can learn from it

The Nonprofit & NGO Guide to Using Reddit.

Could your organization be deceived by GOTCHA media?

Social networks continue to lose their influence & that hurts nonprofits. What to do?

Reaching women in socially-conservative areas, even in other countries

UNHCR web sites are NOT focused on helping refugees & that is shameful.

The PR genius of Collie J, Grambling’s Man with the Golden Pen.

The campaign against US nonprofits has been a long time coming. The worst of it is starting. Are you ready?

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Dos & Don’ts of Using Artificial Intelligence at Nonprofits.

HAL from 2001 a space odyssey

On LinkedIn, a volunteer engagement consultant in British Columbia, Canada, Karen Knight, wrote

AI is impacting volunteer engagement more and more every day, so I’ve finally given up waiting to understand it before writing about it and the challenges we’re all facing with it.

and then linked to her blog, which is a frank, brutally honest narrative about her frustration at not understanding artificial intelligence tools. I was blown away by the excellent questions she asked and how she framed her frustration.

I have been working on a resource for a while now, in preparation for a workshop I’m doing in August, but I was push to finish it early because I was so inspired by her blog.

Dos & Don’ts of Using Artificial Intelligence at Nonprofits.

This new resource is not a list of AI tools for nonprofits. There are plenty of people and companies out there doing that. Instead, it’s a list of things nonprofits, non-government organizations (NGOs), community groups, government agencies and other mission-based initiatives need to consider and policies those organizations need to clarify before staff start using more AI tools than they are already, and that you need to think about regarding the AI tools staff are using now. Otherwise, you won’t be making fully-informed decisions, and you may be replacing authentic, human presentations and interactions at a time when authentic human-to-human connections have never been needed more. 

Instead of listing AI tools, I’ve focused on when nonprofits should, and should NOT, use AI in their work, to give them an understanding that they can use to ask more specific questions of those trying to push them into using AI, as well as to guide them in their use of AI no matter what tools they choose. I have no doubt that there is going to be disagreement on what I am proposing.   

I’ve been helping nonprofits understand new tech since the 1990s. I am a plain language person (I loathe tech and corporate jargon) and believe in my bones that if users can’t use a tech tool easily and appropriately, it’s poorly designed and they shouldn’t be forced to use it. I also believe that nonprofits should always keep human connection, human rights and the emotional attachment humans have to a mission, to a cause, at the heart of their work.  Know those two things as you read this resource.

Also see:

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help. 

Don’t let AI bury your nonprofit in search results; here’s what to do.

a simplistic drawing of a wizard

The rise of AI-powered search engines is already adversely affecting search results for nonprofits.

Web sites are still critically important to get your message out, just as important as what you do on social media, and your nonprofit needs to make sure your nonprofit’s web site isn’t getting buried in search results: you need to make sure potential volunteers, potential donors, the press, politicians, even critics, can find you easily online when they are using certain keywords, not just your nonprofit’s name.

Things that help a web site to be favored by search engines powered by artificial intelligence:

  • Clearly written headings that adhere to HTML hierarchies (H1, H2, H3, etc.).
  • Logical structure of information on a page.
  • Plain language.
  • Short paragraphs (but the number doesn’t matter – don’t eliminate essential content in pursuit of shorter pages!).
  • Clear and comprehensive content.
  • Bullet points.
  • Descriptive summaries.
  • Alt text on photos and images.
  • Page titles in the HTML.
  • Words on your home page you want people to use to find you (the name of your city, the name of your state, the word volunteer, words relating to your mission, words like help and impact, etc.).

Nonprofits that have web sites that follow W3C accessibility standards – that remembered that people with disabilities also use the Internet – already have a strong advantage over those that don’t when it comes to being favored by AI searches, as do those organizations that use plain language and words on their home page they want search engines to use to find their organizations.

Go to a variety of search engines, like Google, Duck Duck Go and Brave Search, and use the words you want people to use to find your nonprofit, like volunteer with refugees Louisville. Did you nonprofit come up in the search results for the words you used? Was it first after the sites that paid for placement? If not, you have work to do.

Don’t just take the word of your web site manager that all of this has been done: YOU, as executive director, as board president, as marketing manager, should ask that person to show you examples of this on the nonprofit’s web site, if you don’t know how to look at HTML yourself.

September 2026 update: I now have a web page offering even more detailed, specific advice to ensure AI agents are finding your nonprofit.

Also see:

Design Checklist: What to Review Before Publishing a Communications Product

Focus on content as much as design!

Web Sites Still Matter

Web Site Construction & Content Suggestions for Nonprofits, NGOs and small government offices.

The Information About & For Volunteers You Should Have on Your Web Site.

Accessibility: a human rights & a digital divide issue too many ignore

accessibility, diversity & virtual volunteering.

If you have benefited from this blog or other parts of my web site and would like to support the time that went into researching information, developing material, preparing articles, updating pages, etc. (I receive no funding for this work), here is how you can help.