Best Software for Community Organisations in the UK (2026)
The best CRM and management software for UK community organisations, CICs, and community groups. Compare all-in-one platforms for bookings, case management, and impact reporting.
The right software for a community organisation replaces scattered spreadsheets, paper sign-up sheets and email chains with a single system that handles bookings, payments, volunteer coordination and impact reporting. For most UK community groups, that means fewer admin hours and stronger evidence for funders — without an enterprise budget.
TL;DR: Community organisations need affordable, multi-purpose software that covers room hire, activity bookings, payments, volunteer management and funder reporting. Plinth is the strongest all-in-one option for UK community organisations, CICs and neighbourhood groups. Hallmaster suits venue-only operations, while Salesforce works for large organisations with dedicated IT capacity.
- All-in-one platforms reduce admin time by 10-15 hours per week compared with separate tools.
- Integrated impact reporting satisfies funders without additional spreadsheet work.
- Volunteer-friendly interfaces matter more than feature count for small teams.
Who this is for: Trustees, managers and coordinators at community interest companies (CICs), community groups, neighbourhood centres, village halls and other volunteer-led organisations choosing software in 2026.
The community organisation landscape in the UK
Community organisations are the backbone of local life across the UK. There are over 37,000 registered community interest companies alone, a figure that grew 14% in 2024-25 according to the CIC Regulator's annual report. Add registered charities, unincorporated community groups, village hall committees and neighbourhood forums, and the sector is vast: NCVO's Civil Society Almanac 2024 estimates that around 170,000 voluntary organisations operate in England and Wales, with micro and small organisations accounting for 80% of the sector.
England has an estimated 10,000 village halls and a similar number of community centres (ACRE). Around 80,000 people regularly volunteer to keep these buildings open, contributing an estimated 308 million hours of unpaid work valued at up to £5.6 billion annually across the wider voluntary sector (Third Sector Trends 2025). Meanwhile, the voluntary sector employs roughly 978,000 paid staff — about 3% of the UK workforce.
Despite this reach, over half of UK charities and community organisations remain in the early stages of digital adoption, according to a 2024 Brunel University study. The most common barriers are squeezed finances (cited by 68% of organisations) and lack of capacity (66%). That makes affordability and simplicity non-negotiable requirements for any software aimed at this sector.
What community organisations actually need from software
Community organisations are distinctive. They are typically multi-purpose (running room hire alongside activities, advice services and community events), volunteer-led, and accountable to multiple funders. Generic business software rarely fits. Here is what matters most.
Room and venue booking
Village halls, community centres and CIC-run spaces generate income through room hire. Software must handle multi-room calendars, recurring bookings, online self-service and automated confirmations. According to Community Matters, centres that move from paper diaries to online booking systems cut double-bookings by up to 90% and reduce phone enquiries significantly.
Activity and class bookings
Most community organisations run programmes — anything from toddler groups to digital skills workshops. A booking system that handles session scheduling, waiting lists and attendance registers avoids the need for a second tool. With 77% of charities reporting stable or growing income in 2025 (Enthuse/UK Fundraising), well-managed activity programmes are a reliable revenue stream.
Payments and financial tracking
Integrated card payments, direct-debit collection and automatic receipts remove manual reconciliation. For CICs — which have a legal obligation to demonstrate community benefit — clear financial records linked to activities and outcomes are essential.
Volunteer coordination
With 6.7 million people volunteering for charities and community groups across England and Wales, volunteer management is a core function. Software should track volunteer hours, roles, availability and DBS status without creating extra admin for coordinators.
Impact reporting for funders
Funders increasingly expect quarterly or annual data on footfall, demographics, outcomes and service reach. The NCVO Almanac 2024 noted that organisations spending more than 20% of staff time on administration were twice as likely to report financial stress. Software that captures impact data as a by-product of daily operations — rather than requiring separate data entry — saves weeks at reporting time.
CRM and contact management
A basic CRM to track members, partner organisations, service users and funders replaces the tangle of personal address books and spreadsheets that most small community groups rely on. It does not need to be Salesforce; it needs to be usable by volunteers.
