The mobile website doesn’t replace an organizations full website it just presents the website in a way that makes it easier on mobile users. Alison explains further, “It makes the site look and feel like an app for the device. With a mobile website, the formatting fits the screen of a mobile device. The formatting is not the only thing different. A mobile website only includes essential information laid out in an easy to navigate way.

Why should a non-profit have a mobile website? First of all, more and more people have smartphones and other mobile devices that allow them to access the internet and a mobile website just makes sense. Also, it gives the mobile device user a faster easier method to access the non-profits site. They don’t have to zoom or read tiny text or scroll through unnecessary information.

Kellen Jahn, Marketing Specialist for Call2Recycle, says their company decided to launch a mobile website because they were “seeing a trend.” Call2Recycle provides boxes to collect used cellphones and batteries and many of their users were accessing their full website from a mobile device to find a drop off site. While the full website contained everything users wanted, it was often hard to navigate from a mobile device.

After careful consideration Call2Recycle chose a mobile website over an app because an “app is a commitment”. Kellan explains, “You are asking the user to not only take the time to download the app, but give up that space on the device to hold your app.” In addition, Kellen says research indicates that by 2014 mobile devices will surpass desktops and they wanted to provide their users with the best experience possible.

Call2Recycle used their existing Wordpress platform to create a mobile website that gives users a full online experience that it is best viewed with tablet or smartphone.

The best part for Call2Recycle no additional design work was necessary. The Wordpress platform recognizes the user’s device, whether it is an iPad, iPhone, or Android and formats the website to fit the screen. Since most users access the mobile Call2Recycle site to find a drop off location, Call2Recycle made sure the drop off site locator button was at the top of the page.

Kellan says bringing their mobile website online was easy because the Wordpress platform did all the work for them. Even though Call2Recycle has a mobile website their full website still drives biggest audience, but Kellan says if that changes they will transform further to meet their users needs.

For organizations that don’t have an existing platform that supports mobile optimization, Razoo offers a way for them to get a mobile website. Alison explains that Razoo’s platform allows non-profits to create a fundraising page on a mobile optimized webpage. The webpage even allows non-profits to take donations on the spot. There is no set or monthly fee to use Razoo but there is a per transaction fee.

The other option for smaller organization is to create a mobile website and then as their organization grows build out to create a full website.