Nonprofit Software: Best Solutions For Your Nonprofit

The nonprofit software market is full of solutions for organizations.

Which one is right for you?

There's a solution for everything, and the sheer number of options can seem dizzying. We've got you covered.

We've categorized the tools you need to keep your nonprofit humming, weighed their pros and cons, and even captured their ratings so you know which tool is best for your nonprofit.  

Important Links and Resources for Your Nonprofit

• TechSoup
  • TechSoup is an online tech marketplace built specifically for nonprofits. It's a great place to research tools, find discounts on software, and get insight from other nonprofit pros in their community.
• WeAreForGood Community
  • What started as a podcast has blossomed into a thriving and incredibly helpful space for nonprofit leaders. Want real insight into the tech other nonprofits are using and how they're getting the most out of it? Look no further. WeAreForGood is one of my favorite places on the internet.
• G2
  • I've linked directly to their page for nonprofit software, but you can filter that further and look into specific categories. A great place to get an idea of the marketplace, compare multiple products and read reviews.
• Capterra
  • Just like G2, I've linked directly to their nonprofit software page. Another space where you can compare products, look at reviews, or consult with one of their experts on what product will work best for you.

Here are the different kinds of software we'll go over:

• Advocacy Software
• Donor Management Software
• Fundraising Software
• Grant Management Software

Advocacy Software

Advocacy software or grassroots advocacy software is an essential tool for nonprofits. It allows organizations to create advocacy campaigns that mobilize supporters at the grassroots level to drive political change.

For nonprofits, it builds awareness around the issues at the heart of their organization and is a fantastic tool to capture new donors, create measurable impact, and tell your story. 

Best Advocacy Software For Nonprofits: Muster

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.9 / G2 - 4.9

Why we love it

Muster comes in at number one for a multitude of reasons. From its overall value to its modern, easy-to-use interfaces—Muster has features built specifically for nonprofits to drive donations and grow their supporter base. On top of all of that, they deliver best-in-class customer support.

• Increase Donations With Advocacy
• Muster has a great feature that lets you turn on a Donate button, linking your advocacy and donations. It's no secret that someone taking action on your advocacy campaign is 7x more likely to donate. Muster lets you take advantage of this quickly and easily. 
  
  
• Buy Only What You Need
• Muster's advocacy platform is unique in allowing you to purchase only the solutions you need. While other vendors might require you to buy their email marketing tools, CRM, and more as an "all-in-one" solution, Muster enables you to avoid these redundancies and save your nonprofit dollars while getting a best-in-class solution.
   
• Grow Your Advocates and Donors
• While Muster has a great platform to help you drive policy change, it also has powerful and easy-to-use advocate management features. Build advocate lists using powerful segmentation and visualize your supporters via mapping capabilities. Create infinite sign-up forms for events, your website, and more. 

Other Advocacy Software To Consider

Capitol Canary

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.7/ G2 - 4.6

Capitol Canary offers powerful advocacy campaigns and reporting tools for nonprofits. Great for large associations, nonprofits, and corporations. Easy to set up and use. Solid customer support.

Salsa Engage

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.0/ G2 - 4.0

Salsa Engage offers a more expensive, all-in-one solution for nonprofits. Salsa's comprehensive platform has donor communication tools via fundraising and advocacy campaigns. 

Donor Management Software

Donor management software allows nonprofits to have relationships with their donors. It will enable organizations to grow their donor base, accept donations and track contributions, run campaigns, and analyze donation data. It also allows nonprofits to manage donor information and history and provide communication channels with their donor base.  

Best Donor Management Software For Nonprofits: Bloomerang

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.7 / G2 - 4.7

Bloomerang is the best of the best in the donor management space. Bloomerang allows nonprofits to raise funds to grow their donor base and improve donor relationships.

Complete with robust features, including analytics reporting, CRM integration, workflow automation, and fundraising management. With easy-to-use features at a reasonable price, Bloomerang is excellent for small and medium-sized nonprofits.

• Donation tracking & management
• Bloomerang makes online fundraising simple. You can turn every page into a donation page with donation buttons and create custom landing pages and forms to encourage recurring donations. There are also peer-to-peer fundraising tools to turn supporters into fundraisers.
• Nonprofit CRM
• Manage your member community, including donors, volunteers, sponsors, grant givers, etc. Bloomerang's interactive dashboard allows users to monitor donations, campaign results, donor retention rate, and daily productivity.
• Email marketing and donor engagement
• Bloomerang features some beneficial marketing tools for your donors. You can Create, send, and track personalized emails, create donor surveys, get email insights, design direct mail and letters, create email newsletters, appeals, acknowledgments, and so much more.

Other Top Donor Management Software To Consider

NeonCRM

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.4 / G2 - 4.1

NeonCRM is very similar to Bloomerang in pricing and features. Suitable for nonprofits of all sizes. Robust features like contribution tracking, grant and membership management, user-friendly donor database, member directory and portal, and receipt management.  

DonorPerfect

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.5 / G2 - 4.4

Donorperfect has comprehensive solutions and easy-to-use features. Manage donations, gift matching, contacts, receipts, donor data, email, and fundraising initiatives from a single system.

Eleo

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.8 / G2 - 4.6

Easy-to-use tools with simple, affordable pricing. It can be easily integrated with other platforms like Mailchimp & Constant Contact.

Eleo has must-have features like mobile and recurring giving. On top of being a solid donor management platform, there's campaign, grant, pledge management, gift matching, and more.

