Software programs for nonprofits has become a hot topic these days. There are a lot of software programs that can be used to manage nonprofit organizations more effectively. Is your nonprofit organization looking for budget planning software? Are you looking for nonprofit event management software? Are you looking for best software programs for nonprofits? There are many free tools for nonprofits available these days, but finding the right platform is not an easy task. It is important to spend time researching free tools and free software that is right for your nonprofit organization because it could make a sizeable difference in your upcoming events.
If you’re looking to learn software programs for nonprofit organizations 2022, our list of free tools for nonprofits can help. We’ve gathered tools that I’ve personally tested and used over the years as an employee and volunteer in various nonprofits; I know they’re cost effective, easy to use and simple to learn.
Bloomerang
- What it does: Bloomerang is a donor management and donation software that allows nonprofits to organize their donor records and optimize donor engagement through tracking and reporting.
- How you can use it: Bloomerang allows you to ditch the spreadsheet and unlock your engagement potential with gift tracking, wealth screening, and smart reporting. With Bloomerang, donor communication works automatically and provides you with the information you need at the right time.
- Hidden fees or limitations: Bloomerang Lite allows you up to 250 contacts and $100k in annual revenue, which is the perfect amount if you’re just starting out. If you need more, they offer a graduated pricing scale based on the number of contacts you need.
- Kindful CRM Integration: No.
Join It
- What it does: Join It is a membership software that gives you a landing space to organize all your contacts and donors. With an intuitive and readable interface, you can seamlessly view each member’s details so you know just how to connect.
- How you can use it: Join It offers several ways to segment your members, as well as membership management features that allow you to collect donations and automate reminders. With Join It, you’ll ensure your donors are nurtured with no added stress for you.
- Hidden fees or limitations: Join It’s free version allows you up to 100 members and nonprofit discounts if you decide to upgrade.
- Kindful CRM Integration: Yes, you can integrate your Join It membership data with Kindful.
Golden
- What it does: Golden is a volunteer management software that allows you to organize, recruit, and track your nonprofit’s volunteer force. With Golden, you can start mobilizing your network toward accomplishing your goals in no time.
- How you can use it: With Golden, you can run background checks, collect signups, and measure the influence of your volunteers automatically.
- Hidden fees or limitations: Golden’s free volunteer management plan allows you to start scheduling, tracking, and programming instantly through a simple sign-up process. The free version only lets you have three user logins and limited integrations.
- Kindful CRM Integration: Yes, you can integrate your Golden volunteers with Kindful.
Salesforce
- What it does: Salesforce is a CRM software that allows you to organize and communicate with your donors and contacts. Salesforce also provides you with the marketing tools to place your message in the hands of those most likely to support you.
- How you can use it: With Salesforce, you can automatically organize your contacts, segment your audience for targeted communication, and track your data to optimize your donation campaigns.
- Hidden fees or limitations: Through the Power of Us Program, eligible nonprofits get ten free subscriptions to Salesforce’s nonprofit package and discounts on other products.
- Kindful CRM Integration: No, Salesforce is an alternative to Kindful.
Neon
Reasons to buy
+Well-featured platform+Metrics for insight and analysis+Plenty of help if you get stuck
Neon puts all your data and tools in one place, helping nonprofits to improve efficiency and organization so they can “focus on the work that really matters”, to quote the Neon team itself.
Many of the platform’s creators come from a nonprofit background which means they understand the administrative and operational pain points of running such an organization, and should help them design a service catered to these specific needs. Users are able to create online forms, engage donors, plan events, manage members, track volunteers, and get insights from built-in metrics dashboards.
There are also features for email marketing, taking payments directly at competitive rates, as well as volunteer management.
The platform is comprehensive and pretty straightforward to use, but if problems do pop up, a host of tutorial guides are on hand to walk you through any issues. These are particularly useful in the early stages of getting acquainted with the Neon platform.
The price point may perturb smaller nonprofits, but this is not the most expensive offering of its kind, and comes highly recommended if budget allows.
Little Green Light
Little Green Light is a sophisticated fundraising and donor management system that does a lot of the digital legwork for nonprofits. In the words of its creators, “timely insights that the data provides mean fundraisers work smarter – not harder – to connect supporters to their mission.”
A wealth of features are on offer here, including a fully customizable dashboard, customizable reporting, constituent and contact management, the creation of acknowledgment messages and receipts, integrations with other software platforms you may be using, and customized, trackable mailings.
The automatic categorization of donors (top donors, most active, and so forth) is a particularly handy feature, enabling users to home in on certain targets without sifting through reams of data to identify them in the first place.
