Best CRM for Small Charities in the UK (2026)

Most CRM guides are written for large charities with dedicated IT teams and five-figure software budgets. This one is not. If your charity has fewer than 50 staff, an income under £1 million, and no in-house developer, this guide will help you find a CRM that actually fits — affordable, easy to set up, and built for the way small teams work.

TL;DR: Small charities need a CRM that is cheap (or free), quick to deploy, and does not require consultants. Plinth offers a free case management tier with AI-powered admin tools, making it a strong choice for service-delivery charities. Beacon is the best option for fundraising-focused small charities from around £32.50/month. CiviCRM is free but demands technical skills. Avoid enterprise platforms like Salesforce unless you have the budget and staff to support them.

What you'll learn: How seven CRM options compare on price, ease of use, and suitability for small UK charities.

Who this is for: Charity managers, trustees, and operations staff at organisations with 1-50 employees evaluating CRM software for the first time or looking to replace spreadsheets.

Why Small Charities Need a CRM Now

There are over 171,000 registered charities in England and Wales as of January 2026. The vast majority are small — roughly 85% have annual incomes under £500,000, and 31% operate on less than £5,000 per year. These organisations typically have between 1 and 20 staff, rely heavily on volunteers, and have no dedicated technology team.

Despite this, the demands on small charities are growing. Funders want better outcome data. Regulators expect robust record-keeping. Service users need joined-up support. Yet according to the 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report, 69% of charities cite organisational finances as their primary barrier to digital progress, and 63% struggle to find funds for infrastructure, systems, and tools.

The result is that roughly 30% of UK charities still have no CRM at all — they manage contacts, cases, and relationships in spreadsheets, email threads, and paper files. This costs staff time, creates safeguarding risks, and makes it nearly impossible to produce the impact reports that funders increasingly require.

A CRM does not need to be expensive or complicated to solve these problems. For a small charity, the right system should cost under £200 per month, be operational within days rather than months, and require no technical expertise to maintain.

What Small Charities Actually Need from a CRM

Before comparing platforms, it is worth being specific about what a small charity needs. Enterprise feature lists are not helpful when your team has five people and a shared laptop.

Essential requirements:

• Contact management — a single place for supporter, client, partner, and funder records
• Case or service tracking — if you deliver services, you need to log interactions and outcomes
• Reporting — especially for funders, who want to see reach, outcomes, and demographics
• Affordability — free tiers or pricing under £200/month
• Speed of setup — days or weeks, not months of consultant-led implementation
• Ease of use — staff and volunteers must be able to use it without extensive training
• GDPR compliance — UK data hosting or equivalent safeguards
• Mobile access — many frontline workers are not desk-based

The 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report found that 74% of charities now consider digital a strategic priority — the highest proportion ever recorded. But only 44% actually have a digital strategy in place, down from 50% the year before. For most small charities, the gap between ambition and execution is wide, and choosing the right CRM is one of the most practical steps to close it.

CRM Comparison for Small UK Charities

1. Plinth — Best for Small Service-Delivery Charities

If your charity delivers services to people — advice, support, mentoring, food provision, housing support — rather than primarily raising funds from individual donors, Plinth is purpose-built for what you do.

What makes it stand out for small charities:

• Free case management tier — unlimited clients, cases, notes, and file storage at no cost. For a small charity managing cases in spreadsheets, this is a direct upgrade with zero financial risk.
• AI Case Notes — AI Case Notes can save 50% or more of admin time by generating structured case notes from brief inputs. When your team of three is already stretched across delivery, fundraising, and governance, halving note-taking time is transformative.
• All-in-one platform — case management, partner CRM, surveys, volunteering, bookings, payments, and impact reporting in one system. This matters because small charities cannot afford to manage five separate subscriptions and integrations.
• Impact Reporting with Agent Pippin — generate funder-ready reports on demand rather than spending days compiling data from multiple sources.
• No consultants required — deploys in days, not months.

Pricing: Free tier for case management. Paid plans for additional modules. AI Grant Management from £2,500/year for charities that also distribute grants.

Best for: Charities with 1-50 staff delivering frontline services who need case management, outcome tracking, and funder reporting without enterprise costs.

