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Donorfy
Top 7 questions to ask any charity CRM provider
When you're shortlisting CRM suppliers, what should you make sure you're covering?
Ultimately, quite a lot. Investing in new software is a big decision, and it's worth making the most of every conversation ... your donor data, supporter relationships and daily working life are all impacted by the option you choose!
This short article gives you seven questions to cover with each provider, Donorfy included (hopefully)
They should help you surface what matters once the system is in daily use, and tell you a thing or two about the provider themselves.
What should you be asking?
First, WHY should you be asking thorough questions?
Because the charity CRM market has changed. More providers are entering the space than ever, and the range of options is wider than it's ever been. At the same time, the stakes of making a regretful decision remains high!
When "getting it right" is so important, where do you start? We suggest here:
1. Origin: was this built for fundraising, or adapted for it?
Plenty of CRM software began life serving sales teams and was later adjusted for charities. The terminology changes, a Gift Aid module arrives, and it goes to market as a charity CRM. That's a different thing from software designed around how fundraising works: recurring giving, declarations, appeal attribution, supporter relationships that run for thirty years etc.
What to ask:
- Simply, was this system built specifically for charities, or adapted from a commercial CRM?
What to listen for:
Specific, confident answers. A system that wasn't built for fundraising might always feel like it's fighting you.
2. Gift Aid: does it claim, or does it only record?
This is where the gap between "Gift Aid is supported" and "Gift Aid works" becomes visible, so it deserves its own question. Gift Aid is also a notorious time zapper to continue to manually submit ...
What to ask:
- Does the system identify Gift Aid-eligible donations automatically?
- How does it manage declarations, including when they expire or need renewing?
- Can it submit claims directly to HMRC, or does it produce a report you submit manually?
- What happens if a donor's declaration status changes mid-campaign?
- Is the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme supported?
What to listen for:
A system that handles Gift Aid properly should be able to answer all of these without much hesitation. Especially as Gift Aid is real money!
Brake, for example, reclaimed £5,000 in backdated Gift Aid within months of switching to a system that handled it properly. If your current setup means Gift Aid is a manual process, that's not just admin, it's income your charity may not be claiming.
3. Integrations: a live connection, or an export and an import?
Most modern CRMs integrate with the tools a charity already uses, the more useful question is what that means for you on a Tuesday morning!
What to ask:
- Which integrations are native and which need a third-party connector?
- Does data move in both directions?
- What does the system do when two connected tools disagree about the same record?
- How much time have other charities saved?
What to listen for:
Specifics. "We integrate with Enthuse" is a starting point. "Our Enthuse integration pulls donations directly into constituent records in real time, with no manual intervention" is a better answer.
4. Pricing: what's inside the number, and what sits outside it?
Headline figures don't often carry the complete cost. Per-user pricing means the bill grows as your team does, or when a volunteer needs a login. Integrations, storage and support above a basic level can also be priced separately.
What to ask:
- Is pricing based on the number of users, or the number of records?
- What's included in the base plan, and what costs extra?
- Are integrations included, or priced separately?
- What does support cost, and what level is included as standard?
- What happens to my price as my charity grows?
What to listen for:
Transparent answers. A provider comfortable with their own model will talk you through it without flinching. If you're interested, here's Donorfy pricing.
"Donorfy had the most transparent pricing model of the CRMs we considered and the trustees were happy with the cost."
5. Implementation: who does the work, and over what period?
Implementation asks something real of your team: time, decisions, data preparation, etc. The question isn't necessarily whether it will take your effort but how much, spread over how long, and with whom.
What to ask:
- Is there a named consultant assigned to implementations?
- What are the milestones, and how will we know we're on track?
- What does the typical timeline look like for a charity our size?
- How many hours should we expect to commit internally, across the whole process?
- What happens if we hit a problem mid-migration?
What to listen for:
A realistic timeline with specifics. A lot of switching anxiety traces back to a vague answer given at roughly this point.
Extra read: Switching to a charity CRM: the move is smaller than the fear
6. Security: how is our data kept safe?
This question has always mattered, but perhaps it matters more now.
