Charity email software: UK platforms and buying checks

What to take away

Charity email pricing starts from list price and moves only when you ask for charity terms in writing.
Permission comes firstfundraising email to supporters is direct marketing under UK rules.
Gift Aid sits in your donation records, so choose software that keeps the declaration trail intact.
Authentication and suppression handling matter more than template choice on a small list.

Named platforms to shortlist

Mailchimp has a free plan capped at 500 contacts and 1,000 sends a month. Paid plans rise by contacts and sends. It lists a 15% nonprofit discount for eligible organisations.

Charity email platform terms

Mailchimp

Free plan: 500 contacts
Paid from: Rises by tier
Nonprofit discount: 15%

MailerLite

Free plan: 1,000 subs
Paid from: £8 / 500 subs
Nonprofit discount: 30%

Brevo

Free plan: 300 sends/day
Paid from: £19 / 20k
Nonprofit discount: Listed

Campaign Monitor

Free plan: None
Paid from: £7 / 500
Nonprofit discount: 20%

MailerLite has a free plan for up to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month. Paid plans start at around £8 a month for 500 subscribers. It advertises a 30% nonprofit discount.

Brevo has a free plan of 300 sends a day. Paid email plans start at around £19 a month for 20,000 emails. It lists a nonprofit discount for eligible groups.

Campaign Monitor charges by contacts, with paid plans from around £7 a month for 500 contacts. It lists a 20% nonprofit discount.

Dotdigital is a UK platform with pricing on request. It often quotes by contacts and sends. Charity terms are negotiated rather than published.

Engaging Networks is built for charity campaigns and fundraising email. Pricing is on request. Charity terms are negotiated as part of a wider package.

Put the permission trail before the template

Charity appeals, newsletters and legacy asks are all direct marketing under UK rules. The ICO's direct marketing guidance explains what counts as valid consent for a fundraising email and how that consent should be recorded.

Permission trail before first send

Check ICO direct marketing guidance
Confirm PECR consent rule applies
Record valid consent properly
Build suppression list first
Include lapsed donors and complaints
Carry list across platforms

The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 carry the consent rule for electronic mail. Its soft opt-in is narrow and does not cover a one-off donor who never agreed to hear from the charity again.

Build the suppression list before the first send. Lapsed donors, complaint records and unsubscribes from every channel belong on it, and that list travels with you if you change platform.

Gift Aid changes what you store, not what you send

Gift Aid is claimed from HMRC, not from your email platform. Registration with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, or with OSCR in Scotland or CCNI in Northern Ireland, is a separate step from HMRC recognition.

Gift Aid data trail

Donor gives Gift Aid declaration
Platform captures declaration cleanly
Consent wording stored on form
Custom fields survive upgrade
Export file keeps audit trail
Claim Gift Aid from HMRC

What the platform must do is capture the declaration cleanly and keep it exportable. If a donor adds a Gift Aid statement in an email reply, somebody has to move that into the donation record.

Check that custom fields, the consent wording on your forms and the export file all survive a plan upgrade. Export formats are where small charities lose the trail.

What UK charities should compare

Price alone rarely separates two platforms. Two vendors can charge on contacts, on sends or on seats, and the same charity can look cheap on one model and expensive on another.

What to compare	Why it matters to a charity
Fee basis	Contacts, sends or seats produce very different renewal figures
Charity terms	How the discount is claimed, verified and whether it survives an upgrade
Donation capture	Gift Aid declaration fields, consent wording and an exportable audit trail
Exit terms	Export format, cost of leaving and how long records stay available
Deliverability tools	Authentication, bounce handling and suppression imports on a self-serve plan
Support model	Onboarding for staff and volunteers who run email part-time

A gated selection checklist that ends in go, hold or stop is faster than a feature scorecard, and it forces a decision date.

Ask two questions of every shortlisted vendor: what happens to our rate at the next contact tier, and what does an export cost on the day we leave?

Billing checks for UK charities

UK buyers are usually quoted in pounds, but some platforms bill in US dollars, so confirm the currency before comparing two monthly figures.

VAT is charged on top of the quoted price, and whether a charity can recover it depends on the activity it relates to. Ask your finance lead rather than the vendor.

Watch for the add-ons that raise the renewal: transactional sends, SMS credits, extra seats and paid onboarding that the trial did not include.

Deliverability checks that pay back

Set up authentication before you send to a newly imported list. A plain-English SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup for UK domains is the cheapest deliverability work available to a charity.

Then watch complaints rather than opens. A complaint rate that creeps above a small fraction of sends damages a list quickly, and shared IP pools spread that damage to other senders.

Segment lapsed donors and run a re-engagement email before deleting them. Removing non-responders improves the numbers your next appeal is judged on.

Common questions

Is Mailchimp free for UK charities?

Mailchimp's free plan is capped by contacts and monthly sends, so most charities outgrow it. Mailchimp runs a scheme for eligible organisations, but the terms and the eligibility test are set by Mailchimp, so check its current pricing page before you budget.

Can we email supporters who have not opted in?

No, not for fundraising email. PECR requires consent for unsolicited electronic mail marketing, and the soft opt-in was designed around sales to existing customers, so a charity should not lean on it.

Does email software manage Gift Aid claims?

No. The claim itself goes to HMRC through your finance process. The platform's job is to store the declaration and keep it exportable.

What should a small charity budget for email software?

Budget from your contact count, annual send volume and the number of people who need a login. Then add VAT and a contingency for list growth after a strong appeal.