The charity guide: a website that earns its keep
Charity websites carry more weight per page than any commercial site
The same few pages have to persuade a donor, reassure a referrer, recruit a volunteer and satisfy a trustee, usually on a budget a commercial marketing director would refuse. That constraint is exactly why small improvements have outsized impact, and why getting the basics right matters more here than anywhere.
What the site has to do
Make giving effortless, because every extra step in a donation journey loses people who had already decided to give, and recovering them costs more than the step ever saved. Speak plainly, because jargon that slips past a commercial audience actively repels donors who want to know what their money does. And be accessible by default, because your community includes the people the digital world most often leaves behind.
What to put in the brief
Count the steps in your current donation journey and write the number down, because reducing it is probably the single most valuable thing the project will do. Name your payment and CRM systems. Gather the stories, with permissions sorted, because stories are the currency of the sector and permission chasing is what delays launches. And involve a trustee early, because a board that has seen the thinking approves the spend.
What to measure
Donation completion rate above everything, then average gift and volunteer signups. Not traffic, and never social followers. A charity site with modest traffic and a strong completion rate is quietly outperforming most of the sector.