Not only did a recent CRM supplier data breach rock the sector, but 28% of charities reported experiencing a cyber security breach or attack in the previous 12 months, according to the UK Government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/2026.
That's around three in ten charities, so understanding how your supplier keeps your data secure is as critical as it is reassuring.
What to ask:
- What security certifications does the provider hold? Specifically ISO 27001 (information security management) and ISO 9001 (quality management)?
- Where is data hosted, and what infrastructure does it run on?
- Has the system undergone independent penetration testing, and when was the most recent test?
- If a security incident occurred, how would you notify us, and how quickly?
- As the data controller, what information would we receive to help us meet our own ICO obligations?
What to listen for:
Certifications you can verify. Named infrastructure. A clear incident response process. Not just reassurance that it won't happen, but a specific answer to what happens if it does.
Under UK GDPR, you're the data controller and your CRM provider is the processor. If something goes wrong with their systems, the regulatory obligation to report to the ICO is yours. You need to know, in advance, that your provider will give you what you need to meet it.
A provider who holds ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certification, hosts on enterprise-grade infrastructure with continuous threat monitoring, and undergoes regular independent penetration testing is one you can take to your board with confidence, too.
7. The people: do you understand the sector, not just the software?
This one is a bit of a judgement call, but it's still worth asking.
A great CRM supplier usually has people who've worked in the sector in the team. Not only do they have an understanding of your challenges because they've sat in your seat, but the design of the CRM itself benefits from their experience.
What to ask:
- Who in your team has worked in a charity?
- Can you introduce us to a charity of a similar size and mission who's been through the switch?
- What other ways does your business support the sector?
What to listen for:
You can usually tell pretty instinctively and quickly if someone understands the sector! You can always connect with people you speak to on Linkedin, too.
Quick fire: what about Donorfy?
Well, you're here, so here's a whistlestop tour of some key points for Donorfy.
That being said, always talk to us to get proper, personalised answers to all of your questions.
Origin
Donorfy emerged in 2014 as the pioneering cloud-based charity CRM in the UK, designed by fundraisers, for fundraisers. From its beginnings, it wasn't just another piece of imitation software built in isolation; it was crafted by people with real-world fundraising experience. No functionality charities need is bolted on, it's all there.
Gift Aid
Donorfy automates the Gift Aid process from start to finish, phew. It identifies eligible donations, builds your claim, and submits it directly to HMRC, so you can spend less time on fiddly admin. Every claim is trackable, downloadable, and fully reportable from within Donorfy, too.
Integrations
There's plenty of them, and the detail varies! Many are native and two-way connections, others are one way (for good reason) and some are third-party.
A popular example is MailChimp, which keeps your supporter data and communication preferences stay in sync across both platforms. Mailchimp activity appears on the constituent timeline in Donorfy, and actions in Donorfy (a first donation, a new tag, a sign-up) can add supporters to an audience and start a Mailchimp journey in a single step.
Pricing
In a nutshell, it's constituent-based, with unlimited users at each tier. Cost follows the number of records held rather than the number of people on the team, so growing the team doesn't grow the bill. Implementation cost are additional, but we'll talk through the overall best pricing option for you.
Implementation
Implementations follow a defined journey with a named onboarding consultant from welcome call to go-live. 70% of charities are live in under 20 weeks, and the quickest go live in eight. The total ask on the charity's team comes to between 32 and 50 hours across the project.
Security
Donorfy, as part of the Access Group, is serious about security. We hold ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certification, and we're hosted with continuous threat monitoring. Donorfy also undergoes regular independent penetration testing. In a security incident, customers are given the specific information they need to meet their own ICO obligations.
Get full details and cyber security advice
The people
We love working with great causes, because many of us come from great causes. Several of the Donorfy team have worked in charities themselves, and some are even active trustees still today.
Taking the questions into your process
Our recommendation? Put all eight to each provider on your shortlist. A provider worth choosing is unlikely to mind, because clear questions are easier to answer well than vague ones.
The answers give both you and your trustees something concrete to weigh, and they describe the organisation as much as the software!
Discover Donorfy
Book a call to talk through your needs, and we'll arrange a demo that shows how it works for you.
