Create your personal Cloudflare account
Personal setupTools · about 10 min · Charity site owners and volunteers being invited to the FFC Cloudflare account
Cloudflare is where FFC manages every charity’s domain and DNS. To work with FFC on domains, you need your own free Cloudflare account so FFC can invite you into the FFC Cloudflare account — the same person-first pattern as GitHub.
This guide has one unusual rule, so read it before you start: you create the account and secure it, but you do not add any domain or website to it. Your charity’s domain lives in the FFC account, not your personal one.
Your account is you — your domain stays with FFC
You create ONE free Cloudflare account as yourself, secured with two-factor authentication. Your charity’s domain is NOT added to this account: FFC manages it inside the FFC Cloudflare account, and FFC invites your personal account in as a member. If you add the domain to your own account instead, Cloudflare tells you to change nameservers, control gets split, and onboarding stalls — so skip every “Add a site” prompt, no matter how often Cloudflare shows one.
- 1
Sign up for a free account
On your computer, go to dash.cloudflare.com/sign-up.
Sign up with the email address that is the primary account on your cell phone — the same identity approach as your GitHub account. Use your password manager to generate and save a strong, unique password.
The Free plan is all you need. You are not buying anything.
After signup, Cloudflare immediately suggests adding a website or domain (“Add a site” / “Get started”). Skip it. Do not enter your charity’s domain — or any domain. The “Do NOT add your domain” step below explains why.
- 2
Verify your email
Cloudflare sends a verification email — open it and click Verify email. An unverified account can’t accept the FFC invitation properly, so do this right away.
- 3
Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA)
In the Cloudflare dashboard, click your profile icon (top-right) → My Profile → Authentication, and under Two-Factor Authentication click Enable (Cloudflare calls MFA “2FA”).
Open one of your authenticator apps — FFC has you install both Google Authenticator and Microsoft Authenticator (see the Multi-Factor Authentication guide). Use the one that matches the account where you can; for sites that aren’t Google or Microsoft, either app works.
When the site shows a QR code, open your authenticator app, tap + / Add, and scan the QR code. The app starts showing a 6-digit code that changes every 30 seconds. Type the current code back into the website to confirm.
Cloudflare shows backup codes during setup — save them in your password manager before clicking past that screen. FFC requires 2FA on every account it invites, so this step is not optional.
- 4
Do NOT add your domain or website
This is the step where this guide differs from every other “set up Cloudflare” tutorial on the internet: your dashboard should stay empty. No domains, no websites, nothing.
FFC registers and manages your charity’s domain inside the FFC Cloudflare account, where volunteers handle DNS, email records, and security for you. That only works if the domain lives in exactly one place.
If you add the domain to your personal account, Cloudflare will instruct you to change your nameservers — which pulls the domain away from FFC’s management, breaks or delays your website and email setup, and has to be untangled by hand.
If Cloudflare ever prompts you to “Add a site,” “Add a domain,” or change nameservers — close the prompt. If you think you’ve already added something, don’t delete or change anything yourself; contact FFC and we’ll sort it out together.
- 5
Tell FFC your account email and accept the invitation
Send the email address you signed up with to FFC (text Clarke Moyer at (520) 222-8104) so you can be invited to the FFC Cloudflare account.
Cloudflare then emails you an invitation — open it and click Accept. You may be asked to sign in (with your password and a 2FA code) first.
After accepting, the account picker in the top-left of the Cloudflare dashboard lets you switch into the Free For Charity account, where you’ll see what FFC has shared with you. Your own account underneath stays empty — that’s exactly right.
Common questions
Why can’t I add my charity’s domain to my own Cloudflare account?
Because a domain can only be actively managed in one Cloudflare account at a time, and for FFC charities that place is the FFC account — where volunteers manage your DNS, email records, and security as part of the free service. Adding the domain to your personal account tells Cloudflare to move it (via a nameserver change), which splits control and breaks or delays your website and email setup. Your personal account exists only so FFC can invite you in as a member.
I already have a Cloudflare account — do I need a new one?
No. Use your existing account: make sure 2FA is turned on and send FFC the email address on it. Just don’t add the charity’s domain to it.
I already added my domain to my personal account — what now?
Stop there — don’t delete the site or change nameservers yourself, especially if the domain is live. Contact FFC (text Clarke Moyer at (520) 222-8104) and we’ll move the domain into the FFC account cleanly, with no downtime.
Does this cost anything?
No. The Cloudflare Free plan is all you need, and being a member of the FFC account costs you nothing either.
Next setup guides
Stuck on any step? Text Clarke Moyer at (520) 222-8104 — every step is meant to be simple, so if something doesn't match what you see, ask.