Bernard Gives for charities

Your cause deserves to be seen.

Bernard Gives is a sponsored year on Bernard for small charities, community groups and CICs. A website, looked after for you, and the tools to reach the people you help and the people who help you.

A sponsored year on Nautilus Medium, or Nautilus Large where it fits better. Nothing to pay, and nothing to pay back.

Apply or nominateSee the two sponsorships

Why charities

Charities are being asked to do more with less.

Small charities and community groups are under real money pressure, and the people running them are often volunteers, fitting the website and the newsletter in around everything else.

So it’s no surprise that charities are asking how AI might take some of the cost and the time out. We think the useful answer is a plain one: not another tool to learn, but the everyday work around your website done for you, with you approving everything before it goes out.

That’s Bernard. He’s a web developer who looks after your website and the tools around it, in one place, where you just ask for what you need. We built him for our friends and family first. Bernard Gives is how we share him beyond our own circle.

Every hour off the website is an hour back for the cause.

How the chain works

One shell rehouses the whole queue.

A hermit crab can’t make a shell. It grows inside one somebody else left, until the shell starts to pinch. So it goes looking. When it finds an empty shell that’s slightly too big, it doesn’t move in. It waits.

Others turn up and line up by size, biggest at the front. When the biggest crab finally moves in, the next one takes the shell it left, and so on down the line until the smallest has moved too. Marine biologists call it a vacancy chain.

A Bernard sponsorship is a shell for a year. Grow into it. Then it moves on, and the whole chain moves up.

  • High TideIf you stay on after your year, you hand the shell on: you nominate the next charity.
  • The RockpoolYour shell goes back to your partner’s pool for the next local charity. The tide refills the rockpool.
Bernard in his flat cap hands a large whelk shell to the first of a queue of hermit crabs on the sand at the edge of a rockpool, each crab behind eyeing the shell of the one in front

Who it’s for

Small charities and community groups.

Registered charities, community groups, CICs and volunteer-run organisations. If you do good work and want more people to know about it, this is for you.

  • Food banks
  • Community gardens
  • Youth clubs
  • Hospices
  • Animal rescues
  • Village halls
  • Friends-of groups

Two ways in

Two kinds of sponsorship.

Both are a sponsored year on Nautilus Medium. Pick the one that fits. Where Nautilus Large fits your charity better, it’s that instead. We settle the plan with you when we talk, so there’s nothing extra to tick.

The Rockpool sponsorship

Chosen by your umbrella body.

We team up with councils for voluntary service, community foundations, federations, local councils, dioceses and funders. Each partner has sponsored years to give, and chooses which of their member charities get them, because they know who’s doing good work.

  • Your partner picks who gets one
  • A website, looked after on Bernard for a year
  • The whole kit that comes with it
  • Good for local charities, community groups and volunteer-run organisations
  • When you move on, your shell goes back to the partner’s pool for the next local charity

Run a council for voluntary service, a community foundation or a federation? Ask us about becoming a partner.

Become a partner

The High Tide sponsorship

For charities ready to be seen.

You do the work and people rely on it. Now you want a proper home for it online, one that helps more people find you and support you. We choose who gets High Tide.

  • Open to small charities, community groups and CICs
  • Apply for your own, or put another forward
  • A website, looked after on Bernard for a year
  • Everything you need to reach more supporters and volunteers
  • If you stay on after your year, you hand the shell on by nominating the next charity

Sound like you? Tell us about your charity.

Apply for High Tide

What you get

The whole kit, for the whole year.

A website is only the start. Bernard brings together the things you’d usually pay for separately, in one place, so there are fewer subscriptions to find money for. A sponsored year is a year on Nautilus Medium: the same plan our customers pay for.

  • A proper websiteMoved in from where it lives now, or started fresh with you. Looked after for the year, and changed by just asking.
  • Getting foundThe work behind the scenes that helps Google and AI assistants find you and describe you properly.
  • Your contactsSupporters, volunteers and everyone who gets in touch, kept in one tidy list that’s yours.
  • Forms and sign-upsEnquiries, volunteer sign-ups, event booking requests and mailing lists.
  • Email newslettersWrite to your supporters and volunteers, from your own address.
  • Social postsBernard drafts your posts for you to approve. Nothing goes out until you say so.
  • A marketing planA plan every six weeks, with every piece drafted for you.

