Best Software for Older People's Charities in the UK (2026)

Charities supporting older people need software that can coordinate befriending pairs, manage day centre activities, track wellbeing outcomes, and report to funders — without adding administrative burden to already-stretched teams. The right platform replaces disconnected spreadsheets and paper records with a single system that keeps service users, volunteers, and referral partners connected.

TL;DR: Older people's charities should look for software that combines volunteer matching (especially for befriending), activity booking, attendance tracking, wellbeing outcome measurement, safeguarding tools, carer liaison, and funder reporting. Purpose-built charity platforms outperform generic CRMs because they understand the specific workflows of befriending services, day centres, and social isolation programmes. Plinth offers a comprehensive platform covering AI case management, geographic volunteer matching, bookings, surveys, impact reporting, and partner CRM — all designed for UK charities.

Who this is for: Managers, operations leads, and trustees at charities supporting older people who are evaluating CRM, case management, or service delivery software.

The Older People's Charity Sector in 2026

The scale of need facing older people's charities in the UK is growing rapidly. Almost one in five people in England (19%, approximately 11 million) are aged 65 and over, and projections show the number of people aged 65 to 79 will increase by 17% by 2045 and by 41% by 2065. The Age UK Network supported around 1.3 million older people in 2025, but demand continues to outpace capacity.

Social isolation remains one of the most pressing challenges. Nearly a million older people in the UK are often lonely, and the number of over-50s experiencing loneliness was projected to reach two million by 2025/26 — a 49% increase over a decade. The health consequences are severe: nine in ten older people who are often lonely are also unhappy or depressed, compared to four in ten of those who are hardly ever lonely.

At the same time, the volunteering landscape is shifting. Formal volunteering among adults aged 65 and over declined from 28% in 2012 to 17% in 2024, meaning charities must work harder to recruit, retain, and coordinate volunteers. Among people aged 50 and over, 2.8 million are unpaid carers — many of whom also interact with older people's charities as clients or as referral sources.

Government spending on support for social isolation increased by 9% between 2023/24 and 2024/25, and the third sector continues to play a central role: 38% of voluntary organisations in the North East reported a strong impact on tackling social isolation. For older people's charities, this means growing demand, evolving funding expectations, and a clear need for systems that evidence outcomes efficiently.

What Older People's Charities Need from Software

Older people's charities deliver a wide range of services — befriending, day centres, lunch clubs, transport schemes, advocacy, dementia support, and community activities — often simultaneously and with overlapping service users. This creates a distinct set of requirements.

Volunteer Matching for Befriending Services

Befriending is one of the most common interventions for social isolation, and it depends on careful matching. Volunteers and service users need to be paired based on geography, availability, shared interests, and sometimes language or cultural background. Software must support geographic matching to ensure volunteers are placed close to the people they visit, and it must track the status of each befriending relationship over time — including visit frequency, duration, and any concerns.

Activity Booking and Attendance Tracking

Day centres, lunch clubs, exercise classes, craft groups, and social events form the backbone of many older people's charities. Managing bookings, tracking attendance, recording capacity, and handling waiting lists manually is time-consuming and error-prone. With 30% of small UK charities still operating without any CRM system, many organisations are relying on paper registers and spreadsheets that make reporting difficult.

Wellbeing Outcome Measures

Funders increasingly expect evidence that services are reducing loneliness, improving mental wellbeing, or increasing social connectedness — not just attendance figures. Older people's charities need to capture wellbeing scores at intake and at regular intervals using validated tools such as the UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS), or bespoke outcome frameworks. Software should make it straightforward to administer these measures and aggregate results for reporting.

Safeguarding

Older people can be vulnerable to abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. Charities need systems that flag safeguarding concerns, restrict access to sensitive information, maintain audit trails, and support multi-agency working when concerns are escalated. Paper-based safeguarding processes create unacceptable risk in services working with vulnerable adults.

Social Isolation Metrics

Beyond individual wellbeing scores, older people's charities need to track social isolation at a programme level. How many people who were referred as isolated are now attending regular activities? How has their contact frequency changed? Are befriending pairs meeting as scheduled? These metrics require structured data capture that most generic CRMs do not support out of the box.

Carer Liaison and Referral Management

Older people's services frequently receive referrals from GPs, social prescribers, local authority adult social care teams, hospitals, and family members. Managing these referral pathways — tracking where each referral came from, what service was offered, and whether the person engaged — is essential for demonstrating value to commissioning partners. With total UK charity sector income exceeding £100 billion from January 2025, competition for commissioned contracts requires robust referral data.

Funder Reporting

Most older people's charities are funded by a combination of local authority contracts, trusts and foundations, lottery distributors, and public donations. Each funder has different reporting requirements. Software that can generate reports segmented by funder, programme, service type, and time period saves significant administrative time and reduces the risk of errors.

How Plinth Supports Older People's Charities

Plinth is a purpose-built platform for UK charities that brings together the tools older people's organisations need in a single, integrated system.

