Best Donorfy Alternatives for UK Charities in 2026

Donorfy is a well-regarded cloud-based CRM trusted by over 1,000 UK charities for managing donors, donations, and fundraising campaigns. It integrates with tools such as Mailchimp, JustGiving, Stripe, and GoCardless, and offers solid Gift Aid automation at an affordable price point starting from around £50 per month. However, many charities eventually find that Donorfy's fundraising-first design does not cover everything they need — particularly around service delivery, case management, grant tracking, or advanced reporting. This guide compares the best Donorfy alternatives available to UK charities in 2026, with honest assessments of what each platform does well and where it falls short.

TL;DR: Donorfy is a strong fundraising CRM for small to mid-sized charities, but it has clear limitations in service delivery, AI capabilities, grant management, and complex reporting. The best alternative depends on what your charity actually does. Plinth is the strongest option for charities focused on service delivery, case management, and impact reporting (though it is not a fundraising CRM). Beacon is the closest like-for-like Donorfy replacement with more features at a higher price. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud suits large organisations willing to invest in configuration. CiviCRM is the best free option for technically capable teams. Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is the enterprise-grade fundraising platform for large charities with large budgets.

What you'll learn: How five Donorfy alternatives compare on pricing, features, strengths, and limitations — and which type of charity each one suits best.

Who this is for: UK charity teams evaluating whether to stay with Donorfy or switch to a platform that better fits their operational needs in 2026.

Why Charities Look for Donorfy Alternatives

Donorfy does what it does well — donor management, recurring giving, Gift Aid claims, and campaign tracking — and it does so at a price point accessible to smaller charities. It is now part of the Access Charity Suite ecosystem, which brings additional integrations including Access Assemble for volunteer management.

However, charities outgrow Donorfy for several common reasons:

• No case management or service delivery tools. Charities that deliver frontline services — housing support, mental health programmes, youth work, community outreach — need to track cases, outcomes, and interactions. Donorfy has no functionality for this.
• Limited grant management. Charities that receive or distribute grants need application tracking, compliance workflows, and funder reporting. Donorfy does not cover this.
• Basic reporting for complex needs. While Donorfy offers standard fundraising reports, charities with multi-programme operations or funder-specific reporting requirements often find the built-in tools insufficient.
• No AI capabilities. With 76% of UK charities now using AI in some capacity according to the 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report, organisations increasingly expect their core software to offer AI-powered features such as automated case notes, impact analysis, or intelligent grant matching.
• No referral or partner management. Charities working within referral networks or multi-agency partnerships cannot manage those relationships within Donorfy.
• Growing data needs. As of January 2026, there are over 171,000 registered charities in England and Wales. Many are professionalising their data practices, bringing in analysts and data engineers — and finding that their existing CRM cannot keep pace.

The right alternative depends on whether your charity primarily raises funds, delivers services, manages grants, or does a combination of all three. The comparison below covers the full range.

Donorfy Alternatives: Comparison Table

1. Plinth — Best for Service Delivery Charities

What it is: Plinth is a purpose-built platform for charities that deliver services, manage cases, distribute or receive grants, and need to demonstrate impact to funders. It is not a fundraising CRM and does not handle donor management or online donations — an important distinction.

Why charities choose Plinth over Donorfy: Charities whose core work is service delivery rather than fundraising often find that Donorfy (and most fundraising CRMs) simply cannot support their operational needs. Plinth fills the gap that fundraising platforms leave open.

Key features:

• AI Case Management: Track cases, record interactions, manage safeguarding concerns, and generate AI-powered case notes. Available on the free tier.
• Partner CRM: Manage referral networks, partner organisations, and multi-agency working — a feature that no fundraising CRM offers natively.
• AI Grant Management: Track grant applications, manage compliance, and use AI to match with relevant funding opportunities. Plinth works with 60+ UK funders and has over £200 million in grants managed through the platform.
• Impact Reporting: Agent Pippin, Plinth's AI reporting tool, generates draft impact reports from programme data — saving charities significant time on funder reporting.
• Surveys and outcome measurement: Built-in tools for collecting beneficiary feedback and measuring programme outcomes.
• Volunteering management: Track volunteer hours, assignments, and impact.

Pricing: Plinth offers a free tier for AI case management, making it accessible to charities of all sizes. Paid plans scale based on features and organisational size.

Limitations: Plinth is not a fundraising CRM. If your charity's primary need is donor management, Gift Aid processing, or online donation pages, Plinth is not the right tool. It is designed to complement a fundraising platform, not replace one.

Best for: Charities focused on housing support, mental health services, youth work, community programmes, grant distribution, and any organisation that needs to track cases, demonstrate outcomes, and manage partner relationships. According to Charity Trends 2026 by GOOD Agency, charities are increasingly expected to evidence impact — making dedicated impact reporting tools a growing priority.

