After reviewing the websites of more than 100 non-profit arts organizations in the last couple months I can report a clear trend: inadvertent hostility. This mistake is easy to spot—websites with outdated features, coupled with a disorganized design that actively frustrates website visitors. Hostile design is a theory of architecture which points out urban design that is, intentionally, or unintentionally, exclusionary (like adding a metal bar in the middle of a bench to prevent someone from lying down).

Are these non-profit arts organizations trying to dissuade patrons from using their websites?

Of course not. That’s why it’s inadvertent hostility, but it still has the same effect. An unhospitable website risks the loss of a patron relationship before one even begins, a challenge that would be hard for any development staffer to recover from, no matter how skilled.

Nonprofits tend to have community-forward missions, with an aim of inclusion. However, their websites frequently do not reflect this intent. Instead, their websites seem to aim to hide important information between too many clicks and menus.

I think that there are three important metrics for a usable theatre website: easy access to an “about us” section, a link to purchase tickets, and a “support us” section. Bonus points for a clear season announcement.

Why are these the most important aspects of the website? A potential donor wants to know who you are and what you value, how they can come see you (and what they are going to see), and they need a simple, straightforward way to donate. Don’t make the people who decide they want to contribute jump through hoops!

Online donations are a growing segment of the fundraising sector, so being prepared can have a great financial benefit. Beyond that, integrating easy donation and support paths into a website has considerably lower time and money investment compared to traditional development practices like mailers and direct marketing. Now that over half of all donors prefer to give online via debit or credit card, a website with clear donation paths is a more important asset than ever.

One great website design can be found from Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. On the desktop version the selection menu is found at the top of the screen. There are clear sections for about, tickets, support, and donating now. Directly below that menu is the 2025 season announcement with a clear link to information about the shows in the season.

What makes Barter’s design so effective is simplicity. There is no room for confusion about which link you should click. The highlights of this page are the clearly delineated “give now” and “buy tickets” options. The “give now” section is particularly seamless — it lets you choose between recurring and one-time donations, select an amount and a reason for giving, and then you’re on your way! The whole thing took me thirty seconds. Instead, if you want to consider a different way to support Barter, clicking on the “support us” section gives a dropdown with four clear options, “ways to give,” “planned giving,” “get involved,” and “corporate sponsorship.” A member seeing these options can navigate according to their interest without any roadblocks that may discourage this participation.

My appreciation for Barter’s website doesn’t stop there: the mobile design is also incredible. Website design happens on a desktop format, but good design understands that most visitors will be doing so on the go with their mobile devices. Designing a website to work for both desktop and mobile used to be complicated, but now with responsive web design it is much easier to integrate. For mobile, their menu is a selectable sidebar, which is preferable when looking on a much smaller device. Everything else functions the same with just visual differences. This is great because it allows for someone who was surfing on desktop to easily transfer to their phone on the go with no learning curve.

With mobile integration a donor can be at a performance, pull out their phone at intermission, and make a donation in seconds. If the mobile design doesn’t allow for this kind of interaction, I know I would be unlikely to contribute. This is an easy way to start a donor relationship that development personnel can later capitalize upon.

Barter has also kept accessible design practices in mind when it comes to their website. The mobile version includes an icon to point out when horizontal scrolling is necessary and, even though their backgrounds are primarily red, their text is always clearly readable. This is the opposite of hostile design; it is human-forward and understanding of potential visitor confusion.

In contrast to Barter’s simplicity, Centre Stage theatre in Greenville, South Carolina has a very different website aesthetic. Their website is flashy, there is constant movement as a slideshow of pictures cycles, and hovering over a section brings up more show photography. This is a completely opposing design style, but it is still totally functional, at least on desktop view. Still-photos of this site do not do it justice, the emphasis is on visual, but the functional is there as well.

Having a similar navigation bar on desktop, Centre Stage’s site quickly navigates visitors between shows, box office, donations, involvement, education, about, and tickets. The “Donate Now” section requires a few more clicks to explore and the “Get Involved” section has fewer options for donors, but it all works and looks good while doing it.

The only problem that Centre Stage’s website hasn’t really conquered is the divide between desktop and mobile design. The mobile version of this site is somewhat hostile. On mobile those attractive pop-up pictures and dropdowns aren’t as effective, creating a less accessible scrolling experience. Instead of clicking the easy options at the top, a patron has to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page where the grey quick links are pasted. A responsive design like Barter’s would be more functional for the kinds of quick and easy donations and purchases that I mentioned previously. That kind of integrated dynamic design would benefit this otherwise very effective site.

One reason why Centre Stage’s website choices may be slightly less intuitive is that they are a smaller organization. Still, they clearly prioritized having a functional and visually appealing website more than a lot of theatre’s their size. I use this to point out that in today’s digital age having a website that allows for donors to come to you is essential, and paying for website design support is relatively inexpensive for that tradeoff.

Fundraising is about creating relationships and if the first thing a potential donor has to do is scream at their laptop or phone when they are just trying to find out more about the company, that relationship is already off to a bad start. Consider ways that the process is inadvertently hostile and think about how to create more human-friendly designs.

Written by Leah Tucker, a graduate student in the M.F.A. in Theatre – Stage Management program at Virginia Tech.