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21 Best Nonprofit Software Tools to Enhance Your Work

16min
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Every nonprofit organization is challenged to do more with less. Often time and resources are tight, and teams are small. Does that sound familiar? If yes, this guide can help you.

We’ve covered here the best nonprofit software solutions along with their prices, pros/cons, and opportunities to get a discount.

Bookmark this list for later and check the sections you’re most interested in.

What is Nonprofit Software?

Nonprofit software is any service, program, or platform that assists nonprofits in day-to-day operations.

What is Nonprofit Software?

There are many options for automating all these processes – invoice software, payment gateway software, donor management software, nonprofit CRM platforms, etc. But you don’t need all of them, because too many tools mean less efficiency and more spending.

You might want to buy 2-3 products or use an all-in-one solution, like Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud or Bloomerang. We will cover these solutions a little bit later.

3 Benefits of Software for Nonprofits

Visibility, security, speed. These are the 3 main benefits of using the right nonprofit software.

Visibility

Trust is a precious entity in the nonprofit sector. Because donors are more cautious than ever, financial transparency is crucial. This raises demands for nonprofit accountability and requires you to maintain accurate and easy-to-access financial data with accounting software.

Security

Protecting sensitive data and building trust with supporters is the key feature of any nonprofit technology service. Constituent relationship management (CRM), accounting, fundraising, and donor management systems keep your data safe preventing security breaches.

Speed

With nonprofit technology, you can automate workflows and invest the time spent on manual data entries in more valuable tasks. Also, your team will be able to reduce the number of errors.

For example, software for nonprofits can help you develop relationships with donors and volunteers through advocacy campaigns, frequent communication, and automated reactions. As a result, you will broaden your impact and accomplish your mission.

As a plus, collecting data at your organization opens opportunities for making data-driven decisions.

So, this post guides you through the best nonprofit software tools.

For more information on why utilize Salesforce for nonprofits read another blog post by Synebo. 

Accounting Software for Nonprofits

Nonprofit accounting software (sometimes referred to as fund accounting software) is used to document all your organization’s expenses, payroll, and transactions. It also helps you manage donors and grants.

Consequently, you will save lots of time, as accounting software programs can handle bank reconciliation and tasks like invoicing, bill payment, payroll.

Below are the 4 best accounting software tools: FreshBooks, QuickBooks, MoneyMinder, and Blackbaud Financial Edge.

FreshBooks

FreshBooks is cloud accounting software for small businesses that can also be used by nonprofits. It allows you to send invoices and collect payments quickly through credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, and American Express), as well as payment services Stripe and Apple Pay. In addition, you can also set up a billing schedule.

Rating on Capterra: 4.5/5

Rating on G2: 4.5/5

Pricing: Free trial for 30 days. Paid plans start at $15/month, and if you pay upfront for 6 months, the price is $6 per month.

3

QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online is designed for growing businesses and freelancers, but it also has special editions for nonprofits. These editions include unlimited invoices, expense tracking, downloadable bank transactions, professional templates, and comprehensive reports.

Rating on Capterra: 4.3/5

Rating on G2: 4.0/5 for the online version and 4.3/5 for the desktop version

Pricing: Free trial for 30 days. Plans start at $80/month (includes 5 users), but if you pay for 3 months, the price is $24/month. Enterprise Nonprofit plan costs $130/month. The company also offers discounted products for charities through TechSoup, a nonprofit tech marketplace.

Moreover, Quickbooks also provides a free invoice generator without limits on the number of invoices you can send.

4

MoneyMinder

MoneyMinder is web-based free accounting software for volunteer-run nonprofits. However, the features in the free edition are limited to membership management, membership/budget reports, the budget set up, and the calendar. To access bookkeeping and invoicing tools, you will have to buy the service.

Rating on Capterra: 5/5

Rating on G2: 5/5

Pricing: Free limited account. Paid plans start at $159 per year. Free trial for 30 days.

5

Financial Edge

Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT is a full-featured cloud-based accounting solution for large nonprofit organizations. It easily integrates with Raiser’s Edge, a donor management program, and allows you to track expenses and budgets across fiscal years.

Rating on Capterra: 4.2/5

Rating on G2: 4/5

Pricing: there’s no pricing information in public. You have to contact sales reps to get the details.

6

Nonprofit Fundraising Software and Payment Processing Services

Payment processing (also known as online payment system and credit card processing) manages the financial information of your donors when they make a transaction with your nonprofit organization.

