If your team has ever argued about whether to capitalise 'Trustee', debated the Oxford comma, or sent out a report calling your beneficiaries three different things – this one's for you.

One of the first things I notice when I start working with a new charity client is whether they have a style guide. Not because I'm judging – I'm really not – but because it tells me a lot about how their communications have been managed up to that point.

A lot of small and medium-sized charities don't have one. It's completely understandable: style guides feel like something bigger organisations do, something that requires a branding agency and a hefty budget. In reality, a useful style guide can be a single Word document that takes an afternoon to put together. And the benefit – in time saved, consistency improved and onboarding made easier – is significant.

What a style guide actually does

At its simplest, a style guide records the decisions your organisation has already made (or should make) about how you write and communicate. Things like:

• Do you write numbers as words or numerals?
• Do you use an Oxford comma?
• How do you refer to the people you support – service users, beneficiaries, people we work with?
• Is it 'Trustee' or 'trustee' in running text?
• Do you write in the first person ('we believe') or the third ('the organisation believes')?
  
  

None of these questions has a universally right answer. What matters is that your organisation picks one – and sticks to it across every report, every social post, every funding application.

Without that, you get inconsistency. And inconsistency, however minor it seems, chips away at the professional impression you're working hard to create.

Who needs it most

In my experience, the charities that benefit most from having a style guide are:

• Small teams where everyone writes. When there's no dedicated comms person and the trustee report is being drafted by three different people on the leadership team, inconsistency creeps in fast.
  
  
• Organisations that are growing. Bringing on new staff or volunteers? A style guide means they can hit the ground running without having to guess at house style or interrupt a colleague to ask.
  
  
• Charities that use external suppliers. If you work with a freelance copywriter, proofreader, or designer (hello), giving them a style guide at the start of a project saves time and amends – and therefore money.
  
  

The free template

I've put together a Charity Style Guide Template that you can download and make your own. It covers all the key areas:

• Organisation name and how to refer to yourselves
• Tone of voice
• Writing about the people you support
• Capitalisation, punctuation, numbers and dates
• Preferred spellings
• Digital and social media conventions
• Images and design
• A quick-reference summary card to pin up or share
  
  

It's an editable Word document – no design software needed, no jargon, just clear prompts that guide you through the decisions. Work through it with your team, fill in your answers, delete what doesn't apply, and you'll have a working style guide by the end of the session.


A note on using it

The template is designed to be a starting point, not a rulebook. You don't need to fill in every section on day one – even getting the core decisions recorded (name, tone, capitalisation, how you refer to beneficiaries) is a solid foundation to build on.

And if you're working through it and realise your communications need more than a template can fix – inconsistent copy across your website, a rebrand that never quite made it into your documents, a trustee report that needs a complete overhaul – that's exactly what I'm here for.

I'm Kelly, a freelance communications consultant and proofreader specialising in the charity and voluntary sector. I help organisations communicate clearly, consistently, and with confidence – from annual reports to social media. Get in touch or browse my services to find out more.