If you're new to the world of CRMs our guide will hopefully shed a bit of light on things. And if you're not, we can help you choose which is the best CRM for your charity or non-profit organisation.
Charities require a different kind of Customer Relationship Management system. Why? Well because they need to do a million things at once and have loads and loads of completely different data.
Managing donors, keeping tabs on volunteers, setting up and executing fundraising campaigns, planning events, sending out comms (to all of the above) and sometimes even dealing with online purchases - a decent CRM can bring all this together in one place.
The most important thing to understand is that there’s no one size fits all ‘best CRM for charities’ and it really all depends on your requirements.
Why do I need a CRM?
Before we wade into the pros and cons of specific platforms, it's worth thinking about what your charity needs. You’ll probably recognise some, if not all of these:
1. Donor management
According to Beacon CRM the average charity takes donations from at least 5 different sources, which means you could have multiple spreadsheets on the all go at once. Eeek. So a CRM should make it easy to see who your donors are, where they came from and when they last gave. Simple.
2. Fundraising and Gift Aid
Like all charities, tracking donations and keeping Gift Aid records in order is probably a huge priority for you, which is something a CRM will do in about one second. And we're sure you’d agree, the less time your team spends wrestling with admin, the better.
3. Volunteer management
If volunteers are a big part of your organisation, your CRM needs to manage these too. It should help you keep track of who’s involved and how they prefer to be contacted. Enter a CRM!
4. Reporting and insights
At some point, someone somewhere will ask for a report. Trustees, funders, senior leadership, you name it. Using a decent CRM make it easier to pull useful information without spending half a day stitching spreadsheets together.
5. Seeing the bigger picture
Just like any good working relationship your website and CRM should talk to each other. When your site is properly connected to your CRM, every donation, enquiry and sign-up helps build a better picture of your supporters.
6. Keeping things simple
Most importantly you need a database that's easy to use and set up without a degree in astrophysics. The best CRM is not always the most powerful one.
Our picks: The best CRM systems for UK charities
Here’s a quick peek at some of the leading options available to UK charities and non profits.
Beacon CRM
Best for: Small and growing UK charities
Probably the UK’s best known CRM for charity and non profits. Beacon is designed specifically for them and is particularly popular with organisations with an income below £10 million. In Fundraising Magazine's 2026 CRM Survey, it was named the number one charity CRM for the seventh consecutive year. Pretty impressive, right?
FYI: It may not offer the same level of customisation as some of the larger platforms, but that could be part of the appeal!
Donorfy
Best for: Fundraising-focused charities
Donorfy is another UK-centric charity CRM, and its claim to fame is that it was "built from scratch by fundraisers, for fundraisers". So, instead of taking a corporate CRM and adding in some features for charities, it was designed especially for donor management and to tie in with how charity fundraising organisations work. This means a better overall experience.
FYI: A good balance of decent functionality and ease of use, which is one reason it's become so popular with UK charities.
Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud
Best for: Larger charities needing a highly flexible CRM.
Everyone has heard of Salesforce - it's the daddy of all CRMs and with good reason. In fact, aside from time travel, there's not much Salesforce can't do! For charities the software adds in all sorts of jiggery pokery, including fundraising, programmes, volunteer management and impact reporting.
FYI: It can be integrated with almost anything! But the trade-off is setup: it can require specialist skills, and many charities rely on external consultants to configure and manage it properly (which can be expensive).
Blackbaud
Best for: Larger charities
Blackbaud is one of the biggest names in the sector and is the most widely used CRM among charities with a chunky turnover of £10 million or more. It’s really built for larger organisations with complex setups and smaller charities could find it overkill.
FYI: It can be quite complex to get started with, and perhaps isn’t intuitive as some newer non-profit CRMs.
Access Charity CRM (previously ThankQ)
Best for: Medium to large charities, membership organisations and universities
Access Charity CRM’s main USP is that it can manage ongoing relationships of all kinds.
All the activity is stored in one central profile so teams have a complete view of each supporter, member or alumnus whenever they need it, which is very handy. It’s used by medium sized charities as well as membership organisations and universities for this very reason.
FYI: It’s not a plug-and-play tool, so setup could take a bit of time.
CiviCRM
Best for: Charities with in-house technical expertise or a development partner.
CiviCRM is the leading open-source CRM for charities and non-profits. What does ‘open source’ mean we hear you ask? Well, unlike most commercial platforms, it can be customised however you want it, and hosted wherever you choose. This makes it a popular choice for charities who want to tailor software to the way their organisation works, instead of the other way round.
FYI: There is no license fee (that is correct, zero). But you'll 100% need technical expertise to set it up, customise and keep it running.
DonorPerfect
Best for: Large international organisations
DonorPerfect is used internationally and has some interesting tools, including their ‘Donor Score’. This cool little feature analyses a supporter's giving history and will score them from 0 to 100, helping teams work out who’s the most valuable. We will say though, it doesn’t feel quite as UK centric as some of the other platforms
FYI: Worth considering if fundraising is your main focus, but UK charities should check how well it handles stuff like Gift Aid, GDPR compliance and local support.
Final thoughts
Before making a final decision, think about the size of your charity, who'll be using the CRM every day and how it will work with your current website and tools. Taking the time to choose the right platform now can save you a lot of pain later.
Last but not least, some platforms will offer clients a free trial before you commit, so our advice would be to try a couple out and see which you like best. Good luck!
