Charity website design: Every pound here is a pound
not spent there.
A charity website is spent money that could have been the cause, and somebody will ask about it. So it is scoped to what actually brings in donations and volunteers, and nothing is built to be impressive.
Donations·Gift Aid·Volunteers·Access
The job
Charity website design gets sold the way everything else does, and a charity is the worst placed of anybody to absorb a bad one. The budget is scrutinised, the trustees have to sign it off, and the people using the site are often the people least well served by a clever one.
So this is a build with the money pointed at donations, sign-ups and accessibility, and an honest answer about what can wait.
Website design for charities: The whole list, nothing extra.
Every one of these is in the price. If a job needs something that is not here, it is in the written scope before you say yes, not on the invoice after.
Donations that complete
Connected to whatever you already use, with Gift Aid asked for at the right moment. The fewest steps between deciding and having given.
Gift Aid, asked properly
A declaration that is clear about what it means, because a confused donor either abandons it or ticks something they should not.
Volunteers, signed up
What the roles are, what they involve, what is needed and a form that does not read like a job application.
Accessible because people need it
Keyboard, contrast, labels, headings. For a lot of charities the people you serve are the people most affected by getting it wrong.
What you actually do, plainly
The cause, the impact and where the money goes, written for somebody deciding in ninety seconds rather than for a funder.
Running costs kept down
Hosting and upkeep sized to a charity budget, and said outright before you commit rather than discovered at renewal.
Sitemap and page structure
What pages exist, how they relate, and what each one is for. This is where SEO is won or lost, before a line of code.
Design, if there is none
I will design it: a site that looks considered and does the job. If the brand underneath it needs doing too, that is its own piece of work and it has its own page.
Build
From your design or mine, on a platform that suits the team who will keep it running rather than the one I enjoy most.
Real content in
Your words and pictures loaded and laid out, not lorem ipsum with a note to fill it later. If an existing site is being replaced, moving it across is its own job: see website migration.
Accessibility and performance
Keyboard, focus order, contrast and labels checked, not assumed. Core Web Vitals measured on real pages, then fixed.
Launch and handover
A checklist worked through line by line, then documentation and a walkthrough with whoever picks it up.
Sounds like you if
“We have been quoted before and never seen what we were paying for.”
One page
A single scrolling page, £600. A launch, a test, or a business that needs to exist online by Friday.
Five pages
Home, about, services, one more, contact, £1,200. The standard small business site.
On WordPress
The same five pages on WordPress, £1,600. More to build, and more you can change yourself afterwards.
A shop
An online shop starts at £2,000: five content pages, up to twenty-five products, payments, shipping, tax and the policies.
Changes afterwards
£75 an hour, billed after they are done, or a monthly plan if there are enough of them to be worth fixing the price.
What is never extra
The sitemap, the redirects, the accessibility pass and the handover. They are part of the build, not a line added at the end.
Hosting and the certificate
A WordPress site on a managed host on my account, with the security certificate kept renewed, for £50 a month. The domain stays registered in your name.
Updated every month
WordPress, the theme and the plugins brought up to date, then the pages that matter checked by hand.
A backup every day
A fresh backup every day, and another before any update runs, so any change can be undone.
Changes when you need them
A reply within twelve working hours saying what it needs and how long it will take, before any of it is started. £75 an hour, or on a plan.
The note on the 1st
What was updated, what was changed and how many hours were used, next to the invoice.
Leaving, and what you take
A month's notice after the first three months, then a full backup and help moving it, free. The domain is already yours.
Sounds like you if
“The last person built it and then we never heard from them again.”
How charity website development runs: From hello to handover.
Step 1
12 hours max
I reply
Working hours, unless I am on holiday and have said so.
Step 2
Day 0
Scope call
30 minutes. The cause, who the site is for, and what the trustees need to see.
Step 3
+2 days
Written scope
What gets built, what it costs and what can wait. Something you can take to a board.
Step 4
Build
Donations first
The giving route working before anything is styled around it.
Step 5
End
Handed over
Logins, a written guide, and whoever posts news shown how.
This is for you
Donations and Gift Aid: A charity website is for you
if any of these sound familiar.
- Donations that start and do not finish
- Volunteers who cannot find how to help
- A site that fails an accessibility check
- A budget the trustees will ask about
It is not, if
- You want something impressive above all
- Nobody can say where the money goes
- You want the grant applications written
Not sure which side you are on? Say so on the call. If I am not the right person, you get the name of someone who is.
What a charity website costs
Every price on the page,
before you call.
You should not have to sit through a call to find out whether you can afford me.
Accessibility and budget questions: Questions I get every time.
The honest answers. If yours is not here, it is the first thing we cover.
Ask me yours01 What does charity website design need that other sites do not?
A donation route that completes, Gift Aid asked at the right moment, and accessibility treated as the point rather than a checkbox. The budget is scrutinised too, so the scope has to be defensible to a board.
02 Can you work to a charity budget?
Yes, and the honest version of that is scoping rather than discounting: the same day rate, fewer days, pointed at donations and sign-ups first. The written scope says what is not being built and why.
03 How do donations work?
Connected to whatever platform you already use rather than something new to administer. What I change is the route to it: fewer steps, clearer amounts, and Gift Aid asked at the point somebody is already saying yes.
04 Does it have to be accessible?
Yes, and for a charity it matters more than the law does. If you serve people with disabilities, an inaccessible site excludes exactly who you exist for. A separate accessibility audit is available if you want it checked properly.
05 What about hosting costs?
Priced on the hosting page like anybody else, said outright before you commit. Charity web hosting sold cheap and renewed expensive is a common trap and not one I will set.
06 Can you help us get found?
Yes: SEO for charities covers it. Charity search is barely fought over, so a small budget goes further than it would in most sectors.
Usually goes with: Charity websites
and sEO for charities.
If the site already exists, this is how to find out whether it is excluding the people you are for.
See sEO for charitiesOr one of the other three
Donations that
start and stop?
Tell me the cause and what the trustees need to see. Thirty minutes, no pitch, and you leave with a view on what charity website design should actually cost you.
- Within 12 hoursA reply
- Within 2 working daysA written scope and a price
- OrThe name of someone who fits better