Choosing a web design agency is a significant decision for any organization.
For an NGO, the decision can be even more important.
Your website may be responsible for communicating your mission, attracting donors, showcasing programme impact, publishing research, distributing resources, recruiting staff and volunteers, and providing information to beneficiaries and partners.
Yet many organizations choose a web design agency based on little more than a portfolio and a quotation.
Before you sign a contract, you should know exactly what you’re buying, who you’re buying it from, how the project will be delivered, and what happens after the website launches.
Here are 10 important questions to ask a web design agency before signing a website development contract, particularly if you’re an NGO in Kenya or elsewhere in Africa.
Start with experience.
Ask:
“Can you show us websites you’ve built for NGOs, development organizations, foundations, government institutions or other organizations with similar requirements?”
This is more useful than simply asking how many websites an agency has built.
An agency may have built 100 websites, but if 90 of them were small business websites, restaurants and corporate brochure sites, that doesn’t necessarily demonstrate experience with your requirements.
NGO websites often have more complicated content and stakeholder requirements.
They may include:
Ask the agency to show you relevant case studies, not just its most visually impressive projects.
Ask:
“What was your role in those projects?”
There’s a big difference between an agency that designed a website and one that was responsible for:
You want to understand the agency’s actual capabilities.
This question separates a design agency from a strategic digital partner.
A professional agency shouldn’t begin by asking:
“Which template do you like?”
It should first want to understand your organization and its users.
Ask:
“What does your discovery and UX process look like?”
A strong process may involve:
The exact process will vary depending on the size of the project.
But there should be a process.
Your website isn’t simply a graphic design project.
The agency needs to determine:
Who is using the website?
What are they trying to accomplish?
What information do they need?
What actions do you want them to take?
Only then should visual design enter the picture.
Never assume that two quotations with similar totals contain similar deliverables.
Ask:
“Can you provide a detailed breakdown of everything included in the project price?”
Your proposal should ideally identify costs for areas such as:
Then ask about anything that is not included.
For example, your KES 300,000 website quotation might exclude:
That could turn a KES 300,000 project into a considerably larger investment.
The cheapest quotation isn’t necessarily the cheapest project.
You need to compare scope.
This is one of the most important questions you can ask.
Ask:
“Who owns the website, code, design files, content and associated accounts after the project is completed?”
Your organization should ideally have control over important assets such as:
Be particularly careful if the agency wants to register your domain or hosting under its own account.
You don’t want your organization to discover three years later that leaving the agency means losing access to critical infrastructure.
“If we decide to work with another agency in the future, can we take the website with us?”
The answer should be clear before you sign.
A good agency relationship should be based on the value the agency provides—not on making it difficult for you to leave.
If the agency recommends WordPress, Drupal, another CMS or a custom platform, ask:
“Why is this the right platform for our organization?”
Don’t accept:
“It’s what we normally use.”
Your CMS should be selected according to your requirements.
For example, you might need:
A small community organization may have very different needs from a large research organization.
The CMS should fit the problem.
The last question is particularly important.
You don’t want a platform that only one person understands.
If you’re redesigning an existing website, ask:
“How will you approach content migration?”
This question is frequently overlooked.
Imagine your NGO currently has:
Moving everything to a new website can be a significant undertaking.
The agency should be able to explain how it will handle:
You should also discuss what shouldn’t be migrated.
A website redesign is often an opportunity to remove:
Don’t automatically carry years of accumulated digital clutter into your new website.
If your existing website receives Google traffic, this question is essential.
Ask:
“How will you protect our existing search visibility when the new website launches?”
A redesign can improve SEO—or accidentally destroy it.
Your agency should understand:
Ask whether the agency will create a redirect map if URLs are changing.
For example:
/old-project-page/
shouldn’t simply disappear when the new website launches.
It may need to redirect to:
/programmes/project-name/
This helps preserve existing search equity and prevents visitors from encountering broken links.
Also ask whether Google Search Console and analytics will be configured as part of the launch.
Don’t accept “the website will be responsive” as the entire answer.
Ask:
“How will you approach performance, mobile usability and accessibility?”
This is particularly relevant for organizations serving audiences across Kenya and Africa.
Your visitors may use:
Your agency should consider:
If accessibility is important to your organization, ask what standard the agency will target—for example, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
More importantly, ask:
“How will you test these requirements?”
Your website isn’t finished when it goes live.
Ask:
“What happens after launch?”
Find out what your agency offers for:
Then ask:
“How much will ongoing maintenance cost?”
Make sure you understand whether support is:
Also ask what happens when the initial support period expires.
A website is a long-term organizational asset.
Budget for its entire lifecycle, not just its initial development.
This may be the uncomfortable question—but it’s an important one.
Ask:
“What happens if the project falls behind schedule, exceeds scope or doesn’t meet the agreed requirements?”
A professional agency should already have processes for handling:
You should understand:
These details belong in the contract rather than being left to assumptions.
The ten questions above should give you a strong foundation.
But if you’re evaluating agencies for a significant NGO website project, I’d also ask these five.
Ask to meet the people responsible for the project.
Depending on its size, this might include:
You want to know whether the people you meet during the sales process will actually be involved after you sign.
Ask for references.
Ideally, speak to an organization with a project similar to yours.
