Free charity websites
Every other month we build a charity a website. For nothing.
Six a year and not just a basic site with a logo dropped into it — the same kind of site functionality that a paying client gets, built on the same foundations, registered in the charity's own name and with nothing to pay afterwards.
Why we do it
Three reasons.
A website is a key tool
A website is the one thing that makes a small charity look like it means business to a funder, a donor or a volunteer and it is exactly the thing there is never a big budget for.
Because it keeps us sharp
A real project, a real deadline and a real audience, chosen by us rather than sold to us. Some of the best things we have built started as complementary work.
We build lasting relationships
Charities are run by selfless people, many of whom have wonderful stories to tell. We love to support wherever we can and expand our professional network.
How it works
Six a year.
one at a time.
Six is our target, depending on complexity of the build. We are on target so far and welcome any new submissions.
Where the queue is: We are choosing the next charity now.
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01
You apply
The form at the bottom of this page. Provide as much detail as possible and what you are looking to achieve with your new site.
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02
We choose the next one
One charity every other month. We look for a small organisation where the website is genuinely holding it back and we favour Warwickshire and the West Midlands wherever possible.
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03
About four weeks
A conversation, a design, your words and the build. We will need a few hours of somebody's time across those weeks — that is the only thing we ask of you.
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04
Live and yours
Registered in your name with an admin your own people can use. Hosting, support and updates are all included.
What you get
and what you don't.
Free work with no edges to it turns into unlimited work and then the sixth charity of the year gets a worse site than the first. So this is written down.
Included
- A complete website designed around your charity, not a template with your logo dropped into it
- The pages, the structure and help with the words that actually explain what you do
- Donations, events, volunteering or membership where you need them
- An admin your own people can update and the training to use it
- Hosting, SSL, backups, updates and security — free
- Domain, code and content registered in your name and owned outright
Not included
- Endless revisions. One design round and one content round, which is exactly what a paying client gets
- Ongoing copywriting, photography or social media after launch
- Third-party costs that are not ours to waive, such as a payment provider's transaction fees
- A start date we cannot commit to. Six a year means six and we would rather say so than keep you hoping
Who can apply
Small, real and genuinely stuck.
These are here to stop us being overwhelmed rather than to catch anybody out. If you are close but not quite, apply and say so.
- A UK registered charity, CIO or CIC, with a number we can look up
- Small — no in-house marketing or IT team and nobody whose job this already is
- The website is genuinely the problem: you have nothing, or what you have is broken, unsafe, or unusable on a phone
- Somebody who can give us a few hours across four weeks and actually make decisions
- Anywhere in the UK, though Warwickshire and the West Midlands come first
Built so far
The ones we have done
This is a new commitment rather than a long record and it is easier to judge us on what is already live than on what we say we will do.
Ladies First
A charity calendar with a shop, supporter accounts, downloadable editions and an admin the charity runs itself. Live on their own domain.
Visit the siteThe Donkeys
The second build, under way now. A working visitor site for a small sanctuary, with the events and the day-to-day running of the place on it.
Join the waiting list
Tell us about your charity.
Five minutes. We read every one of these ourselves and we will reply either way — including when the answer is no, because being left wondering is worse.
The questions we get asked
What's the catch?
There isn't one. We do not ask for a credit line in your footer, a link back, a testimonial or first refusal on paid work. If you never speak to us again after launch, the site still works and it is still yours.
Why only six a year?
Because six is a number we can keep while doing it properly. We would rather build six good sites than promise twelve and deliver four late ones — and a scheme that quietly stops after the second is worse than one that never started.
How many charities are ahead of us?
Ask us and we will tell you honestly. If the realistic answer is next year we will say next year, rather than leaving you on a list and hoping.
We're a community group, not a registered charity.
Apply anyway and tell us what you are. The criteria exist to keep the volume manageable, not to catch people out. We will look at it properly — and if the answer is no we will say so rather than going quiet.
What happens after launch?
Hosting, updates and security carry on free. If you ever want to move, you can take the whole thing elsewhere because the domain, the code and the content are all in your name.
Know a charity that needs one?
Tell them.
Most of the charities this is meant for will never come across this page on their own. If you are a trustee, a volunteer or just somebody who knows one, passing it on is the most useful thing you can do.