Choosing a CRM for members and donors
The spreadsheet no longer keeps up? Here is how to state the need, compare three tools without getting lost, respect the GDPR, link the CRM to the website and succeed at the set-up with a team of volunteers.
Redoing your association's website: where to start
An association's website is rarely redone out of desire. It is redone because it can no longer be updated, because it no longer says what the association does, or because a partner looked at it before a meeting and everyone was embarrassed. This guide gives the order of the steps, so the project fits in the time of a small team, and it says what it costs, tier by tier.
In short
- Two signs out of three (nobody can edit it any more, the home page does not say what you do, the practical information is wrong): it is time
- Write five texts before talking design: the welcome sentence, three actions, what the visitor can do, the practical information, what you keep
- Choose a tool your referent will be able to run in three years, with the domain name in the association's name
- At cost, an association's website goes from 1 200 EUR (launch website, 3 days) to 8 000 EUR (multilingual complete website, 20 days); the sponsored cohort is at 0
- Search visibility is not a line in the quote: the technical base is included everywhere, the rest is regular work
1. Deciding whether it is time
Three signs are enough: nobody can edit the website any more, the home page does not say in one sentence what you do, and the practical information (address, opening hours, contact) is wrong or impossible to find. If two of the three are true, it is time. If only one is, an update may be enough.
Two other signs often come up in meetings: the website does not display properly on a phone (most of your visitors are there), and it has no security certificate (the padlock in the browser). Those two points cannot always be fixed without redoing.
2. Naming a referent and a decision-maker
A website project fails when everyone gives an opinion and nobody decides. Name one person who gathers the content and one person who decides (often the same). The board validates at the end, not page by page. Count, for the referent, half a day a week for the duration of the project: that is the content time, and it makes the difference between a website delivered in two months and one that drags on for six.
3. Writing before designing
Before any design question, write five things:
- The welcome sentence: who you help, how, where
- Your three main actions, in three paragraphs
- What the visitor can do: join, give, take part, get in touch
- The practical information, verified
- What you want to keep from the old website, and what you leave behind
These texts are the material of the website. A designer works better with them than with "make us something modern". They also serve search visibility: a search engine and an AI read the welcome sentence and the page titles first. If you lack time to write, the guide AI for associations explains how to start from your notes.
4. Choosing the tool
An association's website runs on a CMS, a no-code editing tool, or as a static website when it rarely changes. What matters: the simplicity of the editor for your referent, security without paid extensions, and who will be able to maintain it in three years.
WordPress powers about four websites out of ten worldwide according to W3Techs (September 2026), which makes it the default choice of many agencies; its weakness for a small association is the maintenance of extensions and security updates, which someone has to follow. Rented platforms (Wix, Squarespace and their peers) avoid that maintenance but you own neither the website nor its data, and the monthly price adds up over years. The glossary explains the CMS and Wagtail, the foundation of the programme's editable websites: a tool with no extensions to watch, whose code belongs to you.
5. Counting the budget, and funding it
A complete showcase website, with its own design, a CMS, training and hosting, costs between 10 000 and 12 000 EUR excl. VAT at market price for a single association. Kern4Good, the impact hub of KERN-IT, publishes an at-cost ladder, without margin, where each tier matches a need:
- 0 EUR: the sponsored cohort. Companies fund the solidarity pool, your association pays nothing and relays the campaign. Selection on the societal goal and the need
- 1 200 EUR: the launch website. Three days: one to five pages generated with AI on a Kern4Good base and framed by a designer, one language, your content, no editor. For an association that is starting out
- 2 400 EUR: the complete static website. Six days: five to ten pages, a contact form, news we update on request, still without CMS. For an association that publishes little
- 4 000 EUR: the small editable website. Ten days: Wagtail, an editor for your team, three or four page templates, a blog, a short training, on a closed scope
- The Source Hub partner cohort. Five associations gathered by the non-profits' group purchasing platform, a complete website each (five pages and a blog, content migration, training, twelve months of hosting), at the cohort's reduced rate, under Source Hub's conditions
- 8 000 EUR: the complete website. Twenty days: the agency's Business website (12 000 EUR at KernWeb), custom Wagtail, eight templates, multilingual, content migration, modules (calendar, simple directory, membership, donation button), design direction. For an established association that wants a lasting base
The Pricing page details each tier, what it includes and what it does not. The ladder is made for a normal website: a website with hundreds of pages, a platform or a private area are outside the ladder, on quote, and the guide Website levels says why. Regional aids exist depending on your situation: the guide Grants and digital aids details them, sources included.
Search visibility is not a line in the quote
Every offer, from 1 200 EUR, includes the technical minimum: a clean structure, titles and descriptions, a sitemap, performance, mobile display, structured data. That is what lets Google and AI engines read the website. Being found on the queries that matter to you is another job: a content strategy, pages that answer your publics' questions, links from other websites, regular follow-up. It is counted in days per month, on your side or ours, and the guide Getting your association's website found says how to organise it.
6. Preparing what comes next
The website lives after go-live. Plan who publishes one news item a month, who checks the practical information every quarter, and where the access details are noted (domain name, hosting, editor). The domain name stays in the association's name, always: DNS Belgium counted nearly 1.7 million active .be names at the end of 2025, and a share of those that expire every year are association websites whose volunteer holder has left.
Accessibility: a requirement that is becoming the norm
The European Accessibility Act (EAA) has applied since 28 June 2025 to several private services (e-commerce, banking, transport). It does not directly target a small association, but it sets the standard your public funders and partners expect: readable contrasts, keyboard navigation, alternative texts on images, understandable forms. An association serving vulnerable publics has all the more reason to apply it, and it is decided at design time, not afterwards.
What not to do
- Starting by choosing a template or a designer before having written the welcome sentence
- Wanting twenty pages: five maintained pages are worth more
- Leaving the website or the domain name in a volunteer's name
- Forgetting the training: a website nobody can edit is back to square one
- Believing the website will rank by itself once online
To register your association for the next cohort, it is here. To form your own cohort with four other associations, read Create your cohort. The Website for non-profits page sums up what the programme does.
Sources
Pages consulted on 19 September 2026. Rates, ceilings and percentages change: check the update date of each page before building a budget on it.
How long does a website project take?
Ten working days after receiving the content for a launch website; two to six months in a cohort, depending on the responsiveness of the associations in the group. The longest time is always the content: write it first.
Do we need professional photos?
Real photos of your activities, taken with a recent phone and a bit of light, do better than stock images. Ask the agreement of recognisable people, and keep a record of that agreement.
What if we have no budget at all?
The sponsored cohort exists for that: companies fund the solidarity pool. Register your association; the selection is made on the societal goal and the need, not on the budget.
Is a 1 200 EUR website a real website?
Yes: a few well-written pages, a framed design, a form, the technical base of search visibility, your domain name. It has no editor: changes go through us. When you publish every week, you will move to an editable website.
Can we keep our current website and only improve it?
Sometimes. If the tool is healthy and the referent can edit it, reworking the texts and pages costs less than a redesign. The first conversation is there to say it honestly.
