Website redesign for charities

Keep giving uninterrupted

Donations, recurring gifts and event registrations must keep working throughout a redesign. Most charities take donations through an established platform, so the website's job is to link or embed it correctly. During switch-over, every donate button and link should be tested, including on phones, and any campaign pages with active appeals should keep their addresses.

If the redesign coincides with changing donation platform, plan that change separately and carefully, because recurring donors' arrangements are involved.

Tidying years of campaigns and projects

Make help easy to find

People seeking help may be stressed, short of time or using an old phone. The redesign should make the route to help the clearest thing on the site, in plain language, with contact options that work on any device. Accuracy matters most here: outdated opening times or phone numbers can do real harm.

Testing the help route with people who resemble your service users is the best way to confirm it works.

Accessibility in a charity redesign

Editing by staff and volunteers

Charity websites are often updated by small teams and volunteers with limited time. The redesign should limit the number of page types, provide clear editing guidance and make it hard to break layouts. A short training session for editors at handover pays for itself many times over.

Refreshing impact information

Supporters and funders look for evidence of impact. A redesign is a chance to bring impact information up to date and present it clearly: what the charity achieved, how it was measured and stories shared with consent. Outdated figures from several years ago can suggest a charity has stalled, even when it has not.

Annual reports and accounts should be easy to find for funders doing due diligence.

How a charity redesign runs

1. 01

   Critical routes

   Donate, get help and volunteer routes mapped and tested.

   Output: Baseline checks

2. 02

   Content tidy

   Campaigns, projects and service information reviewed.

   Output: Keep, update or retire list

3. 03

   Design and build

   Accessible templates and simple editing.

   Output: Site for review

4. 04

   Switch and train

   Routes retested; editors trained.

   Output: Live site the team can maintain

Volunteer routes

Volunteer pages often go stale with roles that are no longer needed. The redesign should present current opportunities with clear expectations, time commitments and a short application route to whoever coordinates volunteers, and make it easy for staff to update roles as needs change.

Keeping running costs low

Charities need to keep website running costs modest. A simple platform, established donation tools and few paid add-ons keep ongoing costs predictable.