Nonprofits face distinct challenges with regards to managing relationships and driving engagement. Not like for-profit companies, nonprofits should steadiness restricted budgets with the necessity to preserve sturdy donor relationships, handle volunteers, run programming, and observe influence, usually throughout dispersed groups. These distinctive calls for require instruments that transcend conventional buyer administration.
That’s the place nonprofit-tailored CRM (Buyer Relationship Administration) programs come into play. Designed to centralize knowledge, streamline outreach, and automate administrative duties, CRMs assist nonprofit organizations higher retain donors, personalize communications, and in the end amplify their mission. In line with a 2024 Nonprofit Digital Investments Report from NTEN, 14% of nonprofits spend their know-how price range on software program and licenses; the identical report revealed that 40% of nonprofits embody know-how investments of their group’s strategic plan.
On this article, I’ll break down the perfect CRMs particularly suited to nonprofits. You’ll discover a side-by-side comparability desk, a deep dive into key options (like donor administration, grant monitoring, and integrations), and a step-by-step information for evaluating and implementing the proper CRM in your group.
Notably, HubSpot is likely one of the platforms trusted by actual nonprofit organizations to drive engagement and scale their influence — and I’ll present you ways.
Desk of Contents
What’s a CRM for nonprofits?
A CRM for nonprofits is software program that helps organizations handle and nurture relationships with donors, volunteers, members, and different key stakeholders. It centralizes contact info, tracks engagement historical past, and helps fundraising, outreach, and reporting efforts—all tailor-made to the mission-driven targets of nonprofit work.
Greatest CRMs for Nonprofit Organizations at a Look
|
CRM |
Greatest For |
Key Options |
Pricing |
Free Trial |
|
HubSpot |
Nonprofits in search of an all-in-one platform with a powerful free tier |
Donor administration E mail advertising Donation monitoring Volunteer coordination Automated workflows Reporting dashboard Integration with fee processors |
Free Instruments: $0/month Starter: $9/month Skilled: $720/month Enterprise: $2,000/month |
Sure, 14 days |
|
Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud |
Massive nonprofits needing enterprise-level customization |
Complete donor lifecycle administration Grant monitoring Program administration AI-powered insights In depth third-party integrations |
10 free licenses by means of Power of Us program; Extra licenses from $60/consumer/month (Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise tier) |
Sure, 30 days |
|
Bloomerang |
Small to mid-sized nonprofits targeted on donor retention |
Donor retention analytics Giving historical past monitoring Automated receipting Engagement timeline Wealth screening integration |
Qgiv by Bloomerang: $40/month Bloomerang CRM: $125/month Bloomerang Volunteer: $119/month |
No, demo scheduling required |
|
Keela |
Small nonprofits wanting AI-powered insights and automatic communications |
Sensible Ask AI for donation predictions Automated donor journeys Built-in electronic mail advertising Impression reporting Donor segmentation |
1000 contacts: $134/month 2,500 to five,000 contacts: $274/month 5,001 to 7,500 contacts: $329 7,501 to 10,000 contacts: $379/month |
No, demo scheduling required |
|
Little Inexperienced Mild |
Funds-conscious small nonprofits |
Constituent administration Customizable kinds Volunteer monitoring E mail integration Primary reporting |
2,500 contacts: $45/month 5,000 contacts: $60/month 10,000 contacts: $75/month 20,000 contacts: $90/month |
Sure, demo registration required |
Greatest CRM Software program for Nonprofit Companies
With so many CRM platforms in the marketplace, it may be difficult for nonprofits to discover a resolution that matches their mission and price range. The perfect CRM software program for nonprofit companies presents instruments for donor administration, volunteer coordination, occasion monitoring, and marketing campaign reporting — all whereas being user-friendly and cost-effective.
Beneath, I’ve rounded up prime CRM choices tailor-made to the distinctive wants of nonprofits that will help you make an knowledgeable alternative. Have a look:
1. HubSpot
Greatest for: Rising nonprofits in search of an all-in-one platform to unify donor administration, advertising, and fundraising with out breaking the price range. Utilizing HubSpot’s onboarding infrastructure, Swipe Out Hunger scaled from 150 to 450 campus partners in 6 months.
