Guides → Build a nonprofit site on SGEN in 30 minutes

Build a nonprofit site on SGEN in 30 minutes

A 30-minute walkthrough for nonprofit organizations â€" mission, programs, donation form, events, volunteer signup, published.

This tutorial takes a nonprofit lead from a fresh SGEN account to a live nonprofit site in about thirty minutes. The build covers five visible pages, a clear mission statement on Home, a Programs page describing the work, a Donation page with a working form (cross-referenced to the ecommerce flow for paid processing), an Events page with upcoming activities, and a Volunteer page with a signup form. Every step lists the click path, the expected screen, and the time budget.

What you'll have at the end: a live nonprofit site at a *.sgen.com preview URL (or your own domain), five published pages, a clear Home page with a mission statement and a primary Donate CTA, a Programs page describing three to five programs, a Donation page with a working tier-selection form, an Events page with three to six upcoming activities, and a Volunteer page with a signup form delivering applications to a coordinator inbox. Responsive, accessible, and ready for board review.

What is this for?

This page is for nonprofit organizations â€" registered 501(c)(3)s in the US, registered charities in the UK and Canada, NGOs internationally, mutual-aid networks, advocacy groups, and any mission-driven organization that needs a clear, credible web presence. The thirty-minute target assumes the organization knows its mission, can describe its programs, and has a method (or a plan for a method) of accepting donations.

Nonprofit sites answer four questions in the visitor's first thirty seconds: what do you do, why does it matter, how can I help, and where does my money go. The build below puts those four answers in their proven positions on Home and gives you dedicated pages for the deeper detail.

This is a tutorial in the strict sense â€" the example you build is meant to be the real organization site, not a throwaway. Sample data slots are placeholders for your real mission, programs, and donation tier copy; swap them inline as you go.

If you have shipped a nonprofit site before on WordPress, Squarespace, or a board-volunteer-built custom site, the SGEN path will feel familiar in structure and faster in finish. The donation form is wired to capture donor data; the payment-processing step links out to your nonprofit's chosen payment platform (Stripe, PayPal Giving Fund, Donorbox, Givebutter, or similar).

Good use cases

Reach for this tutorial when:

You are a small-to-medium nonprofit (under fifty staff) needing a current, credible public site without hiring a custom build.
You are migrating off WordPress and want a site you can hand to a board member or a volunteer for updates without WordPress training overhead.
You are a brand-new organization that received nonprofit status and needs a public presence within the first ninety days.
You are running a single-issue advocacy campaign and need a campaign site separate from a parent organization's main site.
You are a mutual-aid network or community organization that doesn't have nonprofit status but functions like one â€" the same build shape applies.
You are running an international NGO with multi-language needs (the build supports translations as a third pass).
You are a religious congregation, alumni association, or community foundation with similar mission-driven web needs.

What NOT to use this for

This tutorial does not cover:

Direct credit-card processing for donations. Payment processing for nonprofits requires nonprofit-aware payment platforms (Stripe with nonprofit pricing, PayPal Giving Fund, Donorbox, Givebutter). The donation form here captures donor intent; the payment step links out to your chosen platform.
Donor CRM and stewardship workflows. Tools like Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, and Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud cover that. SGEN can capture form submissions; ongoing donor relationship management runs in a CRM.
Grant-application portals or program-application platforms. Those need specialized workflow software; SGEN hosts the marketing site that points to the portal.
Large operating nonprofits with separate department, program, and chapter sites. Start with this build for the main org; chapters and programs can spin off similar single-site builds and link back.
Religious congregation membership portals with weekly bulletins and members-only content. Those need authenticated areas; the public marketing site covered here is one piece of the larger build.

How this connects to other features

The nonprofit build touches six surfaces.

SG-Builder â€" the visual editor where the mission, program tiles, donation tier cards, event list, and volunteer form get arranged. Most of the build happens here.
SG-Core â†' Media â€" the image library for program photos, event photos, team headshots, and the donation-impact images that support each tier.
SG-Modules â†' Forms â€" powers the donation form (intent capture, routed to payment) and the volunteer signup form (routed to coordinator inbox).
SG-Modules â†' Ecommerce â€" the payment-processing surface that the donation form links to for paid checkout. See the ecommerce reference for the integration setup. Optional on first build.
SG-Modules â†' Tracking Consent â€" the consent overlay required for nonprofits operating in regions with privacy law (GDPR, CCPA). Pre-wired in the template.
SG-Modules â†' SEO â€" meta description, OG image, structured-data markup for charity-aware search results. Important for nonprofits dependent on search-driven donor acquisition.