AI Case Management

Track service users through their journey — from initial referral to ongoing support and outcomes. Create cases for individuals, assign key workers, record interactions, set concern levels, and monitor wellbeing over time. AI-powered case notes reduce the time staff spend on administration, letting them focus on the people they support. Learn more about Case Management

Volunteering with Geographic Matching

Manage your entire volunteer workforce — from recruitment and DBS tracking to shift scheduling and geographic matching. For befriending services, Plinth's geographic matching helps you pair volunteers with service users based on proximity, reducing travel time and increasing the likelihood of sustained relationships. Track visit frequency, volunteer hours, and befriending outcomes in one place. Learn more about Volunteering

Bookings

Manage day centre activities, lunch clubs, exercise classes, and social events with online booking, capacity management, and waiting lists. Reduce phone calls and manual admin while giving service users (or their family members) an easy way to book. Attendance is recorded automatically, feeding directly into your reporting. Learn more about Bookings

Surveys and Wellbeing Measures

Capture wellbeing outcomes using customisable surveys — whether you use validated tools like WEMWBS or your own bespoke outcome frameworks. Administer surveys at intake, regular intervals, and exit to build a clear picture of distance travelled. Results aggregate automatically for funder reports. Learn more about Surveys

Impact Reporting

Generate funder-ready reports that draw on all your data — attendance, outcomes, case activity, volunteer hours, and referral sources. Filter by programme, funder, time period, or demographic to produce exactly what each stakeholder needs. Stop spending days compiling spreadsheets at the end of each quarter. Learn more about Impact Reporting

Partner CRM

Manage relationships with referral partners — GPs, social prescribers, local authority teams, hospitals, and other charities. Track referrals from source to outcome, identify your most active referral pathways, and demonstrate your value to commissioning partners with clear data. Learn more about Partner CRM

Comparing Software Options for Older People's Charities

Charitylog is used by around 1,000 UK charities and offers solid case management, attendance recording, and outcomes tracking with unlimited user licences for a single annual fee. It is a well-established option, particularly for charities that need a straightforward CRM without extensive customisation.

Lamplight has supported over 700 non-profit organisations and has specific experience in the befriending and older people's charity sector. Its modular system allows organisations to add features like enhanced auditing or a safeguarding dashboard as needs evolve. Accessibility is a core design principle.

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is powerful but complex. It requires significant configuration (and often consultancy) to match the workflows of older people's charities. Per-user pricing can be expensive for organisations with many volunteers or part-time staff.

Views is designed for social care and support services and offers case management and outcomes tracking. It is less well-suited to organisations that also need volunteer management or activity booking.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best CRM for a befriending charity?

The best CRM for a befriending charity is one that supports geographic volunteer matching, tracks befriending pair relationships over time, captures visit frequency and wellbeing outcomes, and generates funder reports. Plinth is particularly well-suited because its volunteering module includes geographic matching designed specifically for pairing volunteers with service users based on proximity, alongside integrated case management and outcome surveys.

How much does charity CRM software cost?

Costs vary significantly. Charitylog and Lamplight typically charge per organisation (not per user), with prices starting from around £1,000-£2,000 per year depending on modules. Salesforce offers discounted licences for nonprofits but total cost of ownership — including implementation, customisation, and ongoing support — can be substantially higher. Plinth offers per-organisation pricing designed to be accessible for charities of all sizes.

Can older people's charities use generic CRM software?

Generic CRM software like HubSpot or Monday.com can store contact information, but it lacks the charity-specific features that older people's organisations need: safeguarding tools, wellbeing outcome measures, volunteer matching, attendance tracking, and funder reporting. Purpose-built charity platforms save time and reduce risk because these workflows are built in rather than requiring custom workarounds. With only 16% of adults in England volunteering formally at least once a month, efficient volunteer management is too important to leave to a generic tool.

What features should I prioritise when choosing software for a day centre?

For day centres, prioritise activity booking (with capacity management and waiting lists), attendance tracking, wellbeing outcome surveys (captured at regular intervals), safeguarding tools, and funder reporting. If your day centre also runs a befriending service or transport scheme, look for a platform that can handle multiple service types in a single system rather than requiring separate tools.

How do I measure the impact of a social isolation programme?

Effective impact measurement for social isolation programmes combines quantitative data (attendance frequency, number of social contacts, wellbeing scores using validated tools) with qualitative evidence (case studies, service user feedback). Software should capture baseline data at referral, track changes over time, and aggregate results for reporting. The key is demonstrating distance travelled — showing how individuals' circumstances have improved — rather than simply counting outputs.

Recommended Next Pages

• Case Management Software for Charities — A broader look at case management platforms for the UK charity sector.
• Volunteer Management Software — Detailed guidance on choosing volunteer management tools.
• How to Design Outcome Surveys — Practical advice on building effective wellbeing surveys.
• CRM for Small Charities — Options for smaller organisations with limited budgets.
• Impact Reporting — Understanding what good impact reporting looks like.
• Charitylog Alternatives — If you are considering switching from Charitylog.

Last updated: February 2026 Supporting older people in your community? Book a demo or contact our team.