Guided route · Charities
Plan a charity website that earns donor trust
A guided route for trustees and communications teams planning a new charity website or a focused redesign. Work through the decision points in order; each linked resource has more detail.
Work through these decisions
1. Define the visitor and the action
Separate donor, volunteer and beneficiary needs. Choose a primary action for each important page before discussing visual style.
Write a website project brief →2. Set scope and budget
Compare a starter website with bespoke work. Keep payment processing, CRM and Ad Grants costs separate.
Review charity website costs →3. Build trust around the donation journey
Check registration wording, appeal clarity and what happens after a gift. Review a live project and its stated limits.
See the World Aid Network project →4. Make useful answers findable
Use clear pages for causes, programmes and common donor questions. Measure search visibility without promising AI citations.
Explore charity SEO and AEO →5. Confirm what the site must show
Plan registered-status wording, company or CIO details, Gift Aid declarations, privacy and cookie notices before the design is signed off.
Check charity website requirements →6. Check the launch journey
Test mobile donations, receipts, accessibility, analytics, indexability and named ownership of future content updates.
Check the public site →
What you should have at the end
You should finish with a brief, a realistic budget and a list of trust and donation requirements to test before launch.
Want another starting point? Search all resources or tell us about your project.