CharityEngine 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee.

How Software Advice ensures transparency

Software Advice lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Users can talk to our advisors for free to receive software recommendations matching their needs. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to reach users interested in their products.

How Software Advice verifies reviews

Software Advice carefully verified over 2 million reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI.

Independent research methodology

Researchers at Software Advice use a mix of verified reviews, independent research, and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or talk to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology.

Wondering if CharityEngine is right for your organization?

Our Nonprofit Software selection experts can help you in 15 minutes or less.

On this page

Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
Integrations
User Reviews

Overview

CharityEngine

4.1

(28)

Pricing

Starting at $550.00 per month

About CharityEngine

CharityEngine's nonprofit CRM software simplifies the fundraising process, so you spend more time on your campaigns and less time struggling with technology. It has the tools for managing donors, receiving donations, processing payments, and more. CharityEngine is a mission-driven software built specifically for nonprofits looking to change the world. Book your demo today to see how CharityEngine can help you achieve your fundraising goals.

CharityEngine Screenshots

CharityEngine Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $550.00 per month

Free Trial

Free Version

Starter

$550.00

per month

Plan includes:

CRM & Donor Management
Custom Donation Forms
Built-in Payment Processing
Email & Marketing Automation
Out-of-the-box Marketing Automation Workflows
Event Management
Gift Probability: Native Prospect Research
Membership Managemen
Sustainer Management
Reports & Analytics

Pro

Pricing available upon request

Plan includes:

Everything in Starter plus:
Auctions
Volunteer Management
Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Custom Dashboards
Major Gift Management
Unlimited Automation & Workflows
ChatGPT Writing Assistant
Double the Donation Integration
Query Builder & Database Access

Premier

Pricing available upon request

Plan includes:

Everything in Pro plus:
Advocacy
Shopping Cart
Custom Pipelines
Multichannel Attribution Tracking
Premium Support

Confused about pricing? We've got you covered.

Get a personalized pricing breakdown tailored to your specific needs—no guesswork, no generic estimates.

CharityEngine Features

Popular features found in Nonprofit
Accounting
Campaign Management
CRM
Customizable Forms
Donor Management
Electronic Payments
Event Management
Fundraising Management
Grant Management
Membership Management
Registration Management
Volunteer Management
More features of CharityEngine
Access Controls/Permissions
Accounting Integration
ACH Payment Processing
Activity Dashboard
Activity/News Feed
Activity Tracking
Ad hoc Reporting
Alerts/Notifications
Alumni Management
API
Appointment Scheduling
Assignment Management
Attendance Management
Auction Management
Budgeting/Forecasting
Calendar Management
Campaign Analytics
Campaign Planning
Campaign Segmentation
Commenting/Notes
Committee Management
Communication Management
Contact Database
Contact Management
Contribution Tracking
Credit Card Processing
Customer Database
Customizable Branding
Customizable Fields
Customizable Reports
Customizable Templates
Dashboard
Data Import/Export
Document Storage
Donation Tracking
Donor Discovery
Drag & Drop
Dues Management
Email Management
Email Marketing
Email Reminders
Email Templates
Email Tracking
Event Scheduling
Event Ticketing
Event Triggered Actions
File Management
Forms Management
For Nonprofits
Fund Accounting
Gift Matching Management
Goal Setting/Tracking
Historical Trend Analysis
Interaction Tracking
Lead Management
Marketing Automation
Member Database
Mobile Access
Mobile Giving
Multi-Channel Communication
Online Forms
Online Giving
Payment Processing
Performance Metrics
Personalization
Pledge Management
Real-Time Analytics
Real-Time Notifications
Real-Time Reporting
Receipt Management
Recurring Giving
Recurring/Subscription Billing
Reminders
Reporting/Analytics
Reporting & Statistics
Revenue Management
Sales Pipeline Management
Search/Filter
Social Marketing
Social Media Integration
Summary Reports
Task Management
Task Scheduling
Third-Party Integrations
Web Forms
Website Integration
Website Management
Workflow Management

CharityEngine Integrations

Google Analytics 360

Microsoft Outlook

PayPal

Typeform

Google Maps

Meta for Business

See all 24 integrations

CharityEngine User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.1

Ratings Breakdown

50%

25%

18%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

3.8

Value for money

4.1

Customer support

4.0

Functionality

4.3

Michelle H.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2020

Power behind your reporting

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

CharityEngine is a great CRM tool, for me the feature I use most often is query builder to create custom reports of specific parts and types of data. I love the functionality available in Query Builder, and since my organization has some pretty complex data structures, CE makes it really easy for me to get exactly the data I need at any given time.

Cons:

Sometimes when there are updates to the software, some functionalities are down temporarily, but their team always works swiftly to make sure everything is running smooth!

