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The best CRM software for nonprofits is important because it enables them to effectively manage their donor relationships, track donations, and streamline their operations. However, it can be overwhelming to choose CRM software because there are so many options.
This article has a detailed listed and well-explained roundup of the best CRM software for nonprofits. Keep reading to know more.
Quick View
- Salesforce – Overall Best CRM Software for Nonprofits
- ClickUp – Best for Donations Management
- Pipedrive – Best for Campaign Management
- Zoho CRM – Best for Startup Nonprofits
- HubSpot – Best for Large Nonprofit Organizations
Product
Donor and donation management
Volunteer management
Fundraising and campaign management
Monitoring and overseeing donor and Donation information
- Central platform for tracking, scheduling, and communication
- Automation
Create targeted fundraising campaigns, manage pledge drives, and keep tabs on fundraising progress.
Donor management tools facilitate donor segmentation and communication history tracking.
- Scheduling
- Reporting and Analytics
Task management system
- Personalized messaging
- Target communication
Custom field tracking
- New donor capturing
- Event touch point logging
Centralized nonprofit management system
Automated communication tools, templates, and notifications
- Real-time analytics
- Donor segmentation
Quick Verdict
Salesforce – Overall Best CRM Software for Nonprofits
Salesforce provides customized solutions designed exclusively for nonprofit organizations, including the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud and Nonprofit Success Pack.
Moreover, Salesforce is highly adaptable to suit your organization’s unique requirements, in addition to these tailored solutions. The Salesforce ecosystem has a wealth of resources available to assist you in achieving success, with thousands of options to choose from.
5 Best CRM Software for Nonprofits
Salesforce – Overall Best CRM Software for Nonprofits
Salesforce‘s objective is to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to automate as many business processes as possible. The software is used by some of the most prominent for-profit brands nationwide and has over 100,000 users.
Salesforce is primarily designed to track data, sales figures, and marketing trends, and facilitate mass email and text message communications. Salesforce also offers non-profit packages tailored to track donations, and financial, and marketing activities, making it ideal for large-scale non-profit organizations.
Donor and Donation Management
Salesforce CRM simplifies the process of donor and donation management for non-profit organizations by enabling them to effortlessly monitor and oversee donations, which includes details such as donor information, gift amounts, and donation dates. This feature helps to maintain accurate records and stay on track with fundraising goals.
Salesforce CRM also offers communication tools that facilitate personalized messaging and targeted outreach to specific donor segments. Moreover, non-profits can analyze donor data to identify trends and optimize fundraising strategies using Salesforce CRM.
Volunteer Management
Non-profit organizations can benefit from Salesforce CRM in managing their volunteers by having a central platform for tracking, scheduling, and communication. Salesforce CRM enables non-profits to create volunteer opportunities, manage sign-ups, track hours, and record achievements.
Automated email reminders, personalized messaging, and volunteer surveys help with communication and engagement. Salesforce CRM can help non-profits streamline volunteer management, saving time and resources while improving engagement and retention.
Fundraising Campaign Management
Salesforce CRM offers non-profit organizations various tools for managing donor information, tracking donations, and automating communications, thereby assisting them with fundraising and campaign management.
With the help of Salesforce CRM, non-profits can create targeted fundraising campaigns, manage pledge drives, and keep tabs on fundraising progress.
The platform’s ability to segment donors and personalize communications can increase donor engagement and retention. Furthermore, Salesforce CRM can assist non-profits in tracking volunteer involvement for volunteer-driven fundraising events.
As a result, Salesforce CRM provides a comprehensive solution for non-profit organizations to manage all aspects of their fundraising and campaign management efforts.
- Salesforce has powerful integration features
- Great at customization and automation
- Can be expensive for large teams
- Does not have a free plan
Pricing
- Essential – $25/month
- Professional – $75/month
- Enterprise – $150/month
- Unlimited – $300/month
ClickUp – Best for Donations Management
ClickUp is a powerful and user-friendly solution that simplifies task assignments for non-profit organizations, thanks to its highly intuitive design.
With ClickUp, assigning tasks to team members and volunteers becomes a breeze. Moreover, each task can have multiple people assigned to it, and you can also set up subtasks for each task, ensuring that your team never misses a minor detail.
In addition, ClickUp offers a comprehensive dashboard that enables non-profits to track project progress at a macro level. This dashboard provides a clear overview of which project areas are lagging and require additional support from team members, and which areas are on track and within budget.
Donor and Donation Management
Non-profit organizations can streamline their donor and donation management using ClickUp’s comprehensive platform. ClickUp enables them to easily track donor information, giving history, and donations. The platform allows for the creation of customized donation forms that support online or mobile device donations.
