Whether you’re a small business or a nonprofit organization , you know your online presence is critical to the success of your company. Donors want to feel appreciated and show their support, but not everyone can give money. As a small business owner, you’re looking for the best donor management software to help keep track of supporters.
What is Donor Management Software?
Donor management software is used by nonprofit organizations to manage relationships with donors. It enables organizations to manage donor information, including donations, volunteer work, etc., and use that information to devise personalized strategies for donor retention. Depending on the fundraising strategy of the organization, this type of software can be used to invite donors to donate online, in person at fundraising events, or to use other payment methods such as check, electronic transfer, and more. Multichannel communication is also an important part of maintaining the relationship between not for profits and donors.
Donor management software needs to integrate with donor prospect research software in order to have up to date information about donors available. Also, integration with nonprofit accounting and fundraising software helps organizations match donors with fundraising programs and track payments.
To qualify for inclusion in the Donor Management category, a product must:Manage donor information and donations historyInclude options to communicate with donors on multiple channelsDeliver value proposition management functionalityAllow users to create workflows that facilitate donors’ contributionsProvide acknowledgement letters and tax receiptsAnalyze donor activity and contributions to the organization
Donor management software is used by organizations to manage every aspect of a nonprofit’s relationship with its donors. Nonprofit organizations use donor management solutions to control all donor-related information and grow their donor bases. Organizations also use donor management software to accept donations and track those contributions. Donor management solutions provide an end-to-end option for nonprofits to oversee the entire donations process, from running donor campaigns and boosting engagement to actually accepting donations and analyzing donation-related data. These solutions are a vital piece of a nonprofit organization’s fundraising arsenal and provide the potential to improve the efficiency and efficacy of donor management teams.
Key Benefits of Donor Management Software
- Leverage current donor base to raise funds and hit goals
- Strengthen donor and contact relationships by keeping in constant contact
- Increase giving and new donations through email blasts, newsletters, and hub for donors
- Track and target key donors with segmented analytics
- Ensure the relevance of an outreach effort for respective recipients
- Reduce costs by having automation within donor management
Why Use Donor Management Software?
Nonprofits use donor management software for many reasons. Primary objectives include increasing their reach, supporting fundraising efforts, engaging in online fundraising, managing donor information, soliciting donations, and accepting donations. Donor management solutions provide nonprofits with control over every aspect of the donation process and allow improved access and insight into the process. The robust features included in many donor management solutions make them attractive options for organizations looking for a single solution to take care of their entire donor process.
Donor communication — Communicating with donors is vital for maintaining strong donor relationships. Donor management solutions provide a direct communication channel to donors, allowing nonprofits to send follow-up communication via email after receiving a donation. There are multiple communication channels through which users can maintain contact with donors. Certain solutions contain mass messaging features, which allow multiple points of access to donors via email and text messaging. While the majority of solutions in this category contain emailing features, some also allow users to send mass text messages.
Make informed decisions – The control and insight that donor management software can lend to the donor management process help users make informed, strategic decisions. Instead of fumbling around with huge data sets that give little to no insight to those who aren’t extremely data-savvy, reporting features provide sensible and easily digestible representations of data. While detailed reporting and analytics features are not present in every donor management solution, they are found in a large number of tools. Users can leverage insights into trends and historical data toward more strategic and better-informed decision-making.
Manage donor information — Donor management software functions somewhat like a nonprofit constituent relationship management platform in that it allows nonprofits to organize donor information by providing donor profiles to complete. You can import existing contact data into your solution to easily access information such as donor addresses, contact information, giving history, and more.
Accept donations – Nonprofit organizations utilize donor management solutions to accept multiple types of donations. Donations can potentially be made online, via text, through direct bank transactions, or with credit or debit cards.
Donor campaign management — Running well-organized campaigns is vital to drumming up support and boosting donations. Donor management software contains campaign management tools to run campaigns and reporting tools to view the results of those campaigns. These campaigns primarily include email marketing, but may include social media marketing. Your organization can create specific donation pages for each campaign, giving each round of outreach a unique feel.
Donor retention — Nonprofits use donor management software to help with donor retention. Organizations can use these solutions to launch and run campaigns designed to engage donors and ideally gather more pledges. Creating more touchpoints between your organization and your donor base is key to ensuring your donors stay loyal and continually giving to your organization. For example, a one-time donor may forget about your organization and the work you do. Repeat messaging can get your name in front of that donor and make it more likely that they donate again instead lapsing.
Re-engage with lapsed donors – A key feature of donor management software is donor targeting. Nonprofits can use this feature to quickly sort their contacts by demographic, most recent donors, time of last contact, and more. Teams can utilize the built-in communication tools to send targeted messaging to certain groups, prompting them to donate again or engage with your organization in some other way. Marketing automation, reporting, built-in communication tools, and analytics features all contribute to the end goal of donor engagement and re-engagement.
Data management — Donor management software gathers vast amounts of data on your donors and their contributions. Users can structure the data in useful ways and gain insights that would typically not be immediately obvious with these solutions. Donation teams can generate custom reports and analyze them to gain more clarity into where resources need to be directed.
Who Uses Donor Management Software?
Nonprofit organizations are the users of donor management software, as a large portion of nonprofit funding comes via donations. Since donations are such an important source of funding for nonprofits, managing donors and donor activity properly is immensely important. For example, your nonprofit has lofty fundraising goals set by your board and strict deadlines to meet. Donor management software can improve your reach, track your team’s activities, and boost your chances of reaching those goals.
