Completely Free Websites For Charities!

Usable_Websites

Usable Websites is a new Glasgow-based charity that has been set up to give away to other charities and not for profit organisations, professional looking websites that are very easy to update completely free of charge.

The charity has only been going for a couple of months and is currently existing without any funding, we are however still looking for new beneficiaries to assist.

If you feel your organisation could benefit from a free fully content managed, accessible and standards compliant website, then find out more and get in touch with Usable Websites via http://www.usablewebsites.org or telephone 0141 229 1115 during office hours.

greencat_2

This is a really idea and I hope it works out. Nice site btw too.

But - and I'm hesitating to say this because it is a generous offer - any charity taking up a service that is free should exercise a degree of caution.

A couple of years ago the charity I work for was offered a similar service. We declined as we can easily afford our own dedicated server but we felt some of our local groups might benefit. Quite a few took it up only to be left high and dry a year later when the company went out of business.

I'm not saying this will happen - but make sure you have a Plan B if things go astray.

Key questions to ask are: How can they afford to do offer this? Is it sustainable in the short/medium/long term? What happens if they can't continue to offer the same level of service? How necessary is your website to your charity?

That said there are free services out there eg Blogger, awardspace.com which might be worth trying for non-critical websites.

And if you get into buying a domain name - make sure you own it and that your details are registered with it. That way if problems do occur you still have access to your address on the web.