Effective fundraising is essential for nonprofits, yet many organizations may overlook valuable donation opportunities due to a lack of suitable marketing, conversion, or donor management tools. By utilizing fundraising software, these barriers can be eliminated, enabling nonprofits to connect with the right supporters and offer convenient donation methods.
What is Fundraising Software?
Fundraising software encompasses various tools that nonprofits can use to optimize their fundraising campaigns. Organizations will often use one or more of the top fundraising software platforms to address different elements of the fundraising process, from planning to execution to analysis.
The top fundraising software solutions often fall into different sectors, including:
- Donor management
- Peer-to-peer fundraising
- Volunteer Fundraising
- Online Giving
- Donation forms
- Gift matching
- Auction Assistance
When utilized properly, fundraising software allows your organization to maximize its return on investment, reach donors across the globe, build sustainable structures for recurring giving, and ensure data security.
Choosing the Right Fundraising Software for Your Organization
The first step to selecting fundraising software is identifying the solutions your nonprofit needs. What are your fundraising goals, and what help do you need to achieve them? Consider repetitive tasks that can be automated via top fundraising software, freeing up your paid staff members to handle more complex responsibilities.
If you already use customer relationship management (CRM) software, you may need to choose fundraising software that is more targeted and addresses a specific organizational pain point. However, you may want a more comprehensive platform if you don’t currently use any software to handle fundraising tasks.
Consider the following features offered by top fundraising software platforms and identify which ones you need most:
- Secure, PCI-compliant payment processors for card, app (Venmo, Paypal, Apple Pay, etc.), ACH
- Text-to-give options
- Mobile donation forms
- Global giving features
- Peer-to-peer fundraising
- Event management tools
- Online and in-person auction management
- Wealth screening
- Automated communication
- Donor portals
- Integrations with other nonprofit management software
- Analytics that provide actionable insights
Some top fundraising software platforms offer all of these features, and others may specialize in specific steps of the fundraising process. In some cases, you may only be able to get certain features as add-ons to a premium plan. To maximize your ROI, make sure you understand exactly what you are paying for with each fundraising software.
The Top Fundraising Software Solutions
As an industry-leading volunteer management software, VolunteerHub is uniquely sensitive to the fundraising needs of nonprofits, and our knowledgeable staff has prepared a list of our top 10 fundraising software solutions to guide your search. We will address the solution each platform provides, its distinctive features, and pricing.
Blackbaud
Blackbaud offers a suite of CRM products that excel at donor management. Analytics measured by Raiser’s Edge Nxt Consulting have found that Blackbaud users experience a 48% increase in donations and a 35% increase in total donors.
Key Features: Blackbaud has robust resources to build and maintain relationships with donors. It boasts an extensive database of donor profiles with advanced segmentation options, as well as detailed reports and automated messaging. Blackbaud’s AI-powered analytics allow you to pinpoint the proper ask amounts for specific donors and identify potential candidates for major, planned, and recurring gifts. You can also use Blackbaud to launch crowdfunding and peer-to-peer campaigns. Blackbaud’s online giving options easily process one-time and recurring payments from major credit cards, ACH, PayPal, Venmo, and Apple Pay.
Pricing: Blackbaud’s pricing structure is customized to each organization’s unique needs and requires individual evaluation.
Salesforce
Salesforce is a customizable, cloud-based CRM with options for both nonprofit organizations and for-profit enterprises. Salesforce offers a nonprofit-specific solution, the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack, that augments the base CRM to build a donor management platform that integrates with other apps and nonprofit software.
Key Features: Salesforce’s donor management platform stores all your donor data in one place and leverages AI analytics to provide actionable insights. Salesforce’s emphasis on personalization allows you to nurture specific donor and grantor relationships, resulting in an average 130% increase in online giving. Because Salesforce is cloud-based, it allows your team to collaborate from any device, at any time.
One of the most attractive elements of Salesforce is that it is extremely customizable, so you can make sure it addresses all of your organization’s needs; however, that means that your nonprofit will have to invest significant time into creating the platform that works for you.
Pricing: Salesforce offers multiple tiers. Your first 10 subscriptions to the Nonprofit Success Pack are free, and after that, you have the option of Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise ($60/user/month) or Nonprofit Cloud Unlimited ($100/user/month). Salesforce also offers a 30-day free trial for Nonprofit Cloud.
Fundraise Up
Fundraise Up is a fundraising software that focuses on specialized user interface (UI) components for quicker, easier online giving. Fundraise Up incorporates its UI into your existing website to ensure that you don’t lose potential donors at checkout.
