Websites for churches and community organisations
Most parish and charity websites do not fail because they were badly designed. They fail because the person who built them moved on. I build sites that survive that, and I hand them over properly.
Who this is for
Churches, charities, village halls, community groups and small organisations that need a website people can actually use — and that someone can keep accurate after it launches.
You probably have a volunteer who has been holding things together, a set of service times or opening hours that are slightly out of date, and a nagging worry that nobody quite knows how to change them. That is the problem I work on.
The first project of this kind is Churchfield, built for St Leonard’s in Upton St Leonards. Its case study describes the whole thing, including what is not finished.
How a project runs
A conversation
Half an hour, free, no obligation. What you have now, who it is for, and what is not working. Sometimes the honest answer is that a new website is not your problem, and I will say so.
A written proposal
What I will build, what it costs, and when it will be done. One price, agreed before anything starts. If the scope changes later, we agree that too.
Design and build
You see it early and often, on a real address you can open on your own phone and share with your PCC or committee. Nothing is a surprise at the end.
Your content, checked
The part most projects underestimate. I help get service times, contacts and safeguarding information right, because a website that is wrong is worse than no website.
Handover
Written instructions for the things you will actually need to change, in plain language. A named person can update the site without me.
What is always included
- Built to be maintained
- Content in plain files or the tools you already use, so the next volunteer can pick it up. No licence to renew and no system you need training to operate.
- Accessible as standard
- Tested against WCAG 2.2 AA, at small screen sizes, at 200% text, by keyboard, and with JavaScript switched off. Not an add-on and not an extra line on the invoice.
- Fast on a bad connection
- Static pages served from the edge. They load on an old phone in a village hall, which is where a lot of people will actually read them.
- Yours, not mine
- Your domain, your accounts, your content. If you stop working with me, you keep everything and nothing switches off.
What it costs
One agreed price per project, quoted in writing before anything begins, and not billed by the hour. What moves the number is the amount of content, how many integrations are needed, and how much of the writing you want help with — not how long I take.
Small organisations often have a real budget ceiling and no way to say so politely. Tell me yours in the first conversation and I will tell you plainly whether it is workable, what would fit inside it, or that it is not enough. Nobody benefits from a proposal you were never going to be able to accept.
Running costs afterwards are the domain and hosting, which for a site like this is typically a few pounds a month, paid by you to the providers directly. I do not resell hosting or take a margin on it.
There is no compulsory retainer. If you want me on hand for changes, that can be arranged; if you would rather do it yourselves, the handover is written so that you can.
What I do not do
Worth saying up front, so nobody wastes a conversation.
- Ongoing monthly retainers you cannot leave
- Analytics, advertising or tracking of your visitors
- A content system you need training to use
- Rewriting your theology, safeguarding policy, or constitution
If safeguarding, data protection or accessibility obligations apply to your organisation, I will build to support them and point out where I can see a problem — but the responsibility for the content stays with you, and I will not pretend otherwise.
Where to start
A conversation, not a commitment. Tell me what you have and what is not working, and I will tell you honestly whether I can help.