Struggling to keep donors engaged?
You’re trying to grow your mission, but manual processes and disconnected systems make it hard to build lasting relationships with your supporters.
Choosing the wrong tool feels like a costly mistake. You can’t afford a misstep when every dollar counts towards your cause.
TechSoup reports that 43% of nonprofits rely on just one or two people for tech decisions. This huge responsibility often leads to implementation barriers.
But the right software changes that. It automates workflows and nurtures donors, freeing your team to focus on your mission.
In this guide, I’ll cut through the noise. We will review the best nonprofit software designed to help you boost retention and cut operational costs.
You’ll discover tools with transparent pricing, strong reporting, and features that scale with your organization’s growth, helping you justify your investment.
Let’s find your perfect fit.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Funraise → | Executive Directors & Operations | |
| 2 | CharityEngine → | Nonprofits needing scalable tech | |
| 3 | Blackbaud → | Growing nonprofit organizations | |
| 4 | DonorPerfect → | Nonprofits boosting donor retention | |
| 5 | Bloomerang → | Executive-level nonprofit teams |
1. Funraise
Struggling to maximize donor retention with limited resources?
Funraise offers a complete platform with robust donor management and fundraising tools, all working together in one easy-to-use system.
You can streamline your operations, automate tasks, and manage every donor and donation with user-friendly data management and reporting tools. This means less administrative work for you.
Here’s how to grow.
Funraise provides various modern giving channels like pop-up donation forms, recurring giving, peer-to-peer, and text-to-give to expand your reach. You can also send SMS messages and automated emails based on supporter activity, ensuring you connect with the right donors at the right time.
Their donation forms boast a 50% conversion rate, and organizations using Funraise grow online giving 73% annually on average. Additionally, you can utilize features like wealth screening for donor prospecting, run silent auctions efficiently, and create custom reports and dashboards, including AI forecasting for future predictions.
The result: predictable revenue and stronger donor relationships.
If you’re looking to optimize your conversion rates, my guide on best A/B testing tools can provide valuable insights.
Key features:
- Complete Fundraising Platform: Access customizable giving tools, including donation forms, recurring giving, peer-to-peer campaigns, events, and auctions, all designed to boost your revenue.
- Intuitive Donor Management: Build better donor relationships with a purpose-built CRM, offering supporter and donation management, automated tasks, and a donor portal app.
- Advanced Fundraising Intelligence: Make smarter decisions with on-demand donation reports, custom dashboards, and AI forecasting to predict future fundraising trends.
Learn more about Funraise features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Funraise is a best nonprofit software solution for Executive Directors and Operations Managers seeking to improve donor retention and cut costs. With intuitive donor management, diverse giving channels, and powerful reporting, Funraise helps organizations like Innocence Project raise millions online and grow online giving by 73% annually.
2. CharityEngine
Are you struggling to boost donor retention and cut costs?
CharityEngine helps you leverage advanced computing and storage solutions, directly addressing your need for affordable, scalable technology.
This means you can access powerful tools without straining your budget, ensuring your organization grows efficiently.
Now, how do you find that perfect solution?
CharityEngine empowers your nonprofit with green computing at a global scale, directly benefiting your charitable causes.
You can utilize computing, storage, web crawling, and even blockchain technology, giving you advanced capabilities for donor management and operational efficiency. This comprehensive suite supports improved donor retention through better tracking and reporting. Additionally, you can join the engine by donating spare computing power, further benefiting good causes, which helps foster community engagement and leverages collective resources for maximum impact.
This approach ensures long-term scalability for your organization.
Speaking of financial management, my guide on SaaS billing software explores how to predict cash flow effectively.
Key features:
- Affordable Green Computing: Provides cost-effective access to computing and storage resources, aligning with budget constraints while supporting environmental sustainability.
- Advanced Data Capabilities: Leverages web crawling and blockchain technologies to enhance donor data management, reporting, and overall operational efficiency for your team.
