Best Nonprofit CRM: Charity & Donor Management Software Compared

Quick summary:

Explore top nonprofit CRM solutions to boost fundraising and relationship management. Tailored to nonprofits, these cater to the specific needs and budgets of nonprofits.

Our guide is crafted to empower your decision-making, ensuring you choose a solution that not only fits your budget but also significantly boosts your fundraising and relationship management effectiveness.

Nonprofit organizations face unique challenges in managing relationships and fundraising efforts. This article introduces a range of specialized CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions tailored to meet these specific needs.

Our goal is to guide nonprofits toward selecting a CRM solution that best aligns with their mission, operational requirements, and financial constraints.

Additionally, we'll explore how these CRMs can enhance donor management and fundraising activities, ultimately boosting the overall impact and efficiency of nonprofit organizations.

In this article, we have done the legwork, tried the platforms, read the reviews, and summarized everything you need about nonprofit CRM for donor management, fundraising, and more. So, let’s get started!

Top 10 Nonprofit CRM Summary

• Kindful – Best nonprofit CRM software overall
• Blackbaud – Top CRM for membership organizations
• Neon CRM – Great charity CRM
• Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud – Good nonprofit database software
• Bloomerang – Best free CRM for nonprofits
• DonorPerfect – Top donor CRM software
• Network for Good – Good contact management software for nonprofits
• Salsa CRM – Great client management software for nonprofits
• Little Green Light –  Best CRM for fundraising
• Classy – Best CRM for small nonprofit organizations

What is a nonprofit CRM & what does it do?

We might get back to fundamentals and ask what is CRM, i.e., customer relationship management. But in the case of a nonprofit, you can also think of it as a constituent relationship management solution. 

A CRM is, at heart, the evolution of an address book, which, for businesses and nonprofits, passed through the evolutionary stage of being a series of spreadsheets. Today, CRMs handle advanced customer data, marketing, sales, customer support, HR, IT, and more.

CRM is handy for the nonprofit industry, including charities, outreach programs, NGOs, social organizations, and political movements. First and foremost, you turn your marketing CRM tools toward fundraising.

Nonprofit CRM helps create campaigns, spread the word, attract prospective donors, organize donations and gifts, and keep your audience engaged with your organization's message and branding. Many great nonprofit CRMs also do robust event management in real life, online, and hybrid.

Like any great CRM, nonprofit management platforms run on workflows and automation, both built-in and with the ability for you to build and share new ones.

For the nonprofit industry, this can handle prospect journeys, trigger events like email follow-ups or meeting reminders, track open and click rates in email or social media engagement, and do scheduled reporting on your crucial fundraising metrics.

Nonprofit CRM comparison chart (top 10 highest-rated systems)

This overview of the top ten CRM systems for nonprofits quickly points out the starting price and a snapshot of what each CRM is best for in the nonprofit sector.

^{*Prices start at}

What is the best CRM for nonprofits? Here's our top 10 list:

The best CRM for nonprofits article you're about to read contains data from many top reviews of users and online critics. We hope this summary has the recommendations to help you pick the perfect fundraising management platform. This top ten list is ready for you!

1. Kindful (Best nonprofit CRM software overall)

Why we chose it:

Kindful is probably one of the best CRM software for nonprofits. Its offices are in Nashville, Tennessee. Today, Kindful is a product of the larger all-in-one platform called Bloomerang.

Kindful stands out as the best nonprofit CRM software overall thanks to its comprehensive fundraising toolkit, which includes customizable donation pages, peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities, and robust event management features.

One of Kindful's unique offerings is its lifecycle analytics. This feature provides you with in-depth insights into donor behavior and preferences, enabling you to tailor your communication and engagement strategies effectively.

Adding donor self-service account logins fosters a sense of ownership and engagement among your supporters, leading to improved retention rates.

With its seamless integration with Bloomerang's platform, Kindful provides an extensive range of tracking, reporting, and donor communication tools, making it an indispensable asset for nonprofits looking to consolidate their fundraising and donor management into one powerful system.

Pros:

The advantages of this platform are mainly that it is an excellent way for nonprofits and charity organizations to run almost all of their operations from a single solution. The tools are pretty simple to use, and the interface is good-looking. Also, the pricing is based on contacts and can be affordable.

