Website checks for charities

Help people find support, understand your work and follow donation or volunteering links.

Separate the paths people need

Someone seeking support needs different information from a donor or a prospective volunteer. Give each a clear route from the homepage, including how to contact a person. The reachability check matters because an error page can block access to help as well as donations. Keep essential contact details easy to find outside long campaign stories.

Walk through the donation journey

Donation pages may offer one-off gifts, regular giving and optional messages. HTTPS protects details travelling between a visitor and the site. If your site collects personal details, data-protection law applies. Follow links to any separate donation service and check that amounts, frequency and confirmations are clear; the checker does not make donations or assess payment processing.

Make stories and support information accessible

Campaign photographs need useful descriptions when they convey information. The alt-text check flags homepage images without an alt attribute, but you need to judge the descriptions yourself. A declared page language helps screen readers pronounce support information, and a viewport setting helps size the page on phones. Also try volunteer forms with a keyboard.

Look after fundraising email

Appeals and volunteer updates may come from several services using your domain. DMARC helps receiving mail services handle messages pretending to be from it. Ask your email provider to review legitimate senders before changing the policy, including donation receipts and mailing tools. A result does not confirm that an appeal is authentic or how funds are used.

Checks to start with

The checker reads the public homepage, its connection and public email records. Use the results alongside your own checks of the pages and features your customers rely on.

Test your site