Key Features: Fundraise Up offers a variety of conversion-oriented UI that can drive your website visitors to donate, including buttons, checkout forms, and donation cards. The true standout is the software’s incorporation of AI to suggest donation amounts based on the user’s online activity; this approach allows you to better target your asks for maximum giving. In addition to accepting payments from cards, bank accounts, and apps like PayPal, Fundraise Up also has options for cryptocurrency gifts. Fundraise Up it is configured for international giving, with country-specific features in over 195 countries.
Pricing: Fundraise Up is free to set up, and it does not require any monthly fees or contracts. All organizations receive all the software’s benefits, but there are two tiers specific to the amount of donations that the software needs to process per year. For organizations that receive a maximum of $300,000 in annual donations, Fundraise Up charges a 4% service fee per donation. Larger nonprofits should reach out to Fundraise Up sales to learn about Enterprise, which allows for high-volume payment processing.
CharityEngine
CharityEngine is a nonprofit CRM that automates the fundraising process, allowing you to maximize your resource allocation. CharityEngine offers resources to craft mass email campaigns, drive donations, and measure marketing efficacy.
Key Features: CharityEngine has a wide range of automation features, including data attribution, billing, and advanced donor segmentation. One highlight is CharityEngine’s automated email campaigns. You can use the platform’s email templates to plan and launch mass fundraising and nurture campaigns that drive targeted donor segments to CharityEngine’s donation pages, peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns, and online storefronts. Then, CharityEngine’s automated thank you notes ensure that every converted donor feels appreciated. These email campaigns can also help drive planned giving and major gifts; CharityEngine tracks donor activity to identify good candidates for larger donations, and its alert systems help you target the right donors at the right times.
Pricing: CharityEngine offers four pricing tiers:
- Basic ($299/month): 2 users, 5,000 contacts, and 10,000 emails per month
- Starter ($549/month): 5 users, 25,000 contacts, 100,000 emails per month, plus features like event management, onboarding, and sustainer management
- Pro (customized pricing): 10 users, 50,000 contacts, 200,000 emails per month, plus features like customized auctions, performance dashboards, and unlimited workflows
- Premier (customized pricing): 20 users, 100,000 contacts, 400,000 emails per month, plus features like e-commerce, customized pipeline dashboards, and multichannel attribution tracking
VolunteerHub
VolunteerHub is an all-in-one volunteer management software, but its volunteer fundraising features make it a great solution for converting volunteers to donors, and vice-versa. Volunteers are a very valuable but often overlooked source of donations. They are already intimately acquainted with your organization and passionate enough about your cause to donate their time, so donating their money is the logical next step. On average, volunteer donations are ten times larger than non-volunteer contributions, so volunteer fundraising is a worthy investment for any nonprofit organization.
Key Features: VolunteerHub drives volunteer-to-donor conversion through unlimited, customizable donation pages, automated fundraising prompts and thank you messages, and the option to share donation links during volunteer registration and sign-up. VolunteerHub’s platform supports a wide variety of donation processor services, including PayPal, American Express, Cielo Payments, Global Payments, Heartland, Litle & Co., Moneris, Planet Payment, SecureNet, TSYS, and WorldPay, making it easy for your volunteers to donate. In addition to its volunteer fundraising features, VolunteerHub also has robust resources for volunteer recruitment, training, scheduling, communication, and awards and recognition, as well as opportunity management features.
Pricing: VolunteerHub has three pricing tiers, as well as a personalized demo:
- Plus ($143/month, billed annually): manages up to 1,000 volunteers
- Pro ($288/month, billed annually): manages up to 2,500 volunteers
- Enterprise (customized pricing): manages over 2,500 volunteers
Double the Donation
Double the Donation proves that you don’t need to be a large, high-profile nonprofit to attract corporate collaborators. Double the Donation offers a fundraising software, 360MatchPro, that connects your donors with matching gift programs.
Key Features: 360MatchPro allows donors to find businesses that will match their donations, and it integrates with other top fundraising software solutions to supercharge your fundraising efforts. According to Double the Donation’s gift matching statistics, 78% of donors don’t even know that their gift is eligible to be matched, and 84% of donors are more likely to donate if they know their employer will match their gift because they know their donation will be more effective.
Double the Donation’s search tool will embed directly on your donation page so that supporters can see whether their gift is eligible for a match, and then, they can automatically submit a matching gift request to their employer. 360MatchPro also helps you identify and follow up with donors who have the potential to make a matched gift.
Pricing: 360MatchPro offers a demo and a three-tier pricing structure:
- 360MatchPro Standard Small Nonprofit Plan ($999/year): designed for smaller nonprofit organizations with less than $10,000 in annual gift-matching revenue and less than $1,000,000 in total annual revenue
- 360MatchPro Standard (starting at $2,5000/year): designed for moderately sized nonprofits
- 360MatchPro Enterprise (custom pricing): designed for large organizations that need a personalized approach
Classy
Classy is a nonprofit fundraising software that shines with its donation forms, which make for simple, intuitive giving. Classy donation forms can be easily embedded into your existing website and securely process payments from applications like Venmo and PayPal, cards, bank accounts, digital wallets, and cryptocurrency.
