Charities and the third sector
25 years of Drupal websites, digital marketing and supporter engagement work for the third sector, delivered on a reduced agency rate.
Helping charities punch above their weight, digitally.
Charities operate in a different commercial reality. Tighter budgets, more stakeholders, more compliance, more emotional weight on every pound spent. The website and the digital programme around it have to work harder than they would in almost any other sector, and the partners you choose to deliver them have to understand that from day one.
We've been working with charities and not-for-profits for the entire 25 years Strange has existed. From early Drupal sites for membership organisations through to current digital marketing programmes for National Lottery-funded national charities, the third sector has shaped how we work, what we value, and how we price.
What charities get from us
- A reduced agency rate. Every charity client benefits from a discounted rate structure, with selective pro-bono work where the cause and the project align. We've always done this. We always will.
- Sector experience. Two and a half decades of working with charities, including Amnesty International UK, Centre for Ageing Better, Friends of the Earth, Pilotlight and SS Great Britain among many others.
- Drupal expertise. Drupal is often the right answer for charities: content modelling for programmes, fundraising and impact reporting; multi-site governance for federated organisations; accessibility designed in. We are a Drupal Association Organisation Member.
- Digital Asset Management. Charity teams produce more content than their budgets imagine. We've built DAMs that take that pressure off and let editorial teams focus on the work.
- Digital marketing. SEO, paid search, Google Grant, paid social, content programmes, conversion work. Whether it's donor acquisition, supporter engagement, campaign mobilisation or programme awareness, the discipline is the same.
- Accessibility as standard. WCAG 2.2 AA built in, not bolted on. The audiences charities serve depend on this more than most.
What charities need from a digital partner
- A partner who understands fundraising, supporter engagement, programme delivery and the politics of multi-stakeholder organisations.
- A partner who can plan and deliver against KPIs that matter, not just deliverables.
- A team that's emotionally invested in your cause, not just your contract.
- A partner who'll over-deliver, on the right things, at the right moments.
- A partner who'll still be there for the next pitch round, the next platform upgrade, the next funding cycle.
Charity and the third sector clients
How we work with charities
Charity engagements often look different from commercial ones. The procurement is more rigorous, the stakeholders are more numerous, and the timelines flex around campaigns, board cycles and funder requirements. Our approach reflects that.
- Procurement. We're used to formal pitch processes, framework applications and panel approvals. We bring the rigour to match.
- Multi-stakeholder discovery. Senior leadership, programme teams, fundraising, comms, supporter services. All of them shape the brief and all of them need to be heard.
- Tight-deadline delivery. Campaigns don't wait. We're set up to over-deliver on the moments that matter most.
- Long-term partnership. Most of our charity relationships span multiple platform generations, several rebrands and many funding cycles. That's how we like it.
What it looks like in practice
When clients come to us for charity sector work
- A new website build, replatform or redesign for a charity or not-for-profit, often on Drupal.
- A digital marketing programme: paid search, paid social, SEO, content, supporter acquisition.
- An accessibility audit or remediation, where compliance has slipped behind WCAG 2.2 expectations.
- A Digital Asset Management programme, where editorial output has outgrown the existing tooling.
- A fundraising or campaign launch where the digital infrastructure needs to be ready.
- A board or trustee group asking whether the current agency or platform is still the right answer. We're happy to be the second opinion.
Common questions
What's the reduced rate structure? Every charity client gets a discounted commercial rate against our standard rate card. The exact discount varies by engagement size and type. Pro-bono work happens where the cause and project align and we have capacity.
Are you set up to work inside framework agreements? Yes. We're used to charity sector procurement, formal pitches, panel approvals and framework applications.
Can you work with our in-house team? Yes. Most of our charity relationships are partnerships with internal teams, not replacements for them. We work in support of them, not around them.
Do you offer hosting and ongoing support? Yes. Managed Drupal hosting, monitoring, patching, security and a UK-based team to call when something needs human attention.
Google Grant PPC Management
One of the challenges we were facing managing the Google Grants account for Ageing Better was being able to deploy the full budget each month.
Attraction Marketing Using Google
Brunel’s SS Great Britain is Bristol’s number one visitor attraction and a top 10 UK museum (TripAdvisor 2022). It is home to the world’s first great ocean liner, the SS Great Britain, the Being Brunel museum, and the Brunel Institute, which houses one of the world’s finest maritime and Brunel collections. The charity that manages and maintains Brunel’s SS Great Britain and collections is the SS Great Britain Trust.
Let's chat. Tell us a bit about your project.
If you prefer to speak with someone, call 01202 203160 or if you'd like to book a 30 min meeting to see if we can help just let us know and we'll arrange a call with one of our Directors.