Six Platforms That Enable Charities to Evidence Impact and Increase Funding

Securing funding has always demanded more from charities than a persuasive mission alone. Funders need assurance that their money will be handled responsibly, directed towards its intended purpose and achieve the outcomes outlined in an application. As competition for funding has intensified and due diligence has become more rigorous, charities that regularly secure grants and donations tend to demonstrate sound financial controls, effective impact measurement and professional credibility at every point of contact.

The following six platforms help charities establish the infrastructure needed both to meet funder expectations and to improve operational effectiveness in practice.

Platform	Main features
Sage Intacct	Fund accounting, tracking for restricted and unrestricted funds, real-time grant budget reporting and auditable financial statements
Hootsuite	Social media planning, scheduling and management across multiple platforms
Charity Excellence Framework	Governance assessment, gap identification and documented governance evidence
Canva for Nonprofits	Free access for registered charities to professional design tools
Kindful	Donor records, giving histories, communication preferences, event attendance and relationship management
Benevity	Corporate social responsibility, employee donations, matching programmes and community investment management

1. Sage Intacct: Financial Management and Fund Accounting

Sage Intacct is designed for the particular demands of charity finance, unlike general accounting software intended for commercial businesses. Its fund accounting functionality enables finance teams to distinguish between restricted and unrestricted funds, monitor individual grant budgets in real time and create the transparent, auditable financial statements required by institutional funders.

When preparing funding applications, charities using Sage Intacct can generate fund-level financial reports showing how earlier grants were administered. This is among the strongest forms of evidence a funder can receive. For charities administering current grants, the system also makes interim and final reports far less time-consuming to prepare.

Why it matters: Clear and auditable fund accounting is essential for institutional grant funding and continued relationships with funders. Sage Intacct is built to deliver this without the need for a large finance team.

2. Hootsuite: Platform for Social Media Management

Although many charities maintain social media accounts, they often manage them reactively by posting only when capacity permits rather than following a regular plan. Hootsuite enables communications teams to organise, schedule and manage content across several social platforms through one interface. This supports consistent activity even during periods of intensive programme delivery.

A reliable, professionally managed social media presence develops public trust and recognition, supporting fundraising, volunteer recruitment and policy influence. It can also offer the visible evidence of public profile and community engagement that some grant makers seek when considering an organisation's reach.

Why it matters: Maintaining a consistent social media presence strengthens public credibility and community visibility, supporting fundraising as well as the evidence funders consider when evaluating community impact.

3. Charity Excellence Framework: Platform for Governance and Compliance Assessment

Before awarding substantial grants, funders often review the governance and management standards of the charities under consideration. The Charity Excellence Framework is a free online tool through which charities can assess governance practices against sector standards, identify areas for improvement and build a documented record of governance health.

Completing the framework creates the structured governance evidence commonly required during due diligence. The assessment process itself can also uncover improvements that reinforce charity operations regardless of any immediate funding opportunity.

Why it matters: Proven governance strength is required for many institutional grants and is increasingly part of the due diligence expectations of major individual donors.

4. Canva for Nonprofits: Communications and Design Platform

Professional design can strengthen grant applications, donor communications, impact reports and other public-facing materials. Canva for Nonprofits gives registered charities free access to Canva's professional design platform, allowing teams to create polished materials without an internal designer or design budget.

For charities that have relied on simple word-processed documents or materials with inconsistent branding, Canva can quickly improve how professional and credible the organisation appears across every touchpoint. This has a measurable effect on donor trust and funder confidence.

Why it matters: A professional presentation across every interaction, from social media to grant applications, establishes the credibility that helps funders and donors view a charity as a serious recipient of substantial investment.

5. Kindful: CRM for Donor Management

Using spreadsheets or a general CRM to manage donor relationships can mean missing the history, context and insight needed to nurture those relationships over time. Kindful is a donor management platform created specifically for nonprofits. It offers a complete record of each supporter's giving history, communication preferences, event attendance and connection to the organisation.

For charities seeking to develop genuine donor stewardship rather than simply process transactions, Kindful provides the information needed to ensure interactions are relevant and personal at scale. This is especially important in major donor development, where the quality of the relationship directly influences giving levels.

Why it matters: Properly managed donor relationships deliver substantially higher lifetime value than transactional relationships. Managing them effectively requires the data provided by a purpose-built platform rather than a general CRM.

6. Benevity: Workplace Giving and Corporate Donation Platform

Charities often concentrate fundraising activity on individual donations and grant applications while making limited use of the corporate giving market. Benevity is the leading workplace giving and corporate social responsibility platform. Hundreds of major companies use it to administer employee giving, matching programmes and community investment.

Registering and maintaining an active presence on Benevity can give charities access to corporate giving budgets channelled through employer-matched donation programmes, many of which seek eligible organisations. One corporate partner with an active matching scheme can provide considerable recurring income while requiring relatively little continuing effort from a charity's fundraising team.

Why it matters: Corporate giving through platforms such as Benevity is a substantial yet underused income source for many charities. It also supports the diversified income base that institutional funders regard as evidence of organisational health.

Common Questions

What do institutional grant makers review in addition to the written application?

Funders carry out due diligence that commonly involves examining the charity's filed accounts, reviewing governance through the Charity Commission register and the organisation's own records, considering the management team's track record and seeking signs of wider stakeholder support, including community engagement and diversified income. Charities that perform strongly in these reviews have generally invested in infrastructure, including robust financial management and well-defined governance procedures, that makes this evidence easy to provide.

How significant is income diversification for grant makers?

It is very significant. Charities that depend heavily on one funder or one form of funding are viewed as carrying greater risk than those with income from a varied base, including grants, individual giving, corporate partnerships and, where relevant, earned income. Funders recognise that they may not always be able to continue providing support, so they favour organisations that are not existentially reliant on a single source.

What is the strategic approach to corporate partnerships for charities?

The strongest corporate partnerships are built on genuine alignment between a charity's mission and a company's values or community interests, rather than on a purely transactional basis. Charities are more likely to form enduring relationships by identifying businesses in their sector or area whose giving programmes suit their work, then presenting a clear partnership case that demonstrates value for the company as well as for the charity.

Why do capable charities most often miss out on funding they could have secured?

Weak financial presentation is repeatedly identified as the most avoidable point of failure. This can include accounts that fail to show clearly how previous restricted grants were spent, budgets that are inconsistent with the charity's financial history or an inability to explain a proposed project's financial model clearly. Strong financial management systems that produce transparent, fund-level reporting address these issues directly.

How can smaller charities contend with larger organisations for competitive grants?

Many funders actively aim to support smaller, community-led organisations, meaning scale is not necessarily a disadvantage. Smaller charities need to ensure that their governance evidence, financial management and impact measurement are appropriate to their size while remaining demonstrably rigorous. In funding rounds suited to their profile, a well-organised small charity with systematic impact data and clear financial records will consistently perform better than a larger organisation with weak governance.