Key Features: Classy lets donors choose exactly where their money is going through program designation, giving them a more tangible sense of impact. When donors know how their money is being used, they are likely to make larger gifts. Classy donation forms also boost giving with notifications for abandoned carts and recurring gifts, as well as options to create tribute gifts in honor of loved ones and specific causes. Classy’s donation forms are customizable, and you can use their color palette and logo options to fully reflect your nonprofit’s brand identity.
Pricing: Classy customizes all product pricing across three tiers: Essential, Professional, and Advanced.
Donorbox
Donorbox offers easy-to-make, personalized donation forms designed to reduce donor drop-off. Donorbox forms are free to create, and they can be easily embedded into your website. If you do not have an organizational website, Donorbox will host your donation form on a custom webpage, at no cost.
Key Features: In addition to their embeddable donation forms, Donorbox offers UI features to boost conversion, including sticky donate buttons and pop-up donation forms. You can also add impact areas to your donation forms, highlighting exactly how your organization intends to use the funds they raise. Donorbox’s UI options directly engage donors with donor portals, comments, tribute gifts, and automated giving.
Donorbox is configured for global giving. They offer forms in 11 languages and accept over 40 currencies through payment methods like Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, cryptocurrency, and stock.
Pricing: Donorbox’s accessible pricing structure makes it an excellent choice for small, emerging nonprofits and established organizations alike:
- Standard ($0/month): 1.75% fee on donation forms, donation pages, and peer-to-peer campaigns with other organizations; 2.95% fee on events, memberships, and peer-to-peer campaigns among supporters
- Pro ($139/month): 1.5% flat platform fee with features like analytics, receipt rebranding, and advanced customizations
- Premium (custom pricing): 1.5% flat platform fee with additional perks, such as an account manager, guided onboarding, custom domains, and priority support.
Snowball Fundraising
Snowball Fundraising’s auction platform helps you to optimize your organization’s approach to fundraising auctions, both online and in-person.
Key Features: On the organizational side, Snowball allows your nonprofit to organize unlimited silent auctions, with unlimited items and bidders. You can automate your auction’s start and end time, or you can opt for manual opening and closing. The platform allows you to group auction items by category, with unique descriptions and up to 5 photos per listing. You can also select a “Purchase Now” option, allowing supporters to bypass bidding and purchase an item for your desired asking price.
For supporters, Snowball makes the bidding experience convenient and easy. It allows mobile bidding through an application as well as text-to-bid options, and it automatically notifies bidders when they’ve been outbid to increase engagement. When the bidding ends, winners are guided to an online payment portal where they can easily and securely complete their purchase. Snowball’s mobile bidding platform is perfect for in-person, virtual, and hybrid auctions.
Pricing: Snowball’s pricing structure has four tiers:
- Essential ($0/year): 2.9% fee and $0.30/transaction
- Premium ($549/year): 2.5% fee and $0.30/transaction, plus features like after-hours and day of support, access to a premium CRM, and email blasts.
- Professional ($849/year): 2.5% fee and $0.30/ transaction, plus features like unlimited auctions, unlimited text-to-bid, and outbound text messaging.
- Enterprise (custom pricing starting at $99/month): 2.5% fee and $0.30/ transaction, plus features like custom integrations, desired merchant accounts, and dedicated support.
Handbid
Handbid is a mobile bidding auction platform for both non-profit organizations and for-profit enterprises.
Key Features: Handbid strives to gamify the auction process for maximum supporter engagement across in-person, virtual, and hybrid auctions. It also has options for streaming auctions to YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo. You can customize the mobile bidding software to match your branding, as well as use it to manage tickets, coordinate sponsorships, and track your goals.
On the customer-facing side, Handbid provides quick, easy check-in for guests. The Handbid application offers real-time notifications and allows supporters to set maximum bids. For supporters who prefer not to download the app, Handbid also has text-to-bid options and a web-based platform. After the auction, winners are automatically funneled to a checkout page for rapid payment.
Pricing: Handheld Nonprofit offers a custom pricing structure starting at $1,396 for both single events and multi-event packages, with a 3.5% processing fee plus $0.30/transaction.
Maximize Your Volunteer Resources with VolunteerHub
At VolunteerHub, we are committed to your nonprofit’s success. Our software creates an easy, enjoyable volunteer experience, which in turn results in more engagement and greater impact. With detailed onboarding, training, and support, we will work closely with your nonprofit to ensure you get the most out of our software.
