Celebrating real tools for real challenges this Small Charity Week.

Small Charity Week reminds us of something: small charities are the backbone of positive change in communities across the UK.

With limited resources but unlimited passion, these organisations tackle everything from local food banks to impactful conservation efforts. 

And that’s a tough ask – what they do is amazing. 

So, as we all celebrate Small Charities Week, we wanted to share insights from the small charities in our community about the features that genuinely make a difference to their daily work.  

Built by fundraisers, for fundraisers 

Before we dive into specific features though, it's worth mentioning that many of our team come from charity backgrounds themselves, particularly small charities. When you contact support about Gift Aid queries, you're talking to people who've faced the same challenges. This sector experience fundamentally shapes how we build features and support customers. 

So, without further ado, here are five features that small charities consistently tell us have the biggest impact on their time, fundraising and operations. 

1. Gift Aid Integration

Gift Aid can increase donation income by up to 25%, but the administrative burden often feels overwhelming for small teams. Many charities tell us they've delayed Gift Aid claims or missed opportunities because the process was just too time-consuming. 

Donorfy's HMRC integration automatically handles Gift Aid compilation and submission, turning a monthly admin task into something that happens in the background. No more missed deadlines, no more sitting on unclaimed income. 

2. Automated thank you messages 

Every donor deserves acknowledgment, even when you're swamped! In small charities, donor stewardship often gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list when urgent tasks pile up above it. But thanking supporters promptly is crucial for retention and relationship building. 

Automated thank-you messages ensure every donor gets acknowledged quickly, even during busy periods. With Donorfy, you can customise the messages to match your charity's voice while ensuring no one falls through the cracks. 

3. Simplified supporter segmentation

Even with limited time, small charities benefit enormously from tailored communications. Different supporters care about different aspects of your work, and segmentation helps you speak to those individual interests. 

Simple segmentation tools – in Donorfy, this is a tagging system - let you group supporters by interests, giving history, volunteer involvement, or any other criteria that matters to your charity. A Donorfy first, Care for Wild (UK) has tags named after rhinos, so they can instantly see which rhino someone is supporting! This means more relevant communications and better response rates. 

4. Instant reporting and insights

Small charity teams need to make quick decisions with often limited information. Having access to real-time insights about donation patterns, campaign performance and supporter engagement changes how you can plan and react. 

Ready-to-go reports provide insights into income performance, ROI, and metrics you simply can't get easily from spreadsheets. Whether it's for a trustee meeting or planning your next campaign, the data is there when it's needed. 

5. Integration with other great tools

Small charities often use multiple platforms, for example, JustGiving for fundraising, GoCardless for regular giving and MailChimp for comms. Managing data across these platforms manually is time-consuming and can be error-prone, too. 

Automatic integrations pull donation data directly into your CRM, creating complete supporter records without manual data entry. This creates a fundraising ecosystem that works together instead of creating data silos, and small charities benefit a lot from that connectivity. 

What Small Charities Tell Us: Real Impact 

The features that matter most to small charities aren't always the flashiest ones. They're the tools that quietly handle administrative tasks and help lean teams work more effectively. Here's some great examples: 

Youth Talk: The team unlocked £10,000 in Gift Aid that had been overlooked for two years and raised an extra £20,000 through BMI networks, after moving to Donorfy to manage their data. Their Fundraising Assistant, notes: "Donorfy has helped us streamline fundraising data, track our income better, and budget and forecast better.” [read customer story] 

Switchboard LGBTQIA+ moved from spreadsheets to manage their income and 2,000+ supporters. The team have found that having  their data in one place improved their ability to build supporter relationships and track fundraising performance across different campaigns. “Having somewhere stable for all information to exist means we can build on that foundation and really grow.”  [read customer story] 

Care for Wild (UK) moved from spreadsheets to managing 1,000+ supporters in Donorfy. The automated processes freed up crucial time for their single fundraiser: "Donorfy saves time, helping make up for me just being one person, with the workload of more!" This has given them to focus on their rhino conservation mission while building stronger supporter relationships. [read customer story] 

Supporting Small Charities During Small Charities Week 

This Small Charity Week, we're reminded why we love working with small charities.  

Small charities - you deserve technology that understands your world and supports your unique challenges. Because when your mission matters this much, your tools should work as hard as you do. Thanks for everything you do.