If you rely on online fundraising, you will need a payment processor to collect donations online. Taking this into account, here are the 4 best payment processors for nonprofits.

Donorbox

Donorbox is a donation processor that includes fundraising tools like online donation forms. It accepts payments from credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, iDEAL, and SEPA.

Rating on Capterra: 4.8/5

Rating on G2: 4.5/5

Pricing: Free to start and charges a fee of 1.5% for the month’s donations and is capped at $25 for ACH bank payments. Thus, for an ACH donation that exceeds $1,667, the maximum platform fee is $25.

As far as Donorbox supports Stripe and PayPal payment gateways, you can receive a discount on the payment processing rate if you run a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. You need to visit Stripe’s or PayPal’s nonprofit center to apply.

Donorbox Pros & Cons

DonorPerfect

DonorPerfect is a Pennsylvania-based fundraising platform that processes all major debit and credit cards for donations and charities. Specifically, the system offers web and mobile payments, accomplishes data reporting and analytics, manages donor events and auctions, and integrates with QuickBooks and Microsoft Excel.

Rating on Capterra: 4.5/5

Rating on G2: 4.4/5

Pricing: There are 5 month-to-month contracts with a swipe rate of 2.50% plus $0.20 with no early termination fee. In addition, an early termination fee is $295, and a payment card industry (PCI) compliance fee is $75.20 per year.

10

iATS Payments

iATS Payments is a Canadian-based merchant account provider that has worked within the nonprofit sector for over 20 years. It allows you to receive donations from credit cards, debit cards, ACH deposits, and international donors. The company relies on First Data for its back-end processing.

Rating on G2: 4.2/5

Rating on TrustRadius: 7/10

Pricing: According to Fundly, depending on the card type, the iATS credit card processing rates range from 2.49% to 3.2%. In addition, automated clearing house (ACH) processing costs a flat fee of $0.26 per donation.

8

Greater Giving

Greater Giving is a cloud-based fundraising solution dedicated to event management, auction management, peer-to-peer fundraising, and PCI compliance. Its core functionality includes debit and credit card processing for nonprofits.

Rating on Capterra: 4.1/5

Rating on G2: 4.1/5

Pricing: No set-up fees or monthly fees + 14 days free trial of their Event Software on their website. The Swipe Rate ranges from 1.75% to 2.25%. The Keyed-in Rate is 3.45% + $0.35.

Are you looking for a trusted Salesforce service provider to assist you with Salesforce development and integration? Drop Synebo a line and let’s discuss!

9

Donor Management Solutions

Running a nonprofit, you know it’s impossible to complete your mission without supporters. That is why organizations spend a great deal of time creating spreadsheets with user data and optimizing relationships with the audience.

But what if your organization has outgrown spreadsheets? Then, you might benefit from using nonprofit donor management software. It will help your team save time and increase the efficacy of engagement campaigns.

What is Donor Management Software?

Donor management software (otherwise known as nonprofit CRM or donor management system) is a tool that helps you start, develop and monitor relationships with donors. It assists institutions in organizing donor data, keeping track of every stage of the donor journey, and providing relevant, personalized content.

Below are the 3 best donor management software options for organizations of all sizes.

Bloomerang Donor Management

Bloomerang is a cloud-based donor management software for nonprofits of various sizes. It consists of CRM and donor database, custom reporting, integrated online giving forms, email marketing tools, and data analytics.

You can also connect Bloomerang to over 2,000+ apps through Zapier-enabled integrations. Som you won’t need to spend hours manually entering data between several systems or run tedious spreadsheet imports.

Rating on Capterra: 4.7/5

Rating on G2: 4.7/5

Pricing: All Bloomerang’s plans are based on the number of contacts in the database and the amount you raise. The pricing starts from $19 per month. Every edition comes with unlimited users.

11

Salesforce

Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud (also known as Salesforce nonprofit CRM) is fundraising software for donor research, donor management, program management, and volunteer management.

This all-in-one nonprofit CRM provides AI Einstein, data cleansing, giving predictions, reporting, and powerful ways to connect to accounting systems. In addition, Salesforce is an excellent solution for NPOs that have outgrown other nonprofit CRM platforms because you can customize it however you want.

With nonprofit software development, you can automate almost all daunting and repetitive processes in your org, especially if the number of your donors, volunteers, and other contacts exceeds 5.000.

Rating on Capterra: 4.7/5

Rating on G2: 4/5

Pricing: As a nonprofit, you can get 10 free licenses as part of Salesforce’s Power of Us Program. If you need more, the Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise Edition is $60 per month, and the Nonprofit Cloud Unlimited Edition is $120.