Key HubSpot Options
- Unified contact database: HubSpot’s CRM tracks each donor interplay in a single centralized location, from first web site go to tracked by HubSpot’s analytics to main presents recorded in HubSpot’s deal pipelines, eliminating the information silos that usually plague nonprofit organizations.
- Automated electronic mail workflows: HubSpot’s workflow builder lets nonprofits arrange donor welcome collection, lapsed donor re-engagement campaigns, and occasion follow-ups that set off robotically based mostly on particular actions inside HubSpot, saving hours of handbook outreach time.
- Native fee integration: HubSpot connects immediately with Stripe or PayPal to course of donations throughout the HubSpot ecosystem, robotically updating donor data in HubSpot’s CRM and triggering thank-you emails by means of HubSpot’s electronic mail instruments with out handbook knowledge entry.
HubSpot Pricing (Operations Hub)
- Free Instruments: $0/month
- Starter: $9/month
- Skilled: $720/month
- Enterprise: $2,000/month
2. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud
Greatest for: Massive nonprofits and foundations managing complicated applications, a number of funding sources, and enterprise-level reporting necessities.
Key Salesforce Options
- Grant administration module: Monitor multi-year grants with automated milestone reminders and compliance reporting.
- Program influence monitoring: Join beneficiaries to applications and outcomes in real-time.
- AppExchange integrations: Entry nonprofit-specific apps for peer-to-peer fundraising or kind submission platforms for complicated utility kinds, all syncing seamlessly along with your core database.
Salesforce Pricing
- Energy of Us Program: 10 free licenses
- Extra Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise licenses: $60/consumer/month
- Nonprofit Cloud (Limitless Version): $100/consumer/month
- Nonprofit Cloud Agentforce 1: $325/consumer/month
3. Bloomerang
Greatest for: Small to mid-sized nonprofits targeted on bettering donor retention charges and understanding giving patterns.
Key Bloomerang Options
- Retention dashboard: Visible analytics displaying donor retention charges by phase.
- Engagement timeline: See each interplay with a donor chronologically, from occasion attendance to electronic mail opens.
- Wealth screening integration: Constructed-in connection to DonorSearch robotically identifies main reward prospects.
Bloomerang Pricing
- Qgiv by Bloomerang: $40/month
- Bloomerang CRM: $125/month
- Bloomerang Volunteer: $119/month
4. Keela
Greatest for: Established nonprofits working numerous fundraising campaigns from occasions to peer-to-peer whereas sustaining clear monetary data.
Key DonorPerfect Options
- Sensible Ask AI: Predicts optimum donation quantities for every donor based mostly on giving historical past and capability.
- Automated donor journeys: Design multi-step communication flows that adapt to donor habits.
- Constructed-in electronic mail advertising: Create, ship, and observe electronic mail campaigns with out leaving the CRM, with computerized listing segmentation based mostly on giving patterns.
Keela Pricing
- 1,000 contacts: $134/month
- 1,001 to 2,500 contacts: $209/month
- 5,001 to 7,500 contacts: $329/month
- 7,500 to 10,000 contacts: $379/month
5. Little Green Light
Greatest for: Grassroots organizations and small nonprofits needing skilled donor administration with out complexity or excessive prices.
Key Little Inexperienced Mild Options
- Simplified reward entry: Batch reward entry and automatic tender credit to make recording donations from fundraising occasions fast.
- Constituent workflows: Create customized pipelines for volunteer recruitment, board nominations, or main reward cultivation.
- E mail integration through Mailchimp: Sync constituent knowledge with Mailchimp for stylish electronic mail campaigns whereas sustaining reward historical past in LGL.
