An East Sussex-based animal welfare charity has launched a new website in a bid to increase online donations and become less reliant on legacy gifts.

Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare chief executive, Nigel Mason said the new website would be, “an important fundraising tool in this competitive world”.

The charity had previously relied heavily on legacy giving but competition from other charities means that money is more often shared between charities so that the individual donations are smaller than 10 years ago, the charity said. This means that to raise the same amount as before the charity needs to work harder.

According to Raystede’s accounts filed with the Charity Commission it raised £1,132,221 through legacy donations in 2010/11. This was 62 per cent of its total income.

Since 2007 legacy giving has accounted for between 45 per cent and 72 per cent of the charity’s annual income. A spokeswoman for the charity told civilsociety.co.uk that the unpredictability of legacy donations made it difficult to plan for the future.

Raystede has already explored other fundraising paths, Mason said: “We had to look for other ways of raising funds, such as through the café and shop, and plough the profits back into the charity.”

The new website, designed by website designers Blue Planet, is also the main way of rehoming pets as visitors to the website can view photos and descriptions of each of the animals available and since the new site launched Raystede says it has had more people asking about adoption.

Other features include; an online shop, events calendar, booking system and information about working with the centre to provide learning programmes in schools.