Your nonprofit is looking for a fundraiser that easily allows you to collect donations online. A donor management system that comes with fundraising software also helps you manage your donors information and maintain your donor database. It isn’t as easy as it sounds.
That’s why you need to do your homework before squandering your money on a platform that won’t serve your needs.
Snowball
Snowball is an online fundraising platform that features streamlined donation pages, event management tools, fundraising thermometers, and more.
While providing an easy and innovative way to accept gifts, Snowball’s online donation software allows nonprofits to process donations faster—which means you get paid faster and can use the contributions more quickly!
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Snowball’s Essential plan includes a comprehensive suite of tools, including an online donation page, recurring gifts, access to transaction and donor data, unlimited admin access, and effective online support. This means all of your fundraising tools will be in one place, so you can avoid the hassle of transferring data from one system to another!
Additional Details
Our Essential plan is completely free to start using, plus a standard processing fee of just 2.9% + 30¢ per donation. We do, however, give users the option of leaving a tip to support our free service!
If you decide later to upgrade your plan to include text-to-give software, the Snowball Premium plan is available as an inexpensive annual subscription. We’ll uncover all of the perks of our premium plan later in the article.
Bonfire
Bonfire’s free fundraising site specializes in customized and branded apparel, such as t-shirts, hoodies, and tank tops. When you sell your organization’s apparel with Bonfire, you’re given a fundraising page to promote your cause and sell as many items as possible.
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Hosting a Bonfire campaign is a unique way to raise money for your organization and get new donors involved. What’s better than getting a gift in return for your generosity? When supporters purchase your merchandise, your organization gets the profit! But supporters aren’t limited to purchasing t-shirts to help your cause. They can provide additional donations unrelated to purchases.
Additional Details
Bonfire handles the finances by managing every step so you don’t have to worry about up-front costs and wasted inventory. The services are completely free— they simply deduct an 8% fee from donations made upon checkout. They’ll even ship your orders for a flat $5 shipping rate to anywhere in the U.S! Try out their pricing calculator for the most accurate estimate.
ShopRaise
ShopRaise is an online shopping platform that is totally free for your organization and your supporters to use. When your supporters download the ShopRaise mobile or web app, they can shop at their favorite retailers in support of your cause. Your organization can earn up to 10% of every transaction!
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
In addition to being free, using ShopRaise doesn’t require much investment of your staff’s time or resources to advertise the opportunity to your supporters. ShopRaise provides you with custom marketing materials to distribute.
Your supporters likely already shop at the retailers on the ShopRaise platform. Nationwide stores like Walmart, Petsmart, and Macy’s are on the app, meaning supporting your cause can be seamlessly integrated into your supporters’ daily lives. All they have to do is download the app and make their regular purchases. There’s no downside to signing up. This is as easy as fundraising gets!
Additional Details
When a ShopRaise user chooses your organization to support at the beginning of their ShopRaise app experience, the app rebrands to feature your organization’s name and logo. That means your brand appears on the users’ iPhone (or Android) home screens, plus your organization’s name pops up whenever they select a different store or proceed to checkout. These valuable branding opportunities are just one of the perks of using this effortless fundraising platform. Visit their page to get started with ShopRaise.
4. 99Pledges
99Pledges is an effective peer-to-peer fundraising platform, perfect for fundraising events such as walk-a-thons, dance-a-thons, read-a-thons, or any similarly structured fundraiser. The online fundraising pages are easy for donors to share with their networks via email, text, and social media.
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Each participant in your campaign receives a customizable donation page that’s ready to share— no technical set-up required! Your team can track your fundraising activity by increasing social shares and the total amount raised in donations.
Additional Details
99Pledges campaigns are free to run! Additionally, your organization keeps 90% of all donations made online via credit card and PayPal and 100% of all donations made via cash or check.
5. Fundly
Fundly’s crowdfunding platform lets users customize an online donation page for their campaign. The site allows you to easily update your fundraising pages with photos, videos, and personal anecdotes to engage with your audience and encourage repeat visits to your content. An excellent bonus is that your team can do it all from your smartphone with Fundly’s mobile app!