Cons:

There are a few disadvantages here as Kindful is taking our winning spot as the best nonprofit CRM system overall. 

Pricing:

• $100 per month for 1,000 contacts

• $200 per month for 5,000 contacts

• $300 per month for 12,000 contacts

Visit site
^{Go to Kindful's official website}

2. Blackbaud (Top CRM for membership organizations)

Why we chose it:

Blackbaud earns its spot as the runner-up and top CRM for membership organizations due to its versatile database management and multifaceted fundraising capabilities tailored for social good initiatives.

One of the standout features of Blackbaud is its mobile app. This tool is invaluable for your on-the-go donor engagement. It allows you and your team to nurture relationships with supporters from anywhere, ensuring that opportunities for engagement and fundraising are never missed.

Blackbaud also excels in multichannel communication. This means you can connect with donors across various platforms, enhancing the reach and effectiveness of your messaging. Whether it's through email, social media, or direct mail, Blackbaud ensures your organization's voice is heard loud and clear.

Moreover, the advanced analytics provided by Blackbaud, particularly through its Raiser's Edge platform, are a game-changer for membership-based nonprofits. This feature enables you to conduct targeted outreach, making your fundraising efforts more strategic and efficient.

By understanding your donors' behavior and preferences, you can tailor your communications to resonate more deeply, fostering stronger connections and greater support.

Pros:

Blackbaud gets generally positive reviews for the sheer robustness of its tools and features, including its membership management functionality. What stands out among their many fundraising tools are their robust features for campaign messaging and multichannel marketing.

Raiser's Edge also benefits from the Blackbaud list of CRM features.

Cons:

It's always a drawback when a CRM or other SaaS vendor does not advertise their pricing, which is the case with Blackbaud. Also, there is a slight learning curve here.

Pricing:

• Contact Blackbaud for pricing

Visit site
^{Go to Blackbaud's official website}

3. Neon CRM (Great charity CRM)

Why we chose it:

Neon CRM has established itself as a favorite among nonprofits, particularly for those with a strong focus on membership, due to its powerful workflow automations that save valuable time by minimizing mundane administrative tasks.

For organizations focused on events, Neon CRM's features such as volunteer management, online store capabilities, and automated receipt processing, are invaluable. These tools streamline event organization and management, allowing you to focus more on engagement and less on logistics.

Additionally, Neon CRM's robust donor management system is a standout feature. It simplifies the tracking of donations and tailors marketing campaigns to enhance donor relations.

This positions Neon CRM as a great charity CRM, enabling organizations to swiftly assess their impact and adapt strategies for tremendous philanthropic success.

Pros:

Charities and similar organizations can leverage Neon CRM and other Neon One products to maximize their advocacy through email campaigns and donation management.

One Neon pro is their many tools for event planning.

Cons:

As a CRM platform, there have been some less-than-stellar reviews about Neon's core CRM tools. While it does fare well regarding donor retention rates, it can use some improvement as a primary contact and networking tool.

Pricing:

• The essentials package is $99 per month

• The impact package is $149 per month

• The empower package is $299 per month

Visit site
^{Go to Neon CRM's official website}

4. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (Good nonprofit database software)

Why we chose it:

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud tailors the robust functionality of its standard CRM to the unique needs of charities, providing specialized tools for optimizing donor information management and enabling rich donor profiles through publicly available data.

This CRM excels in tracking and monitoring all your constituent relationships. Whether they are major benefactors or occasional donors, Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud gives you a comprehensive view of donation activities.

Thanks to these features, you can better understand and appreciate every contribution to your organization, big or small.

Its strength as a database software is underscored by marketing automation features designed to engage prospects effectively, taking a proactive approach to nurturing relationships through triggered communication workflows after online donations.

Check out our Salesforce CRM review for more details about this tool.

Pros:

One of the pros of Salesforce for nonprofits is if you need to mix your nonprofit CRM data with other business data and processes since Salesforce is an all-in-one business SaaS set of tools.

There is also the NPSP, or nonprofit success pack, which is an excellent package of features.

Cons:

Unlike other nonprofit CRMs with simple pricing based on contacts, Salesforce still charges based on users per month, which can become a bit more expensive.

