Most nonprofit website proposals are evaluated on price and design. Those are the two things that matter least three years in. Here are the questions that determine whether you are happy in year three.
1. Who owns the content and the source code?
Ask for it in writing. Some agencies retain the code and license it to you, which means leaving requires a rebuild.
2. What does it cost to change a page after launch?
The single most important commercial question, and the one most likely to be answered vaguely. Get a specific number for a specific task: “what does it cost to add a news post?” and “what does it cost to add a page?”
Many agency business models depend on the client not being able to make changes. That is not a conspiracy, it is just how retainers work — but you should know which model you are buying into.
3. Can you evidence accessibility, or only assert it?
Almost every proposal claims WCAG conformance. Ask what standard, what level, how it is tested, and whether you will receive a report.
If the answer is “we follow best practices”, that is not a conformance claim. If a funder later asks, you will have nothing to show.
4. What happens if we leave?
Can you export the content? In what format? Does the site keep working during a transition? Who holds the domain and the DNS?
5. Where is it hosted, and who pays?
Some proposals bundle hosting invisibly, so the monthly fee covers hosting, support and edits without separating them. Ask for the split. Ask what happens to the site if you stop paying.
Ask where the data is. For Canadian organizations handling supporter information, hosting region is a reasonable question.
6. Who can edit it, and how many people?
If the answer involves per-editor licensing, work out the cost of the volunteer who does the newsletter.
7. How long is support included, and what does it cover?
“Support” often means fixing what is broken, not making changes. Get the boundary in writing.
8. What is the total cost over three years?
Build fee plus monthly fee times 36, plus an honest estimate of change requests. This number is frequently double what the headline suggests, and it is the number the board should be approving.
9. What happens if you stop trading?
An uncomfortable question, and a fair one for a small vendor — including us. The answer should be that you hold the content and the code and could take them elsewhere. If the answer is that the site only runs on the vendor’s proprietary platform, weigh that.
Using this
You do not need adversarial answers to all nine. What you need is answers that are specific. A vendor who answers “it depends” to question 2 and “we follow best practices” to question 3 has told you something useful about year three.