Key facts
- £365 a year + VAT: one predictable cost for small charity budgets
- One domain such as .org.uk included each year
- Donation forms using hosted payment providers so card data doesn't touch your server
- Registered charities in England and Wales with income over £10,000 must state their registered status on fundraising material
- Daily backups and free SSL
- Domain and hosting kept in the charity's name, not a volunteer's
Built for tight budgets
Most small charities don't have an IT budget. They have a volunteer who set up the website years ago and a hosting bill on someone's personal card. dijitul Complete Hosting is one fixed price, £1 a day + VAT, with the domain, backups, SSL and support included, so you know the cost for the year and can put it in the budget. We invoice the charity by email.
Donation forms done properly
- Use a hosted payment provider such as Stripe, PayPal or a charity giving platform. The card details are entered on their secure page or field, never stored on your server, which keeps your PCI responsibilities small.
- Ask for a Gift Aid declaration where donors are UK taxpayers, and store declarations securely so you can claim.
- Make it fast on mobile. Many donations come from people tapping a link in social media.
- Keep SSL valid. A security warning on a donation page loses donors instantly. Ours renews automatically.
What the law expects online
Under section 39 of the Charities Act 2011, a registered charity in England and Wales with gross income over £10,000 in its last financial year must state that it is a registered charity on documents that ask for money, including fundraising appeals. Putting your registered charity number in the website footer and on the donate page is the simple way to cover this. Scottish and Northern Irish charities have their own regulators and rules.
If your charity is also a company, the company trading disclosures apply too. And you're a data controller for supporter data, so see UK GDPR and hosting.
Surviving volunteer turnover
The most common charity website crisis isn't a hack. It's the person who knows the passwords stepping down. We register domains in the charity's name, keep hosting on a charity account, and will talk to whoever the trustees nominate. If you've already lost access, we can help get it back. See abandoned website takeover.
Getting started
Order at clients.dijitul.uk/order. We'll move your existing site for free. Most charity sites run on WordPress, and we host Joomla, Drupal and older sites too. See WordPress hosting and old website hosting.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest reliable website hosting for a small charity?
Free and very cheap hosting often lacks backups, support and SSL, which costs more when something breaks. dijitul hosts charity websites for £1 a day + VAT with a domain, daily backups, SSL and UK support included, a fixed yearly cost.
Does a charity have to show its registered number on its website?
Registered charities in England and Wales with income over £10,000 must state that they are a registered charity on fundraising documents and appeals. Showing your registered charity number on your website, especially donation pages, is the simplest way to comply.
How should a charity take donations on its website?
Use a hosted payment provider or charity giving platform so card details never touch your server, collect Gift Aid declarations where appropriate, and make sure the page has valid SSL and works well on mobile.
Should a charity use .org.uk or .org?
.org.uk signals a UK non-profit and is widely used by UK charities. .org is international. Many charities register both and redirect one. dijitul includes one domain a year with its £1 a day + VAT hosting.
Our charity lost access to its website when a volunteer left. What can we do?
Start by checking who the domain is registered to. If it's the charity, you can usually recover access through the registrar. dijitul helps charities regain control of domains and websites and moves them into the charity's name.
Do charities get discounts on web hosting?
Some hosts offer charity discounts on basic plans. dijitul's approach is one all-inclusive price of £1 a day + VAT, including domain, backups, SSL and migration, so there are no extras to budget for.
Related
Set it up and forget about it
Managed hosting, Plesk, Cloudflare DNS, daily backups and your domain for £1 a day + VAT. We move your site for you.