The Short Answer

An emergency appeal page should say:

  • what has happened;
  • what you will do with the money;
  • what happens to money you cannot use that way;
  • how to give;
  • when the page was last updated.

The trustees should approve the wording about the money before any emergency happens, because that wording usually creates a restricted fund. On the day, a named person publishes from the approved template and keeps the updates moving.

An appeal page written in a hurry is not just a rough page: its wording decides what the money can be spent on.

The NGO website section checklist carries this as two rows: the appeal page for donors and a crisis newsroom for journalists. In a humanitarian emergency they are one page with two audiences, and both have to exist before they are needed.

Giving Happens in the Moment

The Charities Aid Foundation's UK Giving Report 2026 makes "why most donations happen in the moment" one of its themes. It describes reactive and unplanned giving as central and sets out "how charities can be ready to respond".

The Charity Commission's Public Trust in Charities 2026 heard the same in its focus groups in England and Wales. Participants "were motivated to donate in response to emergencies and crises (wars, floods, international appeals), although some were cautious and checked charities carefully first". Those groups were small, 17 people in three groups, so they describe a pattern rather than measure one.

That is the appeal page's visitor: quick, moved by the news, and some of them checking first, using the checks in what donors check before they give. The page has to be live while the news is, and it has to survive being checked.

The Wording Creates the Restriction

The page is not only a fundraising asset. It is the document that defines the fund.

The Commission's guidance on fundraising for an emergency is direct: "Emergency appeal funds are usually 'restricted'", because the appeal is for a specific emergency rather than the charity's wider purposes. A restricted appeal fund may be used only for the purposes set out in the appeal, and it is shown separately in the accounts. The guidance says the appeal must say what you are fundraising for and what you will do with the money.

The secondary purpose

The Commission's guide to trustee duties in fundraising warns that if you cannot spend restricted funds as you said, "you must comply with certain legal requirements which will involve extra work and costs for your charity". Its answer is a secondary purpose: what you will do if you raise too little, raise more than you need or your plans change.

The Code of Fundraising Practice makes that a rule for restricted appeals (rule 1.2.2): you must say what will happen if you raise more or less than the target.

The secondary purpose is what saves the trustees' time later. Under the Commission's guidance on appeals that raise more than you need:

  • With a secondary purpose, the surplus goes to it, without contacting donors or the Commission.
  • Without one, the trustees must pass a resolution giving the donations a new purpose, and over £1,000 the Commission has to authorise it.
  • Where an appeal cannot achieve its purpose and has no secondary purpose, some donors may be entitled to their money back.

A secondary purpose costs one sentence now. Leaving it out costs a trustee resolution later.

How widely to draw the purpose

This is a judgement. The emergency guidance points charities to the trustee duties guide for "how to set the terms of your appeal widely enough", and notes that, depending on those terms, a charity can carry out short and longer-term relief work.

A purpose that names only the first weeks may leave no room for the recovery that follows. That call belongs to the trustees and their adviser, not to whoever is on the web team the morning the news breaks.

What the Page Carries

Some of the page is fixed, approved in advance and changed only with the same approval. The rest moves by the hour.

Fixed, in the template

  • The purpose. What the money is for, in the words the trustees approved. If you will pass some of it to others, say so. The emergency guidance lists giving to a joint appeal such as the Disasters Emergency Committee's, funding expert charities in the area and making grants, and the funds must still serve your own charitable purposes.
  • The secondary purpose. On the page, in plain words, not in terms and conditions nobody opens.
  • Fundraising costs. The trustee duties guide says an appeal should explain whether any of the money raised will pay for fundraising costs, and if so how much or what proportion. Where your money goes covers how to state costs without misleading anyone.
  • How you will report back. The emergency guidance says an appeal should say how you will report back, and that you should be able to show donors how funds have been raised and used.

Moving, on the day

  • The emergency in a paragraph. What has happened, where and to whom, with every figure attributed to whoever published it.
  • Updates with a date and a time. Newest first, with earlier updates kept below, so the page shows what was known and when.
  • The closing date. The guidance asks for a closure date where possible, and for donors to be kept up to date if it changes.
  • A fast way to give. One prominent button, leading to a donation form already set to this appeal.

Where the website carries the restriction

The form must record which appeal each gift was for, or finance cannot keep the fund separate.

The confirmation should repeat the purpose, so the donor keeps a record of what they gave to; the thank-you page is the place for it.

Example amounts, such as what a set sum "could provide", are claims a reader takes literally. The Code requires appropriate evidence before you make one (rule 1.2.3).

The Newsroom on the Same Page

In a humanitarian emergency, journalists arrive with the donors and need different things:

  • a press contact for this emergency;
  • spokespeople in or near the affected area, where it is safe to name them;
  • dated releases;
  • the facts in one place;
  • images they may use.

The standing press page is covered in the NGO newsroom. For an appeal, I would put a press block on the appeal page, or on a linked page that reads the same facts, rather than write a second account of the emergency.

The DEC pattern

The Disasters Emergency Committee splits it across three pages:

  • The appeal page. The Venezuela Earthquake Appeal page carries a "Latest update" line with a date and a time, a short key facts panel and a donate button to a dedicated form.
  • The media centre. The appeal media centre gives a press phone number and email, a running total and dated press releases.
  • A standing page. What we do with your money explains how appeal funds are allocated and spent over time, so no single appeal has to explain it from scratch.

I loaded all three on 1 October 2026. For a smaller organisation the lesson is the shape, not the scale. When the same fact sits on two pages, the two drift apart as the day goes on. The facts belong in one block with one owner, and every other page reads from it.

If the emergency is your own, an incident or an investigation involving your organisation, this is the wrong page. That is covered in what your website should say during a crisis.

Who Signs It Off

An emergency appeal is the clearest case for splitting approval in two. The trustee duties guide says trustees should "consider when you should give final approval, such as approving content for a major campaign", and decide when they, rather than employees, approve.

Before any emergency: the trustees approve the template

  • which emergencies the charity's purposes allow it to respond to, since the emergency guidance is plain that "You can only raise funds for your charity's purposes";
  • the purpose and secondary purpose;
  • the line on fundraising costs;
  • the report-back promise;
  • the delegation for the day itself.

On the day: a named person publishes

A named person with a named deputy fills in the situation, publishes and keeps the updates moving, inside that wording. Any change to what the money is for goes back to the trustees.

Write the delegation into your website governance policy, so nobody has to find a quorum before the page can go live.

Keep every version

The trustee duties guide tells charities to keep a record of their fundraising materials "including any changes you make". If the trustees ever need the Commission's authorisation to use appeal money differently, the guidance asks them to send the appeal literature.

Your appeal page, as it stood on each day of the appeal, is that literature. A content system that overwrites the page with each update and keeps no history leaves the trustees unable to show what donors were promised.

Rehearse it while nothing is happening

  • The draft page exists and is unpublished.
  • A test gift reaches the right fund code.
  • The deputy can log in and publish without the person who built it.

An appeal page is written under more pressure than any other, and read later by people checking what was promised. Write the promise when nothing is happening. The emergency will change by the hour. The promise about the money should not.

Further Reading

What This Post Does Not Cover

This is about the website: what the appeal page says, who approves it, how it is kept current and what record it leaves.

  • It is not legal advice. The wording of your purpose and secondary purpose is for your trustees to approve with their own adviser.
  • The guidance cited is the Charity Commission for England and Wales and the Code of Fundraising Practice; charities registered in Scotland or Northern Ireland should check their own regulator.
  • It does not cover whether to respond to a particular emergency, how to run a response or how to choose and check the partners you fund.