Little Inexperienced Mild Pricing
- 2,500 contacts: $45/month
- 5,000 contacts: $60/month
- 10,000 contacts: $75/month
- 20,000 contacts: $90/month
Advantages of CRM Software program for Nonprofits
Remove Donor Knowledge Silos for Full Relationship Visibility
Nonprofits usually observe donor info throughout disconnected spreadsheets, electronic mail platforms, and paper recordsdata, making it not possible to see a donor’s full engagement historical past. Nevertheless, HubSpot’s unified CRM platform solves this by centralizing each interplay, from the primary web site go to to a major reward, occasion attendance, and volunteer hours, in a single searchable database.
HubSpot’s contact timeline function means any employees member can immediately entry a donor’s full historical past earlier than making a name, writing a grant report, or planning the subsequent ask. Not like fragmented programs from competing CRMs, HubSpot robotically connects web site exercise, electronic mail engagement, donation historical past, and occasion participation into complete donor profiles that replace as adjustments occur.
Automate Repetitive Duties to Give attention to Mission-Important Work
Improvement groups waste numerous hours on handbook duties like sending donation receipts, updating spreadsheets after occasions, and creating thank-you letters. HubSpot’s workflow automation eliminates these time-consuming processes by triggering actions based mostly on donor habits — donation receipts ship immediately by means of HubSpot’s email tools, donor data replace robotically when somebody registers for an occasion through HubSpot Types, and personalised thank-you sequences launch based mostly on reward dimension.
With HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, nonprofits can construct complicated automation sequences that beforehand required handbook intervention.
Enhance Donor Retention Via Knowledge-Pushed Insights
Most nonprofits battle to establish which supporters are liable to lapsing earlier than it’s too late to re-engage them. HubSpot’s customized dashboards and speak to scoring capabilities present retention analytics that flag at-risk donors robotically based mostly on engagement patterns and giving historical past.
HubSpot’s reporting tools enable employees to create saved views displaying who hasn’t given in 13 months, whose electronic mail engagement is declining, or which month-to-month donors have failed funds. Mixed with HubSpot’s listing segmentation, these insights set off automated re-engagement campaigns by means of HubSpot Workflows, enabling proactive outreach that saves relationships earlier than donors totally disengage.
Scale Fundraising Efforts With out Including Employees
Small nonprofit groups must handle more and more complicated fundraising campaigns — from peer-to-peer to occasions to main presents — with out the price range to rent further employees. HubSpot permits small groups to run subtle multi-channel campaigns by means of its all-in-one platform, the place one particular person can:
HubSpot’s templates and cloning options imply profitable campaigns could be replicated immediately, whereas its automation handles follow-ups, reminders, and donor journeys that beforehand required a complete division. The platform’s free tier supporting as much as 1 million contacts means even resource-constrained nonprofits can entry enterprise-level capabilities by means of HubSpot.
Guarantee Monetary Accuracy and Compliance Throughout Groups
When improvement and finance groups use completely different programs, reward totals hardly ever match, making board stories unreliable and audit preparation nightmarish. HubSpot’s Operations Hub and native integrations with accounting software program like QuickBooks guarantee reward knowledge flows seamlessly between fundraising and monetary programs, eliminating discrepancies.
HubSpot’s customized reporting builder signifies that the event marketing campaign totals at all times match the finance books as a result of each pull from the identical supply of reality. Moreover, grant stories in HubSpot pull correct knowledge robotically utilizing filtered views, and year-end tax receipts are generated error-free by means of HubSpot’s document automation, defending donor belief and organizational compliance whereas saving weeks of handbook reconciliation throughout audit season.
5 Essential Options for a Nonprofit CRM
- Donor retention analytics and engagement scoring: Monitor retention charges by phase, establish lapsing donors, and monitor engagement traits over time. HubSpot’s custom dashboards and contact scoring options assist nonprofits tackle the essential problem of conserving donors engaged yr after yr. On the identical time, its exercise timeline reveals each touchpoint — from electronic mail opens to donation historical past — to tell personalised outreach methods.
- Multi-channel fundraising integration: Seamlessly handle donations throughout web sites, peer-to-peer campaigns, occasions, and text-to-give from one platform. HubSpot’s Forms tool captures donations from any channel. On the identical time, its Workflows robotically route presents to the proper marketing campaign and replace donor data in real-time, making certain each reward from galas, Fb fundraisers, or unsolicited mail flows into unified contact data with out handbook entry.
