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This charity website checklist covers the 15 features your non-profit site needs to build trust with donors, accept donations on any device, meet accessibility standards, and rank on Google for cause-based search. Use it to audit your existing site or evaluate a new build before signing a contract.
Most charity websites in New Zealand fail at four or more of these features. The result is fewer donations, lower volunteer signups, missed grant applications, and invisibility on Google for the causes you serve. Fixing the gaps usually delivers more impact than redesigning the site.
Trust and credibility features
Trust is the first decision a donor makes when they land on your site. These features establish credibility within five seconds.
1. Charity registration number displayed prominently
Your NZ Charities Services registration number should appear in the footer of every page and on your About or Contact page. According to Charities Services, the register is the primary tool donors use to verify legitimate charities. Make verification easy. A donor who has to search for your number is a donor who often gives up.
Format: CC followed by 5 digits. Example: CC12345.
2. Clear mission statement above the fold
The first thing a visitor sees should answer one question: what does this charity do, and who does it help. Generic statements like "creating positive change in our community" fail this test. Specific statements like "we provide emergency food parcels to 850 Christchurch families each week" succeed.
The mission statement should appear in the hero section of the homepage, no scrolling required. Visitors who don't understand your mission within five seconds leave without donating.
3. Real impact metrics with sources
Numbers build trust. "Helped many people last year" doesn't. "Delivered 12,400 food parcels to 850 families in 2025" does. Include three to five impact metrics on the homepage and an annual report or impact page with the full picture.
Source the numbers where possible. "Audited by [accounting firm name]" or "Verified through Charities Services annual return" adds credibility. Unsourced numbers feel inflated.
4. Board and team transparency
Donors give to people, not organisations. Include a Team or Board page with real names, real photos, and short bios that explain why each person serves. Charities with detailed leadership information are likely to receive higher donor confidence ratings than those with anonymous or minimal team information.
Avoid stock photos. Use real photos taken on a phone if professional photography isn't in budget. Authenticity beats polish for donor trust.
5. Financial transparency
Include a Financials, Annual Report, or Accountability page that shows where donations go. Pie charts showing programme spend versus admin spend versus fundraising spend address the most common donor question.
Link to your Charities Services annual return for full transparency. The data is public anyway, making it easy to find shows you have nothing to hide.
Donation and fundraising features
The site exists to convert visitors into donors. These features make giving frictionless.
6. Mobile-optimised donation form
According to DataReportal's Digital 2024 New Zealand report, around 65% of NZ web traffic comes from mobile devices. Your donation form needs to work on a phone with one thumb. Test it yourself.
Mobile donation form rules: maximum 4 fields above the fold (amount, email, name, payment), large tap targets (minimum 44 pixels), no horizontal scrolling, autofill enabled, and one-tap payment options like Apple Pay or Google Pay where possible.
7. Multiple donation amount options with a default
Present three to five preset donation amounts with one pre-selected as the default. According to Classy's giving research, presenting suggested amounts increases average gift size by 20 to 40%.
For NZ charities, common suggested amounts are $20, $50, $100, $250, and "Other". Default to $50. Include impact statements next to each amount: "$50 provides one week of meals for a family of four".
8. Recurring donation option
Monthly giving is the single most valuable type of donor. Make recurring donations equally prominent to one-time donations on the form, not buried in a dropdown. Pre-select "Monthly" if your charity model relies on regular giving.
Recurring donors typically have a lifetime value 5 to 7 times higher than one-time donors. The form design choice directly affects fundraising sustainability.
9. Donation tax receipt automation
NZ donors can claim 33.33% of donations as a tax credit through IRD. Automated email receipts with the charity name, donation amount, date, and charity registration number should send immediately after every donation. Manual receipting kills donor confidence and burns staff time.
Most NZ donation platforms (Stripe, Donorbox, JustGiving, Givealittle) include this functionality. Confirm it's enabled before launch.
Technical and SEO features
These features determine whether anyone finds your site in the first place.