Donor Management Software Features
Donor management solutions may include, but are not limited to, the following features:
Dashboards – Many donor management solutions contain dashboard features, which present the user with an easily understandable interface for interacting with the software. The dashboard provides real-time access to all of your information, from donor information to fundraising activity.
Reporting – Certain donor management software offers a reporting feature, which can generate detailed activity reports. Organizations can use these reports to shape donor strategy going forward. You can create a report that pulls donation numbers week by week from the past three years, notice that donations are usually down during a certain week, and then use that information to boost outreach during that period.
Marketing automation – Marketing automation saves time and has the ability to make your organization more efficient by eliminating mistakes in the marketing process. You may utilize a separate marketing automation software, but some robust donor management tools provide access to marketing automation features directly within the application. One can use these features to set up automated thank-you email responses or to gently nudge your donor base when they haven’t contributed in a while. Automating these processes means that you free up time to focus on more value-adding tasks, such as strategy.
Email distribution – Email distribution and mail-merge (the automatic addition of email addresses and personalized emails to expedite the process of sending out tons of marketing material at once) are two features included in the majority of donor management solutions. These allow users to send donor-related emails directly from the application.
Messaging templates – Some donor management solutions may contain email templates so users can easily craft and send acknowledgement emails. These solutions may also contain direct mail templates to help craft and send direct mail messages within the donor management application.
Data integration – Integrating existing data sets, primarily in the form of donor information and past donation history, is important to ensuring a smooth transition to a new donor management system. With quality data integration built in to your new solution, users can be sure that the information they will be relying on is accurate.
Mobile-optimized: – Mobility is increasingly important for software of all types, and donor management is no exception. Software vendors in this category are offering mobile-ready solutions to make accepting donations easier. Certain software offers text-to-give options, through which donors can make donations via text. Removing barriers makes it easier to solicit more donations.
Task management – Donation management at larger nonprofits may require an entire team of employees. These solutions may include task management tools, which schedule and assign tasks to individuals on the team and monitor the status of these tasks. Nonprofits often have fundraising goals and donation deadlines to stick to, so having a tool to organize the team can play a huge role in meeting those deadlines and hitting those goals.
Mass messaging – Donor management software may offer mass text messaging features, allowing organizations to reach out directly to their donor base. The combination of mass messaging features and text-to-give functionalities creates an additional line of communication and an additional donation channel.
Donation pages – Some solutions can create custom donor campaign pages to accompany targeted outreach. These pages streamline the donation process and track activity on the page more closely.
Real-time activity monitor — Using a real-time activity monitor, users can keep track of all donor activity as it occurs. This ensures that your nonprofit is up to date with all donor activity. Changes can be monitored and trigger immediate action to alleviate any issues and ensure a smoothly run donor management process.
Additional Donor Management Features
Prospect research database –
Dashboards – Donor management tools may provide access to a prospect database so you can carry out prospect research more easily. Prospect research is vital to increasing your number of donors, raising additional funds, and hitting donation goals. There is dedicated donor prospect research software, but having those tools within a donor management solution streamlines the entire process. With this feature, users can research potential donors and carry out marketing and outreach tasks all within the same tool.
Custom reporting – Many donor management solutions offer reporting features, but some can create custom report filters so that you can get exactly the data you want in the format best suited to the task. You may be able to automate the reporting process as well, ensuring that you have weekly, auto-generated, custom reports on all of the information that your organization deems vital.
Dashboards – Some software in this category may contain the ability to create online forms. These may include sign-up forms, forms to track donor information changes, and more. Creating forms and distributing forms easily streamlines and standardizes the information collection process, which frees you up to focus on creative tasks
Trends Related to Donor Management Software
Donor management software is constantly changing and evolving to meet the needs of nonprofit organizations. There are a few trends in the donor management software industry that have shown staying power and will likely continue to be a vital part of the industry’s development. Solutions in this category are growing increasingly robust, adding features that provide further functionality for users.
One of these trends is mobile optimization. This doesn’t just include optimizing the application portal for mobile, but also includes providing text-to-give options for donors and mass messaging features for organizations. That’s not to say that mobile website and email optimization is not important. It certainly is, particularly as an increasing proportion of donations are made on mobile devices. More donor management software vendors are providing these features in addition to mobile applications so that teams can stay on top of the donor management process from anywhere. The increased mobility has particular utility for staff on the ground at a fundraising event, who can use it to access profiles and solicit donations at the event.
Another trend in the industry is the inclusion of marketing automation features. Automating marketing tasks saves teams time and effort that would otherwise be spent on repetitive tasks. From sending reminders to donors who have not donated in a long time to providing more opportunities for donors to engage with your organization, marketing automation features are increasingly included in robust donor management solutions.
Software and Services Related to Donor Management Software
Donor management software is closely related to fundraising, nonprofit accounting,donor prospect research, and nonprofit gateway software. Many donor management applications provide features similar to those found in fundraising, nonprofit CRM, prospect research, and marketing automation software. Donor management software may integrate with nonprofit accounting software and import contact data from your CRM tool.
HOW MUCH DOES FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE COST?
There’s no easy answer to how much fundraising software costs. It depends on the type of solution, scale of the software, and the pricing structure for the tool. Most of the fundraising software options charge a monthly or annual fee for their use, while a few providers ask for a one-time fee. In general, you can expect the following ranges, but keep in mind there are outliers on both sides of the average range, and some solutions are free!
- Annual fee range: $50 – $8,000
- Monthly fee range: $20 – $500
- One-time fee range: $80 – $5,000
As you can see, there is no standard amount for all fundraising software. Cost comparisons are best made between software providers of the same type, as something small-scale like an online donation form will likely cost less than a larger-scale tool.