Pricing:

• Sales Cloud EE with nonprofit success pack is $36 per user per month, billed annually.

• Sales + Service Cloud EE is $48 per user per month billed annually

• Nonprofit Cloud EE is $60 per user per month, billed annually

• Contact vendor for Nonprofit Cloud UE pricing

Visit site
^{Go to Salesforce's official website}

5. Bloomerang (Best free CRM for nonprofits)

Why we chose it:

Bloomerang's CRM is highly regarded in the nonprofit sector for its intuitive design that simplifies donor engagement and retention. This CRM sets itself apart with intelligent reporting tools that offer you actionable insights into your donors' habits and interactions, helping you make informed decisions.

A key feature that is particularly beneficial is the generosity tracker. This tool allows you to monitor philanthropic activities and understand their impact on your organization, providing a clear picture of how your efforts are resonating with your supporters.

We recommend Bloomerang as the best free CRM software for nonprofits since it offers an accessible platform without compromising on essential features, making it an excellent choice for organizations looking to maximize their resources with a robust, cost-effective donor management solution.

Pros:

As mentioned above, Bloomerang is among the best free nonprofit CRM software. It is very user-friendly, and its interfaces and dashboards have a satisfying aesthetic. 

Cons:

The cheap Bloomerang Lite plan is hardly the all-in-one CRM for nonprofits it should be and lacks email marketing. Another drawback here is that it may feel limiting if your organization begins to scale up.

Pricing:

• Bloomerang Lite is free for up to 250 contacts a

• Bloomerang Grow is $19 per month for up to 500 contacts

• Bloomerang Standard is $99 per month for up to 1,000 contacts

Visit site
^{Go to Bloomerang's official website}

6. DonorPerfect (Top donor CRM software)

Why we chose it:

DonorPerfect is a donor management and fundraising platform that partners with charities and nonprofits to help them spread awareness and raise more money for their causes.

With robust reporting and analytic tools, nonprofits can seamlessly track their fundraising efforts and donor engagement. Recognized as the top donor CRM software, it provides tailored solutions that help nonprofits increase their fundraising success and build lasting donor relationships.

DonorPerfect also simplifies customization with templates for forms where you can infuse your personal branding. This feature enhances the connection between your organization and your supporters.

When it comes to analytics, you get access to over 70 industry-specific reports, allowing you to measure your performance against your KPIs in real-time. Additionally, the Agile Ticketing system is a standout feature for event management, streamlining the process and enhancing the efficiency of your events.

Pros:

DonorPerfect has many advantages as a donor management CRM. Its multiple pricing tiers make it great for organizations of all sizes and budgets.

You get unlimited users even on the most affordable package. DonorPerfect also offers live training webinars.

Cons:

When it comes to DonorPerfect, you must open up your wallet for the more expensive versions to take full advantage of workflow automations. 

Pricing:

• The lite plan is $99 per month for 1,000 contacts

• Express method is $179 per month for 2,500 contacts

• The essentials plan is $299 per month for 7,500 contacts

• Premier program is $499 per month for 25,000 contacts

• The enterprise plan is $799 per month for 75,000 contacts

Visit site
^{Go to Donor Perfect's official website}

7. Network for Good (Good contact management software for nonprofits)

Why we chose it:

Network for Good caters adeptly to nonprofits seeking streamlined contact management with intuitive donor profiles and communication tracking, simplifying the maintenance of donor histories and engagement.

The platform allows you to customize and embed donation pages, enhancing the donor experience and aligning with your branding efforts. This feature is crucial for making a lasting impression on your supporters and encouraging repeat donations.

When it comes to marketing and outreach, Network for Good's communication tools are a game-changer. They include donor engagement journey building, easy-to-create video messaging, custom filters, and targeted mailing lists.

These features ensure that your messages reach the right people in the most effective way, enhancing your organization's communication strategy.

Pros:

Network for Good is advantageous because any nonprofit organization can use it no matter how few contacts one has. The contact management part is substantial. The duplicate contact prevention, grouping, and filtering make this sound like a nonprofit CRM. The online fundraising tools work well, too.