ClickUp’s donor management tools facilitate donor segmentation and communication history tracking. Furthermore, ClickUp offers reporting and analytics capabilities that provide valuable insights into donor engagement and fundraising performance.
Volunteer Management
ClickUp helps non-profit organizations with volunteer management by providing a platform that enables them to recruit, schedule, and communicate with volunteers. Non-profit organizations can create custom forms to collect volunteer information and use ClickUp’s scheduling feature to assign volunteers to specific tasks or events.
ClickUp’s communication tools allow non-profit organizations to easily send messages to volunteers and keep them up-to-date on important information. Additionally, ClickUp provides reporting and analytics features that help non-profit organizations track volunteer engagement and performance.
Fundraising and Campaign Management
ClickUp is a valuable tool for non-profit organizations to manage fundraising and campaign efforts. With its comprehensive task management system, teams can track progress on multiple initiatives, from creating donor lists to planning fundraising events.
ClickUp also integrates with popular donation management tools like PayPal and Stripe, allowing for easy donation tracking and analysis to optimize fundraising campaigns.
Additionally, ClickUp enables team collaboration, providing a central location for planning and executing campaigns. Finally, the tool offers reporting features with detailed analytics on fundraising and campaign management metrics, enabling organizations to make data-driven decisions and evaluate their progress.
- ClickUp’s timeline is flexible and dynamic
- Allows nonprofits to quickly schedule multiple projects at once
- Enables easy updates of projects
- The software can be overwhelming
- Not all of ClickUp’s features are available on mobile
Pricing
- Free
- Unlimited – $5/month
- Business – 1$12/month
- Business Plus – $19/month
- Enterprise – Contact sales
Pipedrive – Best for Campaign Management
With Pipedrive CRM, you can enhance your donor base, cultivate loyal backers, and keep them informed about the progress they’ve helped achieve for your cause. Pipedrive’s specialized CRM for non-profit organizations streamlines the management of donors, members, and volunteers through a single platform.
By utilizing Pipedrive’s intelligent segmentation capabilities, you can tailor your communications and keep your members engaged while encouraging them to contribute repeatedly.
Moreover, you can automate assignments, delegate tasks to the appropriate coordinators, and establish guidelines to enable your member services team to offer exceptional customer service.
Donor and Donation Management
Pipedrive CRM facilitates non-profit organizations in managing their donor and donation process by enabling them to cultivate new and existing donors. The platform enables organizations to follow up with new campaign donors and personalize their messaging based on their past activity.
This feature helps to transform one-time supporters into long-term members via targeted email communications. With Pipedrive CRM, non-profits can effectively manage and monitor donations, donor information, and engagement history, providing a centralized database for all donor-related activities. This helps organizations to enhance their fundraising efforts and establish stronger relationships with their donors.
Volunteer Management
Non-profit organizations can efficiently manage their volunteer process with Pipedrive CRM by keeping track of active volunteers using custom fields. This transforms the CRM into a powerful volunteer management platform that enables organizations to identify members who contribute to their campaigns through volunteering. By centralizing volunteer data,
Pipedrive CRM simplifies volunteer management by allowing non-profits to efficiently manage volunteer tasks, schedules, and communication. This helps organizations streamline their volunteer management process, leading to an improved overall volunteer experience.
Fundraising and Campaign Management
Non-profit organizations can effectively manage their fundraising and campaign process with Pipedrive CRM, which captures sign-ups from new donors and logs every touchpoint at events. This provides a complete overview of each member’s communication history and the nature of those interactions.
By centralizing data, Pipedrive CRM enables non-profits to easily track campaign progress, set goals, and assign tasks. As a result, organizations can streamline their fundraising and campaign management process, leading to improved efficiency and better results.
- Enables easy communication among nonprofit teams
- Offers numerous essential integrations
- Great for nonprofits as it’s not expensive
- Extensively customizable dashboard
- Pipedrive does not offer users a free plan
- It offers very few features on the lower-paid plans
Pricing
- Essential – $9.90/month
- Advanced – $19.90/month
- Professional – $39.90/month
- Enterprise – $59.90/month
Zoho CRM – Best for Large Nonprofit Organizations
Zoho is a software company based in India, which offers a range of web-based tools to help manage organizations. It has gained widespread popularity among nonprofit organizations as a powerful tool for transforming their operations.
Zoho One, in particular, is a comprehensive suite of over 45 apps designed to support a variety of functions, such as fundraising campaigns, event planning, donor and donation management, communications, productivity, volunteer management, finances, and internal processes.
