The Best Fundraising Software
We reviewed the top fundraising software for nonprofits of all sizes to help manage donor information, hold silent auctions, and meet funding goals.
- Strong CRM with fundraising capabilities
- All versions include unlimited users
- Integration with Constant Contact and QuickBooks Online
- Multiple payment processing integrations
- Reporting includes Google Analytics
- Live-event video streaming
- Can store numerous details into a single contact record
- Easy to run queries and generate letters
- More simplistic version of Raiser’s Edge NXT
Fundraising software is designed to enhance donor management, donation collection, campaign analysis, and engagement strategies. Here’s a rundown of our top products based on our internal review process and user reviews.
- DonorPerfect: Best Overall
- GiveSmart: Best for Silent Auctions
- Blackbaud eTapestry: Best Donor Management
- Bloomerang: Best Volunteer Management
- Virtuous: Best Analytical Tools
- Donorbox: Best Integration Options
- DonorSnap: Best for Transparent Pricing
- Zeffy: Best Free Option
DonorPerfect - Best Overall
DonorPerfect’s donor journey tool kicks off the moment a donor gives and triggers a new record. This starts the identification stage, automatically adding new contact details to email lists and launching a welcome email campaign. This saves you from having to rely on manual follow-ups or disconnected tools. Plus, an automated confirmation email with an official tax receipt ensures new donors are promptly thanked for their first gift.
From there, DonorPerfect tracks how prospects interact with outreach by monitoring email opens and clickthrough rates. Rather than diffusing your efforts across all new contacts, you can focus on donors who are already engaged and excited to hear from your organization.
What’s especially effective is that movement through each stage is driven by donor behavior, not staff upkeep. Donor actions prompt transitions between journey stages; for example, when a first-time donor gives and is thanked, they’re shifted into the retention and upgrade journey. DonorPerfect also allows you to regularly schedule reports that display recent first-time donors and any records that have not yet converted.
We generally recommend DonorPerfect for small and mid-sized development teams that want donor records, giving history, and follow-up automation in one system. It’s a great option for smaller nonprofits in education, healthcare, and individual and family services. That said, DonorPerfect does not publish pricing anymore and requires a custom quote.
GiveSmart - Best for Silent Auctions
GiveSmart offers an online silent auction tool with mobile bidding to help nonprofits meet their fundraising goals. Donors can bid for items right from their phones, complete with searchable categories and a self-checkout portal. Also, users will receive real time notifications during the auction, so they’re always up to date on their bid status. This gives your top donors easy access to your silent auctions, helping you drive engagement.
Additionally, the silent auction module is customizable to fit your needs. Create a landing page tailored to your catalog, with item packaging, custom description sheets, and embedded videos and images. This allows you to display your auction items however you need while maintaining an organized layout. There’s even a live leaderboard that displays leading bids to drive interest.
GiveSmart offers flexible pricing options tailored to your needs. Its Events & Fundraise platform includes unlimited events and campaigns, with built-in silent auctions, bid management, and ticketing. There’s also GiveSmart Donor Management, which you can add if you want bidders and guests tracked in one system. You can pay a fixed annual subscription or pay-as-you-go with a per-transaction rate instead of an upfront fee. Unfortunately, the prices are not listed publicly, so you’ll need to request a custom quote.
Blackbaud eTapestry - Best Donor Management
Blackbaud eTapestry stands out for its built-in CRM capabilities, including a centralized donor database, customizable email templates, and advanced segmentation tools based on donation history, interests, and behavior. eTapestry is an all-in-one tool for managing donor relationships and fundraising activities. That holistic view of donor relationships and campaign performance provides a faster turnaround of what’s working and what isn’t.
eTapestry helps you keep your donor data clean and actionable. Its data scorecards show which of your records need attention, and the National Change of Address services ensure donors’ mailing addresses are up to date, so your appeals reach the right homes. Additionally, its donor ratings and persona segmentations highlight which supporters may be able to give more, helping you decide where to focus your cultivation time.
eTapestry also boosts engagement through email marketing, embeddable online forms with payment processing, event management, and peer-to-peer tools. We recommend it to smaller fundraising teams that want an affordable entry point into the Blackbaud ecosystem. Pricing requires a custom quote, but every subscription includes data conversion, implementation, and training to help you get up and running.