- Automated reward processing and acknowledgment: Immediately course of donations, ship tax receipts, and set off personalised thank-you messages based mostly on reward dimension or marketing campaign. HubSpot’s native Stripe and PayPal integrations and its Marketing Hub automation exemplify how nonprofits can acknowledge donors inside minutes, not days, utilizing personalised electronic mail sequences that adapt based mostly on donation quantity and donor historical past.
- Grant and program administration modules: Monitor multi-year grants, program outcomes, and beneficiary knowledge to exhibit influence to funders. Plus, HubSpot’s custom objects and properties enable organizations to construct grant monitoring programs. On the identical time, its reporting instruments automate compliance dashboards and join program actions on to funding sources — all with out leaving the HubSpot ecosystem.
- Monetary system integration and reporting: Sync donation knowledge with QuickBooks, generate IRS-compliant stories, and make sure the improvement and finance groups work from an identical numbers. HubSpot’s Operations Hub and native integrations eradicate duplicate entry and reconciliation complications that plague nonprofits throughout audit season, whereas its customized report builder maintains correct monetary data for board reporting.
Methods to Select a CRM for Nonprofits (Step-by-Step)
Step 1: Map your workflows.
Firstly, begin by documenting your group’s key processes, equivalent to:
- How donations transfer from first contact to thank-you letter
- How volunteers get recruited and scheduled
- How occasions circulation from planning to post-event follow-up
Then, embody each crew member who touches donor knowledge, from improvement to applications to finance. This train reveals the place handbook handoffs sluggish you down and the place automation might multiply your influence.
Step 2: Determine must-have options.
Secondly, based mostly in your workflow mapping, create a prioritized function listing. Most nonprofits want donor administration and reward processing as fundamentals, however your particular wants would possibly embody:
- Grant monitoring for government-funded applications
- Volunteer administration for service organizations
- Occasion instruments for gala-heavy fundraisers
When you’ve carried out this, distinguish between “must-haves” for day one and “nice-to-haves” you possibly can add later.
Step 3: Evaluate ease of use and crew match.
Thirdly, request demos specializing in every day duties your crew performs most frequently, equivalent to:
- Getting into donations
- Pulling stories
- Sending acknowledgments
Take note of what number of clicks every process requires and whether or not volunteers might study the system shortly. Nevertheless, additionally take into account your crew’s technical consolation stage.
For instance, Salesforce could provide highly effective customization, however it requires hands-on coaching; conversely, Little Inexperienced Mild supplies simplicity for volunteer-run organizations however doubtless isn’t suited to enterprise-level nonprofits.
Step 4: Test price at scale.
Subsequent, calculate the overall price of possession past month-to-month charges. Be sure you issue within the following:
- Variety of consumer licenses wanted
- Contact database development (3 to five years is, sometimes, a superb measurement timeline)
- Coaching and implementation prices
- Integration bills for connecting present instruments
Do not forget that switching CRMs is disruptive — select a platform you possibly can afford as you develop, not simply at the moment.
Step 5: Select a versatile platform — Like HubSpot.
Lastly, choose a CRM that grows along with your group’s evolving wants. HubSpot exemplifies this flexibility: Back in 2020, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a leading non-profit, turned to HubSpot’s CMS to prepare its largest world marketing campaign of the yr, Earth Hour.
WWF sought to optimize its content material technique and, by means of segmenting its consumer base, elevated viewers engagement with Earth Hour-specific initiatives. By using HubSpot’s Content Hub and Marketing Hub, World Wildlife Fund could centralize its website data and use that data to inform targeted email and social media strategies, ultimately leading to a 9,493% increase in newsletter signups.
WWF’s success with HubSpot’s instruments proves that an funding in HubSpot isn’t only a tech stack funding. It’s an intentional step towards results-driven, personalised advertising that resonates along with your supporters and drives long-term influence.
