The verdict in three sentences
A corporate foundation website with programmes, an online grant application portal and an impact report costs £30,000 to £90,000 excl. VAT with a London agency in 2026, for a 3 to 5 month timeline. Three items drive the budget: the application form (and its review back office), a CMS with two-level approval and WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility. Kolonell handles this institutional scope on a quote basis, after a scoping workshop, because two foundations of the same size can have very different governance needs.
What a corporate foundation website must include
A corporate foundation speaks to four audiences: applicants, employees of the founding company (skills-based volunteering), charity and institutional partners, and the press. Each arrives with a different question, and the sitemap must answer it in one or two clicks.
| Module | Content or function | Watch point |
|---|---|---|
| Programmes | focus areas, funded projects, map of activities | project pages filterable by theme and region |
| Grant calls | timeline, criteria, guidelines, application form | attachments, saved drafts, acknowledgement email |
| Review back office | scoring grid, comments, application status | role-based access, export for the grants committee |
| Impact report | indicators, stories, annual figures | readable web version instead of a 60-page PDF |
| CMS and governance | drafting, comms approval, director approval | version history, scheduled publishing |
| Employee volunteering | opportunities offered to staff, sign-up | possible link with the group intranet |
| Accessibility | WCAG 2.2 AA, accessibility statement | audit and fixes built into the schedule |
The application form is often underestimated. A foundation receiving 300 applications per call needs conditional fields, attachment size limits, a reviewer dashboard and automatic notifications. That module is what moves a London quote from £30,000 to £60,000.
Budgets observed with London agencies in 2026
| Scope | 2026 ballpark | Timeline | What is included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple editorial site | £30,000 to £40,000 | 3 months | 20 to 30 pages, CMS, two-level approval, baseline accessibility |
| Site plus grant application form | £40,000 to £60,000 | 3 to 4 months | multi-step form, simple review back office |
| Site, application platform and interactive impact report | £60,000 to £90,000 | 4 to 5 months | committee scoring, exports, data visualisation, multilingual |
| Third-party accessibility audit | £3,000 to £7,000 | 2 to 4 weeks | audit on a page sample, report and re-test |
| Maintenance and hosting | £4,000 to £12,000 a year | ongoing | security, updates, editorial support |
| Translation | £0.10 to £0.16 per word | 2 to 3 weeks | 15,000 to 25,000 words depending on scope |
These ranges are ballpark figures drawn from public tenders and market quotes. They vary with agency reputation, expected design level and the number of stakeholders on the foundation's side. For the same scope, Kolonell works on a quote basis, with sprint planning and a dedicated project manager: see our institutional offer.
Governance and timeline: the real critical path
The 3 to 5 months break down into 3 to 4 weeks of scoping and workshops, 3 to 4 weeks of design, 6 to 10 weeks of development, and 2 to 3 weeks of QA, accessibility audit and fixes. In a foundation, approval often goes through group communications, the foundation director and sometimes the board of trustees. Each level adds 1 to 2 weeks if the approval path is not defined from the start.
The CMS must mirror that path: an author role, a comms approver, a director approver, and publishing allowed only after the second approval. This workflow prevents grant results from going live before the committee has decided.
Mini case study
Claire, director of a corporate foundation in London, runs two grant calls a year and receives 250 applications each time. Today, applications arrive by email and her team of 3 spends an average of 25 minutes per application filing documents, chasing missing items and preparing the committee spreadsheet.
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- Current time: 2 × 250 × 25 minutes = 12,500 minutes, about 208 hours a year.
- With a structured form and a review back office, admin time falls to 8 minutes per application: 2 × 250 × 8 = 4,000 minutes, or 67 hours.
- Saving: 141 hours a year. At a fully loaded cost of £50 an hour, that is about £7,050 a year, before counting fewer incomplete applications.
Over five years, the time saved covers a significant share of the application module. Claire prioritises that module in phase one and moves the interactive impact report to phase two.
FAQ
Is accessibility compliance mandatory for a corporate foundation?
Legal duties vary by country: the Equality Act 2010 applies in the UK, and the European Accessibility Act covers many services in the EU from 2025. Either way, WCAG 2.2 AA is the sensible target, and an external audit costs roughly £3,000 to £7,000.
Can we use a SaaS grants platform instead of a custom build?
Yes, specialised tools exist from about £3,000 to £15,000 a year depending on volume. The choice depends on how tightly the portal must integrate with the site and how much control you want over applicant data.
How long does it take to launch?
Plan for 3 to 5 months. The timeline depends mostly on the internal approval path: each approval level not defined upfront adds 1 to 2 weeks.
Where should applicant data be hosted?
In the UK or EU, with a defined retention policy, for instance 3 years after the call closes, in line with UK GDPR or the GDPR. Attachments must be accessible only to authorised reviewers.
Why doesn't Kolonell publish a price for this kind of site?
Because the budget depends on the number of modules, application volume and governance path, which vary from one foundation to another. A one to two hour scoping workshop is enough to propose a precise scope and quote.
Let's scope your project. Tell us about your programmes, expected application volume and approval path, and we will propose a phased plan and a realistic schedule. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
