Customer relationship management (CRM) software for nonprofits helps charities, faith-based groups, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) raise funds, manage donor campaigns, and build volunteer relationships. While nonprofit-specific CRMs provide tailor-fit solutions, these can be very expensive. Meanwhile, several general-use CRMs also offer features that can be used for donor and fundraising management.
In this article, we reviewed a mix of nonprofit-specific and general-use CRMs that are adaptable to nonprofit needs. We evaluated them to see which one is the best CRM solution for nonprofit organizations based on your requirements, budget, and priorities.
Our top picks and their best uses cases are:
- Freshsales: Best overall for organizations that want a CRM with a built-in phone dialer for low-cost donor outreach
- HubSpot CRM: Recommended for organizations that want a forever-free CRM with tools to manage nonprofit activities like bulk email sends
- Bitrix24: Ideal for nonprofits needing tools to build and maintain an online ecommerce store
- NeonCRM: Excellent option for organizations wanting a comprehensive CRM with nonprofit-specific features
- Kindful: Great choice for nonprofits that need features like donor lifecycle tracking to nurture donor relationships
- Donor Tools: Suitable for nonprofits needing a reliable way to accept online, mobile, and in-person donations
If you are looking for other general-use CRMs that would work best for small teams, read our guide to the best CRM solutions for small businesses. Also, check out our top recommended CRM providers for startups for alternative solutions.
How We Evaluated the Best CRMs for Nonprofits
The best CRMs for nonprofits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) make it easier for you to track and manage donors, volunteers, advocates, board members, and staff. Its CRM features should include a centralized database for contact information, communications history, and financial transactions. In addition, it must be able to pull and mine data to understand trends and use that information to attract prospective supporters.
Specialized CRMs offer features for tracking and managing donors, payments, and files. However, many lack the communication tools, wider integration options, mobile app access, 24/7 support, robust reporting and analytics capabilities, and free or affordable plans found in most general-use CRMs. This is why we also evaluated and included such solutions in this guide.
With an overall score of 4.63 out of 5, Freshsales is our best choice for nonprofit organizations looking for a CRM. Due to its free and affordable pricing plans, robust features and integrations, easy-to-use interface, excellent customer support, and great user feedback, it ranked the highest in this article. It supports an unlimited number of users, offers a built-in dialer, rich contact management capabilities, web integration, and a mobile app.
The tabs below offer more insight into our evaluation process for selecting the best CRM for nonprofits:
40% of Overall Score
We evaluated the subscription options offered by each CRM provider in our list, including the availability of a free plan and monthly billing option. We also considered the costs of its paid options, CRM customizations, onboarding, and maintenance fees.
20% of Overall Score
We evaluated the availability of industry-specific features many nonprofit organizations are looking for, like contact and payment management. These also include reporting and analytics tools, customizable pipelines, third-party integrations, and mobile app access.
15% of Overall Score
The best CRMs for nonprofits do not require technical skills to understand and use. Moreover, they should have an intuitive interface. Each solution on this list was evaluated on how easy it is to set up and