Bloomerang - Best Volunteer Management
Bloomerang is a fundraising software that goes beyond basic CRM and donor management tools. The system includes a fully integrated platform that helps nonprofits recruit, schedule, communicate with, and retain volunteers.
Organizations can build detailed volunteer profiles with custom fields for skills, certifications, interests, and availability. This makes it easy to match the right people to the right roles. Admins can configure role requirements like max volunteers per shift or required training and manage schedules using a drag-and-drop shift calendar. Volunteers can browse open shifts based on filters like location and role type and schedule themselves through mobile-friendly portals.
Bloomerang’s volunteer management tool is sold as its own product and syncs directly with Bloomerang CRM. It is best suited for organizations with active volunteer programs and recurring event staffing needs, as smaller nonprofits may not need the extra investment. Pricing starts at $125/month for Bloomerang CRM and $119/month for volunteer management, based on the number of records you track.
Virtuous - Best Analytical Tools
Virtuous’s Analytics module gives development teams pre-built dashboards for giving, engagement, and campaign performance on day one. Its built-in templates cover the reports fundraisers pull most often, including LYBUNT lists, donor retention, and campaign results. Users can copy any dashboard and adjust its filters, or define custom metrics and KPIs when standard reports don’t align with how your board measures success.
Virtuous takes this a step further with Insights, which adds predictive scoring to every donor record. Its machine learning models estimate how likely a current donor is to give again, whether a lapsed donor will come back in the future, and which prospects might make a first-time gift. Reports can also be embedded in the CRM, internal portals, or emails with role-based permissions, so your executive director and finance team can check campaign and fund progress without another login.
We often recommend Virtuous to mid-sized and larger nonprofits that already have solid donor data and want to use it to prioritize outreach. Virtuous, like most systems this size, requires a custom quote. Its CRM+ plans are based on your annual fundraising revenue, and the Analytics and Insights modules are sold as add-ons.
Donorbox - Best Integration Options
Donorbox made our list because of its vast integration options with website builders, donor databases, and accounting software. Popular integrations include WordPress, Mailchimp, Bloomerang, Salesforce, and QuickBooks. And through Zapier, Donorbox connects with over 5,000 other applications, so you can connect your donor database with tools like ChatGPT, Google Sheets, and Slack.
Beyond integration capabilities, Donorbox offers a user-centric design and flexible features, allowing you to customize forms, set up recurring donation options, and manage donor information. The platform supports various payment methods like credit cards, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and ACH bank transfers. With Donorbox, you can also leverage reporting and analytics tools to gain insights into your fundraising activities.
Donorbox’s Standard plan has no monthly fee but instead charges a 2.95% platform fee per donation, or 3.95% for memberships, events, and peer-to-peer pages. The Pro plan starts at $150/month and includes lower platform fees, plus Zapier, form customization, and tracking and analytics. Payment processing fees apply to either plan, and most integrations cost extra, so factor those in when comparing total cost.
DonorSnap - Best for Transparent Pricing
DonorSnap earns its spot by offering transparent pricing that gives unlimited user access to its entire suite of features. It includes customizable thank-you letters, integrated email marketing, volunteer tracking, event management, and custom online donation forms.
Unlike many platforms that charge per user, DonorSnap bases its pricing on the number of contacts in your system. Core donor, membership, volunteer, and event tools come with every plan, along with unlimited users, so your cost mainly increases as your donor base grows. Teams that want more automation can upgrade to Pro for the Mass Email Campaign Studio, AI-powered analytics, and an automated task manager.
While DonorSnap’s pricing model is refreshingly clear, it may not be the most cost-effective choice for very small nonprofits only needing basic features.
Pricing starts at $50/month for up to 1,000 contacts, then increases to $70/month for 2,500 and $250/month for 30,000, with a higher tier for up to 60,000 contacts. A one-time $200 setup fee covers data conversion and private training. While the pricing may be higher than freemium tools that only offer one or two core features, DonorSnap gives even the smallest nonprofits access to the same powerful tools used by larger organizations.
Zeffy - Best Free Option
Zeffy’s zero-fee donation forms let your nonprofit keep every dollar a donor gives. There are no platform fees, transaction fees, or credit card processing fees, so the full gift reaches your organization. Forms support one-time and recurring gifts through cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, and you can embed them on your site, share them as a link, or print a QR code for flyers and events.
