Are you looking for a way to raise money through your nonprofit? You are not alone. Everyone works hard to bring in donations and sponsorships. And when it comes to raising money, nonprofits need fundraising software. Of course, there are plenty of fundraising software options out there. So how do you pick one?
Before you can get started, there are a couple of things you need to understand about this type of software for fundraising businesses. Firstly, the best fundraising software for nonprofits is the one that’s going to help your company generate more revenue and donations. Of course you want to make it easy on donors too by making it easy for them to give. But your priorities should be making it as easy as possible to make contributions through your site, reducing the number of dropped web forms and improving your contacts database.
DonorPerfect
Fundraising Software Overview
Donor management software is designed to keep your nonprofit on top of your donor base in order to develop the most successful and beneficial strategies.
DonorPerfect is a donor management software built for fundraisers, meaning that your team has easy access to all the donor data they need to make the most effective asks possible.
With many donor management software providers, you’ll be able to track essential data and automate communication efforts. Your software will spend the time collecting and organizing donor data so you can spend time on what really matters: strengthening donor relationships.
Integrates with Double the Donation
This platform can be integrated with the industry’s leading matching gift tool.
Check out the integration guide.
Top Tips for Donor Management Software
- Before looking at outside solutions, see if your current nonprofit software has modules or expansions that can assist with managing your donor data.
- Use the software that has features catered to your specific needs to get the most out of your donor management tool.
- Make sure to transfer any donor data to your new software before you begin. Some vendors will even provide migration assistance so that your existing information transfers over smoothly.
- Take time to properly set up your new software and train your staff on how to use it. Many vendors provide training free of charge!
Fundly
Fundraising Software Overview
Crowdfunding websites are most commonly used by individuals or families looking to raise money for a specific cause or project.
Fundly is our favorite crowdfunding software because of its social features and user-friendly interface.
Crowdfunding has a social sharing component to it, meaning that individuals can link their campaign’s page to their social media accounts to raise even more money.
Integrates with Double the Donation
This platform can be integrated with the industry’s leading matching gift tool.
Check out the integration guide.
Top Tips for Crowdfunding Software
- Make use of the social sharing components of crowdfunding. These tools are what will give your campaign the boost it needs. The more people that view your campaign, the better!
- Include images and videos to give donors context around what they’re giving to. You can even post weekly updates!
- Choose a great crowdfunding tool with multiple capabilities and low credit card and platform fees.
DonorSearch
Fundraising Software Overview
Prospect research can help nonprofits find major and planned giving prospects. It allows nonprofits to analyze their existing database to see who could be a good candidate for the aforementioned giving programs.
Prospect research examines a donor’s willingness and capacity to give a sizable donation, and DonorSearch gives your nonprofit easy access to the most important wealth indicators.
Without it, nonprofits have to play a guessing game to determine which donors might be ready to give at a greater level.
Integrates with Double the Donation
This platform can be integrated with the industry’s leading matching gift tool.
Top Tips for Prospect Research Software
- There are in-depth prospect research tools that cost money and there are free options that are a bit more limiting. If your nonprofit wants to perform a simple search, use the latter approach. If you are looking for a more comprehensive view of your donor database, use the former approach.
- You might think that wealth screening might be the way to go for your organization. But it has its limits. Prospect research takes both wealth and willingness to give into account.
Qgiv
Well-known in the fundraising community, Qgiv is fundraising software that includes the following features:
- Donation forms
- Event registration
- Data, reports, and statistics
- Text fundraising
- Peer-to-peer fundraising
- Handheld kiosks
- Integrations
Pricing for plans starts with a standard option that only charges organizations a percentage of the amount raised plus $0.30 per transaction and tops out at $399 per month for access to every feature Qgiv offers.
According to Tyler Boyd, chief strategy officer at Squeeze, “Qgiv is a wonderful platform for nonprofit fundraising because it’s an easy way to accept donations online. It allows for peer-to-peer fundraising, and it has a free option for companies who can’t yet afford a paid platform or just want to try Qgiv for a while without a monetary commitment.”
360MatchPro
360MatchPro bills itself as “the #1 matching gift automation platform” and focuses, obviously, on matching gifts. It integrates with other platforms, allowing donors to give directly but with the added option to identify matching gift opportunities on your donation form or confirmation page and through follow-up emails.
According to Julien Raby, founder and owner of Art of Barista, “Matching gifts can be a good source of funds for your nonprofit. However, many supporters aren’t familiar with their company’s specific guidelines or how to propose a request. As a result, many nonprofits drop out on a big portion of their matching gift potential.”