10. On-page SEO foundations
Every page needs: a unique title tag under 60 characters with the focus keyword, a meta description between 140 and 160 characters, one H1 heading per page, H2 and H3 subheadings for content structure, alt text on every image, and clean URL slugs without numbers or dates.
Most cheap charity websites skip these foundations entirely. The result is invisibility on Google for cause-based searches. See our SEO service for what proper foundations look like.
11. Schema markup for charities
Structured data tells Google specifically what your site is and what it offers. Charity websites should include Organization schema (with non-profit type), LocalBusiness schema if you have a physical office, FAQPage schema on pages with question and answer content, and Donate action schema on donation pages.
Properly implemented schema can produce rich snippets in search results, like donation buttons appearing directly in Google search. Most charity websites in NZ have either no schema or broken schema. Test yours at Google's Rich Results Test.
12. Fast loading speed
Google uses page speed as a ranking factor and most donors abandon sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load. Target a PageSpeed Insights score of 90 or above on mobile.
The main causes of slow charity websites: oversized images (compress before uploading, use WebP format), too many plugins (audit and remove unused), cheap shared hosting (use Sydney-based hosting for NZ audiences), and uncompressed code (enable caching and minification).
13. WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility compliance
Accessibility is required for most NZ government funding applications and increasingly expected by major donors. WCAG 2.1 AA compliance covers: sufficient colour contrast (4.5:1 for body text), keyboard navigation for users who can't use a mouse, alt text on images for screen readers, proper heading hierarchy, descriptive link text, captions on video content, and form labels that work with assistive technology.
Test with WAVE or the free Lighthouse accessibility audit in Chrome DevTools. Most charity websites fail accessibility testing.
Engagement and conversion features
These features convert visitors into ongoing supporters.
14. Volunteer registration system
A volunteer page with a clear application form, role descriptions, time commitment expectations, and an automated welcome email sequence. Skip the generic "Get Involved" page that lists volunteer roles without next steps. Most charity websites fail at the simplest version of this feature.
Include: specific role names (not "general volunteer"), hours required per week or month, required skills or experience, location of work, and a single application form with maximum 6 fields. Send an automated welcome email within minutes of submission with next steps.
15. Email signup with lead magnet
Email is the highest converting channel for charity fundraising. According to M+R Benchmarks 2024, charity email programmes generated $90 in revenue per 1,000 emails sent in 2023. Build the list from day one.
Include a clear signup form on every page with one specific reason to subscribe. Generic "Subscribe to our newsletter" performs poorly. Specific "Get monthly impact updates from the families you've helped" performs significantly better. Offer a lead magnet like an impact report PDF or annual review to increase signup rates.
Bonus features for higher-performing charity websites
Beyond the 15 essentials, these features separate high-performing charity websites from average ones:
- Donor stories with permission. Real beneficiaries telling their own stories in their own words convert better than charity-written case studies. Get written permission, anonymise where appropriate, and feature one or two stories prominently.
- Live impact ticker. A counter on the homepage showing year-to-date impact: "12,847 meals delivered this year". Updates monthly. Creates urgency and proof simultaneously.
- Press and recognition. A press page with logos of media outlets that have covered your charity, awards received, and corporate partners. Social proof reduces donor hesitation.
- Peer-to-peer fundraising. Supporters can create their own fundraising pages for events, birthdays, or memorial donations. Adds passive revenue stream without staff time.
- Google Ad Grants management. Eligible NZ charities access up to USD 10,000 per month in free Google advertising. Most charities apply, get approved, then fail to maintain the account quality and lose the grant. Active management drives consistent traffic.
How to audit your existing charity website
If you already have a charity website, audit it against this checklist before deciding whether to redesign. Most sites need 5 to 8 features added, not a complete rebuild.
The audit process:
- Open your homepage on a phone. Time how long it takes to find the donation button. If over 3 seconds, your mobile experience needs work.
- Run a PageSpeed Insights test on three pages (homepage, donate page, about page). Target mobile scores of 90 or above.
