Websites for charities

Castlegate designs and builds websites for charities and not-for-profit organisations that need to raise funds, recruit supporters, and communicate their cause to several audiences at once.

With more than fifteen years of experience building charity websites, we have worked with organisations including animal rescue charity Animal Aid Unlimited and international fellowship Alcoholics Anonymous. Our charity websites are designed to convert visitors into donors, volunteers, and members, supporting the causes that rely on public support to succeed.

We know that charity websites often need to do more with less: a clear, prominent donation system, an accessible design that welcomes every visitor, and a content management platform your team can maintain without ongoing developer costs. Built on WordPress, our charity websites include integrations with payment providers, membership systems, and accessibility tools where needed, so your website can support your cause as effectively as your team does.

Websites for charities

AAU a high quality charity website visualised on a laptop

Grow and develop

Charities face specific pressures that many other organisations do not: competing for public attention, demonstrating impact to funders, and reaching people who need support without a marketing budget to match. We understand these challenges, and we design websites that help charities raise awareness, generate donations, and connect people with the services they need, whatever the size of your organisation or cause.

Flourish online, succeed offline

A charity website should support the work you do offline, not distract from it. We build every website in-house, giving you direct access to the developers who know your site, rather than routing support through account managers or third parties. Once your website is live, we provide ongoing support and training, so your team can update content, add news, and manage donations confidently without depending on us for every change.

An example of high end not for profit design visualised on a desktop device

Sector specific experience

With more than fifteen years of experience building charity websites, we understand what charities need from a website beyond a good-looking homepage: accessible design that welcomes every visitor, a straightforward donation process, and integrations with the payment and membership systems you already rely on. This experience means we can bring proven solutions to your project from day one, rather than starting from scratch.

An example of high end charity and not for profit design visualised on a desktop device

M&S Archive

The M&S Archive is a unique collection of documents, images, and artefacts from the company’s rich history. The physical exhibition is housed in the Michael Marks Building in Leeds, while over 70,000 archive records are hosted online. M&S Archive needed a new website to entice people to see the collection in person, and promote their digital archive to a wider audience.

We developed an intuitive interface for the online exhibitions that would emulate the experience of exploring a physical museum. Using existing M&S Archive assets, we made interactive timelines with scrollable and clickable elements to give visitors full control over their journey through the M&S story. We implemented custom security refinements, hardening the build to the highest level possible within WordPress, to meet the cyber-security policies of Marks and Spencer Group plc. The result is a secure and accessible website, which brings to life the history of every artefact in the collection.

The M&S Company Archive is a Community Interest Company, which means its assets are used for social objectives rather than to benefit private shareholders.

Learn more about M&S Archive

An example of high end charity and non profit design for national infrastructure, visualised on a desktop device

The Humber Bridge

The Humber Bridge is one of the UK’s most recognisable landmarks, connecting the East Riding of Yorkshire with North Lincolnshire. They brought Castlegate onboard as their website partner in a multi-stakeholder digital transformation to rebuild their toll payment system and develop a new payment app.

We integrated their website with the new toll system and collaborated with other agencies to ensure consistent branding, accessibility, and compliance across all digital touchpoints. A bespoke plugin integrates real-time weather data with live traffic information, while smart routing automatically directs enquiries to the appropriate system. We also introduced pages dedicated to the bridge’s history, wildlife, and facilities. The new website reinforces the stature of the Humber Bridge as a national landmark, critical transport link, and active community destination.

Find out more about Humber Bridge

Alcoholics Anonymous

Alcoholics Anonymous (‘AA’) is a fellowship of over two million members worldwide who share their experiences to solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The primary aims of the AA website are to make it easy to find meetings and promote the message of recovery.

Users are provided with highly pertinent meeting information based on their specific criteria. Clear, uncomplicated navigation and optimised page layouts help users find the information they need to support them on the road to recovery.

Learn more about Alcoholics Anonymous

An example of high end design for a charity organisation visualised on a desktop device

The REFoRMS Project

The REFoRMS Project is a charity-supported research programme providing families, clinicians, and researchers with trusted, freely accessible information about treatment options for children and young people with relapsed and refractory rhabdomyosarcoma. We built a bespoke WordPress website with a searchable database of over 175 published studies and 62 clinical trials, designed to be navigable without specialist knowledge and accessible without the need to create an account.