12

Network for Good

Network for Good is an all-in-one nonprofit platform that helps small non-profit organizations communicate with their donors, manage event ticketing, schedule tasks, organize data migration, and other administrative processes.

Furthermore, the services include expertly-crafted appeal templates and editing tools to send personalized emails, texts, video messages, and more in minutes.

Rating on Capterra: 4.7/5

Rating on G2: 4.6/5

Pricing: The pricing ranges from $100 to $400 per month, depending on the number of contacts. A free trial is also available.

13

Volunteer Management Tools

You’re already organizing timesheets, setting up events, and attracting prospects to your various opportunities. But there’s one more important mission – engaging volunteers and building relationships with them.

To accomplish this, you can turn to several separate time-tracking tools and event registration forms to run your volunteer programs and engage with members. However, this will cost you more money and time, leading to data issues and disorganization down the line. That is why we recommend you use an all-in-one volunteer management solution.

What’s Volunteer Management Software?

It’s a tool for online volunteer recruitment and scheduling, volunteer registration automation, calendar organization, coordination event details from beginning to end. It will help you cultivate with volunteers lasting and mutually-beneficial supportive relationships.

Here are the 4 best volunteer management systems.

VolunteerLocal

VolunteerLocal is a cloud-based volunteer management platform that supports volunteer recruitment, communication, and scheduling.

With the service, you can build custom registration forms for your events, collect demographic information on each volunteer, and give staff and volunteers an online form for self-scheduling.

Rating on Capterra: 4.8/5

Rating on G2: 4.8/5

Pricing: 14-day free trial. The pricing starts from $600 per year (or $200 per event).

14

Volunteer Impact

Volunteer Impact is a module in the Better impact platform for increasing volunteer engagement throughout the volunteer lifecycle.

With the tool, you can manage volunteer profiles, produce reports on hours and volunteer numbers in seconds, accept applications online, find volunteer profiles from any screen, send messages, etc.

Rating on Capterra: 4.7/5

Rating on G2: 4.9/5

Pricing: 30-day free trial. Pricing depends on the number of volunteers. Thus, for up to 50 profiles, you have to pay $24 monthly for a standard edition.

15

SignUp.com

SignUp (formerly VolunteerSpot) is free nonprofit software with a volunteer planner, email tracking, delivery, scheduling assistant, and donation collecting. It’s designed for small and large organizations: nonprofits, faith groups, schools, leagues, businesses, and universities.

Rating on Capterra: 4.8/5

Rating on G2: 4.7/5

Pricing: Free limited account. Paid plans start at $9.99 per month.

16

SignUpGenius

SignUpGenius is free volunteer management software that assists you with event management, easy signup process, group messaging, donation, and reporting.

SignUpGenius is helping people support their communities and stay connected during the pandemic. Customers use the online signup site to coordinate socially distant events, volunteers, community relief efforts such as food drives, COVID-19 testing, training, and more.

Rating on Capterra: 4.6/5

Rating on G2: 4.4/5

Pricing: Free plan. Premium plans start at $11.99 per month.

Are you in need for Salesforce consulting of any kind? Reach out to Synebo and let our specialists give you a helping hand. 

SignUpGenius Pros & cons

Nonprofit Marketing Software

When you think about nonprofits, the word “marketing” doesn’t immediately come to mind. Indeed, organizations need to use email marketing software and marketing automation tools to promote their message and raise donations.

What’s Nonprofit Marketing?

Nonprofit marketing is a nonprofit marketing strategy that includes various activities such as email marketing, content marketing, and social media marketing.

These tactics help you educate key stakeholders and the general public about your cause, solicit donations and encourage more people to participate in your organization’s events and activities.

Below are the 3 best email marketing platforms that we came up with.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s Customer Experience Automation is a nonprofit platform for engaging new contacts, managing donors and initiating donations with automated campaigns.

ActiveCampaign is a great tool for experienced marketers who wants complete autonomy and flexibility over their campaigns. However, it’s more sophisticated than most email marketing platforms, so it’s unsuitable for novices.

Rating on Capterra: 4.6/5

Rating on G2: 4.6/5

Pricing: Free Trial. The pricing depends on the number of contacts. Thus, for 500 users, you have to pay $15 per month (billed monthly) or $9 (billed annually).

18

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a web-based free email marketing service that helps you manage and talk to your donors, volunteers, and other interested parties. With the software, you can manage your mailing lists, create custom email templates, and automate your lead nurturing.

