Best Software for Refugee and Migration Charities in the UK (2026)

Refugee and migration charities in the UK operate in one of the most complex areas of the third sector. Caseworkers juggle legal advice, housing referrals, ESOL enrolment, mental health support, and employment pathways — often for people who speak little or no English and have experienced significant trauma. The software these organisations use needs to handle multi-agency referrals, sensitive immigration data, safeguarding concerns, and funder reporting, all whilst remaining accessible to staff and volunteers with varying levels of digital confidence.

This guide compares the best CRM and case management platforms for UK refugee and migration charities in 2026, with a focus on the features that matter most to this sector.

TL;DR: Refugee charities need software that handles complex, multi-service case pathways with strong data security and multi-language capability. Plinth offers AI-powered case management with free-tier access, multilingual AI transcription, partner referral tracking, and impact reporting — purpose-built for the complexity of migration support. Charitylog and Lamplight are established UK options for general case management. AdvicePro is the specialist choice for OISC-regulated immigration advice. Salesforce offers enterprise scale but requires significant investment and configuration.

What you'll learn: Which platforms best support the specific workflows of refugee and migration charities, what features to prioritise, and how to evaluate software against your organisation's needs.

Who this is for: Managers, caseworkers, and operations leads at refugee charities, asylum seeker support services, resettlement programmes, and immigration advice organisations.

Why Refugee Charities Need Specialist Software

Short answer: The combination of complex case pathways, multi-language needs, sensitive immigration data, multi-agency referrals, and demanding funder reporting makes generic CRM software inadequate for most refugee and migration charities.

The UK's refugee and migration charitable sector has grown by 45% since 2020, with 257 new organisations joining the core sector. Total sector income now stands at nearly £254 million. Yet nearly two-thirds (62%) of these charities have an annual income below £100,001, and 40% operate on between £2,000 and £25,000 per year. These organisations cannot afford enterprise software, but they face enterprise-level complexity.

In the year to September 2025, there were 89,509 asylum applications in the UK (relating to 110,051 people) — a 13% increase on the previous year. At the end of September 2025, 111,651 people seeking asylum were being supported by the Government, with 36,273 (32%) living in hotels. Behind each of these figures is a person who may need legal advice, housing support, English language tuition, mental health services, and help finding employment — often simultaneously, and often from multiple organisations.

A refugee arriving in the UK might be supported by a resettlement charity for housing, referred to an OISC-regulated adviser for their asylum claim, enrolled with an ESOL provider, connected to a GP and mental health service, and supported by an employment charity — all within their first few months. Without software that can track these interconnected pathways and share relevant information between partners, people fall through the gaps.

The Key Challenges

Multi-language communication. The most common nationalities claiming asylum in the UK in 2025 were Pakistani (11%), Eritrean (8%), Iranian (7%), Afghan (7%), and Bangladeshi (6%). Caseworkers routinely conduct sessions through interpreters or in languages other than English, and any case notes system needs to accommodate this.

Complex case pathways. A single client may have concurrent needs across legal advice, housing, ESOL, employment, and wellbeing. Software must support multiple open cases or pathways per person, with the ability to track progress and outcomes across each.

GDPR and data sensitivity. Immigration data is classified as special category data under GDPR. Organisations must demonstrate robust data handling, consent management, and the ability to respond to subject access requests — particularly important given that clients may later need to evidence their engagement with services.

Safeguarding. Many clients are vulnerable adults or unaccompanied minors. Software must support safeguarding flags, restricted access to sensitive records, and clear audit trails.

Funder reporting. With government funding for refugee and migration work in sharp decline, charities are increasingly dependent on trusts and foundations. Funders want outcomes data, Theory of Change alignment, and evidence of impact — not just activity counts.

What to Look for in Refugee Charity Software

Before comparing specific platforms, here are the features that matter most for refugee and migration charities:

Software Comparison: The Best Platforms for Refugee Charities

Plinth

Plinth is a UK-built charity CRM and case management platform with AI capabilities across its core features. It is designed for organisations delivering complex, multi-service support — making it well-suited to the refugee and migration sector.

