If your charity delivers services to people (advice, housing support, mental health, employment, domestic abuse) then you need case management software, not a fundraising CRM. This article compares the main UK platforms for managing beneficiary casework, covering safeguarding, outcome tracking, GDPR compliance, and funder reporting. It also explains when off-the-shelf tools fall short and a bespoke system makes more sense.
Speak to us about charity software · +44 7494 618 651 · Mon to Fri, 9am to 6pm
This is the single biggest source of confusion in charity software. A fundraising CRM (Beacon, Donorfy, Blackbaud Raiser's Edge) manages the donor relationship: who gave what, when, and how to cultivate them for future giving. The "customer" in a fundraising CRM is the donor. If your charity needs a fundraising CRM, see our charity CRM comparison instead.
Case management software manages service delivery to beneficiaries. The "customer" is the person receiving help. The data model is fundamentally different. You are tracking needs assessments, referrals, case notes, safeguarding concerns, and whether someone's circumstances actually improved as a result of your intervention.
The core functions of case management software are:
A fundraising CRM does none of this well. Charities that try to force beneficiary case management into Beacon or Donorfy end up maintaining spreadsheets alongside the CRM, which defeats the purpose. For more on the distinction between donor management and service delivery, see our guide to donor management and Gift Aid.
The table below covers the platforms most commonly used by UK service delivery charities. Pricing is indicative and may have changed since publication. Always check current pricing directly with the provider.
| Platform | Pricing Model | Safeguarding | Outcome Tracking | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charitylog | Income-based. From £1,995 setup + £400/yr (small charities). Unlimited users on all plans. | Case workflows with audit trails. No dedicated safeguarding module. | Outcome recording with monetary value tracking. Progress interval reporting. | Advice charities, Citizens Advice branches, generalist service delivery |
| Lamplight | Per-user modular. Typically £20-40/user/month plus implementation. ISO 27001 accredited. | Dedicated safeguarding module: concern-raising workflow, escalation, DBS tracking with expiry reminders. | Strong outcomes measurement. Demographic and ward-level reporting. | Charities focused on outcomes measurement and funder compliance |
| In-Form (Homeless Link) | Three tiers. Community tier free for Homeless Link members (up to 5 users). £2,500 bursary available. | Built on Salesforce. Configurable safeguarding workflows. | Outcomes Stars built in as standard. Client progress dashboards. | Housing and homelessness charities |
| Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud | 10 free licences. Paid from $60/user/month. Implementation costs typically £20,000 to £100,000+. | Case management with intake, referrals, case plans, and incident tracking. Requires configuration. | Program Management Module: engagements, service deliveries, cohorts, assessments. | Large charities with budget for implementation and ongoing admin |
| Views | Custom pricing. Typically used by larger charities and housing associations. | Configurable workflows for safeguarding recording and escalation. | Outcome frameworks with pre/post measurement. Funder report generation. | Multi-service charities and housing associations with complex reporting needs |
The longest-running UK charity CRM, used by approximately 1,000 organisations. Charitylog is strongest in the advice sector, where it dominates among Citizens Advice bureaux, Age UK branches, and generalist advice agencies. Its income-based pricing with unlimited user licences makes it attractive for charities with many staff and volunteers who need system access.
Core strengths include customisable workflow stages, electronic referrals between organisations, and outcome recording that tracks monetary values (useful for advice charities measuring the value of successful benefit claims). Progress interval reporting lets you measure how long cases take at each stage.
The main limitations are a traditional interface, limited API and integration options compared to newer platforms, and no dedicated safeguarding module. You can record safeguarding concerns within the case management workflow, but it is not a structured, purpose-built process.
Used by over 700 UK nonprofits, Lamplight is the strongest option for charities that prioritise outcomes measurement and safeguarding compliance. Its modular design means you add only the features you need, and the dedicated safeguarding module provides a structured workflow: raise a concern, notify the Safeguarding Manager, assess, assign a Lead Contact, log all actions, and sign off. DBS check tracking with automatic expiry reminders is included.
Lamplight is ISO 27001 accredited, which matters for charities handling sensitive beneficiary data. The per-user pricing (typically £20 to £40 per user per month) can scale expensively for larger teams, and data migration is charged at £58 plus VAT per hour. You cannot self-serve pricing; a tailored quote is required.
Built on Salesforce and designed specifically for housing and homelessness charities, In-Form is used by over 300 organisations and 22,000 staff. Its standout feature is built-in Outcomes Stars (standardised measurement tools such as the Homelessness Star and Recovery Star), which allow consistent outcome measurement across the sector.
