6 Questions to Ask a Web Agency Before Hiring Them for a Nonprofit Project

A web agency interview is not the same as a job interview. You are not evaluating qualifications on a resume. You are trying to understand whether this specific team, with their specific approach and experience, will be a good partner for your specific organization over a 16 to 24 week project and a multi-year support relationship.

Portfolios look similar. Proposals sound similar. These six questions cut through the surface and reveal what you actually need to know.

1. What percentage of your clients are nonprofits or mission-driven organizations?

This question separates agencies that specialize from agencies that dabble. An agency whose client roster is 80 percent e-commerce and manufacturing knows how to build websites. They may not understand how nonprofits actually work: the board dynamics, the funder relationships, the resource constraints, the multi-stakeholder navigation, or the difference between what the executive director wants and what the program staff need.

The right answer is not a specific number, but follow the answer: Do they name nonprofit clients readily? Do they talk about the sector with specificity? Do they understand that nonprofit procurement timelines are different from commercial projects? Generalist agencies build good sites. Sector-specialized agencies build sites that fit how mission-driven organizations actually operate.

2. Who specifically will work on our project?

Every agency sells on the strength of its principals and its best work. Some deliver through junior staff, recent graduates, or overseas contractors. This is not inherently wrong, but you deserve to know.

Ask: Who will be my project manager? Who will design our site? Who will do the development work? Can I see their work directly?

Get specific names, not roles. Then look those people up. If the designer they named has a portfolio that does not match the work in the agency’s case studies, ask why.

3. What is your specific accessibility testing process?

Not “do you build accessible websites” — everyone says yes. Ask specifically: What WCAG version and level do you build to? Do you do manual testing, and what does that include? Do you test with a screen reader, and which one? What happens if an accessibility audit after launch finds failures?

An agency that builds accessible sites can answer these questions without hesitation and with specifics. An agency that says “we follow best practices” and cannot describe a testing process is telling you how their accessibility work will actually go.

4. Do we own everything when the project is done?

Some agencies build sites on proprietary platforms or use licensing structures that mean you are dependent on them after launch. Some agencies retain ownership of custom code. Some include ongoing service contracts in their pricing that you must maintain to keep the site running.

Ask explicitly: Will we own the WordPress license? Will we own all custom code written for this project? If we choose to switch agencies after launch, is everything transferable? If any of these answers is no, understand exactly what you are agreeing to before you sign.

5. What does your post-launch support look like?

A launch is not the end of a project — it is the beginning of the site’s operational life. Plugins need updating. Content editors need support. Something will break. Questions will arise.

Ask: What is your post-launch support offering? What is the response time for urgent issues? Is support included in the project cost or billed separately? Do you offer ongoing hosting and maintenance, and what does that include?

An agency that has a clear, specific answer to this question has thought seriously about the long-term client relationship. An agency that is vague about post-launch has probably not.

6. Can you provide two references from nonprofit clients with projects similar to ours in size and complexity?

References are the most underused part of agency evaluation. Most organizations ask for references but do not call them, or call them and ask easy questions.

Ask for references from organizations similar to yours in sector, staff size, and project scope. Then call the references and ask: How did the agency handle a problem that came up during the project? Did the final cost match the proposal? Did the people doing the work match the people they told you would be doing the work? Would you hire them again without hesitation?

That last question matters most. A reference who says “yes, probably” is different from one who says “absolutely, and here is why.”

One More Thing: How the Agency Responds to Your Questions

The way an agency responds to hard questions during the evaluation process is the best predictor of how they will respond to hard situations during the project. An agency that pushes back on scope concerns with specific reasoning, that acknowledges what they do not know, and that is direct about what they can and cannot deliver is showing you how they will communicate when something goes wrong.

An agency that tells you what you want to hear during the selection process will tell you what you want to hear throughout the project. That is expensive.

Frequently Asked Questions

ArcStone has worked with nonprofit organizations for 28 years. If you are evaluating web agencies and want to understand our specific approach, experience, and process, we are glad to have that conversation.