DONORSEARCH ONLINE TOOLS – BEST FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE OVERALL
THE BASICS
DonorSearch’s online tool, which is known as ProspectView Online, is a valuable addition to any nonprofit’s tech stack. Nonprofits can use ProspectView Online’s features to identify and improve outreach to prospective supporters, especially major donors. With the DonorSearch tools, your organization gains access to a wealth of information about your donors and prospects, like:
- Wealth indicators: DonorSearch’s tools can provide an accurate financial picture for your donors and prospects, so you’ll be better situated to target your outreach to donors who are financially capable of making a large donation. These indicators include details like real estate ownership, business affiliations, and stock ownership.
- Philanthropic indicators: Philanthropic indicators about your donors and prospects suggest how likely it is that they would donate a large gift to a philanthropic organization. A prospect with past involvement with nonprofits is more likely to give than one who has no history with philanthropy. For instance, philanthropic indicators might measure previous donations to your nonprofit or similar organizations, involvement on charitable boards, and potentially connected hobbies and interests.
These data points can guide your fundraising efforts in the directions that are most likely to provide a substantial return for your efforts, meaning you’ll save time, boost your fundraising revenue, and acquire more donors.
NOTABLE FEATURES
ProspectView Online allows your organization to uncover your best donors and prospects. It comes equipped with these top features:
- Executive Analysis allows you to summarize and analyze your search results with ease. With over 12 customizable reports available, you can understand your donors’ affinity to give, capacity to give, interest in your organization, and location, all represented with intuitive visual portrayals of your data.
- Keyword Search provides your nonprofit with easy, quick filtering of your screening and/or search results.
- Marketing Lists supply highly targeted lists of prospects based on over 300 financial, demographic and interest categories. You can search and filter by geography, wealth markers, and hobbies, among others. This feature is perfect for helping organizations acquire new donors.
- Integrated Search can provide a comprehensive profile on an individual donor.
- Gift Search grants an organization direct access to the largest philanthropic database. Organizations can discover giving histories for foundations, organizations, or an individual.
DonorSearch’s tools and features are all designed with one goal in mind: to provide the data necessary for your nonprofit to succeed now and in the long term.
WHY THIS NONPROFIT FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE STANDS OUT
Because DonorSearch’s tools vastly improve your organization’s ability to perform donor stewardship and outreach, the return on investment (ROI) for this tool is high. Identifying just one additional major donor or even mid-tier donor with DonorSearch’s tools repays your nonprofit’s investment.
PRICING
You can contact DonorSearch for a demo and quote on their fundraising solutions.
Visit the DonorSearch giving tool and try it out for yourself!
CHARITYENGINE: BEST ALL-IN-ONE FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
CharityEngine’s all-in-one fundraising software is designed to provide nonprofits with all of the tools they’ll need in one system, limiting the need for adding piecemeal integrations. Instead of researching multiple solutions, save your nonprofit time and money by investing in one tool for all of your fundraising needs.
With CharityEngine, your nonprofit will have access to every fundraising, marketing, and donor management tool necessary to create and execute effective fundraising strategies.
Plus, CharityEngine’s comprehensive solution offers even more built-in features that can help continue growing your fundraising efforts, such as event management tools, advocacy solutions, and expansive reporting.
NOTABLE FEATURES
CharityEngine offers a variety of fundraising tools that you can leverage for your campaigns, including:
- Customizable donation pages built to encourage recurring giving
- Peer-to-peer fundraising tools, allowing nonprofits to launch and track campaigns of any size
- In-house, PCI-certified payment processing, providing your organization with the highest possible level of data security
- Comprehensive reporting and workflow automation supported by CharityEngine’s seamless data flow between software solutions
CharityEngine allows your nonprofit to enhance every step of your donors’ journeys, starting from their first impression of your marketing materials and continuing far into the future.
PRICING
You can contact CharityEngine and request a demo to learn more about their pricing options.
Learn more about CharityEngine
BLOOMERANG – BEST FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE FOR DONOR RETENTION
THE BASICS
Bloomerang is a leader in donor database software, helping nonprofit fundraising professionals not only to raise money, but also to create long-lasting relationships with their supporters.
The interactive fundraising dashboard enables nonprofits to keep track of their incoming funds across various campaigns, as well as the engagement and retention rates of their supporters. This helps fundraisers identify donors who may be able to give more to the nonprofit and prevent donors from lapsing.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Each robust donor profile is built out with comprehensive timelines, showing how supporters have interacted with various email campaigns, events, surveys, and fundraising initiatives in the past. Plus, the donor profiles are also equipped with a giving summary, showing the lifetime value of the supporter and how their contributions have changed over time.
Bloomerang’s solution provides segmentation opportunities, allowing nonprofits to create targeted campaigns and initiatives for the right donors at the right time. Plus, the solution has built-in features that provide advanced insights that can be used to create smarter donor segments, such as the “Generosity Score” and “Engagement Meter,” featured on donor profiles. These features metrics provide an at-a-glance understanding of which supporters need to be reengaged and which can be approached for larger contributions.
PRICING
Bloomerang offers specialized pricing for small shops which is free up to 250 records and scales up to $79 per month for up to 750 records. Standard pricing starts at $99 per month for up to 1,000 records. From there, the pricing works on a sliding scale depending on the number of records in the database.
SHOPRAISE – BEST FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE FOR ONLINE SHOPPING
THE BASICS
ShopRaise is an online shopping platform that can provide your nonprofit, faith-based organization, school, team, or club with effortless fundraising revenue. It’s free for your supporters to use and for your organization to sign up.