Find out more about The REFoRMS Project

Animal Aid Unlimited

Animal Aid Unlimited is an animal rescue charity based in Udaipur, India. Having grown substantially since their old website was built – to the point where they receive thousands of online donations each week – AAU needed a new website that would better represent them online and enable them to accept donations from a wider variety of sources.

We built a bespoke high-performance WordPress site for AAU, basing the design around high quality photographs of staff, volunteers and rescued animals. The new website features a versatile payment system powered by GiveWP, which enables Animal Aid Unlimited to easily process one-off and recurring payments from a variety of sources in both American dollars and Indian rupees.

Learn more about Animal Aid Unlimited

An example of high end charity and non profit design visualised on a desktop device

Leeds Federated Housing Association

Leeds Federated Housing Association provides safe, affordable housing to rent and buy across Leeds, Wakefield, Kirklees and North Yorkshire. They approached Castlegate for a new website that could support two distinct audiences: offering practical support to existing tenants while presenting details about available housing to prospective tenants and buyers.

We led a collaborative eight-week planning phase with Leeds Federated to define clear information architecture, entry points, and user journeys for each group. The redesigned ‘Current Developments’ page functions like a familiar property application, while a new A-Z glossary, with dynamic filtering, supports accurate reporting of anti-social behaviour. The result is a website that lets customers find information more easily – regardless of their situation or starting point – while also delivering a consistent, connected user experience.

Learn more about Leeds Federated

Community Catalysts

Community Catalysts is a social enterprise that exists to ensure people are part of strong, inclusive communities with real opportunities to connect, create, and contribute. They achieve this by supporting people in setting up community micro-enterprises in their local areas and encouraging innovative approaches to social care for both individuals and organisations.

In the decade since we designed Community Catalysts’ first website, they have expanded and now comprise a family of five organisations. Castlegate IT built them a new, multi-functional website, to bring the whole family together onto a single platform. The design of the site preserves the distinct branding of each organisation while also allowing them to benefit from the cohesive look and feel of the group. The website’s intuitive navigation system, multi-language functionality, and consent management platform all make it easier for users to access the care services that they need and support Community Catalysts’ core mission.

Learn more about Community Catalysts

The Association for Perioperative Practise

The Association for Perioperative Practise (AfPP) is the UK’s leading organisation for medical theatre practitioners, and has been providing support and training to the sector for over 60 years. They needed their website to amplify their voice in the sector, drive membership, and act as a central resource for theatre professionals looking for work.

Castlegate took over the management and maintenance of AfPP’s website, restructuring the homepage to showcase their value and make it clear how medical professionals can get involved. We merged a separate careers website with the main platform and incorporated filtering to streamline job searches. The updated website has raised AfPP’s profile, increased membership, and supported recruitment across the sector. Castlegate provides ongoing consultancy to AfPP, proactively optimising the website to ensure it serves their long-term goals.

Learn more about the AfPP

Safe and Sound Homes (SASH)

SASH is a York-based charity with a network of hosts who are able to provide support and accommodation to young people facing homelessness. They asked us to build a website which would raise their profile and increase their engagement with the public; while also facilitating donations and enabling young people to easily find the help they need.

We carefully researched the charity’s demographics to produce a website which efficiently delivers the right content to the right people. The site is built on a user-friendly content management system which allows hosts to log in and update their availability, and allows SASH to easily share news about the important work that they do.

Learn more about SASH

York Museums Trust

Supported by York’s City Council, York Museums Trust is responsible for some of the city’s most important cultural venues. We were asked to produce a new website for the trust and its four most important venues: York Castle Museum, the Yorkshire Museum, York Art Gallery and York St Mary’s.

We worked with excellent Manchester-based design agency Bert to produce a network of consistently branded and easy-to-navigate websites. All of the York Museums Trust websites are managed from a single content management platform, making it easy for the Trust to disseminate news and information via the main Trust website and selectively share this with the relevant venue websites.

Learn more about York Museums Trust

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British Bryological Society

Members of the British Bryological Society are united by a shared interest in bryology: the discovery, study and collection of small plants known as bryophytes. The BBS provides tuition, organizes meetings, facilitates research and promotes conservation.

