Charity website checklist: what to include, page by page

Quick answer

A charity website should make it easy to donate, volunteer and get help, and show it is trustworthy. Include your mission and impact, a donate button on every page with Gift Aid, volunteering roles, services for the people you support, trustees and governance, annual reports, safeguarding and privacy policies, and your registered name and number on every page.

A charity website serves more audiences than most business sites. Donors want to know their money makes a difference. Volunteers want to know how to help. Funders and grant-makers want evidence of good governance. The people the charity exists for want to know how to get support, often at a difficult moment. And everyone wants to know the charity is genuine. Use this checklist to make sure each group finds what they need.

The checklist

Donations

• ☐ A donate button visible on every page, including on phones.
• ☐ One-off and monthly options, with monthly gently encouraged.
• ☐ Suggested amounts with what each achieves (“£10 provides a food parcel”).
• ☐ Gift Aid declaration built into the form, worded correctly.
• ☐ A secure, trusted payment provider and automatic receipts.
• ☐ A short form: ask only what you need.

HMRC’s guidance on claiming Gift Aid explains what the declaration must cover. Only show impact figures you can stand behind, and keep the examples real.

Trust and governance

• ☐ Registered name and charity number in the footer of every page.
• ☐ Trustees named, with short biographies.
• ☐ Annual reports and accounts, or links to them on the regulator’s register.
• ☐ A clear statement of how donations are used.
• ☐ Fundraising promise or registration with the fundraising regulator, if you are registered.

The Charity Commission regulates charities in England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own regulators. The Fundraising Regulator sets the code of practice for fundraising, including online.

Volunteering and support

• ☐ Current volunteer roles, with time commitment and what is involved.
• ☐ A simple application or expression-of-interest form.
• ☐ Fundraising ideas and event pages for supporters.
• ☐ A page for businesses wanting to support you.

For the people you help

• ☐ Plain-English descriptions of each service.
• ☐ Who can use it and how to access it.
• ☐ Contact details and opening hours that are kept up to date.
• ☐ Where relevant, signposting to emergency help.
• ☐ A quick-exit button on pages about sensitive issues, such as domestic abuse.

Policies and data

• ☐ Privacy notice covering donors, volunteers and service users.
• ☐ Safeguarding policy, especially if you work with children or adults at risk.
• ☐ Consent for every story and photograph of people you support.
• ☐ Cookie policy and banner that reflect the tools you use.

Our guide to website accessibility covers the accessibility statement, which matters for charities serving disabled people.

Stories and photographs

• ☐ Real stories of people helped, written with their consent and in their words where possible.
• ☐ Photographs of real activities, volunteers and events rather than stock images.
• ☐ Anonymised stories where identifying someone could cause harm.
• ☐ A simple consent form kept on file for every story and photograph used.
• ☐ Stories refreshed at least a few times a year so the site feels alive.

Donors give to people, not mission statements. One honest story with a photograph does more than a page of statistics.

Keeping it current with volunteers

• ☐ A short editing guide so more than one volunteer can update the site.
• ☐ At least two people with admin access, in the charity’s name.
• ☐ A monthly check of events, opening times and contact details.
• ☐ Domain and hosting in the charity’s name, not a former volunteer’s.

If you are briefing a designer or a volunteer developer, our free website brief template helps you set out what you need.

A worked example

A small food bank’s website had a homepage, a long history page and a PayPal link. Donors could not tell what their money did, and volunteers emailed to ask how to help. The rebuild added a homepage with one sentence of mission and two buttons, “Donate” and “Get help”; an impact page showing what a typical donation provides; a donate page through a charity donation platform with Gift Aid; a volunteer page listing roles and shifts; and a footer with the registered name and number. The “Get help” page explained, in plain words, how to get a referral, with opening times.

Common gaps

• ☐ A donate button only on the donate page.
• ☐ No registered number anywhere on the site.
• ☐ Out-of-date trustee lists and old annual reports.
• ☐ Help pages written in internal jargon the public would not use.
• ☐ A site that only one volunteer knows how to update or log into.

Getting it built

Our custom WordPress website is £499 one-off for up to eight pages, accessible and easy for volunteers to update. A clear identity helps donors trust you; our logo design is £129 with all layouts included. Our guide to planning website content helps you gather what each page needs, and all our prices are on the pricing page.