11 Best CRM for Charities UK: An Essential tool to Simplify Fund Management

A perfect CRM for charities can simplify the entire process of accepting donations, reporting to donors, informing management of each activity, and properly tracking funds spent on the right cause. Implementing the right CRM eliminates the struggle of mismanagement of donations while attracting more funds.

Before we discuss the top CRM system for non-profit organisations, we must understand the need for a CRM solution and what features and capabilities you should consider before choosing the solution.

What is the need for a CRM solution in Charities and Non-Profits?

You will agree with me when I say, “CRM solutions are meant for sales organisations, and such solutions are typically built around sales requirements.” There are various reasons that justify this statement, and among them, catering to sales executives with the required tools is the major one.

Sales organisation requires a transparent view of all customers, tracking of each activity, prioritising tasks, building strong relationships, generating more opportunities, streamlining campaigns, improving customer retention, and more.

If we look at the overall requirements of a sales organisation, they are almost similar to what a charity or a non-profit organisation requires. A fundraising organisation has to track all transactions, offer an optimum donor experience, retain donors for more funds, build reports, analyse data, build more donation opportunities, and a lot more.

A perfect CRM for non-profits has to build strong communication between the donor and the organisation for maximum visibility, run effective fundraising campaigns, and provide accurate reporting to the management, donors, and stakeholders.

Good fundraising software will empower you to track all contacts, accept global GDPR norms, manage fund distribution, and automate recurring processes for enhanced productivity among volunteers.

Essential Factors you should Consider before Choosing an CRM

Choosing the right CRM can simplify your entire donation management workflow while pushing your team members to generate more funding opportunities. But before choosing the right CRM, you need to consider a few points, which are:

Cloud Capability

Construction is a diverse business that doesn’t follow any global boundaries. A cloud-based ERP solution is the only answer for such transforming businesses. With the cloud, you can track any process in real-time, fine-tune the performance, connect with the team from anywhere, and eliminate all restrictions that come with on-premises ERP solutions. Even cloud-based ERP is way more cost-effective, easy to maintain, and simple to implement than on-premises.

Stable Communication

Establishing communication between people, volunteers, and stakeholders is essential for transparency in the collection and distribution of funds or grants. You can easily build a strong bridge of communication that enables your team to work collaboratively, from accepting funds to distributing them for the right cause.

Inbuilt Marketing Module

Charities or non-profit organisations have to run aggressive marketing campaigns to generate more funds for different causes. Implementing a specific marketing solution to keep track of all campaigns and marketing activities might be an inefficient decision. A CRM solution within a built-in marketing module can simplify all your marketing activities while saving you time, effort, and productivity.

Unified Dashboard

Based on the role, the fundraising CRM solution must offer a unified dashboard that shows data anytime and on any device. Also, it must come with access to relevant data for all roles, like volunteer, stakeholder, and donor, to bring transparency across all core operations of the charity.

Track Funds and Utilisation

Tracking funds and utilising them for the right cause is the most important aspect of charity, non-profit, and fundraising organisations. All donors are concerned about whether their funds are being utilised for the cause for which they have donated or not. To give them transparency and retain them for the long run, charity CRM must be capable of tracking funds at all milestones of the fund distribution process.

Data Reporting and Insights

Capturing data insights and generating reports on various campaigns is an important factor a CRM must offer. Before choosing an ERP solution, you must check its data analysis and reporting capabilities. With accurate data, you would be able to make the right decisions and get real-time information about each activity.

11 Best CRM System for Charities for 2024

Till now, you would have sound knowledge of the factors you need to look into in a CRM system. Let’s get the list of the top 11 best CRMs for Charities or nonprofit organisations that can simplify the different processes while helping you manage all grants.

1. Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft has solutions for all businesses, regardless of the industry. For fundraising organisations, you can go with Dynamics 365 for Nonprofits, also known as Dynamics 365 for Charities. It is a charity-centric solution that offers CRM and ERP capabilities to manage all requirements with ease. Due to its highly customisable properties, Dynamics 365 cloud for non-profits easily aligns with the requirements to offer accelerated growth.