To use ShopRaise, all your supporters have to do is download the app on their mobile devices or desktop browser, then shop at their favorite stores. ShopRaise is partnered with nearly 1,000 popular retailers like Macy’s, Walmart, Lowes, and Petsmart, among others. When your supporters shop within the app, your organization can earn up to 10% of every transaction.
NOTABLE FEATURES
ShopRaise is a great way to reach your supporters in between your fundraising campaigns and add a new revenue stream. Because all your supporters have to do is download an app and shop, it’s very easily incorporated into your supporters’ daily lives. From a nonprofit’s perspective, it’s a wonderful source of unrestricted funds. Plus, ShopRaise offers the following benefits:
- Custom marketing materials. Because ShopRaise knows your team is busy, they’ll provide your organization with the marketing materials necessary to promote the opportunity to shop for a cause. That means they’ll give you all the web banners, emails, flyers, social media posts, and text templates you need. All your staff has to do is distribute the materials to your community.
- Branded to your cause. When your supporters select your organization to support at the beginning of their ShopRaise experience, the entire ShopRaise app converts to your organization’s branding. Your organization’s name and logo appear on the app’s thumbnail as well as on landing pages throughout the app.
- User data. ShopRaise provides you with information about who downloads the app and selects your organization to support, meaning you’ll be able to add new donors to your database for future engagement and cultivation.
ShopRaise is as effortless as fundraising gets!
PRICING
ShopRaise is free! Sign up here.
SALSA – BEST FUNDRAISING AND SUPPORTER ENGAGEMENT SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
Salsa is a comprehensive, modern platform that provides nonprofits with donor management, fundraising, advocacy, event, and marketing automation tools all in one place.
Powered by SmartEngagement Technology, Salsa is built to help nonprofits pursue their missions more intelligently and effectively by ensuring that all of their tools are connected and seamlessly share data with one another for a cohesive, strategic approach. Built with industry best practices, unrivaled education and support, and machine learning insights, the platform will help you grow your supporter base starting on day one.
NOTABLE FEATURES
SalsaCRM comes with their fundraising and marketing solution, SalsaEngage, making this platform an all-in-one solution to help you communicate, advocate, and fund your cause. Because all of your fundraising and donor management tools seamlessly integrate, your team can skip the manual data entry and focus on more effectively pursuing your mission. And with the robust reporting and predictive analytics delivered by Salsa, you’ll be more equipped than ever to make smart decisions.
Salsa’s comprehensive donor database and engagement suite includes:
- Rich, customizable donor profiles
- Marketing automation for email, social media, texting, and more
- Online and offline donation processing
- Performance dashboards, reporting, and analytics
- Peer-to-peer campaigns and events
- Multi-channel advocacy
Organizations that use Salsa tools report a 35% increase in efficiency, 28% annual increase in donations, and 18% increase in average gift size. With simple, step-by-step implementation and award-winning support, Salsa makes it easy for your organization to get up and running quickly and successfully.
PRICING
Salsa has a wide range of pricing plans and packages to meet the needs of your unique organization. Contact their team for a custom quote.
DOUBLE THE DONATION – BEST MATCHING GIFT SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
Double the Donation is an easy-to-use matching gifts database for nonprofits. Their matching gift tool makes it easy for your supporters to search for their employer and discover if they’re eligible for their donation to be matched.
This fundraising software integrates with a number of other turnkey nonprofit solutions, which makes it easy for you to embed the search tool directly onto your website, donation pages, and more. Additionally, Double the Donation has the largest database of matching gift programs, which means that more of your supporters can learn about their employers’ programs.
Double the Donation also offers a tool called 360MatchPro, which is a robust automation system that finds additional match-eligible donors among your contacts. By scanning email domains, 360MatchPro can discover new opportunities for matching gifts and automatically connect match-eligible donors with the resources necessary to submit their matching gift request via email.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Double the Donation has a few standout features that make improving your matching gifts strategy that much easier:
- Their database contains over 20,000 companies
- Autofill features in their search tool remove the need for exact-match searches
- The plugin can be embedded anywhere you collect donations
With these features, your nonprofit can easily grow your matching gift revenue and reach your fundraising goals with the same number of donors!
PRICING
Double the Donation offers two different pricing plans based on your nonprofit’s needs, so check out their pricing page to learn more.
Learn more about Double The Donation
REGPACK – BEST DONATION MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
Regpack is an all-in-one donation management solution that includes CRM capabilities, event registration software, donor relationship-building tools, and more, making it a fully comprehensive solution.
Rather than forcing your nonprofit to adjust to its software, Regpack aims to be as flexible as possible in letting users manipulate settings and features to get the exact results they need.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Regpack excels at creating customizable tools, allowing your nonprofit to create unique reports, donation options, forms, and more. This enables nonprofits who invest in Regpack to tailor almost every part of their donation management software to meet their nonprofit’s specific needs.
Regpack’s donation management software also focuses on efficiency by including features designed to save your team time, such as recurring billing options, individual and automatic messaging, and more. In addition, as an all-in-one solution, Regpack comes equipped with:
- Customizable donation options, including one-time and recurring donations
- Automatic and customizable communication tools
- Donor profile creation and management capabilities
- Fundraising event registrations
- Quick data filters
- Pre-built and customizable reports
- Built-in CRM
With users reporting a 35% increase in cash flow and a 96% donor satisfaction rate, Repack’s comprehensive donation management software allows nonprofits to get started with software that’s ready to grow with their organization.
PRICING
Plans start at $125 per month. Signup for a demo and get a quote to find your price.