- Volunteer Computing Program: Enables your organization to benefit from donated computing power, fostering community involvement and providing additional resources for your initiatives.
Learn more about CharityEngine features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: If your nonprofit seeks an affordable, scalable solution to manage donor data and streamline operations, CharityEngine is an excellent choice for best nonprofit software. Its focus on green computing, coupled with advanced data capabilities like web crawling and blockchain, helps improve donor retention and cut costs by providing efficient, powerful tools.
3. Blackbaud
Struggling with donor retention and budget constraints?
Blackbaud offers industry-leading solutions like Raiser’s Edge NXT and eTapestry, designed to boost your fundraising and donor management efforts. This means you can track donations, manage prospects, and simplify accounting to strengthen your financial foundation.
This allows you to focus on your mission, knowing your donor data and financial operations are supported by purpose-built software.
Ready to elevate your impact?
Blackbaud provides comprehensive tools for fundraising, financial management, education solutions, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. This ensures you have specialized software to increase revenue through ticketing, marketing, and CRM, streamlining your operations.
For example, Financial Edge NXT simplifies your accounting, helping you track budgets, revenue, and taxes, while Grantmaking makes your giving programs more efficient and strategic. You can also manage academics, athletics, and schedules with their Learning Management System for schools.
The result: Your organization can achieve bigger, bolder impact.
Before diving deeper, you might find my analysis of 5+ Best Long Term Care Software helpful if you manage facilities.
Key features:
- Fundraising and Donor Management: Increase revenue through robust CRM, marketing campaigns, and ticketing solutions, designed to boost donor retention and engagement.
- Financial Management: Simplify fund accounting, track budgets, revenue, and donations efficiently, ensuring transparent financial operations for your organization.
- Flexible Ecosystem: Grow without outgrowing your tech, thanks to developer tools, low-code automations, and an expansive partner network that scales with your needs.
Learn more about Blackbaud features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Blackbaud offers a compelling suite of solutions that make it the best nonprofit software for organizations seeking to boost donor retention and cut costs. With specialized products like Raiser’s Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT, you can enhance fundraising, streamline accounting, and scale operations effectively.
4. DonorPerfect
Struggling to track donor engagement and retention?
DonorPerfect offers robust donor management and fundraising tools, designed to simplify your nonprofit’s operations. This means you can raise more funds while spending less time on administrative tasks.
Their software helps you centralize donor data, manage fundraising campaigns, and process payments efficiently, leading to improved donor retention and streamlined workflows.
Here’s how DonorPerfect can help.
You can effortlessly collect online and mobile gifts with integrated donation forms that automatically populate your donor records. This ensures immediate acknowledgment and accurate reporting, saving you hours of administrative work.
Additionally, DonorPerfect features hassle-free event management tools for both onsite and virtual gatherings, bringing your donors together seamlessly. It also streamlines operations through automated workflows and integrations, freeing up your team to focus on mission-critical activities.
Plus, you can generate compelling communications with their AI-powered Fundraiser Bot and manage all your campaigns—from annual appeals to monthly giving programs—all in one centralized platform, making collaboration easier than ever. The result: boosted donor retention and simplified daily tasks.
Key features:
- Integrated Online Forms: Effortlessly collect donations and gifts online, with data flowing directly into donor records for efficient tracking and prompt acknowledgments.
- Automated Workflows: Save significant time by streamlining operations with features that automate tasks, allowing your team to focus more on strategic fundraising efforts.
- Comprehensive Fundraising Hub: Manage all your campaigns, from annual appeals and monthly giving to events and major gifts, within a single, collaborative platform.
Learn more about DonorPerfect features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: If you’re seeking the best nonprofit software to enhance donor retention and operational efficiency, DonorPerfect is an excellent choice. Nonprofits using DonorPerfect raise 25% more funds in their first year, proving its impact on growth and allowing you to analyze where you are financially and where you need to be as an organization.
5. Bloomerang
Struggling to boost donor retention and cut costs?
