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  1. Popular Comparisons
  2. FrontRunners
  3. Buyers Guide
  4. Related Software

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Showing 1 - 25 of 362 products

Neon CRM
Neon CRM

Neon CRM is a software platform that enables nonprofit organizations and membership associations to manage their constituents and members more effectively. Its relationship-focused approach provides a comprehensive view of supporters and members, leading t...Read more about Neon CRM

77

recommendations

DonorPerfect
DonorPerfect
FrontRunner 2024

DonorPerfect is a cloud-based fundraising solution tailored to help nonprofit organizations handle donations, build donor relations, manage communication and execute receipting along with various tasks via a unified platform. DonorPerfect provides detaile...Read more about DonorPerfect

65

recommendations

Bloomerang
Bloomerang

Bloomerang is a donor management and fundraising software designed for nonprofits. It serves as a centralized CRM to help organizations manage their donor relationships and fundraising efforts. Bloomerang caters to a range of nonprofit organizations, from ...Read more about Bloomerang

49

recommendations

Aplos
Aplos

Aplos is a cloud-based financial software suite designed for nonprofits and faith-based organizations. Get true fund accounting, online donation management, standard and customized financial reporting, giving tools, membership management, event registratio...Read more about Aplos

28

recommendations

MemberLeap
MemberLeap

MemberLeap by Vieth Consulting is a cloud-based association management system built to support the needs of associations, nonprofits, clubs, churches and other member-based organizations. Suitable for any size organization, this system includes member mana...Read more about MemberLeap

25

recommendations

MonkeyPod
MonkeyPod
FrontRunner 2024

MonkeyPod is a true all-in-one nonprofit managment platform. CRM / donor management, nonprofit accounting, grant management, email marketing, online fundraising, and more — all in one simple, integrated platform. Consider it your nonprofit-in-a-box. Empow...Read more about MonkeyPod

24

recommendations

Charityproud
Charityproud

Charityproud is a cloud-based nonprofit management solution suitable for small to midsize nonprofit organizations. Key features include constituent management, donation and pledge tracking, campaign and event management, email integration and analytics. ...Read more about Charityproud

20

recommendations

Bonterra Guided Fundraising
Bonterra Guided Fundraising
FrontRunner 2024

Bonterra Guided Fundraising offers donor management software integrated with fundraising pages and personal coaching for growing nonprofits. This platform facilitates an efficient and streamlined approach to managing donor engagement. By offering a systema...Read more about Bonterra Guided Fundraising

18

recommendations

BetterUnite
BetterUnite

Designed for non-profit organizations of all sizes, BetterUnite is a cloud-based crowdfunding and event management solution that helps businesses organize virtual events and raise funds online whilst managing grants, memberships, pledges, volunteers, donor...Read more about BetterUnite

13

recommendations

Get Connected
Get Connected

Used by thousands of organizations nationwide, Get Connected is a cloud-based volunteer management solution that provides organizations with the tools to manage every aspect of the volunteer process. Designed for nonprofits, schools, churches, and corporat...Read more about Get Connected

10

recommendations

Member365
Member365

Member365 is a cloud-based nonprofit solution for member-based organizations. Features offered within the platform include membership management, automated membership renewal, a member portal, event planning, email marketing, fundraising and more. Mem...Read more about Member365

8

recommendations

GiveSmart
GiveSmart

GiveSmart is the easy-to-use, innovative, and modern online fundraising and donor management platform that elevates any fundraiser. From mobile-friendly silent auctions to dynamic peer-to-peer events and guest management to donor engagement, we’re the so...Read more about GiveSmart

7

recommendations

ExceedFurther
ExceedFurther

Arreva is tech with purpose; driven by a cause. For over 30 years, they have been the trusted advisor and market leader in digital fundraising, donor relationship management, healthcare hospitality, and auction software. What began with a desktop donor r...Read more about ExceedFurther

7

recommendations

PayBee
PayBee

PayBee is an online solution designed to help non-profit organizations manage fundraising campaigns across multiple channels. The centralized dashboard allows users to design cause-specific campaign pages and allow donors to submit donations through online...Read more about PayBee

6

recommendations

MemberClicks
MemberClicks

Simplify membership management with MemberClicks! Our all-in-one solution helps your association, chamber, or association management company engage your members and increase revenue. Make use of powerful features to save time, grow your membership, gener...Read more about MemberClicks

6

recommendations

Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT

Raiser’s Edge NXT is an integrated, cloud-based fundraising and relationship management solution for nonprofits. Raiser's Edge NXT provide tools to streamline various activities of a nonprofit organization and provide a single view of entire business ...Read more about Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT

5

recommendations

Trail Blazer Non-Profit Manager
Trail Blazer Non-Profit Manager

Trail Blazer's non-profit manager offers nonprofit organizations a complete cloud-based solution to manage every aspect of fundraising and donor management. From collecting and centralizing donor information to targeted outreach to event planning, Trail Bl...Read more about Trail Blazer Non-Profit Manager

4

recommendations

MIP Fund Accounting
MIP Fund Accounting

Purpose-built to meet the needs of the modern nonprofit, educational organization, and government agency, MIP Fund Accounting® empowers organizations to track by fund, manage restrictions based on unlimited funding sources, and meet complex reporting requ...Read more about MIP Fund Accounting