With its roots dating back to the late 1800s, the BBS has collected and compiled a huge amount of information over the years. We built a modern and feature-rich website for the BBS to provide an accessible central resource library for both registered members and the public.

Find out more about British Bryological Society

An example of high end non profit design visualised on a desktop device

Crustacean Industry Welfare Hub

Nonprofit group The Crustacean Industry Welfare Hub exists to increase welfare standards for decapod crustaceans within seafood supply chains. They needed a distinct brand identity and an online hub to communicate their message that crustaceans should be treated with compassion and respect.

We established a distinct brand identity with a quirky logo and clean but playful aesthetic. Visitors are invited to join an ‘Industry Hub’ in exchange for providing their contact details. Within this hub a user-friendly dashboard provides quick access to industry news, legislative updates, and research links. Their directory of resources can be filtered by sector, species, and type simultaneously, enabling efficient searching. The website has been instrumental in driving the evidence-based discussion around crustacean welfare, gaining trust from diverse stakeholders.

Learn more about Crustacean Industry Welfare Hub

An example of high end charity design visualised on a desktop device

Autism Plus

Autism Plus is a national charity that provides support services to empower neurodivergent people to grow and lead independent lives. Their aim was to deliver a standalone employment services website to accommodate two different audiences – neurodivergent individuals needing information and resources to help them in work, and employers.

In close collaboration with Autism Plus, we created a highly intuitive website which included third party software to increase accessibility. The website includes an advanced filtering system to lead specific user groups on a journey to find the information they require quickly and easily.

Learn more about Autism Plus

Carers' Resource

Carers’ Resource is an award-winning charity that supports unpaid carers across Yorkshire. They provide information and advice to carers, vulnerable people, and professionals who work with carers, with the aim of improving the care landscape. They asked us to make their extensive pool of resources more accessible to their distinct groups of service users.

Following a collaborative research phase, we designed a highly accessible website in which a huge amount of information is clearly and meticulously structured. A split navigation system, quick-links section, and filterable events feed make the journey for each specific user group simple and intuitive to follow. Branding is consciously interwoven, through colours and header designs, to produce a clean, cohesive aesthetic.

Learn more about Carers’ Resource

North Yorkshire East Federation of Women’s Institutes

The NYEFWI wanted a site which would showcase the range of events they offer and take their booking process online. We designed a functional, modern website with an engaging ‘What’s On’ platform which promotes upcoming activities with a highly adaptable event booking form. Custom code allows editors to input menu options, which are then displayed to members in a multiple choice format, enabling them to make their meal choices and enter any dietary requirements.

Newsletters are easily accessible, highlighting the impact of the Federation’s activities in the community and enabling members to stay up-to-date with wider initiatives.

Learn more about NYEFWI

York Carers Centre

York Carers Centre is a dedicated charity supporting unpaid carers in York. They offer guidance, emotional support, and essential resources to family members, neighbours, and friends who are caring for others.

A key focus of the redesign was helping distinct carer groups quickly identify themselves and access the support they need. Visitors can now find relevant information and advice, browse an interactive events calendar, and give to the charity through a prominent donation prompt on every page.

Learn more about York Carers Centre

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Open Doors Education & Training

Open Doors Education & Training (ODET) provides educational support to children from all ethnic minority backgrounds in the form of tablets, wifi dongles and one-to-one digital tuition.

The website we created for ODET was built to accommodate several different audiences, from the young people using their services to other organisations that might collaborate with them. We carefully considered the visual design as well as the structure of the site to ensure that the website is engaging and easy-to-use for all visitors.

Find out more about ODET

Natural Voice Network

The Natural Voice Network is a community who share a common ethos around singing and group work. Founded over 25 years ago, the Network aims to support and promote its members, who believe in the power of singing to bond communities together.

Natural Voice Network approached us to update their logo and redesign their website to attract new members. We modernised the branding to be inviting to practitioners visiting the website, while preserving its recognisable essence. An advanced and intuitive search function enabled NVN to enhance its all-important community building. By moving its entire membership to MemberPress, we put control of its membership processes back into NVN’s hands.

Learn more about Natural Voice Network

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Survive

Survive provides much-needed support to men and women in North Yorkshire who have experienced sexual abuse. We were asked to build a new website for Survive which would play several important roles: encouraging people to use the services offered by Survive, raising awareness of their cause, and attracting volunteers and donors.

