Top 7 Best Nonprofit CRMs for Fundraising & Donor Relationships
Having a hard time choosing a new CRM? We've compiled a comprehensive list to help you find the best option for your nonprofit.
Kristine Ensor
Having a hard time choosing a new CRM? We've compiled a comprehensive list to help you find the best option for your nonprofit.
Finding the best nonprofit CRM and fundraising software can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Between the sponsored ads, outdated posts, and endless lists of features, everything starts to blend together into one big mess.
Don’t worry – we have you covered with one comprehensive list of the best nonprofit CRMs on the market so you can make a no-stress decision.
Naturally, when it comes to the title of Best Nonprofit CRM, we think Donorbox CRM is the clear winner. But your nonprofit’s unique needs will ultimately determine which option is best for you!
First things first: figuring out what you need from the donor management tool you’ll be using every day. Start by taking a bird’s-eye view. Take time to talk with those who will use your CRM most to understand what features you value.
Ask the following questions:
With your answers in mind, you’ll be better prepared to sort through the dozens of options available to you and find the right fit for your mission.
Let’s get into it! We’ve put together a list of the best all-in-one fundraising platform solutions to consider. For each, we’ll share an overview, reasons you’ll love each solution, and some red flags to watch out for. Plus, we’ll share one of the most important factors – pricing.
Yep, we said it.
Donorbox CRM is the best nonprofit CRM. Hear us out: Donorbox CRM has the features to support nonprofits of all sizes with nimble tools that will make your life easier.
With a suite of AI-powered tools and a focus on streamlining multichannel donor communication, our CRM guides you to build better donor relationships (leading to more of those all-important donations).
Designed with nonprofits in mind from start to finish, Donorbox CRM is a truly all-in-one platform solution. We’re known for creating one of the fastest online giving experiences on the market, and we’ve used that same approach to reimagine the CRM experience.
Your donor profiles, your donation tracking, and your tasks – all in one place. This allows you to spend less time managing your data and tasks and more time making an impact.
No red flags here! We said it was purpose-built with nonprofits in mind and we stand by that. Plus, our hardworking team of developers is constantly innovating and adding more fresh features to our CRM, so there’s always more to explore.
Donorbox CRM is entering an exciting phase of enhancement. We’re working hard to develop and launch powerful features to elevate fundraising income and enhance user experience. Stay tuned for more updates as we move closer to the full, enhanced release!
Take a more in-depth look at how Donorbox CRM elevates your fundraising and empowers your mission here.
Salesforce NPSP is a great nonprofit CRM for larger organizations that aren’t afraid of a little technical know-how required. NPSP is known for its buildable and customizable solutions, but it can also present a bit of a headache to users.
If you’re a big organization that’s up for the challenge, you can use Salesforce NPSP to measure, track, and update data across your fundraising, marketing, and program operations.
Why you’ll love it
You’re a big organization with deep pockets and Salesforce gets that your needs are different than the little guys. They have great tools designed to help you secure major gifts, steward major donors, and automate their moves management process. Plus, use NPSP for grant tracking to stay on top of your grant lifecycles. They also make it easy for you to implement Wealth Screening and have nifty source codes you can use to monitor donor response to appeals for better campaign progress monitoring.
Red flags to watch out for
You’re going to need an IT team with great skills to get this off the ground. Salesforce NPSP has a steep learning curve that requires a lot of technical know-how to navigate. If your organization doesn’t have in-house software development skills to leverage, this may not be a great fit for you.
Interested in finding out more about Salesforce NPSP? They have a free 30-day trial. Contact them directly to find out more about their pricing.
Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT is the Gen X-er of nonprofit CRM software — it’s been around for over 40 years. And like most Gen X members, it’s a total workhorse.
Why you’ll love it
Like Donorbox CRM, it offers a comprehensive suite of robust features, offering your nonprofit everything from constituent engagement through email and direct mailing, event attendance tracking, volunteer management, membership management, and diverse reporting.
Red flags to watch out for
Remember when we said your nonprofit CRM shouldn’t work in isolation? Unfortunately, one of the challenges with Raiser’s Edge NXT is how siloed it is. Their modules, while powerful, are built separately and don’t communicate well with each other. It comes with a steep learning curve and users have expressed concerns over the clunky interface and outdated design.
Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT does not publish its fundraising CRM pricing online so you’ll need to reach out to their sales team to find out more.
Hubspot offers awesome CRM software for nonprofits with little to no budget. While not specifically designed for nonprofit organizations, Hubspot CRM is a free option with nice marketing tools.
Why you’ll love it
Unlike most free software options, Hupspot CRM does come with pretty decent features like relationship management, email tracking, and real-time analytics.
Red flags to watch out for
It’s not CRM software for nonprofit organizations, so it hasn’t been built with your organization in mind. This means it lacks critical tools that address your unique pain points. Things like donor management, event planning and ticket sales, and supporter timelines, are features your nonprofit CRM should have, and all of them are absent with Hubspot. Plus, its more advanced features like automations are only available on their paid plans, and adding these can make this free option a lot more expensive than CRM software designed for nonprofit organizations.
Hubspot CRM has a basic free version and their Professional Customer Platform costs $1,170 per month. Find out more about their pricing here.
Like Donorbox CRM, CharityEngine is an integrated platform offering features and tools that communicate well with each other.
Following in the footsteps of many other nonprofit CRMs, CharityEngine places a strong focus on tracking donor interactions with features that record touch points with donors, a direct mail tool that includes built-in segmentation, and real-time insights to help with multichannel fundraising. Their cloud-based CRM offers strong mobile responsiveness so it’s great for teams using the mobile app while working in the field or remotely.
Red flags to watch out for
Users have cited unpredictability in the software, slow customer support, and underdeveloped features as some of the main concerns with CharityEngine.
Charity Engine’s packages are broken down by the number of donor contacts you have. Get in touch with their sales team to find out more.
Bloomerang’s well-designed Interactive dashboard is so easy to use, making it perfect for smaller nonprofits that may not have the resources for a fundraising CRM with a steep learning curve.
Nonprofit CRM software should be easy to use, and Bloomerang is. Its tools and features, including engagement scoring, while less extensive than other fundraising CRMs are still efficient and powerful.. It’s a great choice for smaller teams.
With less extensive tools and features unfortunately comes limitations. Bloomerang is not a great option if you need nonprofit CRM software that tracks event attendance, recurring donations, membership management, and other fundraising features that come standard with most nonprofit CRMs, like Donorbox.
Bloomerang’s CRM has a straightforward pricing model, based on the number of donor profiles you manage. Their tiered pricing makes it accessible for organizations of all sizes. Find out more about their pricing here.
Neon One’s CRM is a good choice if your organization is medium-sized. They have an impressive range of CRM tools geared toward helping nonprofit organizations manage major donors, members, peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, email, events, volunteers, and grants.
Like Donorbox CRM, Neon CRM has great donor management features that allow you to track and collect donor details in one place, create customizable forms, automate donor communication, and create customized reports.
Their CRM interface is a lot less intuitive than you’d expect, with fewer customization options than other CRM software for nonprofit organizations on this list. This makes it a bad choice for teams who will struggle to adopt platforms with a significant learning curve.
Neon CRM offers tiered pricing based on the number of records your organization needs and the features you’d need to enable. Find out more about their pricing here.
Still feeling stuck? Download our free resource to discover best practices for choosing a new nonprofit CRM.
Phew! You’ve made it to the end, congratulations. This was a long but important read. Your organization is about to take a huge step — selecting CRM software for your nonprofit! While we’ve given you seven great options to get the ball rolling, only one truly stands out as the perfect fit for all organizations because of its ability to help meet fundraising goals, its robust features, its sleek design and intuitive UI, and its ability to operate as a fundraising ecosystem, not just a donor management tool: Donorbox CRM.
Donorbox has always been the best option for free donor management with some great integrated apps, in addition to Responsive fundraising tools, and now our CRM is here to pull all of these incredible features together. Sign up today and start fundraising in fifteen minutes!
Read helpful blogs on donor management, fundraising, Donorbox products, and more on our Nonprofit Blog. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive the best Donorbox resources in your inbox every month.
Kristine Ensor is a freelance writer with over a decade of experience working with local and international nonprofits. As a nonprofit professional she has specialized in fundraising, marketing, event planning, volunteer management, and board development.
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