QGIV– BEST FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE FOR EVENTS
THE BASICS
Qgiv offers a top fundraising software option dedicated to helping nonprofits increase their revenue and reach donors by providing a platform for donation pages, event registration, text fundraising, and more. Their solution is particularly helpful when it comes to fundraising events. With its simple interface, flexible pricing packages, and powerful tools, Qgiv is great for organizations of any size.
With Qgiv’s online tools, you can control and track all of your event campaigns and activities from a single place, from facilitating event registrations to hosting peer-to-peer campaigns and planning silent auctions, Qgiv has a comprehensive dashboard that provides insights into all campaigns and allows you to maximize your event success.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Qgiv has a variety of fundraising options that can elevate any type of event you want to plan:
- Silent auction tool. Bring your silent auction to the next level by using Qgiv’s mobile app-based auction platform. This way, guests can bid conveniently using their phones.
- In-person event tools. With Qgiv, you can create unlimited event registration forms for any type of occasion. Make sure to customize it to your organization and mission! Automate discounts and promo codes as well as packages for certain attendees.
- Peer-to-peer fundraising tools. Encourage your volunteers to work hard fundraising with Qgiv’s gamification tools. Post a live fundraising thermometer and a scoreboard presenting the top fundraisers.
Any nonprofit knows that while fundraising events are essential, they can require substantial time, planning, and resources. Qgiv’s tools can lessen the load!
PRICING
Qgiv has a variety of plans to choose from, starting at $0 for the standard option. Learn more on their pricing page.
GRASSROOTS UNWIRED– BEST CANVASSING SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
Grassroots Unwired’s mobile canvassing software streamlines traditional face-to-face canvassing and fundraising campaigns onto a secure, accessible digital platform. By doing away with paper and clipboards, grassroots organizations can collect more data and create real connections with supporters.
Organizations and political campaigns that use Grassroots Unwired’s canvassing software can connect with supporters through face-to-face communication, email, text, and video chat from anywhere in the world. Even when managing campaigns from across the country, campaign organizers can stay in constant contact with canvassers and volunteers alike with the help of communication tools and real-time, customizable reporting features.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Grassroots Unwired offers tools for both managers and canvassers. In addition to providing long-distance communication tools—which keep your volunteers and canvassers safe and able to continually make connections—Grassroots Unwired’s canvassing software creates a comprehensive outreach experience for supporters. From initial outreach to follow-up, every step of the process is backed by digital tools that ensure seamless, useful interactions.
When your volunteers and campaign managers are equipped with Grassroots Unwired’s canvassing software, they’ll have access to:
- Turf-cutting and canvassing management tools
- Real-time reporting
- Multilingual and robust script branching capabilities
- Text and video chat features
In addition, Grassroots Unwired’s PCI-compliant donation capture allows your team to securely process donations raised for campaigns of any size. Grassroots Unwired’s scalability makes it fit for your campaign as it grows, even if it stretches across the country.
PRICING
Request a demo to learn more and contact them for a quote that fits your budget.
Learn more about Grassroots Unwired
DONORPERFECT – BEST FUNDRAISING GROWTH PLATFORM
THE BASICS
DonorPerfect’s robust fundraising software allows you to organize constituent data in one unified database. Also, DonorPerfect gives you the ability to collect online donations, process pledges, and set up recurring gifts. It’s an all-in-one fundraising and data management solution for organizations of all sizes.
Plus, you’ll be able to streamline different types of activities, like grant tracking and volunteer management.
NOTABLE FEATURES
DonorPerfect’s fundraising software is truly comprehensive and chock-full of useful features. These include:
- Financial reports and other easy data exporting functions
- Targeted communications
- Event management
- Facilitated software integrations
- Wealth screening tools
In short, DonorPerfect’s fundraising software provides a one-stop-shop for all of your organization’s fundraising needs!
PRICING
DonorPerfect’s software comes with a variety of packages with different prices and features. The most basic software package starts at $89 per month and then goes up depending on your needs. Check out their pricing page here.
NEONCRM – BEST CLOUD-BASED FUNDRAISING CRM
THE BASICS
NeonCRM is a cloud-based nonprofit software suite that provides fundraising features that can help any nonprofit to boost their donation strategies.
Your nonprofit can easily maximize fundraising with all of its donor data centralized in one spot. With NeonCRM, the fundraising process is more effective and efficient, helping you succeed with any campaign that you choose.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Your CRM (or donor database) should help you increase fundraising while also helping you manage your donors. NeonCRM offers features and tools that can:
- Track donor data
- Communicate with donors
- Build donor relationships
- Increase donations
Manage your donor data with care and you’ll see an increase in donor retention. Additionally, the more you know about your current donors, the easier it is to acquire new ones. NeonCRM’s extensive features have made it a top choice for nonprofits for years.
PRICING
NeonCRM’s pricing depends on the stage of development of your nonprofit. However, NeonCRM does offer a variety of flexible plans. Find out which package is best for you on their pricing page.
SALESFORCE NPSP – BEST FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE FOR NEW SALESFORCE USERS
THE BASICS
If your nonprofit uses the Salesforce CRM platform, you can already access the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). The NPSP is a core set of free data management tools for your nonprofit to take advantage of, serving as a great fundraising foundation.
All from one place, you can take advantage of the Salesforce NPSP to manage programs, donations, volunteers, and supporters. Without worrying about things like data reentry and data tracking, your team can spend more time on donor engagement!
