Our website templates — and why the footer matters so much
Every website Free For Charity builds or validates starts from one of two open-source templates, and both converge on the same thing: the FFC footer standard, a compliance and trust layer that renders on every page of every supported site. This page explains which template fits which charity, what the templates ship, and — item by item — why everything in the footer is there.
Two templates, one standard
The choice between templates comes down to one question: does your charity already have a website design it loves?
Starting fresh?
Single Page Site Template
For charities without a website — most pre-501(c)(3)s start here. A complete, professionally structured single-page site built from our tested template. We design and build it from your content.
- Every section a charity needs: mission, programs, team, donate, contact
- Fast static hosting on GitHub Pages
- Full FFC footer with legal pages, cookie consent, and analytics built in
Already love your website?
Footer-Only Template
For charities that already have a designed site and need the validation and formality of the FFC standard — added to your existing design instead of replacing it.
- The FFC footer and seven legal/policy pages
- GDPR cookie consent and analytics
- Team section and SEO infrastructure
Not sure? Choose the Single Page Site Template — it is the fastest path to a validated site. Whichever template a site starts from, it launches on its free GitHub Pages address first and must be validated live there against the FFC standard; passing validation is what unlocks the free .org domain, which in turn unlocks free nonprofit email. The full sequence is on the why website first and onboarding journey pages.
What both templates ship
Beyond their different starting points, the two templates deliver the same infrastructure: seven legal and policy pages, a consent banner that gates analytics and marketing until a visitor opts in, Google Tag Manager wiring, a team section, search engine metadata with a sitemap, an accessibility bar (skip links, labeled landmarks, WCAG contrast targets), security.txt, and static hosting that runs for free on GitHub Pages. A charity edits one configuration file — name, EIN, contact details, social links, policies — and every page, the footer, and the site metadata update together.
Why the footer is the heart of the standard
A footer seems like the least glamorous part of a website. It is also the only part that appears on every page — which makes it the one place a donor, grant maker, or regulator is guaranteed to find what they need, no matter where a search engine dropped them. That is why FFC validation checks the footer on every page of a site before any money is spent on a domain. Here is every item, and why it earns its place:
The Candid (GuideStar) seal, profile link, and EIN
A transparency-seal badge linking to the charity’s public Candid profile, a direct profile-link button, and the charity’s legal name with its EIN.
Before a foundation writes a grant check or a donor gives, they verify the charity — and Candid (formerly GuideStar) is where they look first. A working profile link on every page turns “we are a real 501(c)(3)” from a claim into something anyone can check in one click, and grant seekers get a ready-to-cite profile link for every application. The EIN lets anyone independently confirm the organization in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search. These items only render once they are true — see the two levels below.
The donate pathway
A Donate link in the footer’s quick links, so every page ends with a route to give. Sites built from the Single Page template ship a built-in Zeffy donation form — a zero-fee processor, so donations arrive whole.
A visitor moved to give should never have to hunt for how. Because the footer renders on every page, the giving pathway is always one scroll away — and our post-deploy monitoring treats a site that loses its donation capability as a failure, not a cosmetic issue.
Two donation policies — on purpose
The charity’s own Donation Policy (tax-deductibility, receipts, refund terms) and, beside it, the Free For Charity Donation Policy covering FFC’s own gift acceptance.
Donors deserve to know how a gift is handled before they give — by the charity they are giving to and by the organization supporting its website. The FFC policy link keeps Free For Charity’s name even on a fully customized charity site, because that page documents our policy, not the charity’s.
Privacy policy, cookie policy, and consent that means something
A privacy policy with real data-rights language (access, correction, erasure, withdrawal of consent), a cookie policy explaining every cookie category, and a consent banner with Accept All, Decline All, and Customize.
The templates are built to the strictest common bar our visitors browse under — the opt-in consent expected in the UK and EU, and the do-not-sell posture California expects. Analytics and marketing scripts stay off until a visitor opts in, and withdrawing consent actually deletes the tracking cookies rather than just hiding the banner. A two-person charity gets the privacy posture of a far larger organization, by default.
Terms of service
Plain-language terms covering eligibility, acceptable use, and governing law.
Every site needs a stated legal basis for the visitor relationship. Shipping it in the template means no charity launches without one.
Vulnerability disclosure policy and security acknowledgements
A coordinated-disclosure policy with safe-harbor language for good-faith security researchers, plus a public acknowledgements page — both wired into the machine-readable security.txt standard (RFC 9116).
Charities hold donor data, and security researchers who find a problem need a safe, obvious way to report it. Publishing the policy signals stewardship; the safe harbor makes reporting safe; security.txt makes it discoverable by the tools researchers actually use.
Real-world contact details
An email address, a phone number, and physical addresses that open in Google Maps.
Verifiable contact details are the legitimacy signals grant applications, nonprofit technology programs, and payment processors check — and they let a donor, journalist, or partner reach a human. An organization that publishes where it is and how to call it is measurably more trustworthy than one that hides behind a form.
“Supported by Free For Charity” and the charity login
A permanent attribution linking to freeforcharity.org, and a Supported Charity Login link into the FFC hub.
The attribution is the one element of the footer that never changes when a charity customizes its site: it records the provenance of the free stack the site runs on, and it is how the next charity discovers that all of this is available for free. The login link gives every supported charity a path from its own site into the FFC hub that manages its services.
A copyright line that only claims what is true
A copyright with the year computed at build time — never a stale hand-typed year — and, where it applies, the “a US 501c3 Non Profit” status line.
The footer standard has two passing levels. A charity still working toward its IRS determination runs Level 1: the full footer minus the 501(c)(3) status line and the Candid link, because on a pre-501(c)(3) site those would be false claims. The day the determination letter arrives, a small change adds both and the site is at Level 2. The footer never says more than the charity can prove.
Enforced, not just written down
A standard that lives only in a document decays. The FFC footer standard is enforced by machines: automated tests in every template pin the footer’s required content, drift checks stop a customized fork from accidentally shipping FFC’s identity while protecting the permanent attribution, and post-deploy monitoring checks every live site for its footer, policy links, and donation capability. We even maintain a dedicated canary site that we deliberately break, one failure class at a time, to prove the monitoring catches what it claims to catch. When you see the FFC footer on a charity’s site, it is not decoration — it is a continuously verified statement that the site meets the standard.
For volunteers and site builders
The operational guides live on our admin site: how to build a charity site from the template and how to adopt the FFC footer on an existing website. Both templates are open source — read them, fork them, or contribute on GitHub.
Ready to start?
The whole journey — application, website, domain, email, and ongoing support — is free for verified 501(c)(3) organizations, and pre-501(c)(3) organizations can start at Level 1 today.