Fundraising Software
Get the best fundraising software for your organization. Compare product reviews, pricing below. Read our buyer’s guide for more help.
For your non-profit organization, donations likely make up a significant portion of your operating budget. The right fundraising software can make a big difference in your ability to raise funds to help accomplish your mission.
Most organizations will have some type of donor or constituent database. But is it the right system? The right solution will help you raise more money, execute more effective campaigns, cultivate stronger relationships with donors, grow the constituency, and expand your reach.
To help you find the best solution, we’ve conducted research and put together a collection of our 2019 best picks for fundraising software.
DonorPerfect is a fundraising growth platform that provides everything you need to create fundraising initiatives, cultivate relationships, and collect more donations. DonorPerfect manages all kinds of constituent data such as donors, prospects, members, volunteers, foundations, alumni, and event participants. It can be used to manage any type of fundraising campaign, such as annual giving, grants, special events, direct mail, online giving, and capital campaigns.
The program does not require the use of an outside tool to operate, making it an all-inclusive fundraising and donor management tool. The software can easily process credit card payments and bank drafts, all while providing you with reporting and analytics you organization needs to uncover hidden trends and develop strategies to improve fundraising efforts.
DonorSnap gives you the best bang for your buck when it comes to fundraising software. The $39/month price tag isn’t the least expensive option on the market, but small nonprofits will want to find the fundraising tool that provides the most value for a lower price, and that describes DonorSnap.
Their basic version includes up to 1,000 contact records. They also offer one of the lowest setup fees on the market at $200, which includes 4 hours of data conversion and private training.
Bloomerang gives your business the best practices for donor engagement and retention by helping organize your records to increase your fundraising efforts. Their online giving forms can be embedded on your website, and constituent records will be created/updated automatically after every submission. The software will also integrate with peer-to-peer and fund accounting apps to help provide a seamless transition of your data into any other nonprofit software in use.
The free version is called Bloomerang Lite, which acts as a limited version of their premium offerings. The software lets you have up to 250 records, record up to $100k in annual revenue, includes unlimited users, and gives you free access to the Bloomerang Academy for tips to improve your fundraising efforts.
Blackbaud eTapestry is a fundraising tool for nonprofits operating in the cloud via a web-browser. The software acts as an all-in-one tool for managing your fundraising and programming activities in one place. The holistic view of your donor relationships and the performance of your fundraising campaigns will let you get quicker knowledge at what is working and what isn’t.
eTapestry also includes tools to boost engagement, such as email marketing, online donation forms with payment processing, content tracking, event management, and more. eTapestry’s popularity has historically revolved around it’s low cost of entry, and Blackbaud advertises the solution as a more affordable alternative to their robust Raiser’s Edge tool.
ClearView CRM acts as a donor database that does anything you need to improve your fundraising operation. Marketed as a “nonprofit CRM software”, this industry-specific CRM improves your fundraising efforts through multichannel fundraising tools. These tools include online marketing and giving, event management, email marketing, and direct mail marketing.
All donors will have their own portal with targeted information, which can help secure donations, handle event registration, link with social media networks, and create a branded personalized experience for your donors. The software will make sure you can compare the performance of your marketing activities to calculate ROI, and will ensure the plan, budgeting, and execution of your campaigns help your organization collect more donations faster than ever before.
Abila Fundraising Online is a completely online tool that provides real-time performance metrics to manage your events and campaigns, with the goal of increasing engagement between donors, volunteers, and participants. It’s modern interface lets you collect donations over multiple devices online such as tablets or mobile devices.
A part of the Abila family, the solution is a great compliment to Abila MIP Fund Accounting, which is one of the top fund accounting solutions on the market. Using both will provide you with a fully integrated method of tracking budget progress, meeting compliance and reporting standards, and making informed and confident financial decisions regarding your fundraising activities.
Fundraising Software Buyer’s Guide
Read on to find out more about your fundraising software options and how to find the best solution for your organization.
What Is Fundraising Software?
Fundraising software applications allow for tracking the acquisition of donor contributions and for facilitating related communication and data management tasks. A type of nonprofit software, fundraising software applications are a critical IT resource for non-profit organizations which depend on the support of contributors to deliver resources and services.