“With 360MatchPro,” Raby continues, “large nonprofits can get more details into their donors’ employers and send out customized matching gift information. This tailored outreach is much more likely to reach your donors.”
Natalie Maximets, a certified life transformation coach at Online Divorce, adds that 360MatchPro’s features — which include screening email domains to identify companies with matching gift programs, matching gift management, filters that show top matching opportunities, one-click notifications on donors submitting a match request, and more — help your organization maximize the impact of giving.
Jotform
Jotform is a highly flexible, no-fee tool for your fundraising efforts. With Jotform, you can easily add donation forms to your website without giving a percentage of your donations to a third party. Nonprofits also get 50 percent off Jotform’s paid plans (excluding Enterprise).
Take a look at Jotform’s nonprofit form template library or browse the donation form template library to see which forms are right for you. You also have the ability to easily customize your forms to reflect your organization’s branding and look.
DonorSnap
WHAT WE LIKERearrangeable dashboard and customizable fieldsMass emails and website booking formsLow payment processing feesWHAT WE DON’T LIKEDifficult to import data from other programsCumbersome updatesLearning curve with reporting toolOVERVIEWPrice Range: $$Starting Price: $39/monthClient OS: Web, iOS
DonorSnap gives you the best bang for your buck when it comes to small-scale fundraising software. While the $39 per month price tag isn’t the least expensive option on the market, small nonprofits will want to find a user-friendly fundraising tool which provides the most value for a lower price, and that describes DonorSnap.
Their basic version includes up to 1,000 contact records, then tiered pricing applies to organizations with more contacts. They also offer one of the lowest setup fees on the market at $200, which includes 4 hours of data conversion and private training. There are no extra fees beyond this.
Bloomerang
Bloomerang is a cloud-based donor management customer relationship management (CRM) system that helps you handle your interactions with donors, grantees, volunteers, and more. Real-time retention and engagement metrics come standard.
Pricing begins at $99 per month, but there’s a free option for “small shops” that Bloomerang offers to small nonprofits that may be growing into standard pricing.
According to Robin Antill, founder and CEO of Leisure Buildings, Bloomerang’s primary focus is on donor retention.
“With social media engagement mechanisms, full mobile optimization, and a novel donor management system concentrating on building integrity and engagement, Bloomerang will help position your developing nonprofit for success,” Antill says. “Even better, Bloomerang is specially designed to be easy to learn and use.”
Jason Hughes, CEO and cofounder of Vegan Liftz, adds that Bloomerang is about more than fundraising.
“It has features offering email marketing and social listening that widen the database of an organization,” he explains. “As donor management and retention software, it keeps track of all of the donors’ activities, constituent relationship systems and integrates online giving forms. It’s simple and user-friendly for various sizes of nonprofits.”
GiveWP
Billing itself as “the best WordPress donation plugin,” GiveWP helps you easily create donation pages on WordPress using its powerful WordPress fundraising plug-in. Basic pricing begins at $149 annually.
According to Dillon Hill of Live For Another, “We originally picked GiveWP because of its native integration with Zapier but have since been blown away by all of its features. A great example is its easy-to-install Facebook Pixel tracking, which helps us track our marketing efforts. Long story short, it’s easy and painless to roll out and scale fundraising campaigns.”
Blackbaud eTapestry
WHAT WE LIKEMore simplistic version of the popular Raiser’s EdgeEasy to run queries and generate lettersCan store numerous details into a single contact recordWHAT WE DON’T LIKEDifficult to use marketing toolsMatching gifts require time-consuming inputNo mobile app, only mobile viewOVERVIEWPrice Range: $$Starting Price: $99/monthClient OS: Web
Blackbaud eTapestry is a fundraising tool for nonprofits operating in the cloud via a web-browser. The software acts as an all-in-one tool for managing your charitable programming activities in one place, no matter where you’re physically located. The holistic view of your donor relationships and the performance of your fundraising campaigns provides a faster turnaround of what is working and what isn’t.
eTapestry also works to boost engagement through email marketing, online donation forms with payment processing, content tracking, event management, and much more. eTapestry’s popularity has historically revolved around its low cost of entry, and Blackbaud advertises the solution as a more affordable alternative to their robust Raiser’s Edge tool.
Conclusion:
Ever wondered how some companies are able to raise millions of dollars for a campaign or project using only the internet? They’re able to do this because they know how to use fundraising software and websites. The same way these companies are creating projects in a short time, you can also do it with your non-profit organization. Best fundraiser applications allow anyone to create their own campaigns, fundraise online and share information.