For the build steps, the active surfaces are SG-Builder and SG-Modules â†' Forms. The others are flagged so you know they exist when you extend.

See the SGEN quickstart for the foundational account-creation flow, and the portfolio tutorial, event tutorial, and SaaS landing tutorial for adjacent vertical builds. The ecommerce reference covers the donation payment flow.

Before you start

You need six things gathered before you begin.

An SGEN account with at least the Launch tier active. SGEN does not currently offer a nonprofit pricing tier; the standard Launch tier covers the build. Check the pricing page for the current rate.
Mission statement in one paragraph (forty to eighty words). State who the organization serves, what it does, and why it does it.
Three to five program descriptions. For each, a program name, a one-sentence summary, a one-paragraph detail, and one program photo.
Donation tier copy. Three suggested giving levels (for example, $25, $100, $500) with a one-line impact statement per tier â€" what does this gift fund.
Three to six upcoming events. For each, the event name, date, location, and a one-sentence description.
Volunteer roles. Two to four roles your organization needs help with, each with a one-paragraph description of the role and time commitment.

Optional but recommended:

Team or board photos for an About-the-team strip on Home or About.
501(c)(3) EIN, registered charity number, or NGO registration number for the footer.
A short donor testimonial â€" one sentence from a donor who explains why they give.

You do not need:

A registered payment processor on day one. The donation form captures intent; the payment integration is configured in second pass.
A custom domain. The *.sgen.com preview URL is shareable from publish.
A board-approved brand guide. Use a clean default for now; sweep brand colors and typography in second pass.

Where to find it

Every step in the build starts from one of these three URLs:

Step	URL	What lives here
1 (template)	`https://dashboard.sgen.com`	New-site flow, Nonprofit Starter pick
2-7 (build)	`https://.sgen.com/sg-admin`	Per-site editor, pages, forms, media
8 (view)	`https://.sgen.com`	The live public nonprofit site

Steps

Eight steps. Steps 1 through 6 build the five visible pages. Step 7 is the SEO and structured-data sweep. Step 8 is publish-and-view. Time budgets per step; total runs about thirty minutes.

1. Pick the Nonprofit Starter template (â‰¤ 3 minutes)

From SG-Dashboard, click Create New Site. The starter grid shows six templates; pick Nonprofit Starter. The thumbnail shows a Home page with a mission hero, three program tiles, a donation tier strip, an events list, and a volunteer CTA section.

Name the site with the organization name (for example, "Riverside Community Trust" or "Maple Street Mutual Aid"). Accept the suggested preview subdomain or pick a shorter version. Click Create Site.

What you'll see at the end of step 1: SG-Admin loaded with the Nonprofit Starter pages in place â€" Home, Programs, Donate, Events, Volunteer, and an About template.

2. Customize the Home page mission and hero (â‰¤ 4 minutes)

Click Pages â†' Home. The page opens in SG-Builder. Click the hero section. The right rail shows hero settings: mission headline, mission paragraph, primary CTA, secondary CTA, hero background image.

Write the mission headline in eight to twelve words. The headline answers "who do we serve and why" in one short line â€" for example, "Stable housing for families navigating crisis." Avoid abstract framing; lead with the concrete population and outcome.

Paste your prepared mission paragraph (forty to eighty words) into the mission paragraph slot. The template shows the paragraph in a wider, slightly lighter type below the headline.

Set the primary CTA to Donate with the link target set to /donate. Set the secondary CTA to Volunteer with the link target to /volunteer. Upload a hero background image showing the population or community the organization serves. The image carries the credibility of the mission; choose carefully.

What you'll see at the end of step 2: the Home hero showing your mission headline, mission paragraph, two working CTAs, and a fitting hero image.

3. Build the Programs page (â‰¤ 5 minutes)

Click Pages â†' Programs. The page loads with a placeholder grid of five program tiles. Each tile has a program name, a one-sentence summary, a program photo, and a "Learn more" link.

For each tile, click the tile, then update the program name, the one-sentence summary, and the photo via Replace Image. Click into the "Learn more" link to expand it into a detail panel â€" paste your one-paragraph program detail into the panel body.

If you have fewer than five programs, right-click and Delete Tile on the extras. If more, click Add Program Tile at the bottom of the grid. The template supports up to twelve tiles before adding a second row. For nonprofits with very deep program lists (educational nonprofits, large social-service orgs), consider a separate program-category page structure as a second-pass extension.

Update the page intro paragraph at the top of the Programs page with one or two sentences framing how the programs connect to the mission. For example, "Our programs serve families at three points in the housing-crisis timeline â€" prevention, acute support, and stable transition."