Rating on Capterra: 4.5/5

Rating on G2: 4.3/5

Pricing: Free version for up to 2,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month. The plans start at $11 per month (based on 500 contacts). The company also offers a 15% discount to nonprofits and charities that they verify. To submit a request for a nonprofit discount, visit the contact form.

19

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is a web application with email marketing services. They include list segmentation, personalization, drag-and-drop email builder, marketing automation, integrations, and robust analytics.

Rating on Capterra: 4.6/5

Rating on G2: 4.1/5

Pricing: Free trial available. Plans start at $9 per month (for Basic, $29 per month on Unlimited, and $149 per month on Premier edition). Of course, the pricing also depends on the number of contacts.

Plus, as a nonprofit, you can save 15% with Campaign Monitor.

If you’re interested in reviewing 5 examples of the best CRM for nonprofit organizations, read another our blog post. 

20

Content Management System

More and more people are making their donations online. When supporters want to interact with your organization, they will visit your website to learn more about your mission.

Thus, the primary intention of your nonprofit website is to improve audience engagement, fundraising, and content marketing. To achieve these objectives, you need to choose a content management system (CMS).

What’s a Content Management System?

A CMS is a software application for your nonprofit’s website that allows your team to add, edit, manage, and store digital content.

Results from systematic publishing and SEO optimization include:

  • increased web traffic
  • addressing more interested users
  • more donations
  • better engagement with audiences

But you can only achieve these results with a suitable CMS. So, below we prepared a list of top-3 CMS for nonprofits.

CMS Hub

CMS Hub – also known as The HubSpot CMS – is a website builder and platform designed to take the pain out of managing your website. It’s integrated with the HubSpot CRM, marketing, sales, and customer service tools to go far beyond just content management.

One of CMS HUB’s most prominent features is its “smart content,” which allows you to show relevant content to the right audience at the right time.

Nonprofit organizations can use this feature to personalize their donor engagement through tailored messages, newsletters, and targeted content. As a result, everything you create will align with a stage of the donor journey.

Rating on Capterra: 4.8/5

Rating on G2: 4.5/5

Pricing: 14-day free trial. Editions starting at:

  • $23 per month (Starter)
  • $360 per month (Professional)
  • $1,200 per month (Enterprise)

Plus, there’s a nonprofit discount of 40%. However, not all organizations are eligible for the Hubspot Nonprofits program. You can find their list here.

21

WordPress

WordPress is a website builder and the most frequently recommended CMS for nonprofit organizations. According to Blackbaud, it was used by 42% of nonprofit respondents. No wonder.

The platform offers powerful SEO capabilities and content optimization features. It has the most prominent supporter base and provides robust tools for web development. In addition, WordPress’ mobile responsive framework allows marketers to manage the site from any device – mobile, desktop, or tablet.

Furthermore, it’s suitable for nonprofits of all sizes. For example, it delivers enterprise-level features such as multi-site management, modular architecture, WordPress API, and an in-depth developer manual for large organizations.

Rating on Capterra: 4.6/5

Rating on G2: 4.4/5

Pricing: The software is free to get started but offers organizations premium services for prices starting at $33 per month billed monthly and $25 billed yearly.

22

Joomla

Joomla is a free content management system for building your dynamic website and publishing content. It’s the largest web software platform for nonprofit, government, educational, media, corporate, eCommerce organizations, and even personal blogs. It is highly adaptable.

The best thing about Joomla is that it’s 100% free to use, regardless of your implementation. Thus, if you have a tight budget, the ability to use professional-level tools without additional software costs is beneficial. Plus, you don’t need to install lots of paid plugins to get your website functioning.

Rating on Capterra: 4.1/5

Rating on G2: 4/5

Pricing: Free. No setup fee

23

Bottom Line

As you can see, there are hundreds if not thousands of software tools for nonprofit organizations. But you don’t need them all.

The automation and integration capabilities of the software are limitless today. Just one product like a CRM system can assist you in all your daily activities, saving hours each day. And you can integrate it with other tools you’re using for nonprofit marketing or content management.

Contact Synebo should you need any software development task done.

Table of content
21 Best Nonprofit Software Tools to Enhance Your Work What is nonprofit software? 3 benefits of software for nonprofits Accounting software for nonprofits Nonprofit fundraising software and payment processing services Donor management solutions Volunteer Management Tools Nonprofit marketing software Content management system Bottom Line
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