Important benefits enabled by fundraising software applications include:
- Reduction of the workload associated with fundraising tasks via automation of repetitive tasks such as emailing donation solicitations and managing recurring payments and gifts
- Increased per donor giving rates based on the coordination of optimal follow-up and audience targeted messaging
- Improved rates of secondary contributions from donors based on increased ability to continue communication with contributors
Features of Fundraising Software
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Donor database | Donor database capabilities provide the ability to track contact and transactional/communication histories with donors and prospective donors, allowing for improved fundraising and better reporting |
| Membership tracking | Capabilities that support registration access to specified privileges, often as a result of one-time or subscription payment |
| Credit card processing | Features that support donation or registration payments via credit card |
| Contact management | Contact management allows for information about contacts and communication/events histories related to contacts to be entered into a centralized management system |
| Events tracking | Support for event scheduling (such as calendaring) can be important for non-profits who drive fundraising with event activities |
| Volunteer management | Volunteer management functionality provide features to track individual time commitments |
| Email template management | The ability to create, store, and edit fundraising email templates can help refine the effectiveness of donor communication and create efficiencies by preventing individual fundraisers from having to craft custom messages from scratch in common situations |
| Online donation portal | An online donation portal provides another access point for potential donors, providing a means of increasing fundraising revenues by tapping into new channels for fundraising |
| Matching contributions tracking | Support for corporate matching services provides another means of increasing per-donor giving rates |
| Fundraising/campaign tracking | Fundraising/campaign tracking capabilities provide reporting analytics to identify why fundraising activities have yielded the best results, enabling refinement of ongoing fundraising efforts |
Benefits of Fundraising Software
Software should help keep your efforts focused on the people you serve rather than the donors who give. At times, organizations make fundraising overly complicated. And, that can stand in the way of raising funds and serving your cause. Fundraising should be fun, simple, and managed efficiently. If someone wants to know where they are with their giving and how much they owe, this should be a simple thing to report. Find out who is paying your organization, how much and when.
Software Simplifies Your Fundraising
The right fundraising software should provide the following important reporting capabilities:
- Track gifts, pledges, soft credits, matching gifts, in-kind donations, grants, corporate sponsorships, and memberships.
- Create reports for your internal tax purposes as well as providing donor statements for donors’ tax purposes as well.
Fundraising software can be used for after the fact reports and provide valuable information before your fundraising efforts even begin. Some software can help identify the demographics of your donating community. Demographic insights allow you to predict probable donors so you can target your efforts accordingly. This can greatly improve the success of your fundraising campaigns.
Multiple standalone products are available for your non-profit needs. Fundraising systems have accounting interfaces that can make it easy to transfer transactions directly to your accounting system.
Save Time and Money by Streamlining Your Processes
The software you choose should pay for itself by increasing donations, freeing up time by increasing operational efficiency and improving donor satisfaction. With the right software, every letter, email, phone call, activity, donation, campaign, event registration, survey, volunteer, relationship, and more are tracked in one place.
Efficient fundraising combines a realistic development plan with appropriate staffing and the financial and technical resources needed to achieve your plan. Fundraising applications let you control your entire fundraising process from goal setting to achievement. Donor focused fundraising strategies can be easy to implement and track with the right solution.
Online Fundraising Software
The Internet has truly transformed the way non-profits operate. Whether it’s connecting with constituents and building awareness for your cause or processing online donations, your organization has a large amount of online tools available to you.
- Process donation and registration transactions via your website.
- Set up programs for recurring gifts and credit/debit card payments.
- Use online event management features for collaborative efforts between staff and volunteers.
- Link your system with social networking tools.
Fundraising Event Management
Does your organization host fundraising events? Fundraising solutions can even include functionality designed to help organize and optimize the results from events such as galas, balls, tournaments, luncheons, conferences, and meetings.
- Get comprehensive, template-based registration forms that are customizable to your events.
- Automate emails generated for invitations, registration, donation acknowledgments, etc.
- Solicit and manage volunteers (select locations, assignments and individual tasks)
- Copy, clone and revise events from year to year.
- Report on all participant and sponsorship history across all events.
