Civic BriefWordPress Nonprofit Theme
An accessible-by-design theme for nonprofits and civic groups
What Civic Brief is for
Civic Brief is a block theme for small nonprofits, charities, neighbourhood associations and civic groups — organisations that need to say clearly what they do, how to help and what is coming up, and to be usable by everyone who visits.
It ships three patterns written for that job: a hero with calls to action, a “get involved” call to action, and an events-and-updates list. Templates cover the home page, posts, pages, archives, search results and 404, plus a wide page template without a sidebar.
Accessibility is built into the defaults: a skip link, real landmarks, a visible keyboard focus outline, and light and dark (“Civic Night”) palettes whose text colours all measure above the WCAG AA contrast ratio. Fonts are system stacks, so the theme makes no third-party requests.
Who it suits
Small nonprofits and civic organisations that want an accessible, plain site they can maintain themselves in the block editor, with donation handling left to a payment provider or plugin of their choice.
What's in Civic Brief
- Accessibility-ready: visible :focus-visible outlines with a :focus fallback, a skip link, and semantic header/main/article/footer landmarks
- WCAG AA contrast across the full light and dark palette — no colour is used as the only signal
- Three patterns: Hero with calls to action, Get involved call to action, and Events and updates
- System font stacks only — zero network calls, no Google Fonts, no CDN
- Fluid typography via theme.json clamp(), full block-editor styling, and a wide page template without a sidebar
- GPL-2.0, no bundled plugins, no upsell, no tracking
Civic Brief at a glance
- Theme type
- Block theme (edited in the Site Editor)
- Current version
- 1.0.0
- First published
- July 14, 2026
- Requires WordPress
- 6.5
- Tested up to WordPress
- 6.8
- Requires PHP
- 7.4
Requirements come from the theme's own style.css. Checked on October 28, 2026.
Good to know before you install
- This theme is downloaded from this site, not from the WordPress.org directory, so WordPress will not show an update notice for it. Check this page for new versions.
- The theme does not take payments or include a donation form. Point its buttons at your donation page or provider.
- Changing palette colours in Styles can break the contrast the theme was built with; check text and background pairs after editing.
Next steps
Free tools to set up your site
WordPress theme.json Generator
Build a valid theme.json — and see which half actually changes your site.
Open toolWordPress Image Size Lab
Drop an image in. See every copy WordPress will make of it.
Open toolWordPress .htaccess Generator
The rules WordPress needs, plus the hardening rules it does not ship with
Open toolRelated
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FAQ
Civic Brief questions
What does Civic Brief need to run?
WordPress 6.5 or later and PHP 7.4 or later, according to its style.css, which also says it was tested up to WordPress 6.8. The current version is 1.0.0.
Which patterns come with Civic Brief?
Three: “Hero with calls to action”, “Get involved call to action” and “Events and updates”. Find them in the block inserter under Patterns, insert one and replace the placeholder text.
Can Civic Brief take donations?
No. It has no payment or donation feature. Link its call-to-action buttons to a donation page on your site or to your payment provider's hosted checkout.
Is there a dark version of Civic Brief?
Yes. Appearance → Editor → Styles includes a dark variation called “Civic Night”. Its text colours, like the light palette's, measure above the WCAG AA contrast ratio against their backgrounds.
Can I remove the Civic Brief footer credit?
Yes. Edit the Footer template part under Appearance → Editor → Patterns, delete the “Theme by Odie Themes” paragraph and save. Nothing depends on it.