To make a charity website, first confirm the organization’s facts and legal status, then identify the visitors and actions the site must support. Choose a platform your team can maintain, publish clear pages about your work, and build a secure donation journey that explains how gifts and donor information are handled. Before launch, test the site on mobile and assign someone to keep its content and links current.
This guide is for charities and nonprofits in any country. Tax, fundraising, privacy, and accessibility rules depend on where your organization operates and where it solicits donations. IRS and FTC details below apply specifically to the United States; Google’s website requirements apply to organizations seeking to use Google for Nonprofits.
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1. Confirm your organization’s facts and status
Before choosing a design or writing donation copy, assemble the information the site must get right. Record the organization’s public name, mission, service area, programs, contact route, and the person responsible for updates. Check that descriptions and claims reflect what the organization actually does.
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For organizations outside the United States, check the relevant authority’s rules before describing charitable registration, tax relief, or deductibility. These terms are not interchangeable across jurisdictions.
2. Decide who the site serves and what each visitor should do
List the audiences the organization needs to reach, such as people seeking services, prospective donors, volunteers, partner organizations, or the general public. For each audience, decide the most useful next action: learn about a program, ask for help, make a gift, volunteer, or contact the team.
Make the mission and main action understandable without requiring visitors to search through menus. Keep the plan grounded in the charity’s actual services and capacity; there is no single navigation structure that suits every organization.
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A hosted website builder may suit a small team that wants integrated design and editing tools. For example, Squarespace’s nonprofit guide covers selecting a design, setting up donations, and engaging a community. That is an implementation example, not evidence that one platform is best for every charity.
Compare current options against the organization’s needs rather than choosing on appearance alone:
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- Total cost: Include the website plan, domain, donation processing, and any paid integrations.
- Donation flow: Check how donors give, what fees apply, and whether the charity can explain who receives and transfers funds.
- Content and data control: Find out whether pages, donor records, and other data can be exported or retained if the organization changes providers.
- Accessibility and mobile use: Review the platform’s tools, then check the actual site with assistive technology and on common screen sizes. A built-in feature alone does not establish accessibility.
- Team capacity: Consider who will edit pages, manage integrations, answer support issues, and maintain the site over time.
Use each provider’s current documentation and terms to verify the details. A low-maintenance setup that the team understands is often more useful than a complicated build no one can update.
4. Publish the pages visitors need
Build the site around clear, substantive information rather than a collection of slogans. Google’s website policy for its nonprofit program identifies unclear mission or missing identifying information, too little original content, poor navigation or broken links, slow mobile loading, and lack of HTTPS among possible problems. These are useful quality checks, not a complete legal or accessibility standard. See Google for Nonprofits’ Website policy.
Mission and organization
Explain what the organization does, whom it serves, and where it works. Identify the organization clearly and provide a reliable contact route.
Programs and services
Describe each relevant service in plain language, including who can use it and how to find out more. Keep essential information on web pages rather than making visitors rely on PDFs alone.
Ways to help
Give donors and volunteers clear next steps. If the charity accepts gifts online, make the donation route easy to find; if it does not, explain the available ways to contribute without implying that an online transaction is possible.
Contact and transparency
Make it easy to reach the organization and find relevant information about its work and governance. Keep names, roles, and contact details current. Publish only information the organization is entitled and prepared to share.
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5. Build a donation journey donors can understand
A donation button should lead to the intended giving page, not a broken link, unrelated homepage, or unclear third-party destination. Google’s policy states: “Donation links must work and go to a secure page dedicated to donations.” The policy is specific to its nonprofit program, but the principle is a useful site check. Use HTTPS and test the full journey, including the confirmation page and any link back to the charity.
If a third-party portal or intermediary is involved, explain the arrangement before the donor gives. FTC guidance for online giving portals says information should be clear, truthful, and conspicuous, and should cover who receives and distributes donations, fees, transfer timing, and whether personal data will be shared. State the actual provider’s terms, including what happens if a transfer cannot be completed; do not guess at a fee or delivery date. The FTC page was published in June 2018, so check current applicable law and provider terms. See the FTC’s guidance on online charitable giving portals.
Keep those disclosures close to the donation decision. A visitor should not have to hunt through fine print or follow a vaguely labeled link to understand how the gift is handled.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.6. Make trust information findable while protecting donor privacy
Transparency does not mean publishing personal donor information. In the United States, IRS guidance generally requires tax-exempt organizations to make their three most recent annual returns available for public inspection on request. The IRS says contributor names and addresses are not required to be publicly disclosed. Requirements can vary by organization type, so confirm which rules apply before publishing records or describing disclosure obligations. See the IRS public-disclosure guidance.
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For a US organization, the site can explain how to request relevant public filings or make them available online where appropriate. Do not post donor names, addresses, or other personal details in the name of transparency. Outside the United States, check local rules on organizational records, fundraising, and personal data.
7. Check the site before launch
Run through the site as a visitor on a phone and a desktop browser. Use this checklist to catch basic problems:
- The organization’s work, service area, and main next step are clear.
- Key pages contain current, original information and are not merely placeholders or PDFs.
- Menus, contact details, and donation links work.
- The donation link reaches the intended secure page dedicated to giving.
- HTTPS works across the site without mixed-content warnings.
- Pages load and remain usable on mobile screens.
- Where a portal is used, gift routing, fees, transfer timing, and data-sharing details appear before the donor commits.
Google’s policy also says a .org domain is not required for its nonprofit program if the organization fully owns and controls its website domain. That is a program-specific point, not a general rule about domain choice.
8. Assign ongoing ownership
A charity website needs a named person or team responsible for keeping it accurate. Set a review schedule for program descriptions, board and contact information, donation links, and any public records or disclosures the organization provides. Test links periodically, and revisit the donation provider’s terms when its fees, timing, or data practices may have changed.
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For US tax claims, consult current IRS guidance rather than relying on an old page or assumption. The IRS’s Stay Exempt resources note that their content may not reflect later legislation. Organizations should also check the current rules of the jurisdictions where they operate and solicit donations.
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