Need more than that? Where it fits better, your sponsored year is on Nautilus Large: all of the above, with a shop, and courses and memberships included. We sponsor nothing bigger.

Nothing to pay for the year. What the plans include

Before and after

Google keeps the score. Here it is.

The average site arrives scoring 65 on Google’s mobile speed test. After Bernard’s worked his magic - the average score is 72.And it’s only going to get better.

Real Google Lighthouse scores from 10 live customer sites, each tested before and after, August 2026.

How it works

Four steps.

  1. Step 1

    Tell us about your charity

    Who you are, what you do and who you help. Or tell us about a charity or group you think deserves the help.

  2. Step 2

    We get to know you

    We look at your work and what you want your website to do. For the Rockpool sponsorship, your partner makes the call.

  3. Step 3

    We build it together

    Bernard sets up your site and your tools, we show you round, and you have a year to grow into it.

  4. Step 4

    Hand the shell on

    High Tide: at the end of your year, if you stay, you nominate the next charity.

    Rockpool: your shell goes back to your partner’s pool for the next local charity.

Apply or nominate

Tell us about the charity.

For your own charity or group, or for one you think deserves more support. A few lines in each box is plenty.

Step 1 of 60%

You

Rather talk first? Write to hello@bernardmoves.com. A person reads every message, usually within 24 hours.

For partners

Bring Bernard to your community.

We work with councils for voluntary service, community foundations, federations, local councils, dioceses and funders: anyone who supports a group of local charities. There are three ways in.

  1. Make the awards yourselvesYou have Rockpool sponsorships to give, and you choose which of your member charities get them.
  2. Point your members to usSend your member charities and groups to this page to apply for themselves.
  3. A year for your organisationBy invitation only: a year of Bernard for the organisation itself, to broadcast with and to see how you get on.
Step 1 of 40%

Who you are

Make things rather than run a charity? See Bernard Gives for makers.

Questions

What’s the catch?

Why are you doing this?
Because it’s why we built Bernard in the first place. We wanted the people around us to have good tools without the cost and the headaches. Small charities feel that cost more than most, and Bernard Gives lets us take some of it off their hands.
How long does a sponsorship last?
A full year. Nautilus Medium (or Nautilus Large), the website and the whole kit, sponsored for 12 months.
Who can apply?
Any charity or community group whose audience fits the plan. We sponsor up to Nautilus Large and nothing bigger, so that decides the match. We settle which plan with you when we talk, so there’s nothing to choose on the form.
Do we have to be a registered charity?
No. Registered charities, community groups, CICs and volunteer-run organisations can all apply. Just tell us a little about what you do and who you help.
Is this AI doing our work for us?
No. Bernard looks after the website and drafts the routine pieces, like posts and newsletters, so they take you less time. Nothing goes out until someone at your charity approves it, and the work with the people you help stays yours.
What happens after the year?
We hope it’s gone well and you stay on as a paying customer. If not, that’s fine. Before your year ends, take your words, your images and your pages with you, and if you have your own web address, it’s yours and it goes with you. You can also apply again.
How do you choose?
For the Rockpool sponsorship, the partner chooses. For High Tide, we do, and we’ll be sensible about it. We look at what you do and what a website could do for it.
Is there a limit?
No set number. We sponsor charities and work with partner organisations whenever it’s the right fit, and we make sure everyone we take on is properly looked after.
Can I nominate another charity?
Please do. Some of the best groups are too busy to put themselves forward.
Our council for voluntary service, foundation or federation wants to sponsor charities. How?
Send us the partner enquiry above. You can make the awards yourselves, point your members to us, or both.
The small print
Each sponsorship comes from Bernard Moves Ltd. It’s a sponsorship: we’re not a charity, and it’s not a grant. A sponsorship is a year of Bernard (the website and the tools), not cash, and there’s no cash alternative. For the Rockpool sponsorship, the partner decides who gets one. For High Tide, we do. Either way, there’s no appeal. We can withdraw a sponsorship if the site is used for anything unlawful or hateful. And we may say publicly who we’ve sponsored, because we’ll be proud of them.

How leaving works on any plan is in plain words on the cancelling page.

Know a charity that deserves more support?

Maybe it’s yours. Maybe it’s one you volunteer for or rely on. Either way, we’d love to hear about them.

Apply or nominate

From the Bernard team, with love.