Best Fundraising Platforms for UK Charities in 2026: An Honest Guide

Choosing a fundraising platform is one of the few decisions that touches every donation your charity receives, so it's worth getting right — and it's also a decision where "best" genuinely depends on what you do. We run a platform ourselves (DONATE), so read this knowing our perspective; we've tried to be even-handed, we link to every provider, and our comparison calculator publishes its sources.

The short answer, by situation

• Peer-to-peer sponsorship (marathons, birthday fundraisers): JustGiving — unmatched public brand recognition means friends and family trust the link. Watch the tiered subscription on the charity Grow plan and the donor tipping prompts.
• Branded event registrations and challenges: Enthuse — strong white-label event tooling. Factor in £39.99/month plus a 5% payout fee; no raffles, auctions or text giving. See our DONATE vs Enthuse comparison.
• Individual crowdfunding with no charity admin: GoFundMe — free to start and familiar, but no Gift Aid processing (you claim yourself), and raffles are prohibited.
• Zero-fee budget, tip-tolerant donors: Zeffy — genuinely fee-free for the charity, funded by donor tips at checkout. Check UK-specific Gift Aid handling and compliance for prize draws before committing.
• Raffles, auctions, text and contactless as well as donations: DONATE (us) — the only platform on this list run by a registered charity, with Gambling Commission-licensed raffles, auctions, text giving and tap-to-donate terminals alongside standard donation pages.
• Schools and PTAs: a text or online raffle is consistently the highest-margin digital fundraiser — see the school and PTA raffle guide.

How to actually compare them

1. Total cost, not headline rate. Add transaction fee + fixed per-donation pennies + Gift Aid fee + subscription + payout fee + expected donor tips. A 1.9% platform with a £40 subscription costs a charity raising £300/month far more than a 4.5% platform with a £9 subscription. Our guide to fundraising platform fees breaks each fee type down.

2. Gift Aid handling. Platforms differ on who claims (you or them), what it costs (commonly 5% of the claim), and how declarations are collected. Automated claiming typically recovers far more than manual claiming ever does — see how digital Gift Aid works.

3. Channel coverage. List the fundraising you'll actually run this year — if raffles, auctions, text or in-person contactless are on the list, most donation-page platforms can't do them, and running a second platform doubles your admin.

4. Compliance. Online raffles and lotteries are regulated under the Gambling Act 2005. Either your charity registers and runs the compliance itself, or you use a platform operating under a Gambling Commission licence. Start with the online raffle rules for UK charities.

5. Where the money sits and when it arrives. Check payout schedules, payout fees and reporting. Text giving in particular involves mobile network payout cycles on every platform that offers it.

Run your own numbers

Rankings are a starting point, not an answer. The interactive platform comparison lets you set your monthly amount, Gift Aid rate and text-giving share, and shows exactly what reaches the charity on each platform — including the fees the pricing pages don't headline.