The visual appearance of this website was really important. We worked with Survive’s choices of imagery to produce a personal and welcoming feel, and we adapted their logo into banners and other site elements to really make the site unique. Dedicated sections for news and survivor stories enable Survive to easily expand the content on the site and keep service users and supporters updated with their important work.

Find out more about Survive

The Traveller Movement

The Traveller Movement asked us to create Safe Space for Women, a dedicated microsite to provide valuable resources for survivors of domestic abuse from Romany Gypsy, Irish Traveller, and Roma communities. The website and all the content on it had to be accessible to women facing the combined challenges of limited time, focus, literacy, and freedom.

Castlegate IT collaborated closely with the Traveller Movement to design a website that was user-friendly and quick to navigate. We incorporated Reach Deck, a comprehensive third-party widget that provides an array of accessibility tools. The call to action ‘Find Help’ is featured prominently, leading visitors to a custom-made map of support services arranged by region. The Traveller Movement valued having a cooperative and supportive website partner, and the resulting website is an inclusive digital refuge, providing safe, easy access to vital resources.

Learn more about The Traveller Movement

Community First Yorkshire

Community First Yorkshire provides a range of support services to community and voluntary organisations across Yorkshire. Working with a varied audience and performing a variety of roles means that their website plays a vital role in disseminating information.

When building this website for Community First, we paid special attention to the structure of the site. The site holds a large amount of information and resources, but careful organisation and clear signposting make it easy for any visitor to navigate. User-friendly content management tools ensure the team can keep their online resources up to date.

Learn more about Community First Yorkshire

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The Laurence Sterne Trust

The Laurence Sterne Trust is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the life and works of novelist Laurence Sterne. Having converted Sterne’s old home, Shandy Hall, into a museum and education centre, the trust needed a new website which would enable them to drive engagement and offer something of value to people who weren’t able to visit in person.

We took care to let the character of Shandy Hall shine through on this website with photographs and designs provided by the trust. A huge searchable catalogue of items from Shandy Hall enables users to browse the trust’s collection from home, while an easy-to-use shop and donation system make it easier than ever for people to support them.

Find out more about The Laurence Sterne Trust

Tree of Life for Animals (TOLFA)

Tree of Life for Animals (TOLFA) has helped rescue, vaccinate, rehabilitate and care for hundreds of thousands of animals in Rajasthan, India. The charity has grown significantly since their inception in 2005, and it now has the capacity to care for up to 600 animals at any one time.

We designed and built a new website that would enable TOLFA to maximise its fundraising and public outreach efforts. Bright colours, prominent photography and interesting content keep users engaged, and a streamlined donation process turns the site into a vital fundraising tool.

Find out more about TOLFA

The Cemetery Research Group

The Cemetery Research Group is a community of scholars which aims to expand understanding of funeral culture around the world. The group, which investigates the intersection of identity and societal responses to the dead, needed an updated website to showcase valuable resources and connect researchers working in the space.

At the core of the website is an extensive bibliography of cemetery studies publications, powered by an intelligent search plugin, configured to work across multiple categories. The website also contains two directories of ‘Scholars’ and ‘Organisations’ which form an online hub facilitating international visibility and collaboration. This combination has given the client the ability to reach – and connect with – a global audience for the first time.

Learn more about The Cemetery Research Group

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MySight York

MySight York provides support and advice to a membership of 1,100 visually impaired people living in the York area. It is a long-established and widely respected member-led charity providing person-centred services from when sight loss is first diagnosed. Its complementary services are available without a referral from any other organisation: their mission is to help anyone live well with sight loss.

We pride ourselves on coding standards-compliant sites to give users with accessibility aids or highly customised setups the best possible chance at navigating the site, but this site had to go further. The site has to function as a potential starting point for visually impaired users without experience of web navigation, but who want to access MySight York.

Learn more about MySight York

Yorkshire Survivor’s Pathways

Yorkshire Survivor’s Pathways is a comprehensive directory of the support services available to survivors of sexual violence in Yorkshire and Humberside. Working with Survive, we created a simple and easy to use directory, powered by WordPress for easy content management.

Learn more about Yorkshire Survivor’s Pathways

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Castlegate IT, The Bonding Warehouse, Terry Avenue, York, YO1 6FA

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Websites for charities