NOTABLE FEATURES
One of the best parts of the Salesforce CRM and NPSP is access to all the apps on the Salesforce AppExchange. The Salesforce AppExchange is vast and includes integration partners (like DonorSearch!) as well as other fundraising apps and tools that are native to the platform. Building out your own suite of nonprofit tools is easy with the Salesforce NPSP.
Configuring your Salesforce CRM with the NPSP allows you to organize your database so that it’s useful for nonprofits (instead of using the same configurations that for-profits would use Salesforce for). This means that when you collect new information about your supporters through the use of your built-out apps and integrations, that data will be translated to make sense for the context of a nonprofit.
PRICING
Pricing for the Salesforce NPSP depends on the current state of your nonprofit. Check out their pricing page to learn more and which plan may be suited for you.
Learn more about Salesforce NPSP
SUSTAIN – BEST SOFTWARE FOR SIMPLE FUNDRAISING MANAGEMENT
THE BASICS
If your nonprofit has trouble navigating your current fundraising software (or you don’t have one!), Sustain might be able to help. Sustain is a complete solution to fundraising management that was developed to help nonprofits complete simple daily tasks with ease. This saves your entire team time, increases productivity, and streamlines the fundraising process.
NOTABLE FEATURES
With Sustain, you’ll save time and raise more money. Consider these tools and how they can help your nonprofit:
- Comprehensive constituent profiles for donor management
- Email marketing, direct mailing, and more for fundraising outreach efforts
- Online donation forms that efficiently process gifts
Sustain is a great platform for those organizations that just need the basics for fundraising management.
PRICING
Sustain’s pricing will vary depending on your nonprofit. To see if Sustain is right for you, contact them on their website.
DONATELY – BEST ONLINE DONATION TOOL
THE BASICS
Donately provides a simple yet essential tool for nonprofits: online donation forms. With so much of a nonprofit’s revenue coming from web-based sources these days, your organization needs to have the appropriate donation forms and landing pages for your fundraising campaigns.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Some of the perks of Donately’s software include:
- Customizable, attractive donation pages built with conversion in mind
- Options for donors to make recurring donations during the giving process
- Peer-to-peer fundraising pages to take advantage of your supporters’ enthusiasm for your cause
- Dashboard with easily-digestible reports on your donation data
- Text-messaging platform to send automated messages with a donation form link
Donately’s intuitive, easy-to-use online donation tools will make sure your donors make it all the way through payment processing—and come back to donate again!
PRICING
Donately’s pricing depends on your organization’s needs. They offer a $0 monthly plan for small organizations with just a 4% platform fee, while their more standard offering is $49/mo. Check out their pricing page to learn more.
LITTLE GREEN LIGHT – BEST DONOR MANAGEMENT FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
Little Green Light is fundraising software aiming to simplify donor management for all nonprofit organizations. With Little Green Light, you’ll be able to manage all of your organization’s supporters from one place. Easily track and store engagements from each donor, volunteer, and member.
You’ll also be able to track all constituent communications and gifts, gaining a better understanding of how your donors engage with your nonprofit.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Your fundraising software should always simplify your job, and that is what Little Green Light does. With its powerful tool, you’ll have all your data in one place, plus you can analyze that data anywhere with its export capabilities.
When you use Little Green Light, you’ll have access to these features:
- Constituent management
- Communications and tasks management
- Track and store all gifts and fundraising efforts
- Built-in and custom reporting
The better you manage your donors, the more consistent their support will be. Look into Little Green Light to get started managing your supporters!
PRICING
Little Green Light offers both a monthly or annual subscription starting at $39 per month or $421 per year with no contract required. Check out their pricing page to learn more.
Learn more about Little Green Light
VIRTUOUS – BEST FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE FOR SUPPORTER RELATIONSHIPS
THE BASICS
Virtuous is a fundraising software solution with a responsive nonprofit CRM and marketing automation features. This is a great combination for nonprofits trying to build donor relationships.
With its easy-to-use CRM, you can view all your donors and supporters at once, helping you spot the best opportunities for outreach and cultivation. Additionally, all of the data you collect and store will seamlessly work with your marketing automation system, helping you communicate with constituents in a targeted and personalized way!
NOTABLE FEATURES
Virtuous doesn’t just give you the tools to assist you in developing those donor relationships, it also provides certain features that can suggest helpful tips and next actions.
For instance, you can take the guesswork out of fundraising asks. Virtuous will suggest gift asks depending on the type of donor in question. Additionally, Virtuous can automate tasks based on previous engagements with the donors. You’ll save time navigating your fundraising software with Virtuous, as it’ll give you concrete next steps and will even automate actions for you.
PRICING
All of the Virtuous pricing plans have a set of core functions to help you build those donor relationships. Visit their pricing page to see which package can meet your nonprofit’s needs.
KINDFUL – BEST FUNDRAISING CRM FOR DONOR COMMUNICATION
THE BASICS
Kindful is nonprofit CRM software that can help you better communicate with and reach your donors and supporters. With Kindful, your fundraising team will save time by automating your communications.
Optimizing your marketing and communication strategies is key to building your donor relationships and can help ensure that your donor retention rates don’t fall. Kindful provides the tools to help with unlimited email and letter templates and a task manager.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Kindful can support all of your nonprofit’s efforts by saving your team the time that you would otherwise spend planning donor emails and making sure all the content is up to standard. Improve your communication strategies with these features:
- Automated donation receipts
- Integrated marketing tools like Mailchimp
- Detailed communication histories for every donor
- Donor segmentation capabilities for more targeted communication
Having a solid and loyal base of support is important for every nonprofit, so make sure your communication efforts are supported by your tools.