The same fee-free model carries over to event ticketing, peer-to-peer campaigns, raffles, auctions, and memberships. You can set up multiple ticket types and capacity limits, scan tickets at the door with the mobile app, and take in-person payments with Tap to Pay on a phone. Donors, ticket buyers, and members are all tracked in a central database with their giving history and contact details, with automated thank-you emails.
We typically recommend Zeffy for small nonprofits with tight budgets or cost-averse boards that need online giving and event tools without a monthly bill. Zeffy is free for registered nonprofits and covers its costs through an optional contribution donors can add at checkout, which they can lower or remove.
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 subtype of nonprofit software, fundraising platforms are a critical resource for nonprofit organizations that depend on the continued support of contributors to deliver resources and services.
How much more could your organization do with double the donations? What about triple? Utilizing software to improve your fundraising efforts can show what a difference your organization can really make. Important functionalities of fundraising software include the following:
- Reduce the workload associated with fundraising tasks via automation of repetitive tasks
- Increase per-donor giving rates based on the coordination of optimal follow-up communication
- Improve rates of secondary contributions from donors, even through peer-to-peer fundraising or crowdfunding campaigns
Start meeting your fundraising goals and increasing your outreach with all-in-one nonprofit fundraising software.
Key Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Donor database | Personalized donor profiles track transactional/communication histories with past and prospective donors; Support volunteer and member registration access to specified privileges, such as auction bid, gift programs, or other forms of donation |
| Contact management | Constituent relationship management allows for information about contacts and communication/events histories related to contacts to be entered into a centralized management system |
| Campaign management | Organize campaigns from start to finish, anticipating results and using real-time data to measure milestones |
| Event tracking | Support for event scheduling such as calendaring and ticketing |
| Fundraising/campaign tracking | Gather data and report on analytics to identify which fundraising activities have yielded the best results, enabling refinement of ongoing fundraising efforts |
| Template management | Create, store, and edit fundraising templates to refine the effectiveness of donor communication (email, mailers, text, etc) |
| Online donation portal | Virtual fundraising and donation portals provide another access point for potential donors, providing a means of increasing fundraising revenues by tapping into new channels for fundraising, i.e., text-to-give |
| Credit card processing | Allow for donation payments via credit card or other cashless methods to increase fundraising totals |
| Matching contributions tracking | Increase per-donor giving rates through corporate matching programs |
CRM and Fundraising
In for-profit businesses, a customer relationship management (CRM) tool, helps build and strengthen the relationship with clients. For nonprofits, those clients are instead organization members, volunteers, and donors. Rather than investing in a full CRM, this contact management is usually accomplished through organizing easy ways for donors to contribute online or in-person at events.
Donor vs. Fundraising Software
Fundraising and donor software are sometimes 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 to record data about donors such as giving history, amount of gifts, and personal details. In short, fundraising and donor management software can both include nonprofit CRM tools. There are times where one may be more appropriate than another, depending on the exact nature of your nonprofit organization.
Primary Benefits
Fundraising should be fun, simple, and managed efficiently. Through specialized software, this can be possible for the smallest NPOs to large nonprofits:
Simplify Your Fundraising Efforts
If an organization wants to know where they are with their giving and how much they owe, this should be a simple thing to report. With the right fundraising software, find out who is paying your organization, how much, and when. Fundraising software can help nonprofits streamline important reporting capabilities in order to:
- 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 provide donor statements for donors’ tax purposes as well.
Fundraising software can be used for after-the-fact reports and provide valuable information on past successes before your new fundraising efforts even begin. Some software can even help identify the key 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.
Save Time and Money by Streamlining Your Processes
Running a nonprofit involves all the hassle of a for-profit business with razor-thin budget margins. Paying excessive platform fees for different software solutions can take away valuable resources from your advocacy work. The fundraising 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, and interaction is tracked in one place.
Go Virtual with Online Fundraising Software
The Internet has truly transformed the way nonprofits operate. In-person event fundraising isn’t enough when social media and communication tools allow anyone access to online donation pages. Whether it’s connecting with constituents or processing online donations, your organization has many digital tools available to:
- 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.
Donor-focused fundraising strategies can be easy to implement and track with the right solution.
Fundraising Event Management Tools
Does your organization host fundraising events? Organize and optimize events such as galas, silent auctions, balls, tournaments, luncheons, conferences, and meetings with software to:
- Get comprehensive, template-based registration forms 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 event details from year to year.
