Cause first. Apology never.
We’ve sat in a lot of charity trustee meetings. The same four habits keep coming up and the same four habits keep keeping fundraising flat. None of them are your fault. All of them get fixed in the first 90 days.
Site built by a volunteer in 2017.
Lovingly made. Lovingly out-of-date. Half the donate buttons don't work on mobile and the trustees are scared to ask anyone to look at it.
Messaging that apologises.
"We are a small charity but…" Just. Don't. Your cause is the cause. Apologetic copy never raised a penny that confident copy couldn't.
One donate button. Buried.
In the menu, in the footer, on a separate page, behind a JustGiving frame. Donors come ready to give and you make them work for it.
Reporting nobody reads.
Trustees getting six-tab PDF reports a quarter late. A board pack that fits on one page changes those meetings entirely.
Four causes. On the bench.
Two new builds going live this quarter (Molly’s Gift + Leicestershire Blood Bikers). Two long-running retainers (BSSVD a decade in, Loughborough Foxes a few years). When each site goes live we’ll drop a real screenshot into the placeholder. Until then, the cause speaks louder than the design.
Wanting to make every Leicesrtershire child smile
New website. Messaging refresh. Donation funnel rebuild. Going live this quarter.
Volunteer blood-bikers carrying medical supplies between hospitals in and out-of-hours.
New site that explains the mission in 10 seconds. Sponsor-a-bike journey. Recurring donor pathway.
British Society for the Study of Vulval Disease, clinical education + patient advocacy.
Decade-long partnership. Site, conferences, member comms, ongoing strategic support.
Women's & girls' only football club · East Midlands.
Brand, social presence and donor / sponsorship funnel. Became a trustee.
We don’t do charity pricing willy nilly
“Get in touch for charity rates” means three different prices, depending on who’s asking. We’d rather publish it. Thirty percent less than the live website prices. Less than half the agency commodity rate. The same craft
Off every day rate, every retainer, every project. Not a one-off discount. The standing rate.
Annual uplift. The price we charge in year five is the same as year one, minus inflation if anything.
First audit. Same shape as everyone else gets, ten days, forty points, walkthrough call.
Minimum commitment dropped to nine for charities. Smaller orgs get smaller risk.
Got any freebies? Yes.
We’re not scared of sharing what we know. Take our advice and implement it yourself, brilliant. Watch these and think “I need someone to do this for me,” even better. Either way you’re winning, and the tools are free.
Cost-per-lead calculator
Tap in your spend and your leads. See your true CPL across every channel in seconds, the number most agencies hope you never find.
Lifetime-value calculator
Work out what a customer is worth across every year they buy from you, and the spend ceiling you can hit to win one.
30 days of marketing tips
For owners learning to think like a marketer. One thing a day, no jargon, no upsell. Take what you need.
What are we thinking?
The real stuff. Not “10 tips to boost engagement” clickbait. We call out the BS in our industry and share what twenty years of doing this has taught us. Here’s the last few.
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Tell us the cause. We’ll tell you the shape.
An hour on a call. We’ll get the cause, the audience and where the money currently comes from. We’ll come back with what we’d do, what it would cost at charity rate, and whether we’re the right fit. Doc is yours either way.
Book the FREE charity audit →