Clarkson

What Clarkson is

Clarkson is one of Squarespace's own free 7.1 templates, built on Fluid Engine, and it costs nothing beyond your Squarespace subscription. The demo is an environmental non-profit campaigning on climate and habitat protection: a full-bleed nature hero, a mission statement, a leadership section, a take-action prompt and a supporter quote in a green, grey and white palette. The old listing on this site labelled it an art and design portfolio with a gallery page; there is no gallery in it.

The pages and sections you get

Five pages: Home, About, Initiatives, Contact Us and Take Action. The home page runs a hero, a two-column mission block, a leadership introduction, a take-action call to action with a photo, a pull quote and an events newsletter sign-up. About opens with a heritage statement and a six-block story grid, Initiatives is a blog collection listing campaigns such as responsible land use and ocean advocacy, Take Action pairs Donate and Volunteer blocks, and Contact Us is a short intro with contact details.

Who it suits

A small charity, conservation group or campaign that needs a credible site quickly and for free. It is a mission-first layout: explain the cause, show the people, ask for help. It also works as a scaffold for a community group or advocacy project that will add pages later.

One honest caveat

Clarkson gives you the structure and nothing else. The Donate and Volunteer buttons lead nowhere until you add a Squarespace donation block or a third-party giving tool, the About page is placeholder text, and there is no events page despite the newsletter promising event news. You will also be building alongside every other site that started from the same free template, so plan on changing the fonts and imagery.

Setup

Choose Clarkson when starting a Squarespace site or switch to it from the template picker, then edit every section in the native editor and site styles panel. There is no code, no delivery wait and no licence; budget one to three hours to replace the demo content, connect a newsletter storage option and add your giving tool.

Related guide

If you are still comparing options, start with my full Squarespace templates hub, then narrow it down with the Squarespace templates for non-profits collection or my list of the best free Squarespace templates in 2026.