Reasons for switching to CharityEngine

We needed more everything!

Adam H.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

201-500 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed December 2024

CharityEngine User

Overall experience has been very good. Excellent customer support.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The automated functions make my job much easier.

Cons:

There are some functions that I don't know how to use well or don't work well.

Reasons for switching to CharityEngine

Customer support and sunsetting of the product I was using.

Margie E.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed July 2020

Design seems tailored more to mass mailers than high dollar cultivators

I was brought in to the organization after they had spent 9 months trying to transition to Charity Engine. I found that the data transfer from our old system was not done correctly and it took a lot of time to get that sorted out. It isn't intuitive, and is over complicated. It is hard to find what you are looking for in the navigation.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Query capability. Online forms. Payment processing.

Cons:

We can't use for generating acknowledgement letters because they won't format correctly. We didn't use initially for email communication, but they have improved that feature. It is very clunky to add or update individual records, requiring user to go in and out of many screens and remember to flag things, such as address is preferred, and remember to click a save button. Far too many steps. It doesn't help with grant management. Event management also is not good. It is difficult and time consuming to record activities (meetings, phone calls) that you have had with your donors, and then they are not exportable on reports.

Reasons for choosing CharityEngine

IDK

Reasons for switching to CharityEngine

I don't know - I wasn't here then.

Vendor Response

Margie, thank you for your feedback. It looks like we missed on training here. Many of the issues you've cited, such as properly formatted acknowledgement letters or recording and reporting on activities are core capabilities and we're going to make sure we get you up and running. Better knowledge around how to navigate the platform may also help lead to less clicks to get what you need. I believe our team has already reached out to you for additional help and training and hopefully you are already on a path to a better experience. Thank you for your partnership and for letting CharityEngine be part of the wonderful work you are doing at Center for Education Reform.

Replied September 2020

Dana C.

Verified reviewer

Fund-Raising

11-50 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2022

Highly-Customizable, Powerful & Accessible, Best Price

We use Charity Engine for on and offline monthly/quarterly/annual recurring donations and all online donation forms. We have a different CRM for sending email to our 250,000+subscribers and to host our actions to legislators and corporations. And another CRM for our direct mail constituents. Some at the organization argue that we should have one CRM to do all this--but I never expect that out of a company. Charity Engine clearly specializes in online donations and recurring donations, including an advance fraud suite that prevents the fraudulent testing of credit cards on their system (and fees associated). Monthly processing and all the management of credit card updating, both automatic and personal updates, are a breeze. And Charity Engine has made it clear that the data is ALWAYS ours. (Other companies we have worked with said they have the right to withhold credit card information of recurring donors, if you ever try to move off their system.)

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

You can do pretty much anything with either the front-end or back-end design of Charity Engine forms. This power and flexibility are exactly what our medium to large non-profit needs as we are testing and improving our online fundraising. The user interface is intuitive and user-friendly. I am not a developer and over the years I’ve learned how to navigate most things within the system, it is complex, but well organized. And if you are not technical or don’t have the time, Charity Engine will connect you with a developer. I appreciate how we have the capability to add code to our forms and templates. This has enabled us to better track conversions, ecommerce, Google Analytics, and Facebook website verification. The donation data is all there, you can query on anything and export it into excel to analyze. Note: We added custom hidden fields to help with tracking donations from third party sites and other CRMs. Sustainer charging is very simple within Charity Engine. The amount of work required once you have someone set up in it is minimal. The help files are actually helpful, and are clearly written to walk you through things you need to do.

Cons:

We cannot use the “standard donation form” to meet our fundraising needs. We have custom forms and once you make custom forms, if they break, Charity Engine support (often) can’t fix. You need to go to a developer. Good news is forms don’t break often. Not a system flaw—rather warning to the user, because the tool is so powerful and hands on, you do have the ability to do almost anything, including break the forms. More than once I have wanted to test something new, so I tinkered with the forms and broke something else. Always create copies of forms and test them out before changing in a live environment. Sometimes, the Charity Engine staff seem to have limited experience with, or solutions for, integrating CE with other platforms. For example, we spent months trying to get Google Tag Manager to work correctly on Charity Engine forms so we could run a functional Facebook Ad campaign. Another example, we had a comma issue with our forms that makes $1,000+ transactions register as $1 in Google Analytics. We had to work with independent contractors to resolve both of these issues, even though we imagine they are issues all Charity Engine clients must face. The system can be a little buggy, so you have to pay attention to things—especially patterns. Example: every now and then the amount a donor has entered into specific form changes on its own after they hit the submit button, but because it can’t be consistently reproduced, there’s nothing they can do about it.