Bloomerang offers a purpose-built giving platform with a robust Nonprofit CRM, designed to help your organization proactively build relationships and maximize constituent giving. This means you can understand donors better and amplify your impact.
For nonprofit executives, this system provides tools to effectively manage teams, track progress, and demonstrate impact, ensuring your efforts translate into tangible results.
Here’s how to simplify operations.
Bloomerang’s Nonprofit CRM empowers you to turn first-time donors into lifetime supporters through features like Marketing & Engagement to grow your donor network, and Reporting & Analytics for accurate reports. You can also easily manage applications and results with their Grant Tracking module.
Additionally, their Fundraising Tools enable donors to give from anywhere with quick and simple Donation Forms and effective Text Fundraising. You can also equip supporters to gather donations with Peer-to-Peer Fundraising and host memorable Auction events.
Plus, with integrated Volunteer Management, you can nurture both donor and volunteer relationships in one place, with streamlined recruitment, powerful scheduling, and two-way profile sync to identify volunteers with high donation potential, all accessible via a mobile app. The result is a thriving nonprofit.
While streamlining your nonprofit’s operations, understanding how to improve support efficiency is crucial. My article on best conversational AI platforms offers further insights.
Key features:
- Nonprofit CRM and Data Management: Understand donors, amplify impact, gather and update insights, and easily generate accurate reports for better decision-making.
- Comprehensive Fundraising Tools: Maximize constituent giving with simple donation forms, text fundraising, peer-to-peer options, and auction event management.
- Integrated Volunteer Management: Streamline recruitment, schedule efficiently, and use two-way profile sync to identify high-potential donors among volunteers.
Learn more about Bloomerang features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Bloomerang stands out as a strong candidate for the best nonprofit software, trusted by thousands of organizations to increase donations. Its unified platform for donor, fundraising, and volunteer management simplifies operations, allowing your team to focus on building stronger relationships and boosting donor retention, with customers seeing a 27% increase in one-time donation amounts.
6. Salesforce
Are you struggling with scattered donor data?
Salesforce helps centralize relationships and interactions with donors, volunteers, and clients, ensuring a comprehensive 360-degree view of every stakeholder. This unified platform eliminates the inefficiency of disparate systems, creating personalized experiences for your entire community.
This is how to maximize your impact.
Salesforce for Nonprofits, built on a trusted platform, offers purpose-built solutions to fundraise smarter and deliver effective programs. You can personalize every engagement moment across the customer lifecycle with AI agents, actionable data, and workflows. This means your teams get a clear view of interactions and can make faster decisions, leading to a 29% increase in team collaboration.
The platform helps manage and track fundraising, program and outcome management, marketing, IT operations, and even grantmaking. Additionally, AI-powered tools like Einstein summarize donor engagement, draft personalized gift proposals, and generate program performance summaries or grant tracking reports. This frees up your team to focus on high-value interactions.
The result is increased ROI and operational efficiency.
While optimizing IT operations, efficiently managing cloud costs is often a key concern. My article on best cloud cost management software provides further insights.
Key features:
- Unified Platform: Consolidates all stakeholder data for a 360-degree view, fostering seamless collaboration across fundraising, programs, and marketing efforts to drive greater impact.
- AI-Powered Tools: Leverages trusted, extensible AI with Einstein to summarize donor engagement, draft personalized proposals, and generate program performance or grant-tracking summaries, saving significant time.
- Comprehensive Modules: Includes specialized capabilities for fundraising, marketing, program and outcome management, IT operations, grantmaking, and volunteer management, all integrated for streamlined operations.
Learn more about Salesforce features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Salesforce for Nonprofits is the best nonprofit software for Executive Directors and Operations Managers seeking a comprehensive, unified solution. With features like AI-powered insights and a 360-degree stakeholder view, you’ll see faster decision-making (29% quicker) and increased team collaboration (29% rise), leading to a 93% positive ROI for your organization.
7. Donorbox
Struggling with donor retention and budget constraints?