2. Beacon — Best Direct Donorfy Replacement

What it is: Beacon is a UK-built charity CRM that covers fundraising, donor management, event ticketing, and more. It is the closest like-for-like alternative to Donorfy, but with a broader feature set and a more modern interface.

Why charities choose Beacon over Donorfy: Beacon offers everything Donorfy does — donor management, Gift Aid, online giving, campaign tracking — plus additional capabilities such as event ticketing, grantmaking tools, and more granular reporting. Its UK-based support team has a reported first response time of under five minutes.

Key features:

• Donor management and segmentation
• Gift Aid automation and HMRC integration
• Online donation forms and payment processing
• Event management and ticketing
• Membership management
• Customisable reporting dashboards
• Integrations with Mailchimp, Stripe, GoCardless, and more

Pricing: Beacon's Starter plan begins at £33.50 per month (with a 10% discount on annual billing) for up to 2,000 contacts. Professional and Premium tiers are available for larger charities with more advanced needs, scaling to £200+ per month. There is a 14-day free trial but no permanent free tier.

Limitations: Beacon is more expensive than Donorfy, particularly at higher contact volumes. While it offers more features, smaller charities with straightforward fundraising needs may find the additional cost difficult to justify. Case management capabilities are limited compared to a dedicated platform like Plinth.

Best for: Small to medium charities that have outgrown Donorfy's feature set and want a more capable fundraising CRM without the complexity of enterprise platforms.

3. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud — Best for Enterprise Charities

What it is: Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is the nonprofit edition of the world's largest CRM platform. It offers enormous flexibility and power, but at the cost of significant complexity and implementation effort.

Why charities choose Salesforce over Donorfy: Charities that need highly customised workflows, complex multi-programme reporting, or integration with dozens of other systems sometimes move to Salesforce because it can, in theory, do almost anything. The platform supports fundraising, programme management, volunteer tracking, and grant management — all configurable to specific requirements.

Key features:

• Highly customisable donor and constituent management
• Programme management and outcome tracking
• Grant management (via configuration or AppExchange packages)
• Einstein AI features (available as paid add-ons)
• Vast integration ecosystem (AppExchange)
• Advanced reporting and dashboards

Pricing: Through the Power of Us Programme, eligible nonprofits receive 10 free Salesforce licences. Additional licences are available at a discounted rate, typically around $36 per user per month for the Enterprise Edition. However, the true cost of Salesforce is in implementation and ongoing administration. Most charities require a specialist Salesforce consultant or a dedicated in-house administrator, adding thousands of pounds annually. Research by the 2025 Charity Digital Skills Report found that 69% of charities cite organisational finances as the primary barrier to digital progress — and Salesforce's total cost of ownership is a significant factor.

Limitations: Salesforce is notoriously complex to set up and maintain. It is not a system that charity staff can configure themselves without training or external support. Implementation timelines are measured in months, not weeks. The interface can feel overwhelming for non-technical users. Despite its power, 50% of UK charities report being poor at or not engaging with investing in digital effectively — and Salesforce demands a high level of digital maturity to use well.

Best for: Large charities (£5 million+ turnover) with dedicated IT or operations teams, complex multi-programme structures, and the budget for professional implementation and ongoing administration.

4. CiviCRM — Best Free Alternative

What it is: CiviCRM is an open-source CRM built by and for nonprofits. It is completely free to use, with the source code available for any organisation to download, install, and customise. It ranked first for price and second overall in the Fundraising Magazine UK Charity CRM Survey.

Why charities choose CiviCRM over Donorfy: Cost. CiviCRM is free, which is a compelling proposition for charities operating on tight budgets — particularly given that 77% of UK charities maintained or grew their fundraising income in 2025, meaning many are investing cautiously while protecting core services.

Key features:

• Contact management and segmentation
• Donation tracking and recurring giving
• UK Gift Aid extension with HMRC online submission
• Email and SMS communications
• Membership management
• Event management
• Highly customisable workflows via extensions

Pricing: CiviCRM is free. However, most charities will need to pay for hosting (typically £20-£100 per month) and may need to hire a CiviCRM specialist for setup and customisation. There is an active UK community and several UK-based CiviCRM partners offering paid support.

Limitations: CiviCRM requires technical expertise to install, configure, and maintain. The user interface is functional but dated compared to modern commercial platforms. There is no official support team — charities rely on community forums, documentation, and paid partners. Updates and extensions can require technical intervention. For charities without in-house technical capability, the "free" price tag can be misleading once implementation and support costs are factored in.

Best for: Charities with technical staff or volunteers, organisations that value open-source principles, and those with limited budgets who are willing to invest time rather than money in their CRM setup.

5. Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT — Best for Large Fundraising Organisations

What it is: Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is an enterprise-grade fundraising platform used by some of the largest charities and educational institutions in the UK and globally. It is the most feature-rich fundraising CRM on this list — and the most expensive.