Ask:
“Would you hire this agency again?”
Also ask:
Client references can reveal things that a portfolio cannot.
This is an excellent question.
Ask:
“Based on what you know about our project, what do you think the biggest risks are?”
A good agency shouldn’t be afraid to tell you about problems.
Maybe your content is poorly structured.
Maybe the timeline is too short.
Maybe your internal approval process could delay the project.
Maybe the existing website contains thousands of documents that will make migration difficult.
Maybe an integration you want isn’t straightforward.
An agency that identifies these issues early is potentially more valuable than one that simply tells you everything will be easy.
Website projects are collaborative.
Ask:
“What will you need from our organization to keep the project on schedule?”
The answer may include:
This matters because many website delays aren’t caused by developers.
They happen because nobody on the client side is available to approve designs or provide content.
This is a particularly revealing question.
Give the agency access to your existing website and ask:
“If you were responsible for improving this website, what would you change first, and why?”
A good agency should be able to identify specific problems.
For example:
You aren’t necessarily looking for criticism for its own sake.
You’re looking for evidence that the agency has actually thought about your website.
The questions above are useful, but so is knowing when an answer should concern you.
This sounds impressive but tells you almost nothing.
Ask for examples.
If the first conversation is entirely about colours, fonts and homepage layouts, you may be dealing with a design-first agency rather than a strategy-first partner.
“Website development — KES 250,000.”
That’s not enough information for a serious project.
You should understand what the KES 250,000 includes.
You don’t need a 30-page technical explanation.
But the agency should be able to explain why its proposed technology is appropriate.
Your domain, hosting, analytics and other important accounts should not become hostage to your relationship with the agency.
If you’re redesigning an existing website, SEO should be considered before launch—not after Google traffic disappears.
“Your entire custom website will be ready in two weeks.”
Maybe it can be.
But ask how much discovery, design, development, testing and content migration can realistically happen in that period.
If the answer to “What happens after launch?” is simply:
“The project is finished.”
you should ask more questions.
Suppose you’ve narrowed your shortlist down to two agencies.
Don’t simply compare their prices.
Create a scoring matrix.
For example:
| Criteria | Weight |
|---|---|
| Relevant experience | 20% |
| Understanding of requirements | 15% |
| UX and strategy | 15% |
| Design quality | 10% |
| Technical approach | 15% |
| SEO/performance/accessibility | 10% |
| Project management | 5% |
| Post-launch support | 5% |
| Price/value | 5% |
| Total | 100% |
You can adjust the weighting according to your organization’s priorities.
This forces your team to consider the entire proposition rather than choosing whichever quotation has the lowest number.
A portfolio is useful.
But it only tells you part of the story.
A beautiful website doesn’t tell you:
That’s why you should combine:
Portfolio + case studies + references + proposal + conversations.
Together, these give you a much better picture of the agency.
The relationship shouldn’t be one-sided.
You should also pay attention to the questions the agency asks you.
A good agency should want to know:
If an agency barely asks about your organization before giving you a price, that’s worth considering carefully.
The best web design relationship isn’t:
“Here are our requirements. Build the website.”
It is closer to:
“Here are our organizational goals and the problems we’re trying to solve. Help us determine the best digital solution.”
A good agency should be willing to challenge assumptions when necessary.
It should tell you when:
That kind of advice is valuable.
You aren’t paying an agency simply to follow instructions.
You’re paying for its expertise.
At Zedafrica, we believe successful NGO websites begin with understanding the organization and its users.
Our approach can involve UX research, information architecture, UI design, development, content migration, performance optimization, testing and training, depending on the project’s requirements.
We’ve worked with organizations in the development and public sectors, including USAID, the Council of Governors, GIZ and the Rwanda Development Board.
Our work on the HoRN Learning Hub involved developing a mobile-first resource platform for users across the Horn of Africa, including UX research, design, development, content migration, performance optimization, testing and training.
We also worked on the Maarifa Centre, a knowledge platform for Kenya’s devolution sector, where information architecture, resource discovery, search and content management were central to the project.
These experiences are important because an NGO website isn’t always just a marketing website.
Sometimes it’s a knowledge platform.
Sometimes it’s a resource repository.
Sometimes it’s a programme information system.
And sometimes it’s all three.
The right technology and design approach depends on what your organization actually needs.
Before signing your web development contract, make sure you can answer “yes” or have a clear answer to the following:
If you can’t answer these questions, don’t rush to sign.
Ask for clarification first.
Selecting a web design agency is ultimately about more than finding someone who can design an attractive website.
You’re choosing a partner that will influence how your organization presents itself, communicates its work and serves its audiences online.
Before signing, ask about:
Experience.
Strategy.
UX.
Technology.
Content.
SEO.
Performance.
Accessibility.
Ownership.
Support.
And don’t be afraid to ask difficult questions.
The right agency shouldn’t be offended by them.
It should welcome them.
For NGOs in Kenya, the goal shouldn’t simply be to find the cheapest company that can put your logo and content on a website.
The goal is to find a digital partner that understands your mission, understands your users, can work within your constraints and can build something that remains useful long after launch.
If you’re evaluating web design agencies for an NGO website in Kenya, Zedafrica can help you scope the project, identify the right digital approach and build a platform around your organization’s actual needs.
