Whichever route you take, think about how proactive they're likely to be once the website exists.

There's a real difference between somebody who will maintain exactly what you have, forever, and somebody who keeps looking for ways to improve it. Websites shouldn't stay still. Your organisation changes, your audiences change and the data starts telling you things you didn't know at launch. You want a supplier who notices that and suggests something, rather than waiting for you to ask.

It's a fair question to put to anybody you're speaking to: what would you want to change six months after launch?

Whoever you speak to, find out who you'll actually work with once the project begins. It's also worth getting clear costs and scope in writing, including what happens after launch.

Think about the environmental impact too

Websites use energy. The server uses it, but so does loading everything you've put on the page.

Hosting matters, which is why we use servers powered by renewable energy as standard. There are plenty of other choices that matter as well.

Huge uncompressed images, autoplaying video and a collection of tracking scripts all add weight to a page. Often they make the experience worse at the same time.

If environmental impact matters to your organisation, put it into the website brief and ask potential suppliers what they actually do about it. Specific answers are more useful than a green hosting badge on its own.

Plan for what happens after launch

Going live feels like the finish line when you're in the middle of a website project.

A few months later, it doesn't.

That's when you have something far more useful than assumptions: real people using the site.

You can see what they search for, which pages they use, where they leave and whether the journeys you spent all those workshops discussing actually work in practice.

Someone needs to own that.

It doesn't necessarily need to be a full time digital role, but there should be a person or team responsible for keeping content current and looking at what could be improved.

Agreeing what success looks like before launch helps enormously here. Otherwise the first serious conversation about measurement tends to happen when somebody on the board asks whether the new website is working.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a charity website cost?

There isn't a particularly useful single answer to this because the scope varies so much. A fairly straightforward website and a project involving research, brand, complex integrations and hundreds of pages aren't really the same product.

For a sense of scale, our own website projects start at £25,000 including VAT.

Ask suppliers to be clear about what is included. We prefer fixed pricing because the charity knows what it has committed to before work starts. Hosting, CMS licences and ongoing maintenance should also be clear rather than appearing later.

Can a volunteer build our charity website?

Absolutely. Just make sure the organisation isn't dependent on that individual indefinitely. The charity should own the domain, hosting account and admin credentials, and somebody else should know how it all works.

What's the best CMS for a charity?

The boring answer is the one your team can actually use, are comfortable editing in and aren't scared to update themselves if necessary.

Think about editing as much as technical capability. Your colleagues shouldn't need to ask a developer every time they want to publish a campaign page or move something around.

Also check how easy it would be to take your content elsewhere in future.

Do we need a rebrand as well as a new website?

Not necessarily. A website rebuild can expose brand problems, but that doesn't mean every project needs to become a rebrand.

Work out what isn't working first. You may find the identity is fine and the website around it isn't. Good design can often get considerably more out of an existing brand than it's currently giving you, using the same colours, type and assets in ways nobody had tried before. Guidelines that feel tired on paper can look quite different once they're applied properly.

Does our charity website legally have to be accessible?

Under the Equality Act 2010, service providers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people, including in digital services.

Separate public sector accessibility regulations apply to some charities but not all, depending on factors including funding and the services provided. If you're unsure whether they apply to you, check rather than assuming an exemption.

Regardless of the legal minimum, we recommend building charity websites to WCAG 2.2 AA.

How long does a charity website project take?

It depends on the size of the site and how quickly decisions and content can move through your organisation.

Content is often what takes longer than expected. Starting the audit and writing early will make life considerably easier later.

For us, from partnership agreement to go live is normally around five to six months.

What if we can't afford a full rebuild yet?

Don't assume a new website is the only useful thing you can do.

Look at your most important journeys and most visited pages first. Improving navigation, rewriting unclear content, fixing accessibility problems and reducing page weight can all make the existing site better while you work out what comes next.

It's essentially why we built our Nurture Programme. Instead of one large project every few years, it spreads dedicated studio time across twelve months, so charities can keep improving what they already have without waiting for a capital budget to appear.

Not sure whether you need a new website?

Before commissioning a rebuild, it helps to know what's actually wrong with the site you already have.

Our Impact Optimiser is a free assessment of your digital presence. We look at website performance, accessibility, content and user journeys, then talk you through what we've found.

It should give you a clearer idea of what needs attention, whether that turns out to be a new website or not.

Website planning guide for charities (with free digital assessment)