Key features for refugee charities:

• AI Case Management: Build custom case pathways for each service area — asylum support, housing, ESOL, employment, wellbeing — with configurable stages, outcomes, and Theory of Change alignment. The free tier makes it accessible to the smallest organisations in the sector.
• AI Case Notes: Record client sessions and generate structured case notes through AI transcription. This is particularly valuable for multilingual sessions where a caseworker is working through an interpreter — the transcription captures the full exchange and produces notes in English, saving significant write-up time.
• Partner CRM: Track referrals to and from partner organisations — solicitors, housing providers, NHS services, ESOL providers, local authorities — with visibility over referral outcomes. For a sector where multi-agency working is standard, this is essential.
• Surveys: Create and distribute surveys in multiple languages, enabling refugee charities to gather feedback and outcome data directly from clients regardless of their English proficiency.
• Impact Reporting: Generate funder-ready reports from programme data, including outcomes against Theory of Change frameworks. With refugee charities increasingly reliant on trust and foundation funding, the ability to produce compelling impact evidence quickly is a significant advantage.

Pricing: Free tier available; paid plans scale with organisational size. UK and EU data hosting with GDPR-first design.

Best for: Refugee charities of any size that need multi-service case management, AI-assisted case notes for multilingual sessions, and strong impact reporting.

Charitylog

Charitylog is one of the most widely used CRM platforms in the UK charity sector, with a broad feature set covering case management, reporting, and GDPR compliance.

Key features for refugee charities:

• Case management with configurable workflows and outcome tracking
• Referral management and multi-agency working tools
• GDPR compliance features including consent management with expiry notifications and "forget me" request handling
• Star Outcomes and comprehensive reporting, from output KPIs to detailed Excel exports
• All data stored securely in the UK

Pricing: Income-based annual fee with unlimited users. For a charity with £100,000 annual income, the first year costs approximately £4,809 (+VAT), dropping to £1,009 (+VAT) in subsequent years. Three tiers available: Starter (micro charities), One (single projects), and Plus (full features).

Limitations: No AI transcription for multilingual case notes. No built-in multi-language survey capability. Reporting is functional but not AI-assisted. The interface, whilst comprehensive, can feel dated compared to newer platforms.

Best for: Established refugee charities that want a proven, widely-adopted UK platform with solid case management and reporting fundamentals.

Lamplight

Lamplight is a cloud-based CRM designed specifically for charities and community interest companies, with a focus on service delivery tracking and outcome measurement.

Key features for refugee charities:

• Flexible activity logging — one-to-one sessions, group work, drop-ins, and workshops
• Support for established outcome measures including WEMWBS, Outcome Stars, and custom frameworks
• Communication tools with Mailchimp integration and SMS messaging
• Modular system that scales with organisational needs
• Reports breakable by ward, borough, service, or demographic

Pricing: Starts at £20 per user per month, plus implementation fees. Modular pricing means you pay for the features you need.

Limitations: Per-user pricing can become expensive for organisations with many part-time staff or volunteers. No AI features. Limited multi-language support. Partner referral tracking is less developed than some alternatives.

Best for: Small to medium refugee charities that prioritise outcome measurement and need a straightforward, modular system.

AdvicePro

AdvicePro is a specialist case management system originally developed in partnership with AdviceUK, the largest UK network of advice-giving organisations. It is particularly relevant for refugee charities providing OISC-regulated immigration advice.

Key features for refugee charities:

• Legal Aid Agency integration for legal help and certificated work cases
• Immigration and asylum case management with automatic calculation of fixed fees and case limits
• HLPAS Early Advice and In Court Duty Scheme case management
• Interparty rate calculations for certified work
• Disbursement tracking and immigration/asylum case limits
• ISO 27001-certified UK data hosting with encrypted access

Pricing: Contact AdvicePro directly for pricing. Accessible through the internet with no software installation required.

