Brighton & Hove, Sussex, UK

Award Winning Charity Web Design🏆agency gift to local charity

Award Winning Charity Website

During the last few months of 2020, White Rabbit worked closely with the trustees of Saint Anne’s Centre in Kemptown; to design and build an accessible, user-friendly and mobile responsive website for this local homeless charity. St Anne’s provides food and support to rough sleepers in our community of Brighton & Hove and have been doing so for around 37 years.

Read on to find out more about how we created an award winning charity web design…

Web Design for Brighton Charity

Like most charities, they were struggling, the numbers of people in need had risen due to the impact of the pandemic. Donations had flat-lined (also largely due to the impact of COVID-19 on people’s income) and with winter approaching they needed to raise more funds.

The charity’s trustees had identified that to do this, they really needed to update their existing Wix website, which was “rather tired”. The team had tried various ways of getting this done, alas with no luck and nobody on their small team had the skills in charity web design.

So they reached out to see if it might be something White Rabbit could offer advice and support with. I agreed that it would be a fantastic opportunity to really engage with our local community, with social justice, empowerment and in the support of people who are often overlooked.

How It Started… How It’s Going

Repurposing some of the content from their old charity website, the new website for the charity went live just before Christmas, at an important and critical time of need. Using the WordPress content management system, we could create a multitude of new features; for both donors and patrons of St Anne’s Trust to their online profile.

Designed specifically for ease of use and accessibility, this charity website houses information about what they do at the Centre and details on what is most needed by the charity. Alongside more specifics on what homeless people and those in need can find at the Centre on a daily basis.

Increased Charity Revenue Online

With experience in cost effective web development for charity website designs and focusing on the design and functionality; we were able to have an immediate impact on the charity’s fundraising. By highlight important yet easy ways for them to increase and ensure Gift Aid, adding a further 25% to all their online donations.

In addition to advice on great methods for their donors to engage with the charity and give in other ways:

  • Free Will Writing Services which may include legacy giving
  • PayPal Giving Fund and favourite charity option for users of this payment platform
  • Google for Non-profits including Google Ad Grants
  • Donate as you shop online with Amazon Smile
  • Amazon Wish List for direct charitable giving of goods needed
  • Corporate Giving through website content and LinkedIn presence

Website Speed, Security & Hosting

We don’t believe in doing things by half. So we set the charity up with their own super fast and WordPress optimised VPS (Virtual Private Server) for website hosting. Besides rock-solid, enterprise grade website security and speed improvements using CloudFlare services for DNS management.

Award Winning Charity Website Training

We made sure that the charity would be able to manage their own website and share key messages long into the future. With training provided to create new blog posts, edit WordPress website pages, share content on social media, as well as create new visual content for the site and their social channels.

Glowing Trustee & Staff Feedback

In their brief the trustees wanted a WordPress website for charity that looked more modern and convincing, with connections to their social media profiles. We’re happy to say that we hit the mark and more. A recent update from the trustees has shown increased donations across all their channels already.

All of the staff at the charity are ecstatic about their new website:

“It was a pleasure to work with a local Brighton web consultant who really knows what a client requires. The whole process of redesigning our website was made simple, speedy and fun.”
Mimi – Trustee

“I love everything you have done – it’s brilliant! A superb job, thank you so much!”
Patrick – Trustee

“I’m well impressed, easy to use and I love the look of it. It feels good to see and hear from our volunteers, I love it!”
Shelley – Centre Manager

New Logo & Branding Guidance

As part of the project to create a new web design for the charity, they had planned on redesigning their logo, to give it a fresh look and feel. We were able to advise on this process for their design agency; giving guidance on colour usage, font choice and layout options that are best suited for use on the website and social channels.

Domain Authority Collaboration

We also managed to secure further support from a local agency that specialises in long term website domain authority. Focusing on the client’s online presence and target audience, through a series of data-driven content marketing activities.

Within days of the new website going live the team had tracked down some opportunities of high authority backlinks for the charity (from other related and relevant websites). A big Thank You goes out to Aaron and his team for their support with this project.

Award Winning Charity Web Design

Web Guru Award Winning Charity WebsiteWe like to work with charities and not for profit organisations whenever possible. It is so important to have the best web design for charities, because that is the online window into their work, that potential donors and partners are going to see. As well as having a direct impact on charitable giving and donor engagement, we wanted to do more in promoting and raising the profile of the charity.

After submitting the site to a handful of web design award organisations, it was nominated for one at CSS Winner. Then on Christmas Eve we were informed that the new website had won GOTD at the Web Guru Awards!

Kick starting 2021 with a real boost, the website went on to win another award for web design from the Witty Web Wizards Award for Website of the day.

WOTD Web Design AwardThis charity website has also been nominated for a further award at the Good Web Guide People’s Choice 2021.

GWG Awards Nominee

Support Local Charity in Brighton

Do also consider sharing these links with your friends and family, as that is one of the best and easiest ways for you to help promote the award winning charity website for free.

A donation to St Anne’s of £12.50 is enough to provide food for one person for five days.

Take a look at the new award winning website design and support the charity here: https://stannesdaycentre.org.uk/