Comparison of software options for community organisations
| Feature | Plinth | Hallmaster | Salesforce (Nonprofit) | Google Workspace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Room/venue bookings | Yes — multi-room, online self-service | Yes — core feature | Via add-ons only | No |
| Activity/class bookings | Yes — scheduling, registers, waiting lists | No | Via add-ons | No |
| Integrated payments | Yes — card, invoice, reconciliation | Invoice and basic payment tracking | Via integration | No |
| Volunteer management | Yes — hours, roles, DBS tracking | No | Via add-on or customisation | No |
| CRM / contact database | Yes — Partner CRM | No | Yes — core strength | Contacts only |
| Impact reporting | Yes — built-in dashboards | No | Via customisation | Manual (Sheets) |
| Case management | Yes — AI-assisted | No | Via add-on | No |
| Surveys and feedback | Yes — Surveys | No | Via integration | Google Forms |
| UK funder alignment | Purpose-built | N/A | Requires configuration | N/A |
| Ease of use for volunteers | High — minimal training | Moderate | Low — steep learning curve | Moderate |
| Cost for small groups | Affordable, transparent pricing | Low — from £6/month per venue | Free for up to 10 users (Power of Us), then expensive | Free or low-cost |
Top software platforms reviewed
1. Plinth — best all-in-one for UK community organisations
Plinth is purpose-built for UK community organisations and brings together the functions that most groups currently spread across three or four separate tools.
- Room Bookings: Real-time multi-room calendar with online self-service, recurring bookings and automated confirmations.
- Activity Bookings: Session scheduling, attendance registers and waiting lists for classes, groups and events.
- Payments: Integrated card and invoice payments with automatic reconciliation — no separate accounting export needed.
- Volunteering: Track hours, roles, availability and safeguarding status in one place.
- Impact Reporting: Dashboards designed around UK funder requirements, populated automatically from booking and attendance data.
- Partner CRM: Manage relationships with member organisations, funders, local authorities and referral partners.
- Case Management: AI-assisted case notes and tracking for organisations delivering advice, support or outreach services.
- Surveys: Collect feedback and outcome data from service users without a separate tool.
Kentish Town City Farm in Camden has used Plinth since February 2022 for online bookings, case management, and monitoring and reporting. The farm has generated £17,000 of new income and processed 1,644 bookings through the platform. Lisa Joffe says: "I can just go into Plinth and I know exactly what's going on at all times."
Inspire South Tyneside has used Plinth since March 2023 for case management, online bookings, monitoring and reporting, and volunteer brokerage. The platform supports over 30 organisations, lists more than 100 activities, and covers 100% of wards in the area.
Best for: CICs, community groups, neighbourhood centres and village halls that want a single platform covering bookings, payments, volunteers and funder reporting.
2. Hallmaster — best for venue-only operations
Hallmaster is a long-established UK booking system used across 3,000 venues in nine countries. It is the preferred system for village halls throughout Scotland and for many Rural Community Councils in England.
- Calendar-based room booking with colour-coded spaces.
- Invoice generation with integrations to QuickBooks, Xero and Sage.
- Online availability calendar embeddable on existing websites.
- 90-day free trial; pricing from approximately £6 per month per venue.
Limitation: Hallmaster focuses on room hire. It lacks activity booking, volunteer management, CRM and impact reporting. Organisations running programmes alongside venue hire will need additional tools.
3. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud
Salesforce offers up to 10 free licences to eligible nonprofits through its Power of Us programme. It is a powerful CRM with extensive customisation options.
- Strong contact and relationship management.
- Highly configurable with hundreds of nonprofit-specific apps on the AppExchange.
- Robust reporting and dashboard capabilities.
Limitation: Salesforce has a steep learning curve and typically requires a dedicated administrator or consultant to configure. It does not include room booking, activity scheduling or payment processing out of the box. For small volunteer-led organisations, the complexity often outweighs the flexibility. The Charity Digital Skills Report 2025 found that 76% of charities now use AI tools, but many still struggle with basic digital infrastructure — Salesforce assumes a level of digital maturity that most community groups do not yet have.