With so many tools on offer, it may be worth utilizing the extendable free trial to fully get to grips with the platform and make sure it’s right for the needs and skillset of your staff. A further boon is a user-friendly design, plus a heap of video tutorials to help the unacquainted acclimatize to the system, and make good use of its numerous features.
CharityTracker
CharityTracker enables different charitable organizations in the same community to collaborate with one another to improve the efficiency of their services.
The creators came up with the idea for the platform off the back of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in 2005. They noticed the scarcity of communication between different agencies trying to help displaced families in their home town of Florence, Alabama, which led to duplicated operations and poor management of resources.
CharityTracker address these issues by enabling users to communicate in real-time – with each other, and with their communities. Features include a shared client case database, tracking and reporting, post bulletins and referrals.
An extremely easy-to-use interface is one of the key pluses here. Navigation across different features is simple, which should save time training users. With many of these users potentially being volunteers with little knowledge of IT and data entry, this is an invaluable aspect of the platform. Its round-the-clock tech support is excellent too, so any problems that do arise should be nipped in the bud swiftly.
For the data-heads who like to really get under the bonnet with their analyses, the reports may seem a little limited and cumbersome, but there is little else to fault with this well-priced service.
Bloomerang
Reasons to buy
+Makes intelligent suggestions for improvements+Useful social media hub
Reasons to avoid
-Less scope for customization than rivals
Bloomerang helps nonprofits reach, engage and retain donors with its feature-packed platform. The company claims to have worked with “high-level thought leaders in philanthropy” to create a service that makes it easier than ever to build strong relationships with donors.
The software’s core features include a dashboard that displays the organization’s donor retention rate along with suggestions on how to improve that, as well as future incoming donations.
Users can also manage reports and accounts, while a social media hub monitors what constituents may be tweeting about your organization. It’s a shame Facebook and Instagram aren’t enabled, but lots of platforms don’t have this tool built-in at all, so we’re not complaining.
Design is a strong point, with campaign progress showed as soon as you log in, while a clean, user-friendly design is employed throughout. You don’t have to be a software expert to make use of the platform, and it’s also been optimized for mobile for those who wish to log in on the move.
Bloomerang boasts an impressive array of features but it is slightly less customizable than other services, which can be frustrating when trying to tailor the platform to the specific needs of each user within the organization. Given the higher entry price point for the most basic setup, this is something of a drawback.
Google Sheets
- What it does: Google Sheets is similar to your standard Excel spreadsheet, where you can create rows and columns for the donor information that’s important to you.
- How you can use it: While Google Sheets is a useful database tool, it doesn’t have CRM or donor management software features. The upside is that all of its functions are free to use with your Google account.
- Hidden fees or limitations: It’s genuinely free, but you limit yourself to simple data collection.
- Kindful CRM Integration: Yes, with Zapier, you can import your contacts into Kindful from your Google Sheet.
JotForm
- What it does: JotForm is an online application that allows you to create custom online forms. Its incredibly intuitive user interface allows you to drag-and-drop the building blocks of the form you need.
- How you can use it: JotForm provides you with the tools to improve the experience of your donors and volunteers with signups, registrations, and surveys.
- Hidden fees or limitations: JotForm’s free online forms plan limits your access with only five forms and 100 submissions per month. JotForm also offers a 50% discount on paid plans if you decide you want to upgrade.
- Kindful CRM Integration: Yes, with Zapier you can import your JotForm contacts into Kindful.
DonorPerfect
DonorPerfect is a one-stop-shop for fundraising and donor management. It promises to “supercharge your nonprofit’s fundraising initiatives and cultivate your most valuable relationships” via its software platform.
The roster of features include the ability to manage constituent contacts and donor development, send personalized communications, report and analyze results, integrate with other products and services, as well as being able to collect donations and information online.
A standout feature of DonorPerfect is its extremely attentive support team. Unlike many other services, there is always somebody ready to help at the end of the phone. Sometimes scanning tutorials just doesn’t answer your question, and long waits for assistance can be frustrating, so the ability to speak directly to someone about an issue is a strong selling point.
DonorPerfect doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of other services we’ve covered here, but it remains very comprehensive, and only really hard-core users will exhaust the options at their disposal.
Conclusion:
To run a well-oiled nonprofit, you need software programs to manage it all. This is especially true if you have multiple funds, many staff members and volunteers, a variety of donors, and different projects going on. A nonprofit management system like Waves can help you organize your data and manage your organization more efficiently, through time tracking, analysis of donor records and analytics, reporting tools, and more.