Donorbox offers a comprehensive platform to boost your fundraising goals, providing robust online and on-location fundraising solutions. This means you can raise more donations and retain more donors, all from one centralized system.
Their AI-powered CRM helps you maximize fundraising efficiency and boost donor engagement with integrated email management and dynamic segmentation. This results in streamlined operations and better donor relationships, addressing your need for efficient workflow automation.
Here’s how Donorbox can help.
Donorbox simplifies event ticketing, allowing you to launch online events in under a minute. Their software automatically generates tax-deductible values and automates receipting, lightening your workload.
Additionally, the Donorbox Live™ Kiosk boosts on-location donations, transforming your tablet into a giving kiosk for cashless contributions at events or churches. You can also empower supporters with Peer-to-Peer fundraising, enabling them to create personalized campaign pages and collect donations that go directly to you. Plus, with Text-to-Give, donors can give quickly and repeatedly, making giving hassle-free.
The result is improved donor retention through better tracking and reporting, along with long-term scalability as your organization expands.
While we’re discussing improving organizational efficiency, understanding how online certification platforms can upskill your team is equally important.
Key features:
- Donation Forms: Create UltraSwift™ checkout forms that reduce donor drop-off, making giving 4x faster and encouraging higher conversion rates for your campaigns.
- Comprehensive CRM: Leverage AI-powered CRM solutions for integrated email management, dynamic segmentation, and action tracking to maximize fundraising efficiency.
- Donorbox Live™ Kiosk: Boost on-location donations and minimize staffing needs by transforming your tablet into a user-friendly, autonomous giving kiosk for events and churches.
Learn more about Donorbox features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Donorbox stands out as the best nonprofit software because it directly addresses core pain points like donor retention and cost efficiency. With features like the AI-powered CRM and seamless event ticketing, it helps organizations, large and small, boost donations and streamline operations, evidenced by over 100,000 nonprofits raising $3B+.
8. Zeffy
Struggling with nonprofit software costs and features?
Zeffy provides a completely free fundraising platform, eliminating all transaction and credit card fees. This means your organization keeps 100% of every dollar raised.
You can streamline your fundraising efforts and maximize impact without worrying about hidden charges or budget validation pressures.
It’s time to keep more of your donations.
Zeffy solves the common pain points of budget limitations and complex tech stacks by offering a robust, all-in-one suite of tools at zero cost. This includes customizable forms for donations, ticket sales for events, and even online stores to diversify revenue.
You also get capabilities like membership management, peer-to-peer campaigns, and auction hosting, making it easy to engage your community across various fundraising avenues. Plus, the integrated donor management system helps you track and engage supporters efficiently, ensuring improved donor retention through better reporting and seamless workflow automation.
The result is more funds directly supporting your mission.
Before diving deeper, you might find my analysis of Android data recovery software helpful for protecting your digital assets.
Key features:
- 100% free fundraising: Every feature is free, with zero credit card or transaction fees, allowing your nonprofit to retain all funds raised.
- Comprehensive fundraising tools: Manage ticketing, donations, peer-to-peer campaigns, e-commerce, raffles, auctions, and memberships from one platform.
- Integrated donor management: Track and engage your donors effectively, providing a unified view of their interactions and contributions.
Learn more about Zeffy features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Zeffy is the best nonprofit software for organizations seeking to maximize fundraising efforts and minimize costs. With its $0 pricing model, extensive suite of fundraising tools, and integrated donor management, it allows nonprofits like Noelle’s Gift to Children to save over $13,000 in fees.
9. Virtuous
Struggling with fragmented donor data and inefficient workflows?
Virtuous offers an AI-powered nonprofit CRM, providing comprehensive donor management to streamline your operations and foster deeper connections. This means you can centralize donor information, automate personalized outreach, and save valuable time.
This platform helps you connect with donors, eliminating manual processes and breaking down data silos for a unified team view.
It’s time for personalized, data-driven fundraising.
Virtuous solves these issues with its robust, enterprise-grade platform. You can create customizable donation forms, launch branded landing pages in minutes, and utilize best practice templates to grow giving.
