What makes a good charity website?

The first element to consider is the overall design of your website. The best charity website designs are those that effectively communicate an organisation's mission, engage visitors emotionally, and make it easy for them to donate or get involved. If you’re able to meet this criteria, visitors to your website will be far more likely to buy into your ethos.

Here are our top charity website design tips:

Top tip #1: Make navigation as simple as possible

What’s the use of a website if users can’t find what they’re looking for? Plan out the key areas you wish to include and decide on the pages that will host this information. These can include pages such as:

• ‘About us’ – a detailed summary of your charity’s story
• ‘Our mission’ – a breakdown of what your goals are
• ‘Donate’ – a designated page where supporters can make online donations
• ‘Join our team’ – a designated page where you advertise your voluntary roles
• ‘Events’ – a designated page where supporters can book themselves on to events

Once you decide on these, it’s equally as important to plan their navigation and how they link with one another. For example, you could use a simple drop down option that lists these pages, and if a user was to click on the ‘Our mission’ page, there will also be a call to action that redirects to the ‘Donate’ page.

At Access, we have gained great feedback from the support our professionals provide:

“The first draft of the design was spot on - it captured our vision perfectly. The team understood our mission deeply and translated it into an impactful and user-friendly website.”

Emma Williamson, Head of Marketing, Breathworks

Find out how Breathworks improved their user experience with our website builder

Top tip #2: Make your website mobile-friendly

From personal experience, just think about how often you use your smartphone for online activity. Whether this is to shop online, access your bank accounts, or book holidays, the chances are that you will use your phone in some capacity.

And this isn’t exclusive to you. With mobile devices accounting for 62% of global web page views, it’s an absolute must that you optimise your website for smartphones. By achieving this, you will inevitably drive more traffic to your website, gaining more supporters and donations in the process!

Read our definitive guide about successful charity website development

Top tip #3: Pull on your user’s heartstrings

As a charity organisation, your cause will likely be a sensitive topic, so drive this message home! There are several approaches you can take, all of which can work cohesively.

Look to incorporate key elements such as:

• Testimonials of how your charity has made a positive impact
• High-quality images and videos that represent your charity and its impact
• A well-chosen color palette that aligns with your cause (e.g., warm colors for humanitarian aid, green for environmental causes)

Now that you have a better idea of how to implement a website design, there are several nonprofit website best practices you should follow. By incorporating these, you can ensure that your website operates to the desired standard of your users.

Our three key nonprofit best practices include the following:

Prioritising accessibility & inclusivity

Making your website accessible to those with disabilities avoids anybody feeling left alienated. Common accessibility and inclusivity features include:

• Keyboard navigation – allowing users to navigate around the site using their keyboard (tab, enter, arrow keys)
• Screen reader compatibility – using semantic HTML (e.g. <h1>, <h2>) and alt text for all images to provide context to those who are visually impaired 
• Colour contrast adjustments - Ensure a high contrast ratio (at least 4.5:1 for text) to improve readability
• Text resizing & readability - allow users to zoom up to 200% without breaking the design, while using clear, legible fonts (avoiding overly decorative styles)
• Captions & transcripts - include closed captions for videos to assist deaf and hard-of-hearing users

A welcoming environment made possible with accessibility and inclusivity features will only increase the number of people visiting your website.

Ensuring data privacy & security

Adhering to data protection regulations and ensuring website security is crucial to your charity website being successful. This is because it supports to:

• Protect user data from breaches - preventing sensitive personal information (e.g. names, emails, payment details) from being leaked or stolen
• Ensure legal compliance – such as GDPR (EU)
• Build trust and credibility - users are more likely to engage with a website that values their privacy
• Boost SEO rankings - secure websites (HTTPS encryption, privacy policies) rank higher on Google

Regular maintenance & updates

Once you have built a website that you’re proud of, your next challenge is to keep it maintained. In order to achieve this, it is essential that you keep your content fresh, up-to-date, and engaging.