4

recommendations

WizeHive
WizeHive

NextZen by WizeHive is a dynamic, cloud-based, and highly secure platform that supports grant and scholarship management. Improve the collection, review, and management of applications for grants, scholarships and other mission-driven programs. The system...Read more about WizeHive

2

recommendations

OneCause
OneCause
FrontRunner 2024

OneCause creates user-friendly fundraising software that helps nonprofits engage donors and raise more money, while saving valuable time and resources. But more than just our software, we support nonprofits with helpful insights on how to take their fun...Read more about OneCause

2

recommendations

GrantHub
GrantHub

GrantHub is an intuitive online grant management solution that saves time at every point in your process. Primary features include funder and grant research, funder relationship management, deadline and task management, a document repository, and reporting...Read more about GrantHub

2

recommendations

Findjoo
Findjoo

Findjoo membership management solution is a software platform developed for non-profit organizations of scaling sizes and segments. Arts and cultural organizations, associations, higher education, human services, environmental, education, public broadcast,...Read more about Findjoo

2

recommendations

Bonterra Development + Digital
Bonterra Development + Digital

Bonterra Development + Digital puts power behind your fundraising program within our unified CRM. You'll discover a better, more user-friendly platform to grow donor relationships, track prospects, grants, and pledges, cultivate planned giving, run custom ...Read more about Bonterra Development + Digital

2

recommendations

GrowthZone
GrowthZone

GrowthZone is an online platform with built-in marketing automation designed to help associations and chambers of commerce manage their members, events, fundraising, marketing, donors, volunteers, and more. An online application form facilitates member si...Read more about GrowthZone

2

recommendations

NationBuilder
NationBuilder

NationBuilder is a cloud-based website, database and fundraising solution designed for nonprofits to connect with their communities and scale their organizations. It includes features to identify key supporters, turn them into donors, accept and process on...Read more about NationBuilder

2

recommendations

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FrontRunners Logo

Your Guide to Top Nonprofit Software, August 2024

Software Advice uses reviews from real software users to highlight the top-rated Nonprofit products in North America.

Learn how products are chosen

Explore FrontRunners

“Usability” includes user ratings for Functionality and Ease of Use.

“Customer Satisfaction” includes user ratings for Customer Support, Likelihood to Recommend and Value for Money.

Reviews analysis period: The reviews analysis period spans two years and ends the 15th of the month prior to publication.

Buyers Guide

This detailed guide will help you find and buy the right non-profit software for you and your business.

Last Updated on August 21, 2024

With hundreds of software for nonprofits on the market, nonprofits of all sizes have more options than ever to efficiently grow, manage and streamline their organizations. From individual, standalone applications for donor management software to comprehensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, nonprofits can more easily and cost-effectively manage their essential day-to-day functions. This includes advocacy and email marketing campaigns, accounting, reporting and constituent management. The challenge for nonprofit buyers, however, is determining exactly which of these solutions can best meet their organization’s unique needs today—and grow with them over time. This guide provides an overview of nonprofit software and nonprofit management software reviews to help you make the most informed purchasing decisions.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What Is Nonprofit Software?

Common Features of Nonprofit Software

What Type of Buyer are You?

Benefits and Potential Issues

Market Trends to Understand

What Is Nonprofit Software?

Software for nonprofit organizations includes a wide range of standalone applications and comprehensive programs that help nonprofits manage the many facets of their administrative, fundraising, donor relations, tracking and reporting functions. Regardless of their size, scope of offerings or budget, every nonprofit stands to benefit from utilizing these feature-rich nonprofit management solutions. While each delivers its own unique flair and functionality, most of the systems provide similar core offerings, which we’ve highlighted below.

Common Features of Nonprofit Software

Nonprofit accounting software

Keeps tabs on critical financial information to ensure dollars are collected, budgeted, allocated, tracked and reported with ease and efficiency. Functions include budget monitoring, futures forecasting, grant management, payroll processing and tracking and reporting.

Fundraising & donor management

Empowers nonprofits to securely solicit, collect and track donations through individual, planned, recurring or major giving. Functions include auctions, a-thons, campaign creation and management, online giving, customized donation forms, receipt generation and reporting.

Membership management

Membership management houses constituent contact information and helps organizations record interactions, set membership levels, manage benefits and track renewals and dues.

Volunteer management

Facilitates a nonprofit organization's interactions with their volunteer workforce. This software stores contact information, a participant's history, availability and more. It also provides outreach tools to contact those who've volunteered for upcoming events, and scheduling tools to track responses and availability.

Nonprofit marketing & outreach

Enables and supports customized direct marketing, email marketing and online campaigns. Functions include communications management, personalized content, targeted email delivery, message archiving and in-depth reporting.

Nonprofit CRM

Creates a seamless database environment to engage and manage all types of constituents—including volunteers, members, alumni, corporations and foundations. Functions include campaign/fund administration, advanced query, lead generation, accounting integration, donations processing and management, tracking and reporting. 

