Migrate your Contact Beacon data
Charity-focused CRM with built-in donation automation, Gift Aid workflows, and a straightforward interface for smaller nonprofit teams.
In its favor
Why people choose Contact Beacon
The signal that keeps Contact Beacon on the shortlist. Sourced from G2, Capterra, and customer scoping calls.
Beacon is designed specifically for charities, with native Gift Aid declaration handling and built-in donation acknowledgment workflows that most general CRMs lack.
The platform offers a free tier suitable for very small charities, allowing teams to evaluate fit without upfront cost commitment.
Customers report that the interface has a low learning curve, reducing the time spent on staff training during onboarding.
The hands-on customer support is consistently praised in reviews, with users noting they get timely, knowledgeable responses when issues arise.
Beacon's pricing is transparent and per-user rather than contact-based, making costs predictable for small teams with growing donor lists.
Teams outgrow Beacon when they need more advanced fundraising features such as planned giving, grant tracking, or complex event management that the platform does not support.
Customers report that the API lacks bulk endpoints, making integrations with accounting tools and data warehouses difficult to maintain without custom development.
Some users note that reporting and analytics dashboards are limited compared to platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot, making it harder to build executive-level fundraising reports.
Beacon's feature set is optimized for UK charities using Gift Aid, which can feel narrow for international nonprofits or charities without tax reclaim programs.
Reasons to switch
Why people leave Contact Beacon
The recurring reasons buyers give for replacing Contact Beacon. Presented as facts, not knocks.
Platform scorecard
Strengths, weaknesses, and where Contact Beacon fits
Grades across six dimensions, plus a SWOT-style view of where the platform shines and where it falls short.
SWOT — strengths, weaknesses, and use-case fit
Strengths
Weaknesses
Where it works
Where it struggles
Pricing tiers
Contact Beacon pricing overview
Contact Beacon charges per user per month with two published tiers. The Starter plan is aimed at very small charities and the Standard plan adds workflows, Gift Aid tools, and priority support. There is a free tier for organizations with minimal users, though specific limits are not publicly documented.
Starter
Tier 1 of 2
£30 per month
What's included
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What gets migrated
Contact Beacon object support
Object-by-object support for Contact Beacon migrations. Per-pair details surface during scoping.
Contacts
Fully supportedContacts is the primary record type in Beacon. We migrate all standard fields (name, email, address, phone) plus custom properties. Owner assignment maps to the target system's user field.
Donations
Fully supportedDonations are linked to Contacts and carry a campaign tag, amount, date, and Gift Aid flag. We preserve the parent Contact relationship and re-map the Gift Aid boolean to the equivalent field in the destination.
Campaigns
Fully supportedCampaigns group donations and contacts for reporting. We migrate campaign names, statuses, and start/end dates as standard lookup/link targets in the destination.
Custom Fields
Mapping requiredBeacon supports per-organization custom fields on Contacts and Donations. We discover these at scoping, map their types to the destination schema, and flag any unsupported field types (e.g. multi-select) that require transformation.
Workflows
Not in this platformWorkflows define automated sequences (e.g. Gift Aid submission triggers, thank-you email chains) and cannot be exported from Beacon's UI or API. We document the workflow logic during scoping and reproduce equivalent automations in the destination as a post-migration step.
Pipelines
Mapping requiredBeacon uses Pipelines to track donor journeys and fundraising stages. Stage names and order are migrated; any conditional stage-routing rules must be manually reconfigured in the destination.
Tags
Fully supportedTags on Contacts and Donations are migrated as flat label arrays. We map them to the destination's tagging system and flag any tags that correspond to inactive workflows.
Attachments
Mapping requiredFile attachments on Contact records are downloaded via individual API requests and re-uploaded to the destination. Large batches are chunked to stay within Beacon's rate limits.
Users
Mapping requiredBeacon user accounts are mapped to the destination's user list. Inactive users are imported as inactive or archived records depending on the target system's handling.
| Object | Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Contacts | Fully supported | Contacts is the primary record type in Beacon. We migrate all standard fields (name, email, address, phone) plus custom properties. Owner assignment maps to the target system's user field. |
| Donations | Fully supported | Donations are linked to Contacts and carry a campaign tag, amount, date, and Gift Aid flag. We preserve the parent Contact relationship and re-map the Gift Aid boolean to the equivalent field in the destination. |
| Campaigns | Fully supported | Campaigns group donations and contacts for reporting. We migrate campaign names, statuses, and start/end dates as standard lookup/link targets in the destination. |
| Custom Fields | Mapping required | Beacon supports per-organization custom fields on Contacts and Donations. We discover these at scoping, map their types to the destination schema, and flag any unsupported field types (e.g. multi-select) that require transformation. |
| Workflows | Not in this platform | Workflows define automated sequences (e.g. Gift Aid submission triggers, thank-you email chains) and cannot be exported from Beacon's UI or API. We document the workflow logic during scoping and reproduce equivalent automations in the destination as a post-migration step. |
| Pipelines | Mapping required | Beacon uses Pipelines to track donor journeys and fundraising stages. Stage names and order are migrated; any conditional stage-routing rules must be manually reconfigured in the destination. |
| Tags | Fully supported | Tags on Contacts and Donations are migrated as flat label arrays. We map them to the destination's tagging system and flag any tags that correspond to inactive workflows. |
| Attachments | Mapping required | File attachments on Contact records are downloaded via individual API requests and re-uploaded to the destination. Large batches are chunked to stay within Beacon's rate limits. |
| Users | Mapping required | Beacon user accounts are mapped to the destination's user list. Inactive users are imported as inactive or archived records depending on the target system's handling. |
Gotchas
What to watch for in Contact Beacon migrations
Issues we've hit on past Contact Beacon migrations, tagged by severity. FlitStack AI handles every one — surfacing them up front because buyer engineering teams want to know.
API keys are shown once and never recoverable
No bulk export endpoint forces paginated extraction
Revoked API keys are permanently invalidated
Workflows have no export path
| Severity | Issue |
|---|---|
| High | API keys are shown once and never recoverable |
| Medium | No bulk export endpoint forces paginated extraction |
| Medium | Revoked API keys are permanently invalidated |
| High | Workflows have no export path |
Leaving Contact Beacon?
Where Contact Beacon customers move next
12 destinations Contact Beacon can migrate to.
How a Contact Beacon migration works
Four steps, Contact Beacon-specific
Connect
API key (Bearer token) into Contact Beacon. Scopes limited to read-only on the data we move.
Map
We translate Contact Beacon-specific structures (custom fields, objects, value lists) to the destination's model.
Sample
Test with a 50–200 record subset to validate Contact Beacon quirks before production.
Migrate
Full migration with Contact Beacon rate-limit handling. Rollback available throughout.
FAQ
Contact Beacon migration FAQ
Answers to the questions buyers ask most during Contact Beacon migration scoping. Not seeing yours? Book a call.
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Migrate Contact Beacon.
Without the rebuild.
Free scoping call with a migration engineer. Tell us about your Contact Beacon setup and destination — written quote back within a business day.