PRICING
Kindful’s pricing depends on how many contacts and donors you already have. Check out their pricing scale here to learn more!
SNOWBALL – BEST TEXT-TO-GIVE FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
With the slogan, “Do more. Spend Less,” Snowball claims to have the most affordable text-to-give platform on the market, plus a suite of other compatible fundraising tools. They have free customer service and no minimum donation thresholds, meaning you’ll collect every donation possible and have help available when you need it!
NOTABLE FEATURES
Snowball is best-known for their text-to-give platform, but they also have a ton of other features your nonprofit can take advantage of. Some of their offerings include:
- Donation pages that are customizable and mobile-friendly
- A CRM to filter and track data
- Online silent auctions platform
- Event ticketing and registration
Notably, their text-to-give tool accommodates variants and typos that your donors might make when trying to donate to your cause. Talk about thorough!
PRICING
Snowball offers a whole range of pricing options, starting at $0 per year with just a 3.9% platform fee and ¢30 per transaction. Check out their pricing page for more detailed information.
EASY-WARE – BEST AFFORDABLE FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
With Easy-Ware, you’ll be able to track all personal and family information about your donors and catalog their giving history and engagement with your organization. Easy-Ware uses a unique family-data model to record separate information for each family member, even children. With unlimited custom fields, you can track everything you deem important.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Easyware has the tools to help you make the right fundraising ask at the right time to the right person. Using built-in and customized reports and graphs, you and your fundraising team can gain additional insight into how your donors work.
Easily get the lists and reports you need with:
- Unlimited data analysis
- Mailing lists and labels
- Letters and invoices
Soliciting donations is tricky, so make sure you have the tools to give you the best information to guide your fundraising efforts.
PRICING
Easy-Ware offers their solution with a 90-day, no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee. Request a demo to learn more about pricing for your nonprofit.
FUNDLY – BEST CROWDFUNDING SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
With Fundly’s powerful fundraising software, your nonprofit can start a crowdfunding campaign and set up donation pages in just a few easy steps — all without purchasing online donation software, building custom codes for donation pages, or finding a payment processor.
Customize your page by adding images, videos, and other content to make your campaign stand out, and then share your fundraiser with the world thanks to Fundly’s simple social media integration.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Fundly’s nonprofit software is renowned for being flexible and customizable, meaning that you can raise money for virtually any cause or project. Additionally, Fundly’s platform is fully mobile-optimized — it even includes a handy app so that donors can easily give on the go.
Even better, since Fundly campaigns are hosted off-site, smaller nonprofits have the opportunity to raise money for specific campaigns without an established online fundraising infrastructure.
PRICING
To get started, your nonprofit won’t have to pay any upfront costs. Once you start receiving funds, you’ll pay a 4.9% platform fee and a credit card processing fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. Learn more here.
RESULTSPLUS – BEST FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE FOR GIFT MANAGEMENT
THE BASICS
ResultsPlus provides fundraising and CRM software to help your nonprofit develop donor relationships and manage your fundraising efforts. ResultsPlus helps you plan your to-do list, interact with your donors, track each gift, and report your results.
To put it simply, ResultsPlus is a comprehensive solution that can maximize your fundraising team’s time so you can focus on your donor engagement strategies. Additionally, you can analyze the reports you create for insights to improve your future fundraising strategies.
NOTABLE FEATURES
ResultsPlus can help your nonprofit know where each and every one of your gifts comes from. Easily code and segment your donation data from other metrics and analyze the results without clutter getting in the way.
With ResultsPlus, you can segment donations and donors by type. From there, utilize ResultsPlus Performance Overview platform. Then analyze these lists to understand which types of gifts are more common, which engagement strategies are working best, and more!
PRICING
To learn more about how ResultsPlus can help, contact them on their website.
CIVICRM – BEST OPEN-SOURCE FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
CiviCRM is a fully customizable and expandable open-source CRM system that your nonprofit can take advantage of. Open-source software is computer software whose code is freely released to the public. This means that anyone who uses the code can change it to fit their own specific needs.
With CiviCRM, your nonprofit can truly own your own data and then manage it in the way that you see best. Though maybe not the best solution for those who aren’t tech-savvy, CiviCRM can hold a lot of value for your organization.
NOTABLE FEATURES
CiviCRM helps you manage and leverage your data with a variety of software features:
- Donor profiles that are automatically compiled with new data
- Monetary gifts are auto-exported into your accounting system
- Bulk email lists that you can segment, use for A/B testing, and generate statistics
Additionally, these features should work seamlessly across different platforms and devices. Your entire fundraising team can access the data from anywhere.
PRICING
CiviCRM is completely free to download, use, and share. Check out the latest version here.
ARREVA – BEST FUNDRAISING CRM FOR MARKETING
THE BASICS
With Arreva, your donor database will automatically update each time you receive a donation or interact with a supporter. Each of your donors will have a detailed, comprehensive profile, including their giving history and personal details like birthdays and family members.
Arreva is also completely integrated with an email marketing solution. This way, each of your fundraising campaigns and marketing strategies can start without you ever exporting your data!
NOTABLE FEATURES
In one platform, Arreva can identify your most impactful donors as well as prospects, allowing you to create audience segments and target communications to better reach your audience. Analyze the engagement data, and you’ll get a better sense of which of your constituents respond to certain marketing strategies—all while staying within Arreva’s system.
You also can connect with other marketing platforms other than your organization’s email channel: Arreva can give you insights into your nonprofit’s website engagement, phone calls, social media response, and more.
PRICING
To learn more about Arreva’s pricing, contact them through their website.
