Unify fundraising, finance and operations in one system. Dynamics 365 Business Central gives fundraising leaders clear visibility of income, funds and cash flow so they can grow income, control cost and stay compliant.
Fundraising becomes harder when finance, fundraising and operations run on separate systems. Dynamics 365 Business Central connects your data, automates manual work and gives decision-makers a single source of truth.
Dynamics 365 Business Central is a modern ERP system that works brilliantly for fundraising organisations. It brings together core finance, budgeting, purchasing, stock, projects and reporting in one place, with tight integration to other Microsoft tools your teams already use.
With Business Central for fundraising, you can replace spreadsheets and legacy finance systems with a connected platform built for growth and control. You get real-time insight into donations, grants, pledges and costs, and you can see the true impact of every appeal, event and campaign. If you want to see what a dedicated ERP for fundraising could do for your organisation, keep reading.
An ERP that understands the realities of fundraising helps you raise more, do more and prove impact. Here is how Business Central supports fundraising decision-makers.
Business Central connects donations, grants, memberships, legacies and trading income with your general ledger, budgets and projects. Finance and fundraising teams work from the same real-time figures, which reduces reconciliation work and removes arguments about "whose numbers are right". This makes it much easier for fundraising leaders to drive decisions based on accurate, shared data.
Dashboards and role-based workspaces give heads of fundraising, finance directors and CEOs a simple view of income, performance and risk. You can see how campaigns, events and appeals are performing, where costs are creeping up and which activities deliver the best return. This helps you protect your existing income and spot new opportunities to grow it.
Managing restricted, unrestricted and designated funds is a core need in fundraising organisations. Business Central helps you track each fund properly, link it to income and spend, and report on it clearly. This reduces the risk of misallocation, protects your reputation and gives trustees confidence that money is being used as promised.
Charities, non-profits and fundraising organisations face increasing regulatory and donor scrutiny. Business Central supports good governance with clear approval workflows, audit trails and accurate financial records. You can evidence how donations are handled, how funds are spent and how you meet internal and external standards, which makes audits less disruptive and far more predictable.
Many fundraising teams still rely on manual reconciliations, copy-and-paste imports and offline reports. Business Central automates routine tasks, such as recurring journals, approvals, allocations and certain bank reconciliations. This reduces time spent on admin and gives your team more capacity to focus on building relationships and raising income.
Data taken from a survey we commissioned in December 2024. Click here to view
of businesses are utilising an ERP
businesses are dissatisfied with their current ERP
of businesses say using an ERP has contributed to achieving business outcomes
Fundraising decision-makers need clarity on income, cost and impact. Dynamics 365 Business Central gives you joined-up financial and operational data so you can plan with confidence, respond quickly to change and prove value to trustees and stakeholders.
Business Central lets you track the full financial picture of each campaign, appeal or event. You can see income, fees, supplier costs and internal time in one place, not scattered across separate systems. This gives fundraising leaders a clear view of which activities truly deliver value and which need to change or stop.
Fundraising organisations need systems that keep pace with their ambitions. Business Central for fundraising brings your finances, programmes and operations together so you can raise more, manage cost and prove impact with confidence.
When donors give to specific causes, you need to prove that money has been used as intended. Business Central lets you set up and track restricted funds alongside unrestricted income, then allocate income and expenditure accurately. You can produce clear reports for trustees and major donors that show how each fund has been managed over time.
Many organisations struggle to see the full cost of fundraising, especially when staff time and overheads are spread across teams. Business Central enables you to allocate costs to campaigns, events, channels and programmes in a structured way. This means you can calculate return on investment more accurately and focus on the activities that genuinely grow net income.
Month-end can be painful when income data sits in fundraising platforms and costs live elsewhere. Business Central helps you streamline month-end by bringing bank transactions, journal entries, payables and receivables into one place. Consistent processes and automation reduce the need for manual reconciliations, which shortens your month-end cycle and reduces the risk of error.