Cons:

Figuring out your exact pricing plan can be annoying, though the sales reps there would probably help you. Moreover, the look and feel are elementary. However, we know some people like that.

Pricing:

• Contact Network for Good for pricing information 

Visit site
^{Go to the Network for Good official website}

8. Salsa CRM (Great client management software for nonprofits)

Why we chose it:

Salsa CRM comes with Salsa Engage as part of Salsa Labs SaaS. It's some of the best nonprofit client management software to grow your network and engage followers. 

In the nonprofit sector, Salsa CRM is renowned for its robust client management capabilities. It offers you a comprehensive ecosystem to track supporter activities, communications, and giving histories all in one convenient location.

This holistic approach ensures that you have all the essential information about your supporters at your fingertips, enabling more personalized and effective engagement.

Salsa CRM integrates advocacy actions, empowering you to manage and mobilize constituents effectively. You can craft and launch fundraising campaigns across email and social media platforms.

This feature also includes tracking email open rates and analyzing social media engagement levels, providing you with valuable insights into the effectiveness of your outreach efforts.

Recommended for its excellent client management software, Salsa CRM's strength lies in its ability to offer a detailed view of individual donor interactions and a broad picture of fundraising campaigns, helping you to engage more deeply with your existing base and expand your reach to new supporters.

Pros:

Salsa CRM and Salsa Engage excel at giving you deeper insights into your network of donors and constituents with their rich profiles.

It follows from there that Salsa also provides extensive analytics on all manners of fundraising, whether via social media, direct mail, or peer-to-peer.

Cons:

As usual, you'll have to do some of your work to get an idea of what kind of price tag you'll be looking at for your business needs.

Another tiny drawback of Salsa is that it isn't the most accessible CRM platform to master. However, they do offer some good resources to help with that.

Pricing:

• Contact Salsa for pricing

Visit site
^{Go to Salsa CRM's website}

9. Little Green Light (Best CRM for fundraising)

Why we chose it:

Little Green Light may sound like a cute little company, but this is one great CRM for fundraising that means business. It's packed with features and does a fantastic job analyzing your data for insights and suggestions.

Little Green Light shines as a CRM for its user-friendly interface and powerful fundraising features, like integrated donation processing and event management, that simplify the donation lifecycle from pledge to payment.

One of Little Green Light's strengths is its capability to organize large amounts of donor data, which significantly enhances the effectiveness of your fundraising efforts.

You benefit from efficient data importing, comprehensive contact and constituent management, a fundraising gift tracker, and customizable dashboards. These dashboards come with advanced search and save functionalities, making it simpler to access and analyze the data you need.

We recognize Little Green Light as the best CRM for fundraising due to its ability to create targeted donor segments for personalized campaigns. Additionally, its extensive reporting tools turn complex data into actionable insights, aiding in the growth and development of your nonprofit. 

Pros:

Switching over and migrating your data into LGL is quite simple how they've set it up.

Another benefit to LGL is the event and fundraising management suite of tools. What's more, they have decent blog resources on fundraising tips.

Cons:

There are a lot of great tools here, but for some, that might mean feature overload to start.

What's more, it's lucky if you only want tools that already come with the essentials, but perhaps the cost goes up more than you'd think with the pay-as-you-go options.

Pricing:

• $45 per month for up to 2,500 constituents    

• $60 per month for up to 5,000 constituents    

• $75 per month for up to 10,000 constituents    

• $90 per month for up to 20,000 constituents    

• $105 per month for up to 30,000 constituents

• $120 per month for up to 40,000 constituents

• $135 per month for up to 50,000 constituents

Visit site
^{Go to Little Green Light's official website}

10. Classy (Best CRM for small nonprofit organizations)

Why we chose it:

Classy is, as the people there style it, a giving platform. It cares about the causes its customers use, or at least you get that feeling from their website. They've helped raise over $3 billion for over six thousand nonprofit partners.

Classy is an excellent CRM for small nonprofits because of its streamlined interface and intense focus on donor engagement and retention.

Classy's standout features include peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities, allowing you to leverage the networks of your supporters to broaden your fundraising reach. Additionally, it enables you to create engaging, mobile-friendly fundraising pages, which are essential for connecting with today's digital-savvy donors.