Reasons for choosing CharityEngine

In 2015 we researched Salsa's donation forms, Salesforce, and Blackbaud's Luminate. We were impressed with Charity Engine because they understood the importance of allowing back-end users (people at our org) to access all functions, data, and operations of the system--it is well-organized and accessible. Before our most recent contract renewal, we have researched SALSA Fundraise and Blackbaud's Luminate to sync with Raiser's Edge, because they were two other CRMs our org is currently using. When shopping around, we focused how these other platforms handle monthly processing, because that is where the majority of our donations come from. Although we also need dynamic highly customizable online donation forms. It is important to keep in mind that these companies make their money off you donation/payment processing--so keep a close eye on these fees, more than what you are paying monthly to use the system. Charity Engine matched our current rates and therefore won on payment processing for both Credit Cards and ACH. Charity Engines monthly payment processing, credit card updater, fraud protection suite, and manual processing is far superior to SALSA Fundraise. Luminate cost considerably more than Charity Engine to process monthly donations and to set up their platform. And why? Luminates functionality was far behind Charity Engines (in 2021). Example, BB said they would be rolling out PayPal on their donation forms "soon."

Nick L.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed July 2019

A view from a non-profit Food Bank.

As the donor database manager, I spend each and every day within CharityEngine. Processing donations, tracking pledges, building forms, event management, reporting and more. The overall experience I have had with CharityEngine is hands down some of the best. Each and every feature within CharityEngine continues to inspire individual growth within myself as the opportunities are endless.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The convenience, and ease of all fundraising streamlines comes within CharityEngine. From simple donation processing, to online forms, event registrations and individualize marketing tools, CharityEngine is the powerhouse software. CharityEngine continues to improve with each and every release bringing more and more improvements for continued growth in the fundraising segments. Managing our major gifts program through CharityEngine has allowed our gift officers to track opportunities, pledges and payments, reporting and all, in real-time.

Cons:

Although we integrated CharityEngine just shy of a little over two years ago, it seems like just yesterday! We continue to grow as an organization, and within that growth we continue to grow within CharityEngine. That being said, each and every day I continue to learn more and more that CharityEngine can do. Of course, we run into a hurdle here and there, but fortunately, we have a great support team behind us, and for that fact we really haven’t run into anything we find as a dislike.

Reasons for choosing CharityEngine

Choosing the right platform requires that you ensure you have all that you need within the product. CharityEngine provides just that. The decision was made to convert to CharityEngine for that, and it was the right choice for us!

Reasons for switching to CharityEngine

The switch to CharityEngine was made for growth. At the time, our previous software had not allowed the growth factor that CharityEngine allowed. The online presence was an important move that my organization had prioritized to improve. After reviewing, and testing a number of CRM software's, the decision to move forward with CharityEngine boiled down to the support behind the product. A focused and dedicated support team provides valuable knowledge and potential to continue growing.

Benjamin M.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

2-10 employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed August 2019

Not just Donor Management

The system not only solves some of the most complex donor management system needs, but in some cases it's working for my association customers to manage membership needs as well. As for associations that have a donor arm, which is where we've done a lot of work, this system is easy to integrate as needed but is a real 360 degree view while also having top notch web forms, marketing automation and other critical items that are huge money and time savers for nonprofits

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

For a multi-tenant system, I'm really surprised at the extensibility of the system. Without "customizing" everything, it's really flexible and configurable to meet a lot of different business rules that are unique to my customers. Their data model and ability to query and layer queries is really impressive compared to similar systems in the market.

Cons:

Hard to say, I think it may be somewhat difficult to set up if you aren't trained on it like my team is as an integration and implementation firm. We work with many similar systems in the market though and I'd say comparatively, it's easier to set up than most other member and donor management systems. I wish it had some additional functionality like the Association Management Systems (AMS) market has around testing, certification and things like that, we could have consolidated down to fewer systems in the stack for our customers who we implemented it for, but that's not what we bought it for. I'm super pleased with what's there.

Reasons for choosing CharityEngine

After spending months to consider a CRM based approach and all of the additional customizations and other 3rd party systems that would be needed to accomplish our customer's goals, the cost to stand up the system and get up and running was cheaper and faster while the customer felt they did not sacrifice quality or support.

Reasons for switching to CharityEngine

Our customer would say that the functionality was greater and more all-inclusive, and the pricing model is surprisingly creative and flexible for the enterprise level system you get.

Christina J.

Verified reviewer

Broadcast Media

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed September 2021

Connect, Customize and Collaborate

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The tool is feature rich. I find new options that will improve our productivity just about every week. One of my favorite features is their robust import tool. They make is so easy to bring data into the system.

