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The 6 Best CRMs for Nonprofits: How to Choose the Right One
Every good donor management strategy requires two things: a concrete plan and a piece of software that can help you execute it. While the plan is up to you to conceive from scratch, you’ll have to choose from the existing slate of software options, referred to as customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, and navigate toward the best nonprofit CRM for your organization.
There are plenty of them out there, and no matter which you choose, it will definitely help bring your donor management strategy to life. But each one is a little different, and some are better suited to your operation than others. We’ve put together this handy roundup of the top seven nonprofit CRM platforms to help you choose the best one for your organization.
1. Keela
Keela is a CRM that has been purpose-built to cater to the specific needs of nonprofit organizations.
The Keela team prioritized the development of smart fundraising and nonprofit marketing tools. This suite of tools uses artificial intelligence (AI) to ensure your operations run more smoothly, boost your team’s productivity, improve your decision-making process and, most importantly, raise more money for your cause.
Keela CRM has fundraising, email marketing, data management, automation, reporting features, amongst others, that can help streamline your marketing, nonprofit project management, and organizational workflow.
Key Features of Keela
- Full-featured CRM with donor management tools and centralized dashboard
- Fundraising management suite including donation forms, recurring donations, reporting, event planning, and automated receipts and thank-you messaging
- Keela Intelligence tools that leverage artificial intelligence to decide who to solicit, when, and how much to ask for
- Email marketing platform that offers templates, segmentation, personalization, and metrics
- Reporting tools like campaign analysis, key performance indicators, donation reports, and data visualizations
- Integrations with a variety of popular third-party software platforms
Who Is Keela For?
Keela is the best CRM for small, medium and large nonprofits and is ideal for teams that have serious growth aspirations. If you want an easy-to-use, all-in-one fundraising and donor management platform that can automate your email marketing, reporting, and project management tasks, you should consider using Keela.
Who Is Keela Not For?
Volunteer-run organizations that are unable to leverage the full features of Keela and its integrations.
Keela Pricing
Keela is priced based on the number of contacts in your database, starting at USD 99, CAD 109, or AUD 109, and each tier includes every Keela feature. If you have fewer than 250 contacts, you may qualify for a free Keela Starter subscription.
2. DonorPerfect
DonorPerfect is a comprehensive software platform that can help nonprofit organizations raise more money and get more done for their beneficiaries. It includes a full feature set with tools that you might not find in other packages, such as auction management.
The developers behind DonorPerfect have done their best to serve every possible need of a nonprofit or charity organization, though their platform does not prioritize AI-powered tools.
Key Features of DonorPerfect
- CRM for charities and nonprofit organizations
- Donation processing
- Online forms
- Reporting and analytics
- Donor engagement
- Event and auction management
- Automated workflows
Who Is DonorPerfect For?
DonorPerfect is ideal for large nonprofits with a robust technology team willing to take its time to learn and implement the features within. It’s perfect for organizations with more than 75,000 contacts in their database.
Who Is DonorPerfect Not For
Small nonprofit teams will have a tough time setting up and utilizing all the features available in DonorPerfect. Likewise, organizations that need advanced features will have to pay significantly more for a premium version. Conversely, nonprofits who have relatively large contact lists but don’t need advanced features are forced to pay for premium tools they won’t use.
DonorPerfect Pricing
Like Keela, DonorPerfect is priced based on the number of contacts in your database, starting at USD 99 or CAD 129 for 1,000 contacts. The base tier includes only core features, while each level up from the base consists of a few more tools.
3. NeonCRM
Neon CRM is the donor management tool that is part of the more extensive suite of applications from Neon One, which also makes software for events management, membership management, and much more. Neon CRM is promoted as an all-in-one software platform that will help you run all aspects of your nonprofit organization.
Key Features of NeonCRM
- Donor management, including CRM database
- Fundraising tools like recurring donations, forms, moves management, and tracking.
- Email marketing tools
- Direct mail management
- Event and volunteer management
- Simplified and custom reporting
- Workflow automation
- Standard integrations with third-party applications
Who Is Neon CRM For?
Neon CRM is best for small nonprofit organizations with complex membership or event management needs. It also may be ideal for organizations with active direct mail programs.
Who Is Neon CRM Not For?
Neon CRM lacks many of the smart, AI-driven tools that some platforms offer. Organizations that need to work as efficiently as possible with limited staff or those that need smart reporting, recommendations, and data analysis should probably look elsewhere.
