The brief
A charity website has the hardest audience mix of any site we build. A donor deciding whether to give. A resident who's just been told about social prescribing and doesn't know what it means. A GP or care worker making a referral. Someone who wants to volunteer but doesn't know what's involved. A funder checking the charity is what its grant application says it is. The Bureau does all of this - wellbeing services, befriending, a volunteer car scheme, youth activities, community grants and more - and every one of those visitors has to find their answer without a phone call.
What we built
A site organised around what people come to do, not around the org chart. Four clear routes - about, activities, get involved, get support - with every service getting its own page, so a referrer can send someone straight to Community Befriending or the Volunteer Car Scheme rather than "the website". Donating is a persistent button on every page; volunteering has its own section, including a way for other organisations to post opportunities.
Credibility is load-bearing for a charity, so the who-we-are layer is done properly: the team, the funders, policies, strategy and news - the exact pages a grant assessor or a cautious family goes looking for. Nearly fifty years of history is an asset; the website makes sure it reads that way.
Donate Now, everywhere
A persistent donate button and a clear "How to Donate" route - giving is never more than one tap away, on any page.
Volunteering made obvious
Volunteer at The Bureau, other local opportunities, and a way for organisations to post their own - recruitment built into the site’s structure.
A dozen services, findable
Social prescribing, befriending, call companions, a volunteer car scheme, sight loss support, youth activities - each with its own page a referrer can land on.
Funder-ready credibility
Who we are, meet the team, our funders, policies and strategy - the pages a grant assessor goes looking for, exactly where they expect them.
The result
One website doing a dozen jobs: taking donations, recruiting volunteers, receiving referrals and giving a long-established charity the online presence its fifty years have earned. And yes - The Bureau is in Derbyshire, not Blackpool. Everything we do is handled online, so where the client is has never mattered; it's the same package and the same service wherever you are.
It didn't stop at the website. When the charity's volunteer programme outgrew spreadsheets and inboxes, we built them a bespoke volunteer management platform - the kind of custom build we take on when a set of pages isn't the right tool for the job.
If you run a charity, community group or club, this is what we'd build for you too - see our web design for charities and community groups page, or get in touch.