Key reasons for keeping on top of this task are to:

1. Improve user experience - fix broken links, slow loading pages, and outdated features, while ensuring a smooth donation process, reducing frustration and drop-offs
2. Keep content relevant and engaging – showcase your latest campaigns, success stories, and impact reports to keep donors engaged
3. Enhance performance and page speed - optimise code, images, and scripts to prevent slow load times that drive visitors away – instead supporting your SEO page ranking 

Learn more about nonprofit website best practices

Among the website building and maintenance, it can be easy to neglect the simpler components that you must include in your website.

The following are must-haves that act as the spine of your website:

Compelling storytelling

Conveying your story is essential to resonating with the users of your website. This is your opportunity to really sell your charity, outlining what your cause is for, what you’re passionate about, the positive impact you have had, and what your plans are for the future.

A great method to drive this home is to use a timeline that engages the users with a visual representation of your plans and achievements from when you were founded, through to present day.

Clear mission statement

Dovetailing with your overarching story is your mission statement. If your charity’s story so far is your CV, then think of your mission statement as a cover letter; this will seal the deal of your website user’s buying into your vision.

Ensure to keep this short, focused, and emotive. For example, Save the Children’s mission statement is ‘to help children survive, learn, and be protected from harm’. This ticks every box and serves as a great blueprint to follow!

Strong call to actions

Call to actions are effective messages to encourage your website users to get actively involved with your charity. For example, they can be used in the following scenarios:

• Making a donation – ‘Donate to our cause today!’
• Volunteering – ‘Join our team and make a difference!’
• Attending an event – ‘Book your tickets now!’

With these call to actions strategically placed across your website, you’ll be seeing more supporter engagement in no time!

For your website to be considered successful, it’s imperative to gain active engagement from users. An effective way of driving this engagement is through strategic charity website features that encourage people to engage with your website.

Our standout picks include the following:

A user-friendly content management system (CMS)

A user-friendly CMS allows you to have complete control of your website – particularly the content that you want to include. With this feature, it avoids the need to rely on a third party to make any changes or edits to your website, saving money and valuable time in the process.

An effective CMS will therefore allow you to create and edit content, run reports, and update the settings of your website. By consistently improving the key areas of your website, it will make it more likely for users to engage with your website.

With a CMS, you can develop areas including:

• Donation appeals
• Events
• News
• Blogs
• FAQs
• Online charity shop
• And more!

Find out how Access Charity Websites’ content management system can support you

A job role board for volunteer opportunities

Quite often, users of your website will be actively searching for volunteer opportunities. So, why not give them what they want?

A good charity website should clearly advertise your organisation’s volunteer opportunities. The best approach to this is by having a micro-site that acts as a volunteer role recruitment page. From here, you will be able to list your volunteer roles that include all the essential details including:

1. Role title
2. Description
3. Shift patterns
4. Location
5. Required skillset
6. Benefits of the role

Once users are able to access this information, they can then begin the onboarding process by clicking an application button that redirects the user to an application form.

Discover how Access Assemble can support your volunteer recruitment processes

Flexible donation forms

A digital donation form is an essential element of a charity website. Including a suitable donation form will allow you to receive either one-off and/or regular online donations, while also being able to make the most of Gift Aid functionality.

Discover how our out-the-box digital donation form software can integrate with your website

A powerful charity CRM

Integrating a powerful charity CRM with your website can empower your fundraising team with key insights that can personalise your supporter’s experience.

With a charity CRM, you are able to determine exactly how your users interact with your website and based on these insights, make informed decisions on what to include in future campaigns.

Integrating a charity CRM with your website can therefore allow you to:

• Create personalised campaigns
• Send automated ‘thank you’ donation messages
• Streamline your payment processes
• Track your donor journey
• Keep event planning in a central location
• Find out how Access Charity CRM can support your charity

"Access Charity Websites is good value for money. The thing we really valued was the strategic input and project management."

Anna Woollven, Communications and Fundraising Manager, The British Thyroid Foundation

Build your successful charity website today!

When looking to build an effective charity website, the best approach to take is to put yourself in the shoes of your supporters. Ask yourself what you want to achieve from visiting your website and more importantly, how would you want to access this information.

By gaining a better understanding of what a charity website should include, you can then make sensible decisions regarding its design and specific features.

But there’s no need to go through this alone. At Access, our charity website experts are available to answer any queries you may have and guide you in the right direction.