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We have an existing charity CRM system guide on how to find a free charity CRM and choose the best CRM for charities, including a lot more detailed guidance on what you need to think about in choosing and migrating a CRM. This guide presents the results of our Jan 2025 charity CRM system benchmarking survey.
| CRM | Average |
| Beacon | 5.5 |
| Donorfy | 5.3 |
| Access CRM | 5.0 |
| Airtable | 4.9 |
| SalesForce | 4.8 |
| Charitylog | 4.7 |
| Excel Spreadsheet | 4.6 |
| Hub Spot | 4.6 |
| Benefactor | 4.5 |
| Google Sheets | 4.5 |
| CiviCRM | 4.4 |
| Blackbaud eTapestry | 3.9 |
| Raisers Edge | 3.5 |
| Microsoft Dynamics | 3.4 |
| Zoho | 3.3 |
| DonorPerfect | 2.6 |
| Blackbaud CRM | 2.5 |
The best CRM for your charity depends on a range of factors and which are most important to you but, in our Jan 25, CRM survey, these were the most popular systems.
| Charity | Income pa | Best Charity CRM |
| Large | £10m+ | Donorfy |
| Medium | Under £10m | Donorfy, Beacon |
| Small | Under £1m | Beacon, Airtable |
| Micro Charity | Under £10k | Airtable, Excel, Google Sheets |
Survey respondents were invited to rate a range of factors on a scale of 1 (unimportant) to 10 (very important).
| Criteria | Average |
| Data Security and Compliance | 9.0 |
| Ease of Use | 8.8 |
| Value for Money | 8.7 |
| Functionality Provided | 8.5 |
| Reporting and Analytics | 8.1 |
| Scalability and Flexibility | 7.7 |
| Integration with Other Systems | 7.2 |
| Donor Segmentation | 6.7 |
| Campaign Management | 6.4 |
| AI Capability | 6.0 |
| Respondents with income under £100k pa were significantly under represented.
But the profile of those with income over £100k was representative of the charity sector overall. |
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The survey was open to charities that didn't have a CRM but the % of respondents under £100k was even lower than usual. Micro charities normally come in at over 10%.
Responses were invited from mid Dec 24 to end Jan 25, via the Charity Excellence newsletter (80k subscribers) and widely on social media, not only on our own accounts but also in groups, plus thank you to those who shared the survey. We received at total of 187 responses.
We calculated used weighted averages, using this formula.
Weighted average = ∑(weight × rating)/∑weight
For the People's Choice Award, large grant makers that many respondents had applied to and could vote for would have had an automatic significant advantage over others, as they had many more potential voters, if we had just counted the votes. Consequently, we factored in voter numbers for each by calculating the percentage who voted for any given grant maker based on the total who could have.
The survey and reporting were carried out in accordance with the Charity Excellence policies on collecting and manging data.
A registered charity ourselves, the CEF works for any non profit, not just charities.
Plus, 100+downloadable funder lists, 40+ policies, 8 online health checks and the huge resource base.
Quick, simple and very effective.
Find Funding, Free Help & Resources - Everything Is Free.
To access help and resources on anything to do with running a charity, including funding, click the AI Bunny icon in the bottom right of your screen and ask it short questions, including key words. Register, then login and the in-system AI Bunny is able to write funding bids and download 60+ charity policy templates as well.