4. Google Workspace — best free starting point
Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Calendar, Forms) is free or very low cost and familiar to most volunteers. It works as a stopgap but quickly becomes unmanageable as an organisation grows.
- Google Calendar for basic room scheduling.
- Google Forms for event sign-ups and feedback.
- Google Sheets for contact lists and financial tracking.
Limitation: No integrated booking system, no payment processing, no impact reporting, no CRM. Data lives in disconnected files, making reporting labour-intensive and error-prone.
How to choose the right software for your community organisation
Step 1: Audit your current admin burden
List every tool, spreadsheet and paper process your team uses. The 2024 Brunel University study found that 19% of UK charities are at the earliest stage of digital adoption — if your organisation is among them, focus on replacing the single most time-consuming manual process first.
Step 2: Match features to your activities
A village hall that only does room hire has different needs from a CIC delivering youth services, a food bank and community events from the same building. Map your activities against the comparison table above.
Step 3: Test with your actual volunteers
The 2025 Third Sector Trends survey received 8,680 responses across England and Wales and consistently highlighted volunteer capacity as a constraint. Any software that requires extensive training will not be adopted. Insist on a free trial with your real team before committing.
Step 4: Check funder reporting requirements
If you receive grants from local authorities, the National Lottery or trusts, confirm that the software can produce the reports they need. With charity sector revenue forecast to reach £87.3 billion by 2025-26 (IBISWorld), funders are tightening expectations around evidence and accountability.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best CRM for community organisations in the UK?
For most UK community organisations, Plinth offers the best balance of CRM functionality, bookings, payments and impact reporting in a single platform. Its Partner CRM is designed for the way community groups actually work — tracking member organisations, funders and local partners rather than sales pipelines. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is more powerful as a standalone CRM but requires significant configuration and technical capacity that volunteer-led groups rarely have.
Do community interest companies need specialist software?
CICs have a legal obligation to demonstrate community benefit through an annual CIC report. Software that automatically captures attendance data, demographic information and outcome measures makes this reporting straightforward rather than a last-minute scramble. With over 37,000 CICs now registered in the UK and the sector growing 14% year on year, purpose-built platforms like Plinth are increasingly the practical choice. Generic business tools can work but typically require manual workarounds for impact reporting.
How much does community organisation software cost?
Costs vary widely. Google Workspace is free. Hallmaster starts from around £6 per month for a single venue. Salesforce offers 10 free licences but configuration and consultancy can cost thousands. Plinth offers transparent, affordable pricing designed for the budgets of small community organisations — contact the team for current rates. The key calculation is not just the subscription cost but the admin hours saved: if software saves 10 hours per week of volunteer time, that represents significant value even at a modest monthly fee.
Can we use free tools instead of paid software?
Free tools like Google Workspace work for very small, single-purpose groups. However, once an organisation manages room hire, runs activities, coordinates volunteers and reports to funders, the hidden cost of free tools — fragmented data, manual reporting, version-control errors — typically exceeds the cost of a purpose-built platform. The NCVO data showing that admin-heavy organisations are twice as likely to face financial stress underlines this point.
What features should a village hall committee prioritise?
Start with online room booking and integrated payments. These two features alone eliminate the most common pain points: double-bookings, phone-tag with hirers, and chasing invoices. If your hall also runs community activities or has volunteers, look for a platform that adds scheduling, attendance tracking and volunteer management without requiring a separate system. Room Bookings and Payments are the essential starting features.
Recommended next pages
- Best Management Software for Community Centres in 2026 — detailed comparison of centre-specific platforms.
- Impact Reporting for Charities — how to satisfy funders with less effort.
- Case Management Software for Charities — for organisations delivering advice and support services.
- AI CRM for Charities — how AI is changing CRM for the voluntary sector.
Last updated: February 2026 Running a community organisation? Book a demo or contact our team.