What you'll see at the end of step 3: the Programs page showing your real programs with names, summaries, photos, and detail-panel descriptions, plus a framing intro paragraph.

4. Configure the Donation page (â‰¤ 6 minutes)

Click Pages â†' Donate. The page loads with three sections: an intro paragraph explaining the impact of giving, a tier-card row with three suggested giving levels, and a donation form below the cards.

Update the intro paragraph with a one-paragraph statement of what donations enable. State the connection between donor dollars and program outcomes specifically â€" "Each year, donor support funds 1,200 nights of emergency shelter and 400 hours of family case management." Specifics convert donors better than abstractions.

For each tier card, update the amount, the tier name (optional â€" "Friend," "Supporter," "Sustainer" or the amounts), and the impact statement. The impact statement is one short line explaining what the amount funds â€" "$25 funds one family meal program week," "$100 funds three case management hours," "$500 funds one month of housing-stability case work."

Mark the middle tier as Recommended by toggling the Recommended Badge option in that card's right rail. Recommended tier sets visitor anchoring; the middle tier is the conversion default for most nonprofit giving patterns.

Below the tier cards, the donation form captures donor name, email, donation amount (pre-filled from the tier card click), and an optional "make this a monthly gift" toggle. Verify the Delivery Email in the form's right rail routes to the development director or executive director inbox.

The Donate button at the bottom of the form is the payment-handoff. On first build, set the button link target to your nonprofit's existing donation page on Stripe, Donorbox, Givebutter, PayPal Giving Fund, or whichever payment processor your organization uses. SGEN passes the donor's name, email, and selected amount via URL parameters to the payment platform. The full ecommerce integration is a second-pass extension.

What you'll see at the end of step 4: the Donate page showing your real impact paragraph, three real tier cards with amounts and impact lines, one tier marked Recommended, and a working donation form that hands off to your payment platform.

5. Fill the Events page (â‰¤ 4 minutes)

Click Pages â†' Events. The page loads with a list of six placeholder events. Each event row shows date, name, location, and a short description.

For each event, click the row, then update the date, the name, the location (street address or "Online" for virtual), and the one-sentence description. The template auto-sorts by date â€" past events drop off the list automatically once the date passes.

For events with deeper detail (gala, conference, fundraiser), click Add Detail Page in the row right rail. SGEN creates a dedicated event detail page; the list view links to it via "Read more." For routine events (volunteer days, monthly meetings), the row-level summary is enough.

Update the page intro paragraph with one or two sentences framing the event cadence. For example, "We host monthly volunteer days, three signature fundraising events per year, and quarterly community meetings â€" RSVP through this page or contact us directly."

What you'll see at the end of step 5: the Events page showing three to six real upcoming events with dates, names, locations, and descriptions.

6. Build the Volunteer page (â‰¤ 4 minutes)

Click Pages â†' Volunteer. The page loads with two sections: a hero with the volunteer pitch, a role-card grid showing volunteer roles, and a signup form at the bottom.

Update the hero pitch with one paragraph stating why volunteers matter to the mission and what kinds of help are most needed. "Our work depends on consistent volunteers â€" we need help with case management support, food pantry shifts, and event coordination."

For each role card, update the role name, the one-paragraph description, the time commitment (per week, per month, or per event), and the contact for that role. Two to four roles is the typical range; right-click and Delete Card on the extras or Add Role Card for more.

The volunteer signup form below the cards captures name, email, phone (optional), role interest (dropdown matching the role cards), and a "tell us about yourself" text area. Verify the Delivery Email in the form's right rail routes to the volunteer coordinator inbox.

What you'll see at the end of step 6: the Volunteer page showing the volunteer pitch, two to four real role cards, and a signup form delivering to the volunteer coordinator.

7. SEO sweep and structured data (â‰¤ 3 minutes)

Click SG-Modules â†' SEO. The SEO panel shows every page with three columns: meta title, meta description, OG image.

For Home, write a meta title leading with the organization name and mission summary â€" "Riverside Community Trust â€" Stable housing for families navigating crisis." Keep under sixty characters.

For Programs, Donate, Events, and Volunteer, write a one-line meta description per page describing what the page covers. The Donate page meta description matters most â€" it shows in search results when donors search for the organization by name.

Upload a primary OG image showing the organization's mission visually. A photo of program participants (with permission) or a strong mission-aligned image outperforms a logo-only OG image for social-share conversion.