Most fundraising teams use a dedicated CRM system to manage supporters and campaigns. Business Central can be integrated with your chosen CRM or Dynamics 365 applications so financial and supporter data can flow between systems. This avoids double data entry, supports more accurate income recognition and gives leaders a more complete picture of donor behaviour and value.
When your organisation merges, launches a new programme or enters a new territory, legacy systems can become a blocker. Business Central provides a flexible structure for managing additional entities, cost centres and funds. This makes it much easier to onboard new teams, migrate data and maintain consistent reporting after periods of change.
Trustees, boards and senior stakeholders increasingly expect clear, timely reporting. Business Central allows you to create dashboards and standard reports that answer common questions about income, costs and reserves. You can share consistent information with governance groups, which builds trust and helps them make better decisions about strategy and investment.
Get a better understanding of the benefits of using a CRM system - allowing businesses like yours to overcome fragmented systems and disconnected workflows. Don't just read about them either, our report provides you with actionable insights and practical recommendations so that you can begin to make data-led decisions.
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Fundraising organisations need systems that keep pace with their ambitions. Business Central for fundraising brings your finances, programmes and operations together so you can raise more, manage cost and prove impact with confidence. To learn more about Business Central for fundraising, or to see how an ERP for fundraising could work in your organisation, get in touch using this short form.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is a cloud-based finance and operations system that helps fundraising organisations manage income, funds, suppliers, projects and reporting in one place. For fundraising teams, it provides a single, reliable view of donations, grants and costs so leaders can make better decisions and support sustainable growth.
Business Central helps charity and non-profit finance teams by automating core processes such as purchase invoices, approvals, journals and reconciliations. It supports fund accounting, dimensions and multi-entity structures, which makes it easier to track restricted and unrestricted funds, manage programmes and produce the reports that trustees and regulators expect.
Yes. Business Central is suitable for both smaller fundraising teams and larger, more complex organisations. Smaller charities benefit from having a single, modern finance system that replaces spreadsheets and basic accounting software. As the organisation grows, Business Central scales with them, so they do not need to switch systems every few years.
Business Central can be configured to support restricted, unrestricted and designated funds through its chart of accounts and dimensional structure. This lets you record income and expenditure against the right funds, produce accurate fund-level reports and demonstrate that you are using money in line with donor intent and regulatory expectations.
Business Central can integrate with a range of fundraising and CRM systems, including other Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications. Integration allows supporter and income data to flow between systems, which reduces manual data entry, improves data quality and gives fundraising and finance teams a more complete view of performance.
Business Central includes flexible reporting tools and can be connected to Microsoft Power BI for richer analysis. Fundraising leaders can see real-time dashboards that show income by campaign, channel, programme or fund, as well as key measures such as cost of fundraising and reserves. This makes it easier to track progress and act quickly when performance changes.
Business Central is a cloud-based solution hosted on Microsoft infrastructure, which is designed to meet high standards for security, privacy and compliance. Access controls, roles and permissions can be configured so that only the right people see donor-related financial data. This supports your wider data protection approach and helps you reduce risk.
The time it takes to implement Business Central depends on the size and complexity of your organisation, as well as the number of integrations and bespoke requirements. Many fundraising organisations start with a focused core finance implementation, then add further capabilities and integrations once the system is embedded and teams are comfortable.
Trustees and boards can receive clear, consistent reports from Business Central that cover income, expenditure, funds, reserves and programme performance. Reports can be designed to match your existing board packs, with the added benefit of real-time data and drill-down capability when questions arise. This supports better governance and more informed strategic decisions.
Fundraising organisations should consider Business Central when they need more than basic bookkeeping. It offers stronger support for fund accounting, multi-entity structures, approvals, integrations and advanced reporting. This helps fundraising leaders move beyond reactive reporting and build a data-driven view of income, cost and impact that can support long-term growth.