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Fundly is all about helping your team getting your word out about your fundraiser. With optimized content and a straightforward user interface, your fundraising pages will attract supporters. In addition, Fundly’s integration with Facebook Open Graph Actions shares all of your campaign activity to your Facebook profile for more exposure for your cause.
Additional Details
It’s free to get started with Fundly, who then only charges a platform fee of 4.9%, in addition to a standard credit card processing fee of 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.
Handbid
Fundraising Event Software Overview
With Handbid’s online auction platform, it’s never been easier to host engaging and lucrative virtual events. Built specifically for nonprofits, this platform comes equipped with everything you need to set up your auction from start to finish.
Gain access to powerful live streaming tools, mobile bidding, Text2Give, invoicing tools, and much more.
When planning your next virtual fundraiser, rely on Handbid to handle all backend processes, so you can focus on boosting event registrations, driving engagement, and forming lifelong partnerships with supporters.
Why We Love This Event Fundraising Software
After running more than 4,200 auctions, Handbid’s expert team has a proven track record and knows what it takes to pull off successful events. On average, the platform generates an outstanding 120% more bids per item and sees a 60% increase in revenue per item when compared to paper-based auctions. With Handbid, you can rest assured knowing that your fundraiser is in good hands.
Pricing of This Fundraising Event Software
Handbid offers packages for every price range. Take a look at their auction pricing page for up-to-date costs. While you’re there, be sure to check out their add-on features to make the most of your event.
Snowball Fundraising
Fundraising Event Software Overview
Snowball Fundraising is a mobile giving solution that your nonprofit can use during an event or for your everyday fundraising.
Their simple text-to-give software makes it easy for donors to give to their favorite nonprofit with only two clicks. The technology is also secure, so your organization doesn’t have to worry about your donors’ data being compromised.
Why We Love This Event Fundraising Software
Snowball has some of the most easy-to-use text-to-give software on the market. They make collecting donations a hassle-free process.
Pricing of This Fundraising Event Software
Snowball’s starter pack is free. They also have a $99 a year option as well as a $149 a month option depending on your nonprofit’s needs.
Qgiv
Fundraising Event Software Overview
With Qgiv’s peer-to-peer fundraising platform, it’s never been easier to empower supporters to launch campaigns and fundraise on behalf of your cause.
Turn fans into fundraisers using Qgiv’s easy-to-navigate form builder tools.
Your team can leverage Qgiv’s powerful social sharing tools to help spread your message far and wide so you can grow your online community.
Integrates with Double the Donation
This platform can be integrated with the industry’s leading matching gift tool.
Check out the integration guide.
Why We Love This Event Fundraising Software
Qgiv stands out from the crowd by offering dynamic gamification tools (like leaderboards, badges, and thermometers) to make fundraising fun for your supporters.
Pricing
Qgiv offers their peer-to-peer fundraising platform in their Engage package. This starts at $199/month with a 4.95% + $0.30 fee per transaction.
Bonfire
Fundraising Event Software Overview
Bonfire is a crowdfunding platform with a twist: for contributing to your fundraising campaign, your supporters receive a custom-designed t-shirt.
As a fundraising event organizer, you can design a t-shirt that highlights your organization and your cause. And even if you’ve never designed a shirt before, Bonfire’s web-based design builder makes it easy.
Whether it’s a specific campaign or your annual fund, put it on a t-shirt and watch awareness spread every time your donors leave the house wearing it!
Why We Love This Event Fundraising Software
Because you pay nothing to launch a campaign and receive 100% of the profits at the end of your scheduled time, even small nonprofits and individuals can benefit from a Bonfire campaign.
Pricing of This Fundraising Event Software
You pay nothing in inventory or startup cost, though Bonfire charges a 3.5% processing fee and a 4.5% platform fee to accept donations.
iATS Payments | Top Donation Platform for Secure Payment Processing
Overview of iATS Payments
Trusted by more than 14,000 nonprofit customers, iATS Payments is an all-in-one donation processing system built exclusively to meet the needs of nonprofits. They stay on top of industry security standards by setting custom fraud protections and maintaining Level 1 PCI compliance.
