Top 10 WordPress Themes for Nonprofits

Running a successful nonprofit or charitable organization can often require similar resources and promotion as a commercial business. Unfortunately, it also means you’re probably operating on a much smaller budget.

Since bringing in donations is an important part of any nonprofit’s livelihood, developing the right website design can be vital to success. Fortunately, thanks to Content Management Systems (CMSs) like WordPress, your nonprofit organization has access to professional publication tools for free. This includes unique themes designed specifically for charitable groups.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the best free and premium WordPress themes for nonprofit organizations. In addition to reviewing their features and functionality, we’ll also look at any potential pitfalls to be aware of. Let’s dive right in!

What Makes a Great Theme for a Nonprofit or Charity?

Choosing a theme for your WordPress website is an important decision. It will affect the site’s look, layout, and even functionality.

When picking any theme, you’ll want to look for one that’s well-reviewed, receives regular updates, and fits into your budget. In addition, when selecting a theme for your nonprofit site in particular, you may want to look for:

• A simple and user-friendly design
• Plenty of options for adding attention-grabbing images and other media
• Ease of use
• Relevant features, such as donation options
• Compatibility with any plugins you might want to use to run your nonprofit business and communicate with your audience

Some themes are designed specifically for nonprofit organizations, and those are well worth a look. However, you may also be able to use certain business-oriented themes, and even well-designed multipurpose themes. In the following sections, we’ll introduce some high-quality examples to get you started.

Best Free WordPress Themes for Nonprofits

If your nonprofit organization is on a tight budget, there are still plenty of options when it comes to building its website. Free WordPress themes that are designed to meet the needs of a nonprofit organization can be a great way to dress up your website without breaking the bank. Here are five of the best options.

1. Charity Help Lite

First up, this is the free version of the premium Charity Help theme from Grace Themes. Charity Help Lite is a simple, clean, and beautiful theme that’s ready for your organization. All of the basic features are available with this version of the theme, along with several template options. 

Key features: 

• Lets you create a custom logo, header, colors, and menus
• Includes a full-width template option
• Enables you to choose featured images
• Offers a two-column display

Charity Help Lite is a great place to start if you need to get up and running fast with a preset design. However, if you need access to advanced features, you’ll want to look into upgrading to the premium version of the theme.

2. OceanWP

OceanWP is a multipurpose theme with a lot of website template options. This theme works smoothly with most popular page builders, and gives you the option to add a donation button to your site’s header. 

Key features: 

• Offers a fully-responsive design
• Includes settings for tablet and mobile devices
• Works well with WooCommerce
• Is enabled for slider images

Even though OceanWP is a multipurpose theme, it can easily be used to represent a charitable organization. It’s a well-designed product with an extensive codebase, making it easy to customize.

3. Blossom Coach

If you’re looking for maximum versatility, Blossom Coach is a theme that offers many possibilities. Whether your organization needs better rankings in search engines or an associated online store, this is a free theme that can get a lot done for you. 

Key features: 

• Features a responsive design for a mobile-friendly experience
• Is Schema.org compatible to improve search engine rankings
• Includes optimization for faster page loading speeds
• Offers technical support for free

Blossom Coach has many options and possibilities that are rare in free themes. This includes technical support, which might be a necessity for your organization. However, the somewhat higher-than-average learning curve involved might be something to consider if you’re working with limited resources.

4. Benevolent

Benevolent is a flexible, free WordPress theme designed with charitable organizations in mind. It comes with many features geared towards the needs of nonprofit work, in addition to many of the tools you’ll require to design a beautiful, high-performance website. 

Key features: 

• Provides several options for Call-To-Action (CTA) buttons in the menu and slider
• Includes a full-width advanced image slider
• Is SEO-friendly, with optimized code for better Google rankings
• Offers several footer and widget areas for greater customization

Benevolent is a free theme that can help your organization create a professional website with many useful features. As with most free themes, however, you’ll need to consider whether or not this version can serve all of your needs.

