A small charity needs five things online, in this order: a clear website that explains the cause, a simple way to donate with Gift Aid, a volunteer sign-up, a supporter email list, and a page that shows impact. Anything beyond that — apps, portals, dashboards — should wait until those five work well.
- Start with the website. Supporters and funders check it before they give.
- Put the donate button on every page, and capture Gift Aid: it adds 25% to eligible UK donations.
- Apply for Google Ad Grants — free search advertising most small charities never claim.
- Donor and beneficiary data is personal data. GDPR applies in full.
- Build an app only once people would use it every week.
What "going digital" really means for a charity
For most small charities, "digital" doesn't mean building software. It means making it easy for four groups of people to do what they came for: donors to give, volunteers to sign up, funders to check you are credible, and the people you help to find you. Each of those groups arrives on your website first. Everything else follows from getting that right.
The priority order
| Priority | What | Why it comes here |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A clear website | Every other channel sends people here. If it's confusing, everything else leaks. |
| 2 | Online donations + Gift Aid | Directly funds the work. Gift Aid adds 25p per £1 from eligible UK taxpayers. |
| 3 | Volunteer sign-up | Replaces phone calls and paper forms, and lets you reply quickly while interest is high. |
| 4 | Supporter email list | A one-off donor becomes a regular one when they hear from you. |
| 5 | Impact page | Funders and major donors look for evidence before they commit. |
| Later | Apps, portals, dashboards | Worth it only once a group of people would use them every week. |
1. A website that explains the cause in five seconds
A visitor should be able to answer three questions without scrolling:
- What do you do? One sentence, in plain language, not your mission statement.
- Who do you help, and where? A local charity should say which area it serves.
- What can I do? Donate, volunteer, or get help, as three clear buttons.
Include your charity registration number in the footer. It's the first thing a cautious donor or a funder checks. And make the site accessible: many supporters are older, and a site that is hard to read or navigate loses them. Aim for WCAG 2.2 AA: readable text sizes, strong contrast, and everything usable with a keyboard.
2. Donations that don't lose people halfway
Every extra step in a donation form loses some donors. Keep it short: amount, name, email, payment, and the Gift Aid declaration. Offer monthly giving as well as one-off — a small regular gift is worth more over a year than most single donations, and it lets you plan.
Put a donate button in the header on every page, not only on a "Support us" page. People decide to give while reading a story, not while looking at the menu.
3. Volunteer sign-up that gets a reply
Interest in volunteering fades quickly. A form that emails a busy coordinator, who replies a week later, loses most of the people who filled it in. A simple sign-up that asks for availability and interests, sends an automatic confirmation straight away, and puts the person on a list the coordinator can work through, keeps far more of them. Once you manage regular shifts, a small volunteer portal or app becomes worth considering — not before.
4. An email list you actually use
Your supporters' inboxes are the one channel you control. Social media algorithms decide who sees your posts; an email arrives. A short update every month or two — one story, one number, one ask — is enough. Collect consent properly: a separate, unticked "keep me updated" box on your donation and volunteer forms.
5. Show your impact
Funders, trustees and major donors want evidence. You don't need a big report. Choose three or four figures you already track, such as people supported, meals served or hours volunteered. Put them on one page with a short, real story behind each (with permission), and update them every quarter.
Free and discounted tools worth claiming
- Google Ad Grants — up to $10,000 a month of free Google search ads for eligible charities. Most small charities that qualify never apply.
- Google Workspace for Nonprofits — email, documents and shared drives.
- Microsoft 365 nonprofit offers — discounted or donated licences.
- Canva for Nonprofits — design tool for social posts and flyers.
Each programme has its own eligibility rules and usually needs you to be a registered charity.
Data protection: charities are not exempt
Donor, volunteer and beneficiary records are all personal data. Information about the people you help — their health, circumstances or background — is often special category data and needs extra protection. Keep it in proper systems rather than spreadsheets emailed between volunteers. Give each person access only to what their role needs. Our GDPR checklist for websites covers the website side step by step.
When an app or portal does make sense
Build one when a group of people would use it weekly and a website can't do the job. For example: volunteers checking and swapping shifts, field teams logging work offline, or members who need their own account. We built an Android app for Clean Africa, an environmental NGO, that brought volunteer sign-up, the programme calendar and donations into one place. That made sense because their volunteers used it regularly. For most small charities, a well-built website does the same job for far less.
Mistakes we see most often
- Building an app before the website clearly explains what the charity does.
- The donate button hidden on one page instead of in the header.
- No Gift Aid capture, which leaves money unclaimed on every eligible donation.
- Volunteer forms that go to a personal inbox and wait for a reply.
- Beneficiary information kept in shared spreadsheets.
How we help charities
We build websites, donation flows, volunteer systems and apps for charities and non-profits across the UK, Ireland and beyond. See our work with NGOs and non-profits, our web development service, and the apps we have published. Or tell us about your charity and we'll suggest where to start.