Differences From Donor Management Software
These type of software categories can be used interchangeably in conversation, but hold different meanings in practice. Fundraising software helps you acquire donations through communication and campaigns, while donor management software is more of an industry-specific CRM tool that can record necessary data about a donor (giving history, amount of gifts, personal details). To be short, donor management software can also be referred to as a nonprofit CRM.
The goal of fundraising software is to increase funds raised. The best fundraising tools will gives donors access to a portal to fill out details and submit donations. They will also organize marketing campaigns and events intended to bring in donations from new and existing donors.
A donor management software can be thought of more as a realationship management tool, intended to build and strengthen the relationship of members, volunteers, and donors. However, this is usually accomplished through organizing easy ways for donors to contribute online or in-person at events.
Due to the similarity between the solutions, fundraising software and donor management software can be thought of as providing the same capabilities.
Is QuickBooks a Fundraising Software?
All versions of QuickBooks (such as QuickBooks Online) can be used by nonprofits. QuickBooks markets itself as being a viable choice for your nonprofit accounting software needs, to provide commonly used functions such as fund accounting, donor management, and specialized reporting.
QuickBooks allows you to accept donations via credit/debit card, bank transfer, cash, or check. QuickBooks also has mobile applications available that would allow a user to process one of these transactions from their mobile device.
A potential downside of using QuickBooks Pro as a fundraising software is that it’s not specifically developed as nonprofit accounting software. Because of this, donations need to be recorded as invoices made out to the donor’s name and paid in full. You could record a pledge by opening up an invoice and setting a due date for it (the date you expect the pledge to be fulfilled). However, this may cause your accounting process to not be as straightforward as you like, leading you to look elsewhere for a solution that was developed with nonprofits in mind.
As QuickBooks is one of the most used accounting software solutions, popular fundraising software solutions offer integration with the platform as an add-on. Solutions such as DonorPerfect allow you to record fundraising and donation efforts in their software and send data back to QuickBooks to eliminate double data entry and give more of a complete audit trail.
Pain Points Solved With Fundraising Software
Fundraising software solves many challenges your nonprofit faces, including:
Low Donor Engagement
Some fundraising campaigns will run year-round while others will run at certain times of the year. Nonprofits need to understand that all donors give for different reasons and give in different quantities at different intervals of the year. The best way to nurture this relationship is by contacting the donor when they are ready to hear from you. Being able to time your fundraising campaigns accurately will help save your organization time and effort trying to engage donors who are not ready to give. It will also not put any unneeded strain on the relationship to ensure that the relationship that you’ve developed with your donor will be one that lasts for years.
Retaining Donors
One of Blackbaud’s more recent Charitable Giving Reports (from 2016) found that the average donor retention rate for first-year donors ranges from 21-29%, depending on the platform they used to give on. This means that for every 10 new donors your organization acquires via fundraising efforts, only 2 to 3 of them will return next year to continue giving. Fundraising software developers have been taking strides to help companies better nurture their relationships and to help retain donors.
Acquiring Necessary Technology
Our Fundraising Technology Trends Survey found that while 4 out of 5 fundraisers felt that technology leads to increased success, only 1 in 3 admitted to having the tools they needed to implement a path to that success.
Market Trends of Fundraising Software
Some of the top trends in the world of fundraising software include:
Online Fundraising
The 2018 Charitable Giving Report from Blackbaud found that since 2016, online giving has grown 17%, with the average online gift rising as well. 24% of all online transactions were made with a mobile device. Fundraising software that provides an organization with the ability to have donors pay online and even via their mobile device should have a net positive on your charitable goals.
Monthly Giving Programs
While the donor retention rate for first-year donors may range from 21-29% (mentioned above), repeat donor retention rate is at 60-70%. Implementing a monthly giving program can increase this figure as high as 85-90%. Donors with limited income may find the ability to pay small amounts monthly as convenient and less of a strain on their budget as opposed to one lump sum at year-end. Fundraising software that can plan mailers or email reminders for monthly giving (or even automatic payment each month) will retain donors more often than companies who do not implement these practices.
Innovative Web Technology
In a discussion we had with 13 experts, they discussed how technology is improving fundraising. Some of the key takeaways were how experts are trying to reach new donors in new places (via social media), tell stories more vividly (through video), and make giving easier for contributors (through mobile giving).