Why charities choose Blackbaud over Donorfy: Charities with complex fundraising operations — major donors, planned giving, capital campaigns, prospect research — often outgrow mid-market tools like Donorfy and need the depth that Raiser's Edge NXT provides.

Key features:

• Comprehensive donor management and prospect research
• Major gift and planned giving tracking
• Event management and social/email marketing tools
• Data enrichment services
• Advanced reporting and analytics
• Online donation pages
• Integration with Blackbaud's wider ecosystem (Financial Edge, Luminate Online)

Pricing: Raiser's Edge NXT pricing starts from approximately $3,375 per month (roughly £2,700 per month at current exchange rates). Blackbaud does not publish detailed pricing on its website — quotes are provided based on organisational size and requirements. Implementation costs are additional, with packages ranging from Starter to Pro tiers, and most organisations invest in consulting support for data migration and training. G-Cloud 14 procurement frameworks list Blackbaud packages with implementation costs included.

Limitations: The price point puts Raiser's Edge NXT beyond the reach of most small and medium charities. Implementation is complex and time-consuming. The platform's breadth means there is a steep learning curve. Some users report that the interface, while modernised in the NXT version, still carries legacy complexity from earlier versions. There are no meaningful case management or service delivery features — this is purely a fundraising platform.

Best for: Large charities (£10 million+ turnover) with dedicated fundraising teams, complex donor portfolios, and the budget for enterprise software. Universities, hospitals, and national charities are typical Raiser's Edge NXT users.

How to Choose the Right Donorfy Alternative

Choosing the right alternative depends on answering a few honest questions about what your charity actually needs:

If your primary need is fundraising and donor management: Beacon is the most natural upgrade path from Donorfy — more features, modern interface, UK-based support. If you have an enterprise-level budget and complex fundraising, Raiser's Edge NXT is the established choice.

If your primary need is service delivery and case management: Plinth is the clear choice. No fundraising CRM — including Donorfy — is designed to handle case management, referral networks, or outcome tracking. Plinth's free tier for AI case management means you can evaluate it without commitment.

If you need grant management: Plinth's AI grant management is purpose-built for charities managing grants, with 60+ UK funders and over £200 million managed through the platform. Salesforce can be configured for grant management but requires significant investment.

If budget is the primary constraint: CiviCRM is free and capable, provided you have the technical resources to support it. Donorfy itself remains one of the more affordable commercial options, so consider whether upgrading to a paid feature set is truly necessary.

If you need everything in one place: Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud can theoretically do it all — fundraising, programme management, grants, reporting — but the cost and complexity are substantial. Most charities are better served by choosing the best tool for their primary function and integrating where needed.

With 88% of UK charities now using QR codes and 47% active on platforms like TikTok, the digital expectations of donors and beneficiaries are rising. Whichever platform you choose, ensure it can integrate with your wider digital ecosystem and support the data maturity your organisation is building towards.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Donorfy being discontinued?

No. Donorfy continues to operate and develop its platform. It is migrating to the Access Evo platform as part of the Access Charity Suite ecosystem, which will bring additional integrations and a single sign-on environment. Donorfest 2026, taking place in London on 4 March 2026, confirms ongoing investment in the product. However, the move into the Access ecosystem may change pricing and product strategy over time, which is worth monitoring.

Can I use Plinth alongside Donorfy?

Yes. Because Plinth is not a fundraising CRM, it complements rather than competes with Donorfy. A charity could use Donorfy for donor management and fundraising while using Plinth for case management, partner CRM, impact reporting, and grant management. This is a common pattern for service delivery charities that also fundraise.

Which Donorfy alternative is cheapest?

CiviCRM is free to download and use, though hosting and implementation support will incur costs. Plinth offers a free tier for AI case management. Beacon's Starter plan at £33.50 per month is the most affordable commercial fundraising CRM alternative. Donorfy itself, starting from around £50 per month, remains competitively priced for what it offers — so switching to save money alone may not be the right motivation unless your needs have fundamentally changed.

How long does it take to migrate from Donorfy to another CRM?

Migration timelines vary significantly. Beacon and Plinth offer relatively quick onboarding measured in weeks. Salesforce implementations typically take three to six months. Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT implementations can take similar timescales. CiviCRM depends entirely on your technical resources. Data migration — exporting contacts, donation history, and Gift Aid records from Donorfy — is the most time-consuming element regardless of the destination platform.

Recommended Next Pages

• Case Management Software for Charities — Detailed guide to choosing case management tools
• What is Partner CRM? — Understanding referral networks and partner management
• AI Grant Management — How AI is transforming grant management for UK charities
• Impact Reporting — Why impact reporting matters and how to do it well
• CRM for Charities — Broader guide to choosing a charity CRM

Last updated: February 2026

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