Also, you can easily integrate any application from the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Ecosystem using the extension methodology to increase the efficiency and productivity of the system. If you are extensively looking for a CRM we have seen in big sales organisations, you can go with Dynamics 365 Sales crm (based on your requirements). With the implementation of a customised CRM, you would be able to:

• Uncover donor data and insights
• Track gifts and payments
• Manage fundraising campaigns
• Establish communication
• Automate core workflows
• Accepts global donations

2. Salesforce CRM

credit - www.salesforce.com

Salesforce is another CRM solution that can be tailored to meet the needs of nonprofits or charitable organizations. However, it is a bit expensive and comes with a complicated user interface when compared with Microsoft’s CRM solution. Also, you wouldn’t be able to integrate other Microsoft applications as we can with Dynamics 365.

3. Zoho CRM

image credit - zoho.com

Zoho CRM is especially built for small nonprofit organisations with limited capabilities for managing and tracking funds. The best part about Zoho is its free availability for up to three users. It offers an omnichannel experience and a built-in payment gateway to streamline funds received from global donors. However, for large businesses, Zoho CRM wouldn’t be a perfect choice as it lacks process management and reporting capabilities.

4. DonorPerfect

image credit - DonorPerfect.com

DonorPerfect is a popular CRM solution tailored for nonprofits. It is a fundraising software that offers various capabilities, like donation management, reporting, and building fundraising opportunities. With its marketing module, you can establish direct communication using chat, phone, and email to stay connected with the donor. Also, it offers transparency across the donation and their expenditure.

5. Access thankQ CRM

image credit - https://www.theaccessgroup.com/

Access thankQ CRM is an evolved version of Access charity CRM with added functionalities and tools. Leveraging the marketing module, it lets you build different campaigns and events to build stronger relationships with donors. If you are looking for an entry-level CRM for charity, you can opt for this solution. But, based on changing marketing demands, you should choose a solution with long-term CRM goals.

6. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a CRM specially purchased to visualise a complete sales pipeline and offer a simple user-to-user interface. It allows users to access drag-and-drop features to customise the user interface and make it productive to match their specific user requirements. It comes with various features that include activity tracking, lead management, reporting, and a customised dashboard. 

7. Monday

Monday is not only a CRM solution but a project management solution as well. It comes with a customisable user interface that lets you customise views, boards, and dashboards to meet your specific needs. Monday has various modules for users that basically depend on the licencing a user is purchasing. However, in terms of core CRM capabilities, it lacks a lot of features and tools that other competitors are offering. 

8. Freshsales CRM

Freshsales CRM is a specific, built-in solution for small businesses that offers cost-effective licensing. With a good level of reporting capabilities, it offers some level of automation to help you manage different accounts. Some of its core features are lead management, reporting, automation, and customisable reporting. It is scalable but not a perfect fit for medium and large enterprises. 

9. Sales Creatio

Sales Creatio CRM is a specifically built solution for B2B businesses as it contains a comprehensive set of tools and features required for complex operations. It is highly customisable, flexible, and scalable to meet unique business demands. Some of its features are opportunity management, forecasting, account management, and sales automation. However, the licencing cost is a bit high as compared to other solutions available on the market. 

10. Insightly CRM

Insightly is a cloud-based CRM solution with core functionalities to boost workshop management and team collaboration capabilities. Along with other features, it offers flexibility and cost-effective pricing, making it the perfect solution for small businesses. When it comes to automation and advanced marketing tools, they offer fewer capabilities as compared to other available solutions.

11. SugarCRM 

SugarCRM, or Sugar Cell, offers a different set of capabilities, but it generally focuses on empowering revenue teams. However, SugarCRM offers sales automation tools to help agents close deals faster. With a simple user interface and easy-to-use navigation, SugarCRM comes with other features as well, like opportunity management, forecasting, mobile access, and more.   

How can Dynamics Square help you Choose the Perfect CRM for Charity?

Charity or non-profit organisations have diverse requirements for managing funds, tracking resources, generating different reports, building a variety of campaigns, and much more. A standard CRM solution might be insufficient to offer all the tools and capabilities required to streamline entire fundraising organisations.

In such a scenario, Dynamics Square has got your back to help you analyse your requirements and implement a perfectly tailored CRM solution. With 12+ years of experience and 150+ global clients, we know what a charity requires to grow and simplify its core operations.

In case of need, feel free to write us an email at info@dynamicssquare.co.uk or call us at +44 207 193 2502 to get instant support. 

See Also - What is the Best Accounting Software for Charities?