What’s more, many of these apps can be used without any coding expertise, thanks to their user-friendly interfaces. Even Zoho Creator, the app development platform, can be utilized by non-developers.
Donor and Donation Management
Zoho CRM is a centralized system that helps non-profit organizations manage donor and donation interactions efficiently. With this platform, organizations can create customized donor profiles, track communication history, and segment donors based on specific criteria.
Additionally, Zoho CRM provides various tools for managing fundraising campaigns, such as creating targeted email campaigns and monitoring progress using real-time analytics. It also offers payment processing integrations, ensuring secure donation processing and tracking of payment history.
Overall, Zoho CRM simplifies the donor and donation management process for non-profit organizations, allowing them to focus on their mission and objectives.
Volunteer Management
Non-profit organizations benefit from Zoho CRM’s volunteer management feature, as it enables the management of volunteer information, schedules, and assignments. The software enables customized volunteer profiles, tracks their availability, and assigns tasks based on skills and preferences.
Zoho CRM also offers automated communication tools, including email templates and notifications, to keep volunteers informed and engaged. Moreover, the platform provides real-time analytics to monitor volunteer performance and identify areas for improvement. By streamlining the volunteer management process, Zoho CRM allows non-profit organizations to focus on their mission and objectives.
Fundraising and Campaign Management
Zoho CRM assists non-profit organizations in fundraising and campaign management by providing essential tools to manage campaigns, track donor interactions, and process donations. This enables organizations to create targeted email campaigns, monitor campaign progress with real-time analytics, and segment donors based on various criteria.
Zoho CRM also allows organizations to track donor communication history and manage fundraising campaigns from a centralized system. Moreover, it offers payment processing integrations, providing secure donation processing and tracking of payment history.
In summary, Zoho CRM streamlines the fundraising and campaign management process for non-profit organizations, allowing them to prioritize their primary mission and objectives.
- Zoho CRM is great at customization
- The user interface is intriguing and easy to use
- Enables extensive workflow automation
- Offers numerous robust integrations
- Zoho CRM may not support large nonprofit teams
- The software does not have very extensive features.
Pricing
- Free
- Standard – $14/month
- Professional – $23/month
- Enterprise – $40/month
- Ultimate – $52/month
HubSpot – Best for Startup Nonprofits
HubSpot provides seamless integration of marketing tools for email outreach, social media management, and testing, as well as sales tools for donor cultivation, in-line donation, CRM, and CMS that can benefit organizations of any size.
Additionally, HubSpot offers a generous 40% discount for qualifying nonprofits and provides nonprofit-friendly onboarding. The software is designed to integrate with existing systems, so organizations can continue using their current donation and
Donor and Donation Management
Non-profit organizations can benefit from HubSpot CRM’s “Deals” feature, which allows them to manage their donors and donations. By using “Deals,” nonprofits can easily track donations and pledges, as well as monitor the stages of the donation process.
Customizable fields in each deal allow nonprofits to include important information such as the donor’s contact details, donation amount, and notes. This feature ensures that nonprofits can effectively manage their donor relationships and keep track of their donor pipeline.
Furthermore, HubSpot CRM’s reporting capabilities provide valuable insights into donation trends, enabling non-profits to make data-driven decisions about their fundraising strategies.
Volunteer Management
Non-profit organizations can streamline their volunteer management process using HubSpot CRM’s “Tasks” feature. “Tasks” allows non-profits to assign volunteers to specific activities, monitor their progress, and manage their schedules.
Customizable fields within each task enable non-profits to include important details such as the activity name, location, duration, and the volunteer’s contact information.
This feature ensures that volunteers are organized and deployed effectively. HubSpot CRM’s reporting capabilities also provide insights into volunteer performance, allowing non-profits to optimize their volunteer management processes for maximum impact.
Fundraising and Campaign Management
Non-profit organizations can benefit from HubSpot CRM‘s “Marketing Hub” feature for effective fundraising and campaign management. With this feature, nonprofits can create and manage fundraising campaigns that incorporate email marketing, social media advertising, and lead generation.
Customizable templates for emails and landing pages, as well as tools for lead capture and segmentation, are also available. By leveraging the analytics and reporting capabilities of this feature, nonprofits can monitor campaign performance and make informed decisions to optimize their fundraising efforts.
- The software solution is user-friendly
- Numerous add-ons and integrations
- HubSpot had very costly paid plans
Pricing
- Free
- Starter – $30/month
- Professional – $1,600/month
- Enterprise – $5,000/month
Benefits of Using Nonprofit CRM Software
Using CRM software for nonprofits offers several benefits. Let’s look at some of them:
Improved Donor Management
One of the benefits of using CRM software for nonprofits is improved donor management. With a centralized platform to store and manage donor information, nonprofits can access contact details, donation history, and preferences all in one place. This enables them to gain a better understanding of their donors, which they can use to personalize their communications.