Click Structured Data in the SEO panel's left rail. Toggle NonprofitOrganization Schema on. Fill in the organization name, 501(c)(3) EIN (or equivalent registration number), founded year, and primary contact. Structured data drives nonprofit-aware search result panels in Google and Bing and is a free credibility lift.

What you'll see at the end of step 7: the SEO panel showing real meta titles and descriptions on all five pages, one OG image set as the site default, and Nonprofit structured data toggled on with the org's registration details filled in.

8. Publish and view the live site (â‰¤ 1 minute)

Click Publish All in the top right of the page list. SGEN publishes the five pages in sequence; status pills flip from Draft to Published within five seconds per page.

Click View Site. The live nonprofit site opens at https://.sgen.com. Click through Home â†' Programs â†' Donate â†' Events â†' Volunteer to verify each page loads with real content. Test the Donate flow â€" click a tier, fill the form, click Donate. The form should hand off to your payment platform with the donor data passed as URL parameters.

Open the URL on your phone. The program tiles reflow to two columns, the donation tier cards stack vertically with the recommended tier first, the events list stays single-column, and the volunteer form scales to one field per row.

What you'll see at the end of step 8: a live nonprofit site at your *.sgen.com preview URL, five published pages, working donation handoff to your payment platform, a working volunteer signup form, and a responsive mobile view.

What success looks like

You finish the build with seven concrete artifacts:

A live nonprofit site at https://.sgen.com, publicly accessible
Five published pages: Home, Programs, Donate, Events, Volunteer
A Home page with a clear mission statement and a primary Donate CTA
A Programs page describing three to five real programs with photos and details
A Donate page with three giving tiers, one marked Recommended, and a working form handoff to your payment platform
An Events page with three to six real upcoming events
A Volunteer page with two to four real roles and a working signup form

If a board member who has never seen the site can land on Home, identify the mission in under thirty seconds, navigate to Donate, click through to your payment platform with their data pre-filled, and on the same visit sign up to volunteer â€" the build worked.

Variations

Seven adaptations of the base build.

Single-issue advocacy campaign. Reduce the program tile count to one or two, focused on the campaign's specific asks. Add an Action page in place of Volunteer â€" sign-a-petition, contact-your-representative, share-on-social â€" using the form module to capture petition signatures.

Mutual-aid network with no formal 501(c)(3). Hide the Donate page entirely or replace it with a Get Help page that captures requests for support. Add a Give Help page for community offers. Skip the structured-data step since NonprofitOrganization schema requires registered status.

Religious congregation. Add a Services page with weekly worship times in place of Events. Rename Donate to "Give" or "Tithe" to match your community vocabulary. Add a Sermons archive section as a second-pass extension.

Alumni association or community foundation. Replace Programs with Initiatives and Donate with Annual Fund. Add a Members or Alumni section requiring login as a second-pass extension via SG-Modules â†' Members.

International NGO with multi-language needs. Use SG-Modules â†' Translations to add language variants. Each language gets its own URL path; SGEN handles the language switcher in the page footer. The structured-data NonprofitOrganization schema applies to the primary-language version.

Capital campaign or special appeal. Add a Campaign page using a custom progress-bar block. Set a target dollar amount and a current-raised number; update weekly. The campaign page sits alongside the standard Donate page for the duration of the appeal.

Recurring monthly-giving program. In the Donate tier cards, toggle the Default to Monthly option in the right rail of one or all tiers. The donation form's "make this monthly" toggle defaults to on. Recurring giving carries higher long-term value than one-time gifts; the tier configuration can encourage it.

Common pitfalls

Four things go wrong most often during a nonprofit build.

The mission headline reads like a press release. Boards often draft mission headlines in formal-organization voice ("Empowering communities through sustainable engagement"). Strip the abstractions. Lead with the population served and the concrete outcome â€" "Stable housing for families navigating crisis." A specific headline outperforms an abstract one for donor recognition.

Donation tier impact statements are vague. "$25 helps families" is weak. "$25 funds one family meal program week" is concrete. Each tier's impact line must trace to a specific program activity or outcome â€" donors give based on traceable impact, not on general goodwill. If you do not yet have the per-dollar impact data, talk to your finance director or program director before the launch.

The donation form hands off to a misconfigured payment page. Test the full Donate flow â€" click a tier, fill the form, click Donate â€" and verify the donor data lands in the payment platform with the right amount pre-filled. The data passes via URL parameters; if the payment platform does not accept those parameters, the donor lands on a blank donation form and the data is lost.

