In short
Rockhopper Digital builds websites for UK charities, trusts and community organisations, including The Melanoma Fund, New Maudsley Carers Kent, The Pensions Archive Trust and Robertsbridge Village Hall. Sites cover donations, campaigns, resources and volunteers, and are built to WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards.
Overview
A charity website carries more jobs than a commercial one. The same handful of pages has to explain the cause, take donations, support the people you exist for, recruit volunteers and reassure funders who are checking you are real.
It also has to be maintainable by a small team with other priorities. Every charity site we build is handed over so staff and trustees can publish news, add resources and change campaign pages without calling us.
Charity and community sites we have built
Four live sites, each with a different job to do.
National charity
The Melanoma Fund
Sun safety campaigns under one framework, with a filterable e-learning course finder, a toolkit library, an accreditation scheme, a shop and donation routes.
Visit the site
Carer support
New Maudsley Carers Kent
A resource shop for carers selling training videos, presentation slides and manuals, with secure access to downloads after payment.
Visit the site
Trust and archive
The Pensions Archive Trust
Collections, research and education material presented for historians and pension professionals, alongside corporate partners, news and a route to support the work.
Visit the site
Community venue
Robertsbridge Village Hall
Hall hire made straightforward: facilities, regular events and a booking enquiry route, run by the committee themselves.
Visit the site
What a charity site has to do at once
- Let a donor give in two taps, on a phone, without an account
- Explain the cause in plain language to someone who has just been diagnosed, referred or affected
- Give funders and partners the evidence they ask for, where they can find it
- Recruit volunteers and trustees without a separate microsite
- Publish resources and toolkits as pages that search engines can read, not as a pile of PDFs
Accessibility is not an optional extra
We build to WCAG 2.1 AA as standard, and we do not charge extra for it. Legible type, proper colour contrast, visible focus states, keyboard navigation and sensible touch targets.
For a charity this matters twice over: your audience is more likely to include people with a visual or motor impairment, and funders increasingly ask. If you have a formal requirement, tell us at briefing and we will document conformance.
Built for a team with other jobs
The Melanoma Fund publishes new toolkits and courses without us, and a village hall committee can keep its own hire details current. That is deliberate: a site that needs a developer for every update stops being updated.
- Campaign and appeal pages built from editable blocks, not hard-coded layouts
- News, events and resources as proper content types, so they list themselves
- A handover session, plus written notes for whoever takes over next
- Hosting, updates and backups available as a plan if nobody internally wants them
Budgets, phasing and what can wait
Charity budgets are restricted and rightly scrutinised, so we scope in phases. The first phase is the site that explains the work and takes donations. E-learning, shops, accreditation schemes and member areas can follow once the core is earning its keep.
We quote a fixed price after a conversation, and we will tell you which parts can wait rather than quoting for everything at once.
Questions
Your questions.
Answered.
If yours is not here, ask. A conversation costs nothing.
Discuss your projectDo you work with small charities and community groups?
Yes. Robertsbridge Village Hall and The Pensions Archive Trust are both small organisations run by volunteers and trustees. The approach is the same as for a national charity, at a smaller scope.
Can the website take donations?
Yes. We can integrate the donation platform you already use, or build the route through WooCommerce where you need products, memberships or event tickets alongside donations.
Can we sell resources or run e-learning?
Yes, and we have built both. The Melanoma Fund runs a filterable course finder and a toolkit library; New Maudsley Carers Kent sells training videos and manuals with secure access to downloads after payment.
Who looks after the site once it is live?
Your team, if you want to. Everything editable is editable without code, and we run a handover session. Where nobody internally can take it on, our hosting and support plans cover updates, backups and security.
What does a charity website cost?
A core site starts in the low thousands, with donation routes, e-learning or a shop adding to that. We quote a fixed price after a first conversation, and phase the work where the budget needs it.
Start a conversation
Something in mind?
Let’s talk.
Tell us what you are trying to achieve and we will tell you honestly what it takes, what it costs and whether we are the right people for it.