How parish and town councils can help local groups get online

Parish and town councils are often the first place a village hall, youth club or history society turns for a little help. A website is a small cost that can make a real difference to how easily people find and use a group. Here are three practical ways a council can help, and how to keep it fair.

1. Fund a particular group's website

A community website from JW Community Websites costs £20 a month, or £240 a year, with the build, hosting, domain and a weekly update round included. A council can contribute that whole amount for a group, or part of it. A written quote and invoices are available, so it fits into an ordinary grants process.

2. Add to the shared pot

Instead of choosing one group, a council can give an amount each month to the Supporting Communities pot. Every £20 a month of unused money in the pot funds one more community website, and I open places for groups on the waiting list as the pot allows. The council would be listed on the Our supporters page if it wishes. The pot is shared, so a council can tell me a preference for an area, but I cannot promise its money reaches one particular group.

3. Help groups find help

Sometimes the most useful thing a council can do costs nothing: mention to local groups that support exists. A line in a newsletter or a note at a meeting is often all it takes. My free resources include wording groups can use to ask their council for a contribution.

What to ask any provider for

• A written quote stating the price, what is included and what is not
• Invoices that name the group and the period they cover
• A plain account of what the money kept running, so members and the public can see it was well spent
• Clear terms on what happens if funding stops, and who owns the content

Keeping it fair

Councils rightly want to treat local groups evenly. It helps to publish what the council will and will not fund, to set a simple limit that suits its budget, and to keep a note of the decision. The £20 a month price is the same for every group, so a fixed contribution is easy to explain to everyone.

For the details, see Grants and funders.