The Community tier is free for Homeless Link members with up to 5 users, and a £2,500 bursary scheme helps eligible members with setup costs. The limitation is sector specificity: if your charity does not work in housing or homelessness, In-Form is unlikely to be the right fit.
Salesforce offers 10 free licences to eligible nonprofits through the Power of Us Program. The platform includes a Program Management Module for tracking engagements, service deliveries, and cohorts, plus case management features covering intake, referrals, case plans, notes, incidents, and assessments.
The platform is enormously flexible. It is also enormously complex. Implementation costs routinely dwarf licence costs, with first-year total cost of ownership typically ranging from £20,000 to over £100,000. Research consistently shows that around 40% of Salesforce features go unused in nonprofit deployments. For small to mid-sized service delivery charities, this is usually overkill.
All charities working with children or adults at risk must have safeguarding policies in place. Trustees are personally responsible for ensuring those policies are applied and that staff and volunteers are aware of them. This is not optional.
The Charity Commission's requirements for record keeping are specific:
Of the platforms compared above, Lamplight has the most purpose-built safeguarding module. Charitylog can record safeguarding within its case workflow but lacks a structured, dedicated process. Salesforce can be configured for safeguarding, but this is custom work requiring consultant time.
Beneficiary data is higher-risk than donor data. Service delivery charities routinely process special category data under UK GDPR: health conditions, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and other sensitive personal information. This creates obligations that go beyond what a fundraising CRM handles.
Charities must identify a lawful basis under Article 6 of UK GDPR before processing beneficiary data. Legitimate interests (with a documented Legitimate Interests Assessment) is the most common basis for day-to-day service delivery records. For special category data, you also need a condition under Article 9(2). For charities providing social care or support services, DPA 2018 Schedule 1, condition 2 typically applies.
There is no single prescribed retention period. Charities must define retention schedules per data category. For children's services, the standard practice is to retain records until the individual's 25th birthday (or 26th if they were aged 17 at the end of the referral). Your software needs to support configurable retention periods and, ideally, flag records approaching their deletion date.
When referring a beneficiary to a partner organisation, you need a data sharing agreement and a lawful basis in place before any data is transferred. Your case management software should log exactly what data was shared, with which organisation, when, and on what legal basis. This is not a nice-to-have feature. It is a regulatory requirement.
For charities still managing beneficiary data in spreadsheets, these requirements alone should prompt a move to proper case management software. See our guide on moving from spreadsheets to systems for a practical migration path.
Funders do not give you money and hope for the best. They expect evidence of impact, and your case management software needs to produce it.
The National Lottery Community Fund, the largest UK funder distributing over £600 million annually, expects demographic data on beneficiaries, progress against 3 to 5 agreed outcomes per programme, and self-evaluation. For grants under £50,000, the requirements are simpler: basic outputs, a simple outcome measure, and one or two case studies. Larger grants demand more rigorous evidence.
Most funders want a combination of:
A Theory of Change maps how your activities are expected to produce intended outcomes. It makes assumptions explicit: inputs lead to activities, which lead to outputs, which lead to outcomes. Both NPC (New Philanthropy Capital) and NCVO promote this as standard practice for UK charities.
Outcomes Stars are standardised measurement tools used across multiple organisations. The Homelessness Star, Recovery Star, and similar frameworks allow consistent outcome measurement within a sector. In-Form includes Outcomes Stars as standard. Other platforms can record the same data, but you will need to set up the indicators manually.
Your case management platform should allow custom outcome indicators aligned to each funder's requirements, pre/post measurement against those indicators, demographic breakdowns, and automated report generation in the formats funders expect. If your software cannot produce a funder report without hours of manual data manipulation, it is not fit for purpose.
The platforms above work well for charities with relatively straightforward service delivery models. The problems start when your organisation's reality does not fit neatly into any single platform's assumptions.
Common scenarios where off-the-shelf case management software struggles:
A bespoke system is not the right approach for every charity. A small advice service with 10 staff will be well served by Charitylog at a fraction of the cost. But for charities whose operations span both fundraising and service delivery, or whose workflows do not fit any off-the-shelf template, a bespoke system can be more cost-effective over five years than the combination of platforms, workarounds, and spreadsheets they are currently maintaining.
For a fuller exploration of when bespoke makes sense and when it does not, see our charity software guide.
Speak to us about charity software · +44 7494 618 651 · Mon to Fri, 9am to 6pm