GIVEFFECT – BEST FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE FOR NONPROFIT AUTOMATION
THE BASICS
Giveffect is comprehensive nonprofit software with a wide breadth of features. From one platform, you can manage your online donations, track your gifts, oversee your volunteers, plan events, and much more. With so many features and processes, it makes sense that Giveffect is highly qualified in automating some of your work.
NOTABLE FEATURES
Giveffect’s Smart Automation software relieves your fundraising team of daily administrative work such as filling forms, sending out emails, and managing your volunteers. For one thing, you don’t have to undergo any long manual data transfers with automated data entry. Giveffect automates storing data from almost all of your processes, like:
- Online donations
- Offline donations
- Event attendance
- Volunteer applications
- Volunteer shifts
It’ll even compile reports for you based on your data. Make smarter decisions and save time with Giveffect’s Smart Automation.
PRICING
Giveffect offers a 14-day trial to some eligible organizations, but they usually recommend you contact them on their website to learn the best pricing plan for you.
DONORSNAP – BEST FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE FOR CUSTOMER SUPPORT
THE BASICS
DonorSnap is donor management and fundraising software that can help your organization increase its fundraising capabilities and keep track of your donor list. DonorSnap stores rich donor profiles complete with addresses and contact details that your fundraising team can access at any time.
Additionally, DonorSnap can track the relationships and affiliations of each of your donors, better enabling you to interact with them effectively going forward.
NOTABLE FEATURES
For organizations that use DonorSnap, it’s important that all your data is accurate and centralized. Because of this, DonorSnap will help you set up your database in just a few days. They also will teach you and your entire fundraising staff how to use the software. After that, DonorSnap provides a plethora of resources if you ever have questions, maximizing your chances for success.
The DonorSnap relationship continues past onboarding, so you’ll always have access to DonorSnap’s team of support representatives.
PRICING
Depending on the size of your organization and your constituents, DonorSnap’s pricing will vary. Check out their pricing page for guidance.
360MATCHPRO – BEST MATCHING GIFTS AUTOMATION SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
360MatchPro isn’t a fundraising software platform in the traditional sense, but having these tools on hand can really make a difference in your nonprofit’s fundraising strategy.
With this software, your organization can automate the matching gift identification and outreach process. You’ll be able to screen your supporters for matching gift leads and send them targeted communications to steer them toward completing a matching gift request with their employer.
This way, your nonprofit can start getting more from your dedicated supporters’ gifts!
NOTABLE FEATURES
With 360MatchPro, your team can capture matching gift information at the same time donors make their initial gift.
The software screens email domains to see if your donors work for one of the thousands of companies in 360MatchPro’s database that offer matching gifts to their employees.
At that point, you can configure automated emails to send supporters their matching gifts guidelines and other key information they’ll need to place their request.
PRICING
Visit 360MatchPro’s website to request a custom price quote based on your nonprofit organization’s needs.
ONECAUSE – BEST AUCTION FUNDRAISING SOFTWARE
THE BASICS
OneCause offers powerful end-to-end auction fundraising software for your nonprofit’s needs. They have a comprehensive auction package that includes assistance for silent auctions, live auctions, and online auctions, so no matter the type of event your organization is planning, they’ll have a solution for you. Once you know what type of auction you’re staging, OneCause can take it from there—they have tools to help with everything from procurement and packing of your auction items to donor registration and checkout at the end of the night.
NOTABLE FEATURES
All of OneCause’s auction solution options offer these standout features:
- Live scoreboards to motivate your audience to bid on items
- Mobile bidding so your auction attendees can bid right from their iPhones
- Payment processing to streamline the purchase process
- Donor management capabilities that automate auction solicitation requests and post-event thank yous
OneCause can handle all of the details so you and your team can focus on building relationships with your donors at your nonprofit’s next auction.
PRICING
OneCause’s pricing plans are based on the type of event your organization is having plus how many features you’d like access to. See their pricing page for all the details.
As your nonprofit grows and changes, new software needs will inevitably emerge. These needs, if not addressed, may manifest themselves as points of frustration for staff members, lagging fundraising numbers, or chaotic event planning. You may find your staff growing exasperated with the manual transfer of data from your website to your donor database, perplexed at your low matched gift rate, or overwhelmed at the prospect of managing signup information for your upcoming 5K fundraiser.
Often, nonprofit professionals try to “make it work,” but end up spending too long struggling with clunky processes and error-ridden data rather than focusing on their organization’s mission. The many fundraising software tools available today provide solutions to meet the needs that arise at nonprofits like yours. At DonorSearch, we’re software providers ourselves, so we value solutions that actually do what they claim to do, and for an affordable price. The providers in our list have proven themselves to be capable offerings to help your nonprofit maximize fundraising and further your mission.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- Nonprofit Fundraising Metrics: 26 Essential KPIs to Track: Regardless of the software tools your nonprofit uses, you’ll need to track certain fundraising metrics in order to analyze your progress and make informed decisions about your nonprofit’s future. Check out our guide to find out about all of the essential KPIs.
- Nonprofit Annual Reports: Complete Guide and 6 Best Practices: Nonprofit annual reports can present a challenge for many organizations. Make sure your nonprofit annual report accomplishes all it can with our guide.
- Artificial Intelligence for Nonprofits: Fundraising’s Future: Learn about AI’s powerful capabilities to boost your fundraising numbers with advanced data analytics and predictive models
Conclusion
Nonprofits are small organizations that rely heavily on financial support. Due to their noncommercial nature, they shun away from paid software. Moreover, they typically don’t conduct business on a large scale, which means it is not necessary for them to buy enterprise-level software.