Recently we’ve discussed several ways nonprofits can improve their Web communications to increase online donations. Specifically, they should feature individuals’ stories and make sure to put clear explanations of their missions, goals, objectives, and works prominently on their home pages. We’ve also examined one strong example, Mercy Corps.

Frankly, though, Mercy Corps’ Website is so slick as to be almost intimidating, not to the user but to the publications manager hoping to emulate them. So we thought we’d show you another exemplary organization: the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, recognized by Charity Navigator as one of the 10 most consistently well-managed charities in the country.

Unlike Mercy Corps, the Dana-Farber site has a conventional, almost staid design. Still, it does what it needs to do. It puts its mission in simple terms right at the top left of the home page, the first place your eyes go, and puts a personal story right in the middle of the page, set off in a different color, making it the second place your eyes are drawn. It isn’t obvious unless you refresh the page, but each time you come back you are shown a different one of what seem to be about half a dozen rotating stories.

Not that Dana-Farber is perfect. As usability expert Jakob Nielsen pointed out in that study we discussed previously: “Most people probably agree that, for example, it’s good to help … patients suffering from nasty diseases. … The question in a potential donor’s mind is how the organization proposes to help.” It might be better, therefore, if they pushed down or shrank the news in their central column in favor of at least a shortened version of the selling points they offer about themselves on their “Why Dana-Farber?” page. But they do a lot of things right without flash.

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