Updated 1st October 2026
Essential accounts you need as a charity marketer
Starting a charity marketing role, or finally getting your charity's digital house in order? The right set of accounts is the foundation everything else sits on - and because so many platforms offer charities free or discounted access, most of this list costs nothing but an afternoon of set-up.
This guide walks through the charity marketing accounts every team should have, roughly in the order we'd set them up, plus the one piece of housekeeping that saves future-you a world of pain.
Checklist:
- Google for Nonprofits
- Google Ad Grant
- Google Analytics 4
- Google Search Console
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Business Profile
- Meta Business Suite
- Email marketing platform, e.g. Mailchimp, Dotdigital
- Canva
- Charity Digital Exchange
- Fundraising platform profiles, e.g. JustGiving
- Clarity or Hotjar
First, a word about ownership
Before creating anything, decide where these accounts will live. The most common mess we untangle for charities is accounts set up under a staff member's personal email - and when that person leaves, the charity loses access to its own analytics history, ad account or Facebook page.
Set up a shared organisational email (something like digital@yourcharity.org.uk) to own the accounts, grant individual team members access through each platform's user management rather than sharing passwords, and keep a simple register of what exists, who owns it and who has admin rights. A password manager for the team is worth its modest cost many times over. Ten minutes of discipline now prevents the worst week of your successor's life later.
The foundation: Google for Nonprofits
Google for Nonprofits is the single most valuable registration on this list, because it's the gateway to several things at once. Eligible UK charities get access to Google Ad Grants - up to $10,000 (USD) per month of free Google search advertising - along with discounted Google Workspace and the YouTube Nonprofit Programme.
The Ad Grant alone justifies the paperwork. Free search ads mean your charity can appear when people search for help you provide, causes you serve or ways to give - visibility that commercial organisations pay real money for. Grants accounts come with rules (text-based ads only, quality requirements, conversion tracking expectations), so plan to set it up properly rather than ticking the box and letting it drift.
Measurement: GA4, Search Console and Tag Manager
Three free Google accounts form your measurement stack, and they're best set up together, early, so data is accruing before you need it.
Google Analytics 4 tells you how supporters find your website and what they do there - which channels drive donations, which pages hold attention, where journeys break down. It only measures from the day it's installed, so this is the one to set up first. Our beginners guide to GA4 for charities covers it from first login.
Google Search Console is your direct line to Google search: which queries you appear for, which pages are indexed, and any technical problems Google finds with your site. It's also where you'll spot content opportunities - queries where you're on page two and a little optimisation would get you to page one.
Google Tag Manager lets you add and manage tracking (GA4 events, the Meta Pixel, conversion tags) without needing a developer for every change. For a stretched charity team, that independence matters.
Being found locally: Google Business Profile
If your charity has any physical presence - a shop, an office, a hospice, a venue - a Google Business Profile puts you on Google Maps and in local search results, complete with opening hours, photos, reviews and directions. It's free, it takes an hour, and for local charities it's often the single biggest source of discovery. Keep it current: an out-of-date profile showing wrong opening hours actively costs you visitors.
Social: Meta Business Suite and LinkedIn
A Facebook page run from someone's personal profile is a liability. Meta Business Suite gives your charity proper organisational control of its Facebook and Instagram presence - multiple admins, scheduling, inbox management and, when you're ready for paid activity, Ads Manager and the Meta Pixel. Setting the business account up correctly also unlocks Meta's charity-specific tools, like fundraisers.
A LinkedIn company page matters more than many charities assume. It's where corporate partnerships start, where trustees and senior volunteers check you out before saying yes, and where grant-makers quietly look you up. It doesn't need daily content - it needs to exist, look current and tell your story well. Our social media for charities guide covers what to post where.
Email marketing
Email remains the highest-return channel most charities have, because it reaches people who've already said yes to hearing from you. You need a proper email platform - not a BCC field in Outlook - for design, segmentation, automation and, crucially, GDPR-compliant consent and unsubscribe handling. Mailchimp offers nonprofit discounts and suits most small to medium charities, while platforms like Dotdigital suit larger organisations with more complex journeys. Whichever you choose, make sure it connects to your website's signup forms and, ideally, your CRM - we've written about choosing a charity CRM with exactly these integrations in mind.
Design: Canva for Nonprofits
Canva for Nonprofits gives registered charities Canva's premium tier free - templates, brand kits, background removal, scheduling and a shared workspace for the team. Set up your brand kit (logo, colours, fonts) on day one so everything the team produces stays on-brand, whoever makes it. For a charity without in-house design, this one registration transforms what your social feeds and printed materials look like.
Discounted software: Charity Digital Exchange
Charity Digital Exchange is the UK programme through which registered charities access donated and discounted software - Microsoft licences, security tools, and plenty more. Before your charity pays full price for any software, check here first. Registration requires your charity details and takes a little verification time, so do it before you need it rather than mid-purchase.
Fundraising platforms
Claim and complete your charity's profiles on the fundraising platforms your supporters already use - JustGiving being the big one in the UK. A claimed, well-presented profile with your branding and impact story makes supporter-led fundraising (marathons, birthday fundraisers, in-memory pages) look credible and keeps the money flowing to the right place. Just remember these platforms sit alongside your own donation pages, not instead of them - your own site is where you control the experience, the data and the Gift Aid. Our guide to donation page optimisation picks that thread up.
Understanding behaviour: Clarity or Hotjar
Analytics tells you what happened - behaviour tools show you why. Microsoft Clarity (completely free) and Hotjar record anonymised session replays and heatmaps, so you can watch where users hesitate, what they ignore and where your donation form loses people. Half an hour watching real sessions is often worth more than a month of staring at charts, and for a free account there's no reason not to have one running.
That's the toolkit. None of it is glamorous, but a charity with these accounts set up, owned properly and connected together will out-market one twice its size that's running on a personal Facebook login and a spreadsheet.
Want a hand getting it all stood up, or an audit of what you already have? Get in touch with the charity marketing team at Atelier Impact.
FAQs - essential charity marketing accounts
Which account should we set up first?
Google for Nonprofits, because approval takes time and it unlocks the Ad Grant. While you wait, set up GA4 - it only collects data from the day it's installed, so every week of delay is a week of missing history.
Are these really free for charities?
Most of them, yes. Google for Nonprofits, GA4, Search Console, Tag Manager, Google Business Profile, Meta Business Suite, LinkedIn, Microsoft Clarity and Canva for Nonprofits are all free for eligible charities. Email platforms typically offer nonprofit discounts rather than free tiers, and Charity Digital Exchange charges small admin fees on donated software.
What do we need to prove eligibility?
Usually your registered charity number (Charity Commission, OSCR or CCNI) and verification through each programme's process - Google and Canva both use a third-party verifier. Have your registration details and charity email address to hand and the process is straightforward, if occasionally slow.
Who should own these accounts?
The charity, never an individual. Use a shared organisational email as the account owner, give team members their own named access through each platform's user management, and keep a register of accounts and admins. When someone leaves, you revoke one person's access rather than losing the account.
We already have some of these but nobody knows the logins. Where do we start?
Start with recovery, not recreation - duplicate accounts cause their own problems, especially with analytics history and page followers. Most platforms have processes for reclaiming organisational accounts. Work through them, consolidate ownership under your shared email, then fill the gaps with fresh set-ups.
Do we need all of these on day one?
No. The foundation four - Google for Nonprofits, GA4, Meta Business Suite and an email platform - cover most charities' immediate needs. Add the rest as your activity grows, but set up anything with a waiting period (Google for Nonprofits, Charity Digital Exchange) early so it's ready when you are.