Fundraising Software

Fundraising software equips nonprofits with the tools to receive, track, and manage donor contributions. With a practical fundraising component, nonprofits can increase their donations and grow their donor base, increasing their influence to a broader audience. Some key features to look for include:

• Processing and management of payments
• This feature allows you to manage different payment options for your donors. This feature is vital because it will enable donors to use multiple payment methods to donate and set up recurring donations. 
  
• Multiple donation options (P2P, Text to give, etc.)
•  It gives your donors more flexibility, making it easier to donate.
  
• Recurring donation management
• This feature allows your donors to set up and manage recurring donations, making donating more manageable, thus increasing donor retention rates.      

Best Fundraising Software for Nonprofits: Classy

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.3 / G2 - 4.4

Classy is a B Corp social enterprise that provides world-class fundraising tools for nonprofits. Payment processing and recurring donations. Great for 501c3 certified nonprofit organizations. Simple and straightforward to use with excellent customer support. 

• Fundraising Management
• Classy Manager allows you to manage fundraising campaigns and your supporters, track performance, edit recurring gifts, and build reports. You can seamlessly merge your data with your CRM with integrations and open API.
  
• Campaign Management
• Build and manage fundraising campaigns and events in one place. You can personalize and edit your fundraising pages and view campaign metrics to drive decision-making. 
  
• Payment Processing
• Flexible payment options allow donors to use credit cards, digital wallets, and even cryptocurrency. Classy Pay makes recurring giving simple. Their streamlined backend process enables you to access funds faster and manage your transaction data. 

Other Top Fundraising Software To Consider

Funraise

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.7 / G2 - 3.9

Funraise provides outstanding features like management of gift matching, mobile, online, recurring giving, and contribution and donation matching. Funraise offers a free trial, customized pricing, and feature packaging.

Givebutter

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.9 / G2 - 4.8

Givebutter is the #1 rated fundraising software platform on G2. Their platform is free to use with a 100% transparent tip-or-fee model. Features include donation forms, fundraisers, events, donor management (CRM), email, texting, etc. 

Donorbox

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.8 / G2 - 4.2

Easy to use and set up, Donorbox allows you to set up optimized recurring donations quickly through high-quality forms. Provides excellent customization features to reflect your brand. Suitable for all nonprofit sizes.

Grant Management Software

Grant management software allows nonprofits to organize and manage their grant programs and grow their funding efforts. It is essential to nonprofit organizations because it allows you to easily track all the information and activities you must bring to your stakeholders when applying for grant money. It also allows you and your team to simplify and accelerate their grant application process so you can apply for more grants and get more funding for your organization.

A sound grant application management system, collaboration tools, and intuitive form-building are essential features to look for when shopping. 

Top Grant Management Software for Nonprofits: Submittable

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.8 / G2 - 4.3

A more expensive option. Great for organizations focusing on grantmaking, employee volunteering, and CSR programs. Great features like archiving & retention, landing pages/web forms, collaboration tools, and grant application management. 

• Collaboration Tools
• Real-time collaboration with submitters and reviewers on one platform for easy reference. You can create unique email messages or email templates to communicate with others. Organize submissions with customizable labels and automatically or manually assign submissions to reviewers.
  
• Landing Pages/Web Forms
• Submittable allows you to create six unique form types and collect submission content in one place. You can also create and customize landing pages, a branded portal, and an internal dashboard.

• Archiving & Retention
• Submittable gives you the tools to store and analyze your data and measure your success. From impact and custom form reporting to bulk data exports and reviewer progress reports.

Other Top Grant Management Software To Consider

WizeHive

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.8 / G2 - 4.3

Easy to use and set up. Higher-end pricing—great for corporations and higher-ed institutions.

Wizehive has powerful features like grant and compliance management and a full life cycle applicant portal. Grant award tracking and customizable forms are also included. There are thousands of integrations that allow you to tailor your experience as well.

SurveyMonkey Apply

Avg Ratings: Capterra - 4.6 / G2 - 4.4

Suitable for all types of organizations. Great features like fundraising management, grant application management, grant discovery, customizable forms, and commenting/note-taking. 

Top Frequently Asked Questions From Nonprofits Searching For Software.

Integrations?

We hear from many nonprofits how critical it is that their systems talk to each other. Some nonprofits even go with all-in-one solutions that aren't as highly rated to avoid the integration headaches. It's important to ask your potential vendor about their integrations and documentation around their integrations; also, seek out reviews from other nonprofits about their experience with integrations. 

Budget and Cost-Effectiveness?

We get it. It can be tough working on tight budgets. You want your nonprofit to have the software it needs to be successful while also effectively running your nonprofit. While upfront pricing may be hard to find, we did list price or nonprofit size fit where possible. A great way to make the investment of software for your nonprofit more cost-effective is to do the research upfront so you can make a decision for the long term. Constantly buying and retraining on new solutions adds to overall costs. 

Customization?

Finding software customized to fit your nonprofit's complex needs can prove to be complicated. That's why it's vital to evaluate the level of customization your nonprofit needs internally. Something like Salesforce for Nonprofits allows for deep levels of customization. There are levels to customization. Muster is customizable, allowing you to choose the solutions you need from a grassroots advocacy tool. Ask yourself what kind of customizations you need. What redundancies do you need to avoid from the new systems you're adopting? 

Conclusion

The choices for nonprofit software out there can be overwhelming. We hope this blog gives you more insight into the different categories and tools available.

Good luck!