Websites for Charities

A charity’s website has to do something most business websites don’t — it has to serve fundamentally different audiences at the same time. A donor considering a regular gift needs to feel emotionally connected to your cause and confident their money will be well used. A vulnerable person seeking your services needs to find practical help quickly, without being made to feel like a fundraising opportunity. A potential volunteer needs to see how they can contribute and what the experience will be like. A grant-making trust needs evidence of your impact, your governance, and your financial accountability.

Balancing these needs on a limited budget, often with no dedicated web team, is one of the trickiest challenges in web design. We’ve done it successfully for organisations across the Bath area, and we understand the constraints and priorities that charity leaders deal with every day.

Donations — making giving easy

Online giving should be effortless. Every extra click, every unnecessary form field, every moment of confusion costs you donations. We’ve seen charity websites where the “Donate” button leads to a page of text about why donations matter, which then links to a third-party platform, which requires account creation before you can give. By that point, most people have given up.

We integrate donation systems — whether that’s Donorbox, GiveWP, CAF Donate, JustGiving, or a direct payment gateway — so that giving is fast, secure, and feels like part of your website rather than a jarring redirect to somewhere unfamiliar. Suggested amounts, recurring giving options, Gift Aid declarations captured at the point of donation, and clear confirmation that the gift has been received. From impulse to impact in under sixty seconds.

We’ll also make sure your donate button is prominent throughout the site — not aggressive, but always visible when someone feels moved to give. The placement, colour, and wording of that button can meaningfully affect your conversion rate, and we test what works.

Telling your story with honesty and impact

People give to causes they understand and trust. Your website needs to communicate not just what you do, but why it matters and what difference it makes. This isn’t about emotional manipulation — it’s about honest storytelling that helps people connect with your mission.

We help you structure your impact narrative — case studies that show real outcomes, statistics that quantify your reach, annual reports presented in digestible formats rather than buried PDFs, and beneficiary stories told with dignity and consent. The best charity websites make complex social issues understandable and show visitors exactly how their support translates into action.

We’ve worked with several charities in the Bath area, including Citizens Advice BANES, the Sarah Jayne Charitable Trust, and Friends of the RUH. Each had different stories to tell, different audiences to reach, and different challenges to navigate — and each ended up with a website that genuinely serves their mission.

Transparency builds donor confidence

In an era of occasional charity scandals and growing donor scepticism, transparency isn’t just good practice — it’s essential for maintaining trust. Your website should make it easy for anyone to find:

• Charity Commission registration — your number, linked to your entry on the register
• Annual accounts and reports — published proactively, not hidden until someone asks
• Trustee information — who governs the charity and their relevant experience
• Policies — safeguarding, data protection, complaints, reserves — readily accessible
• How funds are used — clear breakdowns that show donors where their money goes

This information satisfies regulatory requirements, but more importantly, it signals to potential donors and funders that you run a well-governed, accountable organisation. Grant-making trusts, in particular, will check your website before considering an application — and a professional, transparent online presence can make a genuine difference to their assessment.

Volunteer recruitment

For many charities, volunteers are as vital as funding. Your website should make volunteering feel accessible and appealing — not bureaucratic. We create clear volunteer sections that explain what roles are available, what the time commitment looks like, what support and training is provided, and how to apply. A simple expression-of-interest form that captures essential information without feeling like a job application goes a long way.

Current volunteer stories and photos help too — showing the human side of volunteering, the social connections, the sense of purpose. People volunteer for emotional reasons and stay for practical ones. Your website should speak to both.

Accessibility — often a legal requirement

If your charity receives public funding or delivers public services, you may be legally required to meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards. Even if you’re not, there’s both a moral and practical case for making your site accessible to everyone. Many of the people your charity serves may have disabilities, and a website that excludes them is fundamentally at odds with charitable purpose.

We build accessibility into every site from the ground up — proper semantic HTML, keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, sufficient colour contrast, and clear document structures. It’s not an add-on or a compliance exercise; it’s how we build websites.

Professional quality on a charity budget

We understand that every pound spent on a website is a pound not spent on your beneficiaries, and we take that responsibility seriously. We’ll never recommend features you don’t need or push you toward an unnecessarily complex build. But we also believe that a cheap, unprofessional website can cost a charity far more in lost donations and damaged credibility than a well-built one ever would.

WordPress keeps costs down because it’s open source, widely supported, and gives you the ability to make day-to-day updates yourselves. We’ll train your team, provide clear documentation, and offer affordable ongoing support so you’re never stuck. Your website is an investment in your mission’s reach, and we’ll help you get the most from every pound you put into it.

If you’re a charity looking for a website that genuinely serves your mission, give us a call on 01225 667 977. We’re in Bath, we’ve worked with local charities for years, and we’d be glad to talk about what you need.