By tailoring communications to the specific interests and preferences of individual donors, nonprofits can improve donor retention and engagement. Ultimately, this can help them to build stronger relationships with their donors, and increase the impact of their fundraising efforts.
Enhanced Fundraising Capabilities
Another advantage of using CRM software for non-profits is the ability to track and analyze fundraising campaigns, donations, and pledge progress. This valuable data can help non-profits make informed decisions about future fundraising efforts and optimize performance.
By understanding which fundraising campaigns are performing well and which ones need improvement, nonprofits can create more effective campaigns and increase their fundraising capacity.
Better Volunteer Management
By using a CRM system, nonprofits can keep track of volunteer schedules, availability, and skill sets, which can help them to deploy their volunteers in the most effective way possible. By matching volunteers to tasks that align with their skills and availability, nonprofits can increase the impact of their volunteer efforts.
With a CRM system, nonprofits can ensure that their volunteer resources are being used effectively, helping them to achieve their mission more efficiently.
Streamlined Communications
Another benefit of using CRM software for non-profits is the ability to streamline communication across multiple channels, including email, social media, and direct mail. By having a centralized platform for managing communications, nonprofits can save time on administrative tasks and improve engagement with donors and volunteers.
Additionally, CRM software can be used to automate communications, such as sending automated thank-you emails after a donation is made. By automating certain communication tasks, nonprofits can improve efficiency and focus their efforts on other important tasks, such as fundraising and volunteer management.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Non-profit organizations can leverage CRM systems to extract valuable insights into donor behavior, fundraising trends, and volunteer performance. Such information can guide data-driven decision-making on resource allocation and performance optimization. For instance, an organization can use data on donor-giving patterns to inform its fundraising strategy for the next year.
Increased Efficiency
The implementation of CRM software can assist non-profit organizations in saving time and mitigating the risk of errors by automating repetitive tasks such as data entry. By doing so, staff members can allocate their time towards more strategic initiatives and optimize overall efficiency. Additionally, non-profits can streamline their workflows by automating tasks such as the allocation of new donations to the appropriate donor record.
Improved Collaboration
A CRM system can enhance interdepartmental and team collaboration within non-profit organizations, resulting in better alignment of goals and efficient resource allocation. For instance, the development team and communications team may collaborate to develop an effective fundraising campaign that is tailored to social media. Through such collaboration, a more successful campaign can be created, resulting in increased donor engagement.
Methodology for Choosing the Best CRM Software for Nonprofits
To effectively manage donors, volunteers, and fundraising campaigns, it’s essential for nonprofits to carefully evaluate various features when selecting the right CRM software. In this methodology, we placed a significant emphasis on the following key features:
Donor and Donor Management
To manage donor information effectively, CRM software for nonprofits should provide tools for tracking and organizing data, such as contact details, donation history, and giving preferences.
In our evaluation, we considered software that enables easy import and export of data, as well as the ability to categorize donors based on criteria like donation amount, engagement level, and communication preferences. Additionally, we looked for software that allows nonprofits to send customized emails, newsletters, and acknowledgment letters to donors.
Volunteer Management
Volunteers play a crucial role in the success of a nonprofit organization. As such, we prioritized CRM software that can effectively manage volunteer information, including contact details, availability, and skills. The software should also allow nonprofits to schedule volunteers for events and track their participation.
Furthermore, we looked for software that provides communication tools, such as automated emails, reminders, and thank-you notes, to help nonprofits stay in touch with volunteers and maintain engagement.
Fundraising and Campaign Management
To effectively create and manage fundraising campaigns, CRM software for nonprofits should provide tools for tracking donations and monitoring progress toward fundraising goals. Our evaluation focused on software that offers features such as donation processing, recurring donations, and peer-to-peer fundraising tools.
Additionally, we looked for software that enables nonprofits to track the return on investment (ROI) of their campaigns and generate customized reports to measure success. Furthermore, we considered software that can manage event registrations, ticketing, and sponsorship tracking for fundraising events.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions on CRM software for nonprofits
Final Thoughts on Choosing the Best CRM Software for Nonprofits
The best CRM software for nonprofits will enhance donations, increase volunteer experience, streamline campaigns, and enable fundraising management. We have carefully researched and curated the best CRM that will help your nonprofit thrive.
In this roundup, Salesforce is our top pick because of all the features it offers. However, all the other software is equally great and you can choose whichever suits your nonprofit organization’s needs best.