The volunteer signup goes to a board volunteer's personal email that does not get checked. A volunteer who fills the form and waits two weeks for a reply does not return. Route the volunteer form to a staffed inbox or to a shared inbox (volunteer@yourorg.org) that has a clear owner. If you do not yet have a staffed volunteer coordinator, set a calendar reminder to check the Submissions list view in the admin twice a week.

Examples

Three real-shape nonprofit builds.

Example A â€" Housing nonprofit (Riverside Community Trust)

A small housing-stability nonprofit serving 200 families per year with three programs (prevention, acute support, transition). The development director picks the Nonprofit Starter, writes a mission headline naming housing crisis and family stability, builds three program tiles, configures three donation tiers ($25, $100, $500) with traceable per-dollar impact lines, lists four upcoming events (volunteer days and a fall fundraiser), and adds three volunteer roles (case management support, fundraiser logistics, food pantry shifts). Total build time: 31 minutes.

Example B â€" Mutual-aid network (Maple Street Mutual Aid)

A neighborhood mutual-aid network without 501(c)(3) status, focused on direct support during winter months. The lead organizer picks the Nonprofit Starter, replaces Donate with a Get Help page capturing direct requests, adds a Give Help page capturing community offers, writes program tiles for the three current support areas (food distribution, snow shoveling, ride sharing), lists weekly community check-in events, and adds two volunteer roles. Total build time: 26 minutes.

Example C â€" International NGO (Clean Water Reach)

A small international NGO operating clean-water projects in three countries. The communications lead picks the Nonprofit Starter, writes a mission headline naming the specific access gap and the resolution, builds three program tiles per country project, configures three donation tiers ($25, $100, $500) with per-dollar impact lines tied to gallons-of-water-per-day, lists four upcoming events including two virtual donor briefings, and adds three volunteer roles (translation, country-coordination, technical-advisory). Total build time: 34 minutes.

After the build â€" second and third passes

The site is shipped. Second and third passes turn it into an operational fundraising and engagement surface.

Second pass (recommended: first month, 60-90 minutes):

Wire the donation form to SG-Modules â†' Ecommerce for native payment processing instead of handing off to an external platform. The ecommerce module supports nonprofit pricing for Stripe and handles donation tier products.
Set up donor stewardship emails. SG-Modules â†' Forms â†' Email Sequence supports a confirmation email, a one-week thank-you, and a quarterly impact update.
Add an Annual Report or Impact Report page. Use the Blog Starter shape; link from the Programs page.
Sweep brand colors and typography. SG-Builder â†' Site Style supports custom color palettes and font loading via Custom Fonts. Set once; applies site-wide.

Third pass (recommended: as the site grows, 60-120 minutes):

Point a custom domain at the site. SG-Admin â†' Settings â†' Domains. Update the canonical URL and the structured-data schema once the domain resolves.
Add a Members-only section for board materials, donor briefings, or volunteer training. SG-Modules â†' Members supports authenticated areas with role-based access.
Add a Blog or News section for ongoing updates, advocacy positions, and program stories. Donor retention research shows monthly cadence content increases multi-year giving rates.
Set up Google Analytics or Plausible via SG-Modules â†' Custom Codes for traffic and conversion tracking. Tracking Consent wraps the analytics automatically.
If you operate internationally, add language variants via SG-Modules â†' Translations.

What to do if it does not work

The donation form is not processing payments. Confirm Stripe is connected under SG-Dashboard → Payment Settings and is set to the correct mode (test vs production). Use a Stripe test card to confirm the full path works before going live.
Volunteer sign-ups are not appearing in the submission inbox. Open My Forms and check the inbox for the volunteer form. If submissions arrive in the inbox but not by email, the issue is SMTP configuration, not the form itself.
The mission or impact section shows lorem placeholder. Open the section in SG-Builder, fill every content field, and republish. Placeholder content means a field was left unfilled during the build.
The event countdown is showing the wrong date. Confirm the event date is set in the event record and that the site timezone matches the event's timezone under Site Settings → General → Timezone.
A donor reports their receipt email never arrived. Confirm SMTP settings are correct and send a test email from Site Settings → Email to verify delivery before blaming the donor's inbox.

What's next â€" pick your second read

The nonprofit site is live. Pick one of three next reads:

You want to wire native payment processing for donations. Read the Ecommerce reference for the nonprofit-pricing Stripe integration and the donation-product configuration.
You want to set up donor stewardship emails. Read the Forms â€" email sequences guide for confirmation, thank-you, and impact-update sequence configuration.
You want to add a Members-only section for board or donor materials. Read the Members module guide for role-based access configuration.

Guides

Reference

Changelog

Roadmap