With Classy, you gain access to a variety of management tools that aid in donation and event management, catering to both virtual and hybrid events. The platform's payment processing tools are versatile, allowing donors to contribute using credit cards through Stripe, digital wallets, PayPal, and Venmo.

This flexibility in payment options can increase the convenience for your donors, potentially boosting donation rates.

Pros:

Classy is up there with some of the other best CRM for small nonprofits. It's a great tool if your organization is compact and everyone has multiple roles. The data and tools are clear and easy to collaborate on as well.

Cons:

Classy is maybe a bit too classy when pricing in that this nonprofit CRM won't reveal too much to any visitor. You will need to request pricing, which is a con when comparing shopping against other nonprofit CRM platforms that are clear about the costs.

Pricing:

• Contact Classy to request pricing information  

Visit site
^{Go to Classy's official website}

What is the best nonprofit management software for me? Our final points

Our key takeaway for the best nonprofit CRM solution is Kindful overall. And perhaps many other critics agree, while we're sure you'll find some detractors. But once you get down to more specific niches and needs, any of these ten management tools for nonprofits could be the right choice for your business needs.

Neon CRM, for example, is another top choice, as is DonorPerfect. And if you are a really small operation with few users and contacts, Bloomerang is the best free choice. We even had to leave some good names off, like Virtuous, GiveSmart, and EveryAction (Virtuous made it the closest). 

That's it, folks. Good luck with your nonprofit endeavors. We know your causes are noble, and your hearts are pure. That's why we bring you this article to help you in your search for streamlined fundraising and donor management.

Nonprofit CRM FAQs

What is CRM for Nonprofits?

CRM for nonprofits is basically a system made to help meet the needs of charitable organizations. To be more specific, CRMs for nonprofits centralize donor information, streamline fundraising campaigns, and manage volunteers, members, and events. They include features for grant management, targeted communication, and data analytics, enhancing organizational efficiency.

Is There a Free Version of Salesforce for Nonprofits?

Yes, Salesforce has a free version for nonprofits called “Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud Starter Pack.” This version is part of Salesforce’s commitment to supporting nonprofit organizations by providing access to their powerful CRM platform at no cost. It includes essential features for donor management, fundraising, program tracking, and volunteer management.

While it’s not as advanced as paid versions, it’s still a valuable tool for nonprofits to leverage Salesforce’s CRM capabilities without incurring additional expenses.

Is Salesforce Free for Charities?

Yes, Salesforce provides a philanthropic initiative called the “Salesforce.org Power of Us Program” that offers Salesforce products and resources at a discounted rate and, in some cases, for free. Through this program, charities can access Salesforce products, including Nonprofit Cloud, at a reduced cost or with donated licenses.

Nonprofits can use Salesforce’s CRM capabilities to manage donors, volunteers, and programs effectively, enhancing their overall organizational efficiency. However, eligibility criteria and features may vary, so organizations should check Salesforce’s official website for specific details and application procedures.

Is CRM Not Useful in the Non Profit Sector?

CRM is highly useful in the nonprofit sector, enhancing efficiency and relationships. Nonprofit CRM facilitates donor management, fundraising campaigns, and volunteer coordination. It enables targeted communication and streamlines operations for impactful program tracking. Overall, by optimizing resource allocation and reducing administrative tasks, CRM empowers nonprofits to achieve their missions effectively.

Does a Nonprofit Need a CRM?

Nonprofit organizations can all benefit from a customer relationship management (CRM) system. Like regular businesses with customers, nonprofits can keep track of all their donors and constituents, do outreach with engaging content, and manage fundraising events, auctions, charity drives, and other nonprofit activities.

What Does CRM Mean in Fundraising?

CRM in fundraising can mean constituent relationship management, with constituents replacing the traditional customers for regular for-profit businesses using a CRM. Many activities between nonprofits and their components are similar to those between companies, clients, or customers. Some CRM brands, like Salesforce, offer nonprofit solutions.

How Do Nonprofits Use CRM?

Many tools and features of a CRM are helpful for nonprofit organizations. It can organize the donors list, create email or social media outreach campaigns, plan events, process fundraising payments, and more. CRM automation also takes over repetitive administrative tasks, freeing time for nonprofit workers.