Cons:

Charity Engine offers a wide variety of features, but some have not been developed to the level of sophistication we need. The good news is they have an excellent process for submitting and reviewing enhancement requests and so far, all our requests have been submitted for future development.

Reasons for choosing CharityEngine

We chose Charity Engine because of their API capability, donor retention program and they offer the ability to customize just about everything within the tool.

Reasons for switching to CharityEngine

Allegiance did not offer the ability to integrate with other technology platforms which is critical for the long term growth of our organization.

Vendor Response

Thank you for your insightful review. We appreciate you sharing your experience with us.

Replied October 2021

Shalin D.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2022

An Easy, One-Stop Shop

Charity Engine has provided a one-stop shop CRM solution for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy for the past five years, providing a powerful tool to help grow the organization’s constituency. The one-stop shop aspect has been very helpful — everything is one place. Data collection, data management, campaign management, email distribution and so much more. We do not have to manage multiple vendors and contracts, we can track work and performance in one system, and we have one account manager ensuring our needs are met. We both appreciate and have enjoyed the support of the Charity Engine team and we know other organizations will too.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

We loved that it's a one-stop shop, reducing the need to manage multiple contracts or engage in various conversations with multiple vendors.

Cons:

The software could be more user-friendly, supplemented by robust customer support. Fortunately, Charity Engine is expanding its account management/customer support team(s) so improvements are ahead.

Reasons for choosing CharityEngine

We chose Charity Engine because it offered us a one-stop shop for all of our needs.

Vendor Response

Shalin - thank you for your thoughtful and thorough review. We pride ourslelves on being a true all-in-one CRM that doesn't require expensive integrations and puts the data in your hands, in one place. Thanks again!

Replied February 2022

Dana B.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

1001-5000 employees

Used other for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed September 2019

A True Partner

I've worked at start ups and with more mature fundraising programs and the level of transparency I had into our business, especially payment processing is unmatched. The experience with Charity Engine felt more like a partnership than a vendor / client relationship and I believe this contributed to our overall success.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

A monthly giving program can provide a stable source of income for an organization and Charity Engine software was integral to the implementation and ongoing success of our monthly giving program. Our strategy included moving off of our existing online fundraising platform and finding a better option for payment processing. Direct Response Television (DRTV) is a considerable investment and it was the primary acquisition method for our program. We wanted a solution that could charge recurring gifts (monthly, quarterly, annual) and process ACH and credit card donations across all channels and we didn't want to deal with file transfers. Charity Engine worked with us and the software accommodated all of our needs - the donation page integrated seamlessly with the website, we passed through our source code logic and the inbound contact centers could authorize and process transactions in real time (no batch processing) through Charity Engine's open API. What I like most about this experience with Charity Engine software - flexibility. Charity Engine felt like a solution with plenty of functionality I could use right out of the box but that also incorporated features designed specifically to meet my program's needs. Later, with a smaller organization, I found my favorite thing about Charity Engine software - other than the cost (per contact record fee structure) was the intuitive interface that made it easy for a few people to manage events and peer to peer marketing/fundraising.

Cons:

As a Charity Engine admin/user at the first organization, we identified a need for user manual/training resources. Also, entering offline donations (literally entering check information) was a pain point, however, offline donation entry is problematic for peer to peer fundraisers/organizations still today - I don't think any software has the perfect solution.

Kristi K.

Verified reviewer

Non-Profit Organization Management

51-200 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed January 2022

Data Warehouse Capabilities and SQL Integration

Charity Engine has expanded its one-stop shop CRM solution by also providing Data Warehouse capabilities and SQL integration. This DBaaS (Database-as-a-Service) offering has been instrumental in our Data Analytics Strategy. Easily generating a visual diagram of the database schema allowed new Developers to quickly come to speed at ATC by further understanding the underlying data construct. Developers could leverage their pre-existing SQL skills rather than learn different data extraction and querying tools. Additional efficiency was gained when interrogating data by allowing for infinite ways to join tables, filter data, and extract meaningful insights rather than be limited by rigid pre-established querying structures. The added benefit of Charity Engine’s hosted database service is that their team handles the infrastructure, storage, data replication, and backup automation, ensuring that the organization’s data is secure and accessible which is a priority for any organization.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

The expansion of the native CRM solution with Data Warehousing capabilities and SQL Integration.

Cons:

Proprietary report writing and querying tool native in the product. This limitation was overcome by the release of the new data warehouse that allows for querying via SQL Server Management Studio (which is a well known industry standard).

Vendor Response

Kristi - thank you so much for your review and specific feedback about our dBaaS offering. We're excited too about this offering!

Replied February 2022

Showing 1 - 10 of 28 Reviews

See All Reviews