With a client retention rate that’s 3.5 times the industry standard, iATS Payments has an unmatched understanding of nonprofits’ donation processing needs. Through its 30 years of expertise, this online donation processing platform empowers its nonprofit partners by:
- Making payment processing easier. This all-in-one payment solution lets you handle international, USD, CDN and ACH processing on one platform. This way, your team saves the time and frustration of using multiple providers.
- Offering tailored fraud protection. This donation software prioritizes being at the leading edge of fraud protection. The technology and risk team have blocked hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fraud attempts to protect organizations and donors.
- Allowing you to collect donations on-the-go. iATS Payments offers a mobile app, so your team can securely accept payments at fundraisers and events.
Pricing of this Donation Software
iATS Payments offers competitive credit card and ACH rates, no hidden fees, and one flat monthly rate. Contact their team to learn more and to get started with this nonprofit donation platform.
Kindful | Best Donation Software for Data-Driven Fundraising
Overview of Kindful
Take donor engagement to the next level with Kindful’s online donation platform. Through Kindful’s fundraising tools, you’ll gain insight into your constituents with powerful data collection gathered directly from your online donation page.
This nonprofit donation platform will help you develop a complete understanding of what drives your donors’ generosity with tools such as:
- Reporting. Gather valuable insights in a matter of seconds with pre-built reports, or locate key information by generating a custom report. Best of all, you can schedule these reports to save time.
- Wealth insights. View meaningful data, including your donors’ giving history, wealth details, and likelihood to give — all in one convenient dashboard.
- Online fundraising tools. Easily create engaging fundraising campaigns with embeddable donation buttons and straightforward donation pages that automatically sync to your database.
Pricing of this Donation Software
For Kindful’s donation platform, pricing is based on the number of constituents an organization has, with the lowest option being $100 per month for 1,000 contacts.
Livestream | Top Donation Software for Live Streaming Events
Overview of Livestream
Live video has quickly become an integral part of the way organizations connect with donors. In fact, 79% of surveyed individuals say a brand’s video has convinced them to buy a piece of software or an app, and the donation platform Livestream aims to harness this power.
Developed by the well-known platform Vimeo, Livestream offers a basic plan that’s perfect for nonprofits, schools, and other small organizations. With this plan, your organization will gain access to:
- Unlimited event creation
- In-player donations
- An ad-free web player
- Live player chat with moderation
- Video on demand archive
Their advanced plans offer robust functionality which may be well-suited for larger organizations in need of a donation platform that can handle larger audiences.
Bonus: Harness the power of livestreaming by exploring this helpful livestreaming guide designed for nonprofits developed by re:Charity.
Pricing of this Donation Software
Get started with Livestream’s donation software with a 30-day free trial. Then, pricing starts at $7 per month to stay on the platform’s basic plan.
Facebook Fundraisers | Best Online Donation Platform for Social Media
Overview of Facebook Fundraisers
Facebook offers its very own online donation platform known as Facebook Fundraisers. Through it, they’ve developed specialized features for nonprofits, so organizations can harness the power of social media. After all, 55% of people who engage with nonprofits on social media end up taking some sort of action, according to Nonprofits Source.
Using the Facebook Fundraisers donation platform, you’ll gain instant access to the following fundraising tools:
- Page fundraisers. Create dedicated Facebook fundraising pages where you can share your mission and collect donations.
- Donation buttons. Create a post, add the donate button, select your nonprofit as the beneficiary, and post. Or add a Donate button CTA to your Facebook page header.
- Donation stickers for Instagram Stories. Expand fundraising to Instagram and enable supporters to create 24-hour fundraisers using donation stickers.
- Instagram page donation button. Add a donate button to your Instagram business profile to make giving even easier.
Pricing of this Donation Software
With Facebook Fundraisers, there are no fees for nonprofits to use the donation tool. Specifically, this includes the donate button and hosting a fundraiser. As for personal fundraisers, there’s a processing rate of 2.60% + $0.30 per transaction to use the donation tools.
Conclusion
The worlds of nonprofit fundraising and software are colliding. Today’s donor-centric nonprofits are turning to the web to attract, convert, and track their donors, who are more savvy than ever before in terms of online giving. The result is a combination of free or inexpensive online tools for running donation campaigns, managing supporters, raising funds, and measuring your results.