If someone has to hunt for how to give, they won’t. On most small charity websites the donate button is tucked in a menu, missing on phones, or fighting five other buttons. Put one clear “Donate” in the top bar of every page, visible on a phone without opening a menu, and tell people exactly what their money does.
Where should the donate button go?
- In the header, on every page, and still visible on a phone. Not hidden inside the burger menu.
- At the end of every story or update, when people are most moved to help.
- Straight to a short, simple form. Every extra page between “I want to give” and “done” loses people.
How do I show what a donation actually does?
Turn money into something people can picture. “£5 pays for a hot meal” (use your real numbers) works far harder than “support our work”. Show the people you help, with their consent. Tell one real story at a time, and keep it current. A news page last touched three years ago tells donors nobody’s home.
If you’re a registered charity, remind UK taxpayers about Gift Aid: it adds 25p to every £1 they give, at no extra cost to them. Put the tick box where they can’t miss it.
What do volunteers need from your website?
- What the roles actually are, how much time they take, and where.
- A short sign-up form: name, how to reach them, what interests them. Ask the rest later.
- A named person who’ll reply, and roughly when.
What are the most common mistakes?
- The annual report as a PDF is the main content. Nobody reads PDFs on a phone.
- Three different donation platforms linked from different pages. Pick one.
- Sliding carousels. Nobody waits for slide four.
- Pale grey text on white. If people can’t read it, they can’t support it. The accessibility standard asks for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text.
- English only, in a Welsh-speaking community. In Wales, offering Cymraeg says you belong.
- A free template that looks exactly like every other cause asking for the same money.
What does a generic charity template get wrong?
It treats your cause like a product category. The same photo of hands, the same “Make a difference today”, the same three icons. Donors scroll past dozens of those a week. What they don’t see enough of is you: the specific people, the specific place, the specific difference. That’s your edge, and generic design sands it right off.
Where do I start if money is tight?
- Move donate into the header and test it on your own phone.
- Write one sentence on what £10 does, with your real numbers.
- Swap one stock photo for a real one, with permission.
- Delete anything out of date.
- Ask a stranger to find how to volunteer. Time them.
None of that needs a developer. When you’re ready for more, here’s how I work. Charity and community projects are the first world in my portfolio for a reason.
Be bold. Be brave. Be ballsy. Your cause deserves to be seen properly.
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