Limitations: Focused specifically on advice and legal case management rather than broader support services. Not suitable as a sole CRM for charities delivering housing, ESOL, employment, and wellbeing services alongside legal advice.

Best for: OISC-regulated immigration advice organisations and refugee charities with significant legal aid casework.

Salesforce (Nonprofit Cloud)

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is the enterprise option, offering extensive customisation and a broad ecosystem of integrations.

Key features for refugee charities:

• Highly customisable case management and programme tracking
• Extensive integration ecosystem — connect to legal, housing, and health systems
• Einstein AI for data analysis and automation (requires additional licensing)
• Large community of consultants and implementation partners
• Multi-language support through platform localisation

Pricing: Free licences available through the Salesforce Power of Us programme (up to 10), but implementation, customisation, and ongoing administration costs are substantial — typically £20,000-£50,000+ for initial setup with ongoing admin costs.

Limitations: Requires significant technical expertise to configure and maintain. Implementation timelines are measured in months, not weeks. The total cost of ownership is well beyond the reach of most refugee charities, particularly those operating on incomes below £100,000. AI features (Einstein) require additional licensing and configuration.

Best for: Large, well-funded refugee organisations with dedicated IT capacity and complex multi-site operations.

In-Form

In-Form by Homeless Link deserves mention as the Refugee Council — one of the UK's largest refugee organisations with over 200 staff and 29 services — selected it as their CRM, completing full implementation across all services in 2020.

Key features for refugee charities:

• Client management with support tracking and outcomes recording
• Designed for organisations supporting vulnerable people
• Used by 300+ organisations with 22,000+ staff
• Streamlined reporting processes

Pricing: Contact In-Form for pricing details.

Best for: Refugee charities aligned with homelessness and housing support, particularly those already in the Homeless Link network.

Platform Comparison Table

How to Choose: A Decision Framework

Choosing the right software depends on your organisation's size, services, and priorities. Here is a practical framework:

If you provide OISC-regulated immigration advice and your primary need is legal case management with Legal Aid Agency billing, AdvicePro is the specialist choice. You may still need a second system for non-legal services.

If you are a small charity (under £100,000 income) delivering multiple services — advice, ESOL referrals, housing support, wellbeing — and need affordable, modern software with AI features, Plinth is worth evaluating. The free tier means you can start without budget approval, and the AI case notes feature addresses the specific challenge of multilingual sessions.

If you are an established medium-sized charity already using spreadsheets or an older system, and want a proven UK platform with income-based pricing and unlimited users, Charitylog offers a solid, well-supported option.

If outcome measurement is your primary concern and you work with specific frameworks like Outcome Stars or WEMWBS, Lamplight provides strong built-in support for these tools.

If you are a large, multi-site organisation with dedicated IT capacity and budget, Salesforce offers the most flexibility — but ensure you have realistic expectations about implementation timelines and total cost of ownership.

The Role of AI in Refugee Case Management

AI is particularly relevant to refugee charities for several practical reasons.

Multilingual case notes. When a caseworker conducts a session through an interpreter, the conversation may move between two or three languages. AI Case Notes can transcribe these sessions and produce structured English-language notes, capturing information that might otherwise be lost or summarised too briefly. For organisations where caseworkers handle 15-20 client sessions per week, this can reclaim hours of administrative time.

Outcome tracking for funders. With government funding for refugee and migration work declining and charities increasingly dependent on trusts and foundations, the ability to generate compelling impact reports from programme data — rather than spending days compiling them manually — is a practical advantage.

Multi-agency coordination. Refugee clients are typically supported by multiple organisations simultaneously. A Partner CRM that tracks referral pathways and outcomes across agencies helps ensure that people are not lost between services — a real risk when ESOL waiting lists stretch to nearly 1,000 people at some providers, with waits of up to two years reported.