Limitation: Plinth is not a donor fundraising CRM. If individual giving is your primary income stream, pair it with a fundraising-specific tool or consider Beacon or Donorfy below.

The 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report found that 76% of charities are now using AI tools, up from 61% in 2024. Plinth's built-in AI features mean small charities can access these productivity gains without needing to evaluate and integrate separate AI tools.

2. Beacon — Best for Fundraising-Focused Small Charities

Beacon is a UK-built CRM designed specifically for charity fundraising. It has become a popular choice among small and medium charities looking for a modern alternative to legacy databases.

What it does well:

• Clean, intuitive interface that staff can learn quickly
• Native Gift Aid integration and GDPR compliance
• Fundraising, events, and communications in one platform
• UK-based support team with an average response time under five minutes
• Pricing scales with database size rather than number of users, which suits small teams with large supporter lists

Pricing: From approximately £32.50/month for up to 2,000 constituents, rising with database size. This makes it one of the most accessible priced fundraising CRMs for small UK charities.

Best for: Small charities where individual donors are the primary income source and fundraising management is the core CRM need.

Limitation: Beacon is primarily a fundraising CRM. If you need case management, service tracking, or grant management, you will need additional software.

3. Donorfy — Best for Rapidly Growing Fundraising Charities

Donorfy focuses on community fundraising, events, and digital income — making it well suited to charities that are scaling their fundraising operations and need a flexible system that can grow with them.

What it does well:

• Handles mixed income streams (events, regular giving, digital campaigns)
• Integrates with popular payment and email marketing tools
• Flexible reporting for fundraising analysis
• No long-term contracts

Pricing: From around £50/month for smaller databases.

Best for: Small to medium charities with growing, diverse fundraising operations who want agility without high upfront costs.

Limitation: Like Beacon, Donorfy is fundraising-centric. It does not offer case management or service delivery features.

According to Enthuse's 2025 fundraising report, 77% of charities increased or maintained their fundraising income in 2025, and 64% of charity leaders feel positive about 2026. A CRM that supports this growth trajectory is essential.

4. Charitylog — Best for Advice and Information Services

Charitylog is used by around 1,000 charities across the UK, primarily those delivering advice, information, and support services. It is a solid option for organisations like Citizens Advice bureaux, carers' centres, and community support services.

What it does well:

• Purpose-built for service-delivery charities
• Tracks cases, contacts, documents, and workflows in one place
• Volunteer-friendly — volunteers can log their work without incurring full user fees
• Established track record in the UK charity sector

Pricing: Quote-based; contact Charitylog directly.

Best for: Advice and information charities that need robust case tracking and are comfortable with a more traditional interface.

Limitation: The interface is functional rather than modern. Charitylog lacks the AI-powered features and broader platform scope (bookings, payments, surveys) available in newer systems like Plinth.

5. CiviCRM — Best Free Option (If You Have Technical Skills)

CiviCRM is open-source software built specifically for nonprofits. The core product is free to download and use, which makes it attractive to budget-constrained charities. CiviCRM Spark offers a lightweight hosted version from around £8-12 per user per month.

What it does well:

• Completely free if self-hosted
• Highly customisable with a large community of developers
• Supports contacts, memberships, events, mailings, and case management
• No vendor lock-in

Pricing: Free (self-hosted) or from approximately £8-12/user/month for CiviCRM Spark (hosted).

Best for: Charities with a technically confident staff member or volunteer who can manage installation, updates, and configuration.

Limitation: Self-hosted CiviCRM requires genuine technical skills — server management, PHP, database administration. For a small charity without these skills, the "free" price tag can quickly become expensive when you factor in support costs and staff time. The 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report found that over 75% of charities report low data literacy, which makes self-hosted open-source software a risky choice for most small organisations.

6. Bitrix24 — Free Tier but Not Charity-Specific

Bitrix24 is a general-purpose business platform that includes CRM, project management, and communication tools. Its free tier supports unlimited users, which appeals to charities watching every penny.

What it does well:

• Generous free tier with CRM, tasks, and communications
• Wide range of features beyond CRM
• No per-user pricing on the free plan

Pricing: Free tier available. Paid plans from approximately £40/month.

Best for: Charities that need a general business tool and are comfortable configuring a non-charity-specific platform.