5. Origami

Origami is a multipurpose, content-focused theme. If your organization has a story to tell, this theme can help you connect with your audience. It also has many options that are not commonly included with a free theme. 

Key features:

• Comes with a drag-and-drop page builder
• Offers a minimalistic design approach
• Provides technical support through a dedicated forum
• Boasts easy-to-navigate settings and options

The Origami theme is particularly appealing due to its drag-and-drop page builder. In a free theme, that’s a unique and helpful option for nonprofit organizations on a budget. Ultimately, there aren’t many downsides to this theme if you’re happy to work with a multipurpose foundation. 

Best Premium WordPress Themes for Nonprofits

While free themes can get you pretty far, sometimes you need more flexibility or a better feature set. Fortunately, there are plenty of premium themes that won’t cost you much, and can earn out that initial investment quickly. Let’s look at five examples.

1. Fundrize

Fundrize is a premium theme from Ninzio Themes. This is an excellent option for charitable and nonprofit organizations. You’ll get a retina-ready display, and a dynamic image slider for featuring the best of your organization’s images and stories.

Key features:

• Comes with the Visual Composer page builder
• Includes Revolution Slider for featuring dynamic images on your home page
• Provides a powerful front-end administration panel with live preview options
• Is already integrated with the Charitable donation plugin

Price: $59, which includes six months of support from Ninzio

2. Charitix

Optimized for use with the WordPress Block Editor, Charitix from ThimPress is easy to set up and edit. You’ll also have access to Parallax features for adding fancy elements to your WordPress site. This is a fully-featured theme with lots of options. 

Key features: 

• Includes a one-click demo content importer for getting started quickly
• Offers unlimited colors and skins
• Integrates with an event plugin for promotion and event countdowns
• Is optimized for speed and performance

Price: $54, which includes six months of support from ThimPress

3. Act

Act is a multipurpose theme from KIbTheme that can be fine-tuned for your nonprofit organization. Similar to other themes on our list, Act comes with Visual Composer and Revolution Slider, so you can build a beautiful and engaging website. You’ll want to make sure you have the resources to get it set up, however as the learning curve with this theme can be a bit steep.

Key features: 

• Offers a built-in crowdfunding system for easy fundraising
• Is scalable on any device for a fully-responsive experience
• Provides access to a highly professional and responsive support team
• Includes an unlimited choice of web icons for use with your design

Price: $44, which includes six months of support from KIbThemes

4. Altitude Pro

Altitude Pro is one of our own StudioPress themes, and comes with the high-powered Genesis Framework for WordPress. This is a multipurpose theme with lots of options for your organization.The cost can be a prohibitive factor for some, but it remains an excellent choice if you need to work with multiple websites. 

Key features: 

• Integrates with the HubSpot plugin for automated marketing features
• Is pre-styled for integration with WooCommerce
• Features a mobile-responsive design
• Includes a customizable header for logo images and text-based logos

Price: $499.96, which includes the Genesis Framework ($59.95) and all current and future child themes 

5. Nayma

Nayma is a supremely elegant and stylish multipurpose theme. Nayma’s developers used all of WordPress’ best coding practices, so this theme should integrate well with your plugins and run smoothly. You’ll also be able to use a live front-end editor to see exactly what your users will experience. This is one of the more expensive themes on the list, but the module design approach might be just what your team needs to succeed. 

Key features: 

• Lets you build with modules, so you can create unique layouts easily
• Is compatible with the WordPress Block Editor
• Integrates with WPForms, so you can connect with your potential donors and supporters
• Offers 20 modules to choose from, including CTAs and info boxes

Price: $129, which includes one year of updates and the Artisan plugin suite

Raise Awareness for Real Issues Using WPEngine

When your organization has a mission, it’s vital to connect with your supporters. Whether you want to update your donors on your latest successes or appeal to new philanthropists, having access to the right developer resources can make all the difference to your website and outreach strategies. 

Here at WP Engine, we strive to provide all the solutions you need to make an impact on the world. Check out our pricing plans, and get started with our world-class support and services today!