How to write the perfect agency brief for a charity website

Introduction

Every week, we receive briefs from charities looking to upgrade or create a new website. A website is probably the single largest marketing investment that any charity will make, so putting the time in to curate a clear brief is a critical foundation.

The brief is the bread and butter that provides an agency with all the information and insight needed to better understand your vision and goals for your website. From this, an agency can align proposed work with your expectations and budget, keeping both parties on the same page.

To make the brief-writing process a little bit less daunting, we’ve put together this guide to share the essential elements to include. This will help you identify everything you want to get out of your new charity website and ensure that your agency is equipped with all the details to get started.

Define your objectives

Firstly, your charity’s website should be a seamless extension or a critical part of your overall digital strategy. We view the website as another asset or digital touchpoint which must be a coherent part of the brand’s ecosystem.

Considering how your charity’s website fits into your latest digital strategy will help you to identify key goals and objectives you want to achieve. For example, you might be looking to increase donations, expand your volunteer base, push a number of events, or simply raise awareness about a specific issue. 

Once these objectives have been defined, you can communicate them clearly in your brief. There’s no set format to do this – it could be in a bullet-pointed list or numbered in order of significance, helping to prioritise what you want to achieve. For example, if increasing donations is the number one priority, emphasising the need for an intuitive and integrated donation process would be the first objective to denote. Outlining this helps the agency know where to spend time proposing and suggesting solutions, as well as understanding where the core challenges are.

Provide a budget

One of the most difficult and common problems when receiving a brief is when the budget is left out.

With a budget, an agency can understand how to tackle the project and what is possible to propose. There might be off-the-shelf solutions that are suggested when the budget is tighter and bespoke solutions suggested if there is greater flex. Our view is to always maximise the value for the budget provided.

At this stage, the budget doesn’t need to be specific, it can be ballpark. Having a budget range can also be incredibly beneficial as this can better reflect your ambitions and your financial realities.

So, being upfront and realistic allows an agency to quickly understand if their processes align with the financial expectations and can be progressed, or not. This can save a huge amount of time and effort on both sides.

The second thing to think about when it comes to budget is whether it is including or excluding VAT. Providing clarity on this in your brief means an agency has full understanding of the breakdown of your budget and the level of investment available.

Next, you’ll want to consider if there is any available budget for ongoing hosting of your website, technical support and any additional spend post-project. This helps agencies understand what type of ongoing service might be relevant to the charity and information can be included in the initial response to the brief.

We see the launch of a new website being day one. This is when we start collecting user feedback, data insight and can track the performance of the user experience and conversion metrics. So, considering what budget is left or set aside after the project to support the website after going live will help to ensure the website remains as effective as possible.

Set realistic timelines

Timelines are another factor that will determine whether an agency is able to bid for the work or not. Each stage of the project has set processes and lead times, such as research, data analysis and amends. Much like the minimum budget is based on time required to deliver the work, a timeline is the minimum amount of time required to be able to deliver this work.

Unrealistic deadlines are one of the most common pitfalls in website development projects. A good agency will have work already committed in their schedule and therefore might not be able to start immediately. When crafting your brief, it’s essential to establish a timeline that is both ambitious and achievable. For context, a standard website project will take anywhere between four to six months to complete (minimum) and can easily be more depending on the level of complexity.  

A good project takes time and rushing through a timeline can lead to mistakes, misinterpretation, missed opportunities, and ultimately, a site that doesn’t perform as well as it should.

Undertake competitor analysis and benchmarking

It is important to analyse the competition and benchmark against similar organisations to get a better picture of where you want to be. It is really useful for an agency to understand what you deem to be inspirational in terms of website functionality, integrations, and interactions. By sharing these examples, you give the agency a clearer idea of your vision and set a standard for what you hope to achieve.

In your brief, include examples of websites you like and explain what specifically appeals to you about their design, functionality, or user experience. It could be that the charity website provides a smooth donation process or has powerful storytelling approach that engages visitors. Including examples can also provide insight for an agency to share a similar case study of where they have successfully achieved similar goals for another charity client.

Outline website functionality

One of the most critical sections of your agency brief will be the functionality you need on your website. This goes beyond just listing pages or features. Rather, it’s about understanding how your site will serve your users and support your mission.

For instance, if your charity relies on event-driven fundraising, you might need a robust event calendar, ticketing system, and integration with third-party platforms like Eventbrite. If you have a membership base, you may want to consider member portals, exclusive content areas, or discussion forums. Be as detailed as possible about your current needs, but also think ahead of additional functionalities you may need in the future. Including these considerations in your brief will help your agency build a site that is not only fit for purpose today but scalable for tomorrow.

 Highlight third-party integrations

Charities often rely on a variety of third-party platforms to manage their operations, from CRMs and email marketing tools to donation and event platforms. Ensuring these platforms integrate seamlessly with your new charity website is crucial for slick operational efficiency and providing a smooth user experience.

When drafting your brief, make a comprehensive list of all the third-party platforms your charity uses and how they need to interact with your website. For example, if you use Salesforce as your CRM, your website should be able to capture and sync data directly into it. Your charity may rely on Mailchimp for email campaigns, so ensuring that your site’s sign-up forms are integrated will help increase your mailing list. Clear communication about these integrations in your brief will ensure that the digital solution is as realistic as possible.

Consider user experience

The user experience (UX) is the pathway through the website. The role of UX is to get the different audiences or users through the website to a point of conversion as quickly as possible. This could be making a donation, joining an event, signing a petition, or any other key call-to-action you want to secure. This is achieved by defining a logical structure and simple journeys through the site that are friction-free and engaging.

In order to do this, the agency will need to know about the audience types you serve. Gathering as much information as possible on your audiences and their needs will help to inform effect UX on the new site. This could be done through specific audience insight work, sharing an appendix of the latest GA4 metrics, or detailing any existing website data.

The information provided will help shape the research methodology the agency will carry to gain more comprehensive insights to develop the UX.

Tell us about your brand

Brand design is often what users will notice first about your website. Having a compelling brand that is accessible, recognisable and showcases your values is going to enhance your website’s effectiveness. When thinking about your brand, you may want to consider if accessibility testing or even a rebrand also needs to form part of your new website project, to best reflect your charity’s latest strategy.

Accessibility should be a top priority, ensuring that your website is usable for all, including those with disabilities. Therefore, regardless of whether brand work is required, an agency will need to ensure the colours, typefaces, photography, and other visual elements work in a digital setting.

Sharing brand guidelines with your brief can help an agency get to know your brand and also identify potential opportunities for development or expansion, if needed.

Final considerations and collaboration

Finally, the success of your website project will depend on the strength of your collaboration with the agency. Generally, most agencies will be able to deliver the work, but the key thing to look out for is which agency do you want to work with, who really understands your challenges and goals, and who you actually trust. After all, this is an exciting and rewarding process to be going through, so working with an agency should be enjoyable too!

Conclusion

Writing the perfect agency brief might seem like a mammoth task, but it’s a crucial step in ensuring the success of your charity’s website project. By clearly articulating your digital strategy, budget, timelines, competitor insights, functionality needs, third-party integrations, UX and design detail, you give your agency all of the tools and insight they need to deliver a site that exceeds your expectations.

So, as you prepare to embark on your next digital project, use these tips to start crafting a brief that will set the stage for success.