Limitation: Bitrix24 is not built for charities. It lacks Gift Aid support, UK-specific compliance features, case management workflows, and funder reporting. The interface can feel overwhelming, and you will spend time adapting a business tool rather than using something designed for your sector.

7. Airtable / Google Workspace — Flexible but Not a CRM

Some small charities use Airtable, Google Sheets, or Microsoft 365 (available free for charities with up to 300 users) as a makeshift CRM. These tools are flexible and familiar, but they are databases and productivity suites, not CRM software.

When this works: Very early-stage charities with minimal data who need something immediately and have no budget.

When it stops working: As soon as you need automated workflows, outcome reporting, role-based access control, or audit trails. Spreadsheet-based systems also create GDPR risks because access permissions are blunt and data can be easily copied or shared.

Research from NCVO suggests charities spend 15-20% of staff time on administrative tasks that could be automated. A proper CRM eliminates much of this overhead; a spreadsheet does not.

How to Choose: A Decision Framework

Start with your primary function:

1. You deliver services to people (advice, support, case work) → Look at Plinth (free tier) or Charitylog
2. You raise funds from individual donors → Look at Beacon or Donorfy
3. You do both equally → Look at Plinth for service delivery paired with Beacon or Donorfy for fundraising
4. You have technical skills and want maximum control → Consider CiviCRM
5. You have almost no budget and just need something now → Start with Plinth's free tier or Airtable, then upgrade as you grow

Questions to ask before choosing:

• What is our primary CRM need — managing service users, donors, partners, or all three?
• How many staff and volunteers will use the system?
• What is our realistic monthly budget for software?
• Do we have anyone who can handle technical setup, or does it need to be self-service?
• What reports do our funders require, and can the CRM produce them?
• Where will our data be hosted, and does that meet our GDPR obligations?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free CRM for small UK charities?

Plinth offers a free case management tier with unlimited clients, cases, notes, and file storage — making it the strongest free option for charities that deliver services. CiviCRM is also free but requires technical expertise to self-host. Bitrix24 has a free tier but is not charity-specific.

How much should a small charity spend on a CRM?

Most small charities with incomes under £500,000 should expect to spend between £0 and £200 per month on CRM software. Free tiers from platforms like Plinth can eliminate this cost entirely for core case management needs. The key is to avoid enterprise platforms that require paid consultants for setup — implementation costs often exceed the software subscription.

Do small charities really need a CRM, or are spreadsheets fine?

Spreadsheets work for very simple needs, but they create problems as soon as multiple staff need to update the same records, you need to produce funder reports, or you need to demonstrate GDPR compliance. With 30% of UK charities still operating without a CRM, many organisations are carrying unnecessary administrative burden. A free CRM tier removes the cost barrier entirely.

What is the easiest CRM for non-technical charity staff?

Beacon and Plinth are both designed for users without technical backgrounds. Beacon focuses on fundraising workflows, while Plinth focuses on case management and service delivery. Both can be set up in days without consultants.

Can a small charity use Salesforce?

Salesforce offers free licences to nonprofits, but the platform requires significant configuration to be useful for charity workflows. Most small charities lack the budget and expertise for Salesforce implementation, which typically costs £5,000-£30,000+ with a consultant. It is generally not a practical choice for organisations with fewer than 50 staff.

Is my data safe with a cloud-based CRM?

Reputable charity CRM providers like Plinth, Beacon, and Donorfy are built with GDPR compliance, UK data hosting, role-based access controls, and encryption. Cloud-based systems are typically more secure than spreadsheets stored on local machines or shared drives, because they include automatic backups, access logging, and permission controls.

Recommended Next Pages

• Case Management for Charities — learn how Plinth's free tier works for service-delivery organisations
• AI Case Notes — how AI can halve your admin time on case recording
• Impact Reporting — generate funder-ready reports with Agent Pippin
• CRM for Charities — Full Comparison — our broader CRM comparison including enterprise options
• Beacon CRM Alternatives — if you are comparing Beacon with other platforms
• What Is a Partner CRM? — managing relationships with organisations, not just individuals

Last updated: February 2026 Small charity looking for the right CRM? Book a demo or contact our team.