This platform includes sophisticated analytics, offering a report and dashboard builder to visualize giving patterns and campaign results, giving every team access to the insights they need. Additionally, you get AI-powered insights for predictive analysis, helping you identify opportunities and automate outreach for a 360-degree donor view.
Plus, its integrated volunteer management simplifies onboarding, scheduling, and communications, ensuring a cohesive experience across all your systems. The result is increased donor retention and efficient fundraising.
Beyond donor management, optimizing your wider financial processes is key. My guide on best accounts payable software explores how to enhance cash flow control.
Key features:
- AI-Powered Nonprofit CRM centralizes donor data, automates personalized outreach, and streamlines fundraising workflows, helping you foster deeper donor relationships and save time.
- Integrated Marketing & Online Giving provides customizable donation forms, turnkey landing pages, and email/SMS capabilities for purposeful, personalized online fundraising experiences that boost giving.
- Robust Analytics & Insights includes a report and dashboard builder, predictive insights, and segmentation tools, enabling data-driven decisions to understand donors and optimize campaigns.
Learn more about Virtuous features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Virtuous truly shines as a top nonprofit software choice because its AI-powered CRM and integrated tools directly address common pain points like data silos and manual tasks. Its ability to save 520 hours annually and boost monthly donors by 75% makes it ideal for organizations seeking to grow giving and improve donor retention.
10. Qgiv
Struggling to boost donor retention and cut costs?
Qgiv’s platform offers modern donation forms and robust donor management to streamline your efforts. This means you can raise more money, grow your impact, and expand your reach effectively.
You need flexible fundraising software that makes your life easier, and Qgiv by Bloomerang provides just that. It creates an intuitive online giving experience.
Here’s how Qgiv delivers on that promise.
Qgiv helps you save time, keep costs low, and raise more for your mission. This includes powerful tools like text-to-donate, peer-to-peer fundraising, and auction management, making it easier to engage your donors.
Their event registration and management tools enable unforgettable fundraising events, helping you increase attendance and boost donations. You can also manage your entire constituent ecosystem, including donors and volunteers, ensuring comprehensive oversight of your community.
Additionally, Qgiv provides data-driven engagement with detailed reports and statistics to help improve your campaigns, along with integrations to save you time by automating manual data entry. You’ll gain actionable donor insights into your fundraising strategies.
Engage more donors, improve retention efforts.
If you’re expanding your offerings beyond donations, you might find my guide on best catalog management software helpful for handling other sales.
Key features:
- Modern Donation Forms: Create user-friendly forms that your donors will love, simplifying the giving process and encouraging more contributions to your cause.
- Comprehensive Donor Management (CRM): Manage your entire constituent base, including donors, volunteers, and sponsors, allowing for better tracking and engagement.
- Flexible Fundraising Automation: Automate various fundraising activities like events, auctions, and peer-to-peer campaigns, saving time and improving overall efficiency.
Learn more about Qgiv features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Qgiv stands out as a strong contender for the best nonprofit software because it balances comprehensive donor management with diverse fundraising tools. With over 6,500 organizations trusting Qgiv, you can expect improved donor retention through better tracking and reporting, leading to greater fundraising success.
Conclusion
Time to boost your donor retention?
Choosing the right tool is overwhelming. You need a solution that simplifies operations without straining your tight budget, a common struggle for many nonprofit leaders.
According to TechSoup, nearly 47% of nonprofits believe AI tools can boost efficiency. This highlights a massive opportunity you gain when leveraging the right technology for your organization’s cause.
Here’s what I recommend you do.
After reviewing all the options, I found Funraise to be the most comprehensive platform for boosting donor engagement and cutting your operational costs.
Its ability to grow online giving by 73% annually shows why I consider it the best nonprofit software. It truly aligns your team for growth.
I suggest you book a free demo of Funraise to see how its powerful fundraising and donor management tools can work for you.
Build stronger donor relationships almost immediately.
