In 2024, the children's rights charity Article 39 published an invitation to tender for a new website. It is one of the best small-charity tenders we have seen. The budget is stated plainly: £10,000 including VAT, for the full design and build, ideally including a refreshed logo. The page structure is specified in detail. The timetable is published. Suppliers are even invited to suggest improvements.
We use it in our guide to running a website tender as an example of doing it right. And it is also the perfect way to answer a question we get on most first calls: what does £10,000 actually buy a charity in 2026?
Start with the VAT catch
£10,000 including VAT is not £10,000 of website. From a VAT-registered agency, it is £8,333 of website plus £1,667 of tax that most charities cannot reclaim. From a supplier who is not VAT registered, the full £10,000 goes on the work. Same cheque, 20 per cent more build. Whenever you compare quotes, compare the VAT-inclusive figures. We have written before about how this plays out in ongoing costs too.
Then do the hour maths
Charity-sector web rates in 2026 run from about £75 to £110 an hour. Call it £90. So £10,000 with no VAT buys roughly 110 hours. £8,333 after VAT buys about 90.
Here is where the hours go on a well-run small charity build:
- Discovery, content planning and structure: 8 to 12 hours
- Design, two revision rounds: 20 to 30 hours
- Build and CMS setup: 30 to 40 hours
- Content entry and migration: 15 to 25 hours
- Accessibility testing with evidence: 8 to 12 hours
- Training, documentation and launch: 5 to 10 hours
That totals 86 to 129 hours. In other words: £10,000 buys a proper, custom-designed WordPress site of 10 to 15 pages, with donations, a news section, events, accessibility done properly, and a trained team at handover. Delivered by someone senior, with nothing skipped. It is a genuinely good budget for a small charity website.
Where the budget strains
Now look back at what tenders at this level typically ask for. The Article 39 tender wanted booking forms with automated confirmation emails, short surveys, a facility for collecting petition signatures, a quick-exit feature, content migration, and ideally a logo refresh. Each of these is reasonable. Stacked together, they are another 40 to 80 hours on top of the base build.
This is the built-in tension in most £10,000 tenders. The budget is right for the site. The wishlist is a £15,000 to £18,000 project. Something has to give, and what gives depends on the supplier you choose.
What "yes to everything" actually means
A supplier who accepts the full wishlist at £10,000 has not found efficiencies. They have decided where to cut without telling you. The usual places: a purchased template lightly restyled and presented as custom design, junior staff on the build, accessibility claimed rather than tested, migration rushed, and no meaningful support after launch. None of this is visible at the proposal stage. All of it is visible a year later.
The supplier you want says something harder in the tender response: here is what £10,000 covers done properly, here is what we would move to a phase two, and here is what each extra would cost. That answer can read as less generous. It is the only one that protects you.
How to get the most from £10,000
- State the budget, as Article 39 did. You will get proposals you can compare, from suppliers who can actually work at your number.
- Split your list into "launch" and "later". A petition tool or booking system added in month four costs the same as it does at launch, and lets the £10,000 go on the foundations.
- Ask how accessibility will be evidenced, not whether the site will be accessible. Everyone says yes to the second question.
- Allow 10 to 14 weeks. A five-week build at this scope forces shortcuts. The calendar is a budget too.
- Skip the free design round. Some tenders ask applicants for an illustrative homepage with their submission. Experienced suppliers increasingly decline free spec work, so this shrinks your pool to whoever is hungriest.
What we would deliver for it
For transparency, our own answer to the question. At £9,995, our Priority package covers up to 15 unique page designs, two homepage concepts to choose from, donations, events, email integration, WCAG 2.2 AA tested with evidence, training, guaranteed 8-week delivery, and 12 months of our Growth care plan included. No VAT on any of it. That is what £10,000 should buy in 2026, and you are welcome to hold other quotes against it.
If your budget is smaller, the same honesty applies down the ladder: our Foundation package is £2,995 for up to seven pages. If your site is large and old enough that migration is the real project, you are shopping for a rebuild, and £10,000 will not cover it; better to know that before you tender.
If you are planning a website project around this budget, book a free 20-minute call. Bring your wishlist and we will tell you what fits inside £10,000, what belongs in phase two, and what to put in the tender so good suppliers bid.