Regularly Requested Questions
What’s the greatest CRM for nonprofits?
The perfect CRM for nonprofits is dependent upon your group’s dimension and wishes. HubSpot presents essentially the most potent mixture of options and worth with its sturdy free tier, which helps as much as 1 million contacts. Its all-in-one platform supplies essentially the most flexibility for rising nonprofits.
What options ought to I search for in a CRM for nonprofits?
Important nonprofit CRM options embody:
- Donor administration with giving historical past monitoring
- Automated reward acknowledgments and tax receipts
- Multi-channel fundraising instruments (on-line, occasions, peer-to-peer)
- Integration with accounting software program
- Retention analytics to establish at-risk donors
HubSpot is well-equipped to handle all these areas whereas offering volunteer administration, grant monitoring, and built-in electronic mail advertising capabilities that many different CRMs cost further for.
Is HubSpot good for nonprofits?
Sure, HubSpot is great for nonprofits, notably rising organizations.
Its free tier supplies complete donor administration, electronic mail advertising, and primary automation for as much as 1 million contacts — unmatched within the business. Moreover, the platform integrates fee processing, automates donor journeys, and scales affordably as you develop.
BTW: Many nonprofits begin free and improve solely after they want superior options like workflow automation or customized reporting.
How a lot does a CRM for nonprofits price?
Nonprofit CRM prices vary from free to $600+ month-to-month. HubSpot presents essentially the most beneficiant free tier within the business; its free tier helps limitless customers with as much as 1 million contacts.
How lengthy does it take to implement a nonprofit CRM?
Implementation timelines range by system complexity and knowledge quantity. Because of its intuitive interface and free onboarding help, HubSpot sometimes goes dwell in 1-2 weeks, sooner than most rivals. HubSpot’s quick-start applications and intensive data base assist nonprofits launch primary performance inside days.
Can a number of crew members use a nonprofit CRM concurrently?
Sure, CRMs are designed for crew collaboration. HubSpot presents limitless customers even on its free plan, whereas most rivals cost per consumer.
The platform supplies granular function permissions — improvement administrators see every little thing whereas volunteers would possibly solely entry occasion check-in. Not like spreadsheet-based programs, HubSpot’s real-time updates guarantee everybody works from present knowledge with cloud-based entry from any machine, anyplace.
Meet HubSpot, the Prime CRM Selection for Nonprofit Firms
HubSpot stands out because the premier CRM resolution for nonprofits by providing enterprise-level capabilities at a value level that works for charitable organizations. Not like conventional nonprofit software program that fees based mostly on donor depend or requires costly implementations, HubSpot supplies a sturdy free tier supporting as much as 1 million contacts, making it accessible to organizations of any dimension.
Key HubSpot Options for Nonprofits
- Free Perpetually basis: Begin with complete donor administration, electronic mail advertising, and kind builders for gratis, then scale options as your price range permits with out migrating platforms.
- Built-in fundraising workflows: Course of donations by means of native Stripe/PayPal integrations whereas robotically triggering personalised thank-you sequences based mostly on reward quantity and donor historical past.
- 360-degree constituent view: Monitor each touchpoint from first web site go to by means of important reward in a single timeline, making certain any employees member can converse with supporters.
Confirmed Actual-World Impression with HubSpot
HubSpot transformed British Red Cross Training’s ability to serve over 100,000 UK businesses with essential first assist and psychological well being coaching by changing their technically complicated programs with an built-in, user-friendly platform. Furthermore, over two years, the nonprofit achieved a outstanding 66% income enhance by shifting from expensive paid promoting and chilly calling to HubSpot’s inbound advertising technique that robotically generates heat leads.
All-in-all, HubSpot’s true energy lies in its flexibility — begin free, pay just for what you want, and by no means outgrow your system. With built-in instruments for volunteer administration, occasion coordination, and influence reporting, HubSpot eliminates the necessity for a number of disconnected instruments that drain your price range and employees time.
Able to see how HubSpot can remodel your nonprofit’s donor relationships? Get began with HubSpot’s free nonprofit instruments at the moment.