Neon CRM Pricing
Pricing for Neon CRM starts at USD 99 per month, but only the top tier, USD 299 per month plan, offers every feature.
4. Raiser’s Edge NXT by Blackbaud
Blackbaud has a global reputation for quality software aimed at helping charities, nonprofits, and social enterprises do more good.
Raiser’s Edge NXT is Blackbaud’s nonprofit CRM, which is touted as being “the first truly comprehensive cloud-based fundraising and donor management software solution.” However, many other platforms are making the same claim. Raiser’s Edge NXT is intended to replace nearly all of your existing software so that you only need to work with one platform.
Key Features of Raiser’s Edge NXT
- CRM including tools to help refine your data
- Donor stewardship features
- Smart recommendation tools like top prospects, ask amount suggestions, and donors at risk of lapsing.
- Email marketing
- Campaign reporting
- Event and volunteer management
- Metric tracking and reporting
- Donation processing
- Project and team management
Who Is Raiser’s Edge NXT For?
Raiser’s Edge NXT is a huge, complicated piece of software best suited to large organizations with multiple concurrent programs, money to spend, and big teams necessary to make it all run smoothly.
Who Is Raiser’s Edge NXT Not For?
Small and medium-sized organizations looking for an easy-to-use, affordable tool will likely be overwhelmed by both the cost and complexity of Raiser’s Edge NXT.
Raiser’s Edge NXT Pricing
While pricing is not available upfront on the Blackbaud website, pricing for a single user appears to start at USD 5,000, which is a pretty significant cost outlay from the jump.
5. Salesforce
Unlike the other entries on this list, Salesforce is not a dedicated nonprofit CRM. It is, however, one of the most popular CRMs in the world for businesses. Salesforce has introduced the Nonprofit Success Pack, which adds relevant nonprofit features to the existing Salesforce platform to improve the performance of a nonprofit.
Key Features of Salesforce
- Donation management including recurring, matching, in-kind, grants, membership, and memorial gifts
- Engagement and moves management tools
- Program and volunteer management
- Reporting and customizable dashboards
Who Is Salesforce For?
Salesforce is best handled by large organizations that have deep, tech-savvy teams that won’t be bothered by the enormous complexity of the product.
Who Is Salesforce Not For?
Most nonprofit organizations will have a hard time implementing and getting true value from Salesforce. Its scale is so overwhelming that only the very largest teams can manage and utilize all of its tools.
Salesforce for Nonprofit Pricing
Pricing for Salesforce for Nonprofits is just as complicated as the software itself, starting at USD 60 per user per month. Still, each package has enterprise and ultimate versions, so it will take some time to decide which package is right for your organization.
6. Network For Good (now Bonterra Tech)
Bonterra Tech (Network for Good’s) is squarely targeted at small nonprofit organizations that need a simple, basic platform to raise money and manage their donors. It is promoted as being another all-in-one solution. However, the definition of “all” in this case is somewhat limited, lacking many project management features, smart tools, and event management modules included with other software.
Key Features of Bonterra Tech (Network for Good’s)
- CRM with donor management tools
- Communications tools including email marketing, templates, text messaging, and video solicitation
- Fundraising tools including donation pages, peer-to-peer campaign management, and event ticketing
- Metric tracking
- Third-party software integration
Who Is Bonterra Tech (Network for Good’s) For?
Network for Good is ideal for small nonprofits looking for a fundraising tool with the basic features needed for successful campaign management.
Who Is Bonterra Tech (Network for Good’s) Not For?
Nonprofit organizations that need project management, event management, or smart tools should probably keep looking at other options. Additionally, any organization that has growth aspirations and may need more robust tools in the future ought to try another option.
Bonterra Tech (Network for Good’s) Pricing
Bonterra Tech (Network for Good’s) are not disclosed . In addition to their plan prices, your aggregate cost will be significantly higher if you also have to look for a project management tool, event management platform, and more to fit your organization.
A Comparison Table of the Best Nonprofit CRMs
By now, you might have already spotted one or two nonprofit CRMs that seem interesting. So, go ahead and dig deeper into them. Your choice should come down to what works best for your organization and its unique needs. We hope this article helped steer you in the right direction.
If you’re considering Keela, talk to one of our Nonprofit Experts who can answer any questions you have.
This comparison table is reporting grades for small to medium nonprofits (500-50,000 contacts)
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