- Test the donation form yourself with a $1 transaction. Note every friction point. If you abandon the form, donors do too.
- Run the WAVE accessibility checker on five pages. Note the errors. Critical errors mean failed accessibility compliance.
- Check your title tags and meta descriptions in Google Search Console. Missing or duplicate tags indicate weak on-page SEO.
- Search Google for "[your cause] [your city]" in incognito mode. Where do you rank? If not on page 1, your SEO needs work.
When to rebuild versus refresh
Add features to your existing site if it fails fewer than 8 items on this checklist, the platform is WordPress or another flexible CMS, and the underlying design still feels current.
Rebuild the site if it fails more than 8 items, runs on a closed platform like Wix that limits SEO and accessibility, looks more than 5 years old, or runs slowly despite optimisation attempts.
For most NZ charities, adding features to an existing WordPress site is possible and delivers 80% of the value of a full rebuild. Full rebuilds make sense every 5 to 7 years.
Frequently asked questions about charity website features
What is the most important feature on a charity website?
The donation form. Every other feature exists to drive visitors toward the donation form. A charity website with weak design but a frictionless mobile donation form outperforms a beautiful site with a clunky donation experience. Optimise the form first, everything else second.
Does my charity website need a blog?
Yes, if you want to rank on Google for cause-based searches. Blog content targeting questions your beneficiaries and donors actually ask (like "how to volunteer in Christchurch" or "where to donate clothes in Canterbury") drives the majority of organic traffic to charity websites. Without ongoing content, your site competes only on direct branded searches.
How often should we update our charity website?
Content updates monthly minimum. Major design refresh every 5 to 7 years. Plugin and security updates monthly. Annual report and impact metrics annually. Donor stories quarterly. Treating the website as a living asset rather than a one-time build delivers significantly better fundraising results.
Should charity websites have a chatbot?
Usually no. Most charity chatbots provide poor user experience and create more support burden than they save. A clear FAQ page with searchable content outperforms most chatbot implementations. Exception: large charities with 24/7 support needs and dedicated chatbot management may justify the investment.
Do charity websites need a privacy policy?
Yes, legally required if you collect any personal data including donations, volunteer applications, or email signups. NZ Privacy Act 2020 requires clear disclosure of what data you collect, how you use it, who you share it with, and how donors can access or delete their data. Free privacy policy generators exist but a lawyer-reviewed policy provides better protection.
What donation platform should our charity use?
For most NZ registered charities: Stripe for credit card processing (2.7% + 30c per transaction) with Donorbox or a custom WordPress integration for the form. Donorbox adds 1.5% on top but provides recurring donation management and tax receipting automation. Avoid PayPal-only setups (higher fees, weaker user experience) and avoid building custom donation systems unless you have specific requirements that justify the cost.
Can our charity build the website ourselves?
Possible but rarely advisable. The technical features in this checklist (schema markup, accessibility compliance, mobile-optimised donation forms, on-page SEO) require expertise most charity staff don't have. Volunteer-built charity websites typically fail 10 to 12 features on this list. Either invest in a professional build from $3,500, or commit to ongoing professional support for a volunteer-led build.
How do we know if our charity website is working?
Set up Google Analytics 4 and track four metrics monthly: organic search traffic, donation conversion rate (visitors who donate), email signup rate (visitors who join the list), and average donation amount. Compare month-over-month and year-over-year. A working charity website shows growth in all four metrics over 12 to 18 months.
Next steps for your charity website
Print this charity website checklist and audit your site against each feature. Note which features are present, partial, or missing. Prioritise the gaps that affect donor trust and donation conversion first, then technical SEO, then engagement features.
For NZ charities wanting professional help, New Media Design builds custom charity websites starting at $3,500. Every build includes all 15 features on this checklist. You work directly with Kit Hindin, Creative Director, using the SPARK Method. See our not for profit web design page for full details.
For pricing comparisons across the NZ charity website market, see our guide on how much a charity website costs in New Zealand.
Start your not for profit web design project
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