Charity/event planning

Helps organizations prepare for events and meetings of all types and sizes. Functions include online registration, searchable event listings, email reminders, payment acceptance, rosters and tracking and reporting.

Grant management

Lets organizations keep track of proposals and awards. It also gives them the tools to process funds and allocate them to the right recipients. Functions include application status notifications and generated task lists for each step of the application process.

Peer-to-peer fundraising

Enables supporters to run individual and team-based campaigns to raise funds on your behalf. Functions include campaign creation, event management, donation acceptance, and real-time updates.

Key-performance-indicators-in-donorperfect

Key performance indicators (KPIs) in donorperfect

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Before jumping into purchasing software for your nonprofit, it’s important to understand your organizational needs and how a system could help meet those requirements now and in the years to come.

Small local or regional-based nonprofits. Generating donor support for every nonprofit is essential, but for small nonprofits it’s even more critical that they can secure gifts and grants to fund their programs. Individual email marketing and fundraising systems for small nonprofits can be an effective and budget friendly way for these nonprofits to create social engagement and track online donations for the audit trail.

Mid-sized nonprofits. These nonprofits are looking to cultivate relationships that can turn those who are actively engaged as newsletter readers, volunteers or occasional givers into repeat donors. For mid-sized nonprofits focused on long-term growth, they are typically looking for nonprofit database suites that include integrated donor software for nonprofits, email marketing and financial management applications that offer centralized control, high levels of security and robust reporting and audit functionality.

Large/national nonprofits. Like any large enterprise, national nonprofits with thousands of constituents across the country and multi-million dollar budgets need to plan, strategize and act with precision to serve people all over the nation—and world. These nonprofits are looking for enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions that can help streamline back-end operations—as well as feature-rich constituent management, fundraising and email marketing capabilities that can handle large volumes of traffic and all types of giving.

Associations. Member-based organizations and associations, including museums, clubs and trade organizations, have unique requirements. In addition to fundraising and event planning activities, most associations must set membership levels, collect dues and renewals, manage committees and track member progress in certification programs. Many nonprofit software vendors offer association management software with features built to support the complex interactions within associations.

Churches and faith-based ministries. These organizations operate differently than general nonprofits—rather than intense fundraising, they routinely collect contributions from members, manage more complex relationships and track member attendance and involvement in multiple groups and activities. Large churches and faith-based ministries often require special check-in and security systems to maintain the safety of children left in their care. Church management software offers tools and features which caters to these buyers.

Benefits and Potential Issues

Nonprofits that adopt the right types of software for their organization stand to benefit in many ways, such as:

  • Secure online giving with back-end tracking, processing and reporting donations for audit and regulatory purposes.

  • Tracking grants, fundraising and major donor activity for more accurate budgetary planning, forecasting and allocation.

  • Cultivating engaged constituents through advocacy campaigns, events and regular communication.

  • Securely capturing, managing and culling critical constituent data.

  • Reducing data redundancy for more effective marketing, event planning and ongoing announcements.

Nonprofits that fail to realize some of these core benefits often do so because they:

  • Fail to strategically plan, budget or prepare for their changing needs and growth.

  • Overlook essential accounting, compliance or regulatory issues.

  • Do not have the right infrastructure in place to support integration of software systems from different vendors.

  • Do not adequately prepare staff for adoption of new software.

  • Fail to properly train staff/volunteers on how to leverage the software’s full scope of features and functionality.

Market Trends to Understand

As a nonprofit, you know that budgeting, giving and compliance are ongoing issues that impact your ability to serve your communities. Here are a few other issues to keep in mind as you explore the right software solutions for your organization:

Social media. For many nonprofits these days, Return on Investment (ROI) is quickly being replaced by an equally essential metric: Return on Engagement (ROE). To boost ongoing engagement with supporters, nonprofits of all sizes are using social media tools (blogs, Twitter, Facebook etc.) to cultivate relationships, share information and generate support. It’s essential your email marketing, advocacy and event campaigns easily connect your constituents to your social media channels—and provide ways for users to opt-in for future communication.

Mobile applications. Nonprofits are now going mobile to get mobilized. While the adoption is a bit slower than with other types of social media, mobile applications for smartphones are the up-and-coming tool nonprofits are leveraging to boost engagement and donor support. In fact, one national nonprofit’s text-to-give campaign generated more than $30 million alone.

Software as a Service (SaaS). For many nonprofits, the software as a service (SaaS) model offers an excellent way to implement and maintain leading-edge software solutions without the leading-edge price tag. For many growing nonprofits, SaaS is ideal because applications can be modified and updated quickly to support new user growth and back-end productivity. Nonprofits leaning toward this model will want to evaluate service providers based on issues, such as data security standards, maintenance and updates, connectivity rates, 24x7 support, uptime and future scalability.

Software integration. With so many standalone nonprofit accounting software, fundraising and email marketing systems to choose from, it’s more important than ever that nonprofits consider how these systems integrate with each other. This is particularly critical when it comes to capturing interest from social media, mobile and Web-based applications. So, for example, your software needs to be able to route supporters and donors to the right database to capture their information and log donations—and give you the capability to track this data for future audits or email campaigns.