- Report on all participants and sponsorship history across all events.
Industries Served
Fundraising software is primarily designed for nonprofit organizations, though it can also be used by:
- Schools
- Non-governmental organizations (NGO)
- Startups
- Animal shelters
Our Fundraising Technology Trends Survey found that while 4 out of 5 fundraisers felt new technology leads to increased success, only 1 in 3 admitted to having the tools they needed to implement a path to that success.
Pain Points
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 in different quantities at different intervals of the year. 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.
Retaining Donors
Keeping donors is often harder than finding new ones. According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, overall donor retention was 43.3% in 2025, which means more than half of last year’s donors didn’t give again. The total number of donors also fell 3.6% while giving dollars rose 5%, so nonprofits are raising more from a shrinking base. Fundraising software helps by automating thank-you emails and receipts, flagging donors who haven’t given recently, and keeping each donor’s history in one place so your follow-ups stay personal.
Market Trends
Some of the top trends in the world of fundraising software include:
Integration with QuickBooks
As QuickBooks is one of the most popular accounting software solutions, many fundraising platforms now include a QuickBooks integration as a standard feature. For example, DonorPerfect and DonorSnap let you record donations in their software and send that data to QuickBooks, eliminating double data entry and giving you a more complete audit trail.
Tracking Charitable Donations in Real-Time
The occasional charitable donation can add up over time. For large fundraisers, software can automatically calculate how much money has been raised in real time, demonstrating how close your organization is to meeting fundraising goals. Fundraising systems with accounting interfaces make it easy to transfer transactions directly to your accounting system.
Online Fundraising
Online giving continues to outpace overall giving growth. The Blackbaud Institute’s 2025 Trends in Giving found that online giving grew 11% in 2025, peaking at 15% growth in November during year-end campaigns. The gains weren’t spread evenly, as large nonprofits grew revenue 11.7% while small nonprofits saw a 6.4% decline. For smaller organizations, mobile-friendly donation forms, recurring gift options, and simple year-end campaign tools are some of the most direct ways to close that gap.
Monthly Giving Programs
Recurring donors are among the most reliable supporters a nonprofit can have. According to Neon One’s 2026 Recurring Donor Report, recurring donors retain at 78 to 80%, compared to roughly 32% for one-time donors, and give about twice as much over their lifetime. Most fundraising software now makes it easy to offer monthly giving on your donation forms and process those gifts automatically, so launching a program takes far less work than it used to.
Innovative Web Technology
It’s no surprise technology is improving fundraising. Some of the key takeaways are how experts are trying to reach new donors in new places (via social media), tell stories more vividly (with video), and make giving easier for contributors (through mobile giving).
Pricing
Fundraising software pricing can vary dramatically depending on organization size, feature needs, and vendor structure. While some platforms offer free or low-cost plans for small nonprofits, others charge higher fees in exchange for deeper customization, integrations, and scalability. Most systems price based on factors like contact volume, features, or number of users.
Below is a general overview of the typical annual cost of ownership for fundraising software:
| Tier | Annual Cost | Typical Features | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Donation forms, event ticketing, P2P pages, basic donor database, automated receipts | Zeffy, Donorbox (Standard plan) |
| Starter | $500 – $2,500 | Core donor CRM, online forms, email acknowledgments, basic reporting | DonorSnap, Bloomerang |
| Growing | $2,500 – $10,000 | Donor journeys, automation, event and auction tools, accounting integrations | DonorPerfect, Blackbaud eTapestry, GiveSmart, Donorbox (Pro plan) |
| Advanced | $10,000+ | Predictive donor scoring, custom dashboards and analytics, role-based reporting | Virtuous |
Is There Free Fundraising Software?
Yes, but most free fundraising tools come with trade-offs. Zeffy is one of the few that’s completely free, covering platform and payment processing costs through an optional contribution donors can add at checkout. Solutions like Donorbox offer free plans that include core tools but charge platform and processing fees on each donation. In contrast, systems like DonorSnap charge a monthly fee based on your contact count, but every plan includes the full feature set, which makes costs easier to predict as you grow.
Free software can work well for very small or early-stage nonprofits. But as your nonprofit grows, per-donation fees can add up to more than a subscription, and you may want features like wealth screening, reporting, or automated follow-ups to keep first-time givers coming back.
