The best project management tools of 2024

With the advance of remote and hybrid working practices, which combine home and office working, charity workforces are becoming more spread out and in need of help to interact. 

 

Thankfully, there are plenty of online project management tools available to ensure teams are organised, work is being completed, and innovation is taking place, wherever they are. 

 

Below, we outline some of the best tools available, considering the types of charity they will appeal to, ease of use, and, crucially, cost. Pricing is particularly important in 2024 as charities tackle the cost-of-living crisis and the continuing impact of COVID-19 on the sector’s finances  

 

 

Top project management software for 2024 

 

Asana 

 

This tool is ideal for small charities due to its ease of use and kind pricing.  

 

Through Asana, wider goals around strategy can be set and individual tasks can be inputted. Different team members can be assigned tasks, forms, and other templates can also be created to save time. 

 

It can be integrated easily with common apps that charities are already likely to use such as Microsoft Teams and Google Drive. 

 

Among recent features is a Workflow Builder, whereby charities can create automated processes to coordinate teams. 

 

Pricing: There is a free version of Asana for up to 15 people and unlimited projects. Paid subscriptions start at £11.59 a month where the number of team members can be increased and more functionalities can be added. Through the Charity Digital Exchange, Asana is offering £0 annual fee to charities for a year.  

 

 

Monday.com 

 

Larger charities may find Monday.com a useful tool to manage many projects across multiple teams. It has more than 200 visual template boards to choose from that will suit everyone’s ways of working, too.  

 

Boards can be linked to each other to support large charities’ many interconnected projects across departments, from marketing and IT to fundraising and PR. 

 

It also has a tailored version specifically for charities, with functions such as managing grant applications, recruiting volunteers and managing donors.  

 

Pricing: There is a free version of Monday.com with little functionality. For the paid version, pricing is by ‘seat’, which refers to the number of users involved.  

 

The Basic package costs £5 per seat and includes an unlimited number of free viewers, while the Standard costs £9 a seat and includes more collaboration functions. The Pro version costs £19 a seat and is suitable for more complex workflows. 

 

Monday.com is offering discounts to non-profit organisations offering 10 ‘seats’ for free then an additional 70% discount on each additional ‘seat’. 

 

 

Smartsheet 

 

A strong focus on mobile functionality makes Smartsheet a project management an interesting prospect for charities with a wide network of workers and volunteers who need to access project management software on the move. 

 

Smartsheet offers charities a range of collaboration and project management functions, including tracking, reporting, resource management, and, crucially, planning tasks. Files can be attached from a range of tools and apps such as Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. 

 

It also includes customisable reports and dashboards to be used for project management.  

 

Pricing: To help organisations test out the tool before committing to using it long term, Smartsheet offers a 30-day free trial. A monthly subscription costs between £5 and £19 per user. 

 

 

HubSpot 

 

HubSpot is a particularly useful tool for charities looking to improve the organisation of their marketing. 

 

It offers a raft of marketing specific project management tools, to help teams collaborate in areas such as newsletter design, content creation, and the development of a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. It can also help teams work together on website design.     

 

In addition to its marketing hub, it has specific tools for operations, customer service, CRM, and sales, while its project management features include blogging, marketing automation, analytics, email, and social media management  

 

Pricing: HubSpot’s marketing hub plans start from £38 a month.  

 

 

Trello 

 

Ease of use makes Trello a useful project management tool for charities who want to get to grips with project management software swiftly.  

 

Basic project boards can be created with lists and cards for different topics and tasks. It allows managers to track tasks across several projects in one place using the workspace function. 

 

It can also be integrated with messaging systems including Gmail, Microsoft Teams and Slack. 

 

Pricing: Trello has a free version offering unlimited cards and up to 10 boards per workspace. Monthly subscriptions are available for between £3.50 and £13.40 per user.  

 

The paid versions offer additional features including more workspace commands a month and different views, including dashboard, timeline, and calendar view. 

 

 

Wrike 

 

A more generalist tool is Wrike, which is customisable to suit a range of different types of teams through dashboards and workflows.  

 

An interesting feature is the ability to eliminate silos by giving access to different projects across departments. It also offers shareable Kanban boards for agile teams and also includes interactive Gantt charts.  

 

Pricing: A free version for one to five users is available offering limited storage. Paid packages for up to 200 users cost between £7.50 and £19 per user per month. Packages for unlimited users are also available.