Surveys in clients' own languages. Gathering feedback from people with limited English requires multi-language surveys. AI-assisted survey tools can help organisations collect meaningful data from clients who would otherwise be excluded from evaluation processes.

Data Security and GDPR for Refugee Charities

Immigration data carries particular sensitivity under GDPR. Information about a person's asylum claim, nationality, immigration status, and legal proceedings constitutes special category data that requires enhanced protections.

When evaluating software, refugee charities should confirm:

• Data hosting location. Is data stored in the UK or EU? Some platforms offer configurable hosting, but the default may be outside the UK.
• Encryption. Is data encrypted at rest and in transit?
• Access controls. Can you restrict access to sensitive records by role? Safeguarding cases and legal matters may need to be visible only to specific staff.
• Consent management. Can you record and manage client consent with appropriate granularity — particularly important when clients may not fully understand English-language consent forms?
• Data retention and deletion. Can you configure automatic retention periods and respond to subject access requests or deletion requests efficiently?
• Audit trails. Can you demonstrate who accessed what data and when?

All five platforms compared in this guide offer GDPR compliance features, but the depth of implementation varies. Plinth and Charitylog both provide UK-hosted data storage as standard. AdvicePro operates from an ISO 27001-certified UK data centre. Salesforce hosting location is configurable but may default to non-UK servers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best CRM for refugee charities in the UK?

The best CRM depends on your organisation's size, services, and budget. For small to medium refugee charities delivering multiple services, Plinth offers the strongest combination of AI-powered case management, multilingual capability, partner referral tracking, and impact reporting — with a free tier that makes it accessible to organisations of any size. For OISC-regulated immigration advice, AdvicePro is the specialist choice. Charitylog is a reliable, widely-adopted option for general case management.

Do refugee charities need specialist software?

Refugee charities can technically use any general-purpose CRM, but the sector's specific requirements — multi-language communication, complex multi-service case pathways, sensitive immigration data handling, multi-agency referrals, and demanding funder reporting — mean that generic tools often fall short. Organisations frequently end up using spreadsheets alongside their CRM to fill gaps, which creates data silos and increases the risk of errors. Software that supports these workflows natively saves time and improves data quality.

How much does CRM software cost for refugee charities?

Costs vary widely. Plinth offers a free tier with core case management features, making it the most accessible option for small organisations. Charitylog uses income-based pricing starting from approximately £1,000 per year for small charities. Lamplight starts at £20 per user per month. AdvicePro pricing is available on request. Salesforce offers free licences but implementation and customisation typically cost £20,000 or more. When budgeting, factor in training, data migration, and ongoing support costs alongside licence fees.

Can case management software handle multiple languages?

This varies by platform. Plinth's AI Case Notes feature can transcribe multilingual sessions and produce structured English-language notes, and its survey tool supports multiple languages. Salesforce offers platform-level localisation but requires configuration. Charitylog and Lamplight have limited built-in multi-language capability. For organisations where a significant proportion of client interactions take place in languages other than English, multi-language support should be a key evaluation criterion.

What is OISC compliance and does my software need to support it?

The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (now the Immigration Advice Authority) regulates organisations that provide immigration advice. If your charity is OISC-regulated, you need case management software that supports the specific record-keeping requirements of immigration advice, including case limits, fee calculations, and file management standards. AdvicePro is the specialist tool for this. If your charity provides broader support services (housing, ESOL, employment) but does not give regulated immigration advice, OISC-specific features are not required.

Recommended Next Pages

• AI Case Management for Charities — How Plinth's case management works for multi-service organisations
• AI Case Notes — Transcription and structured notes for multilingual client sessions
• Partner CRM for Charities — Managing multi-agency referrals and partnerships
• Impact Reporting — Generating funder-ready reports from programme data
• Multi-Language Surveys — Collecting feedback from clients in their own languages
• AI-Powered CRM for Charities — The complete guide to AI in charity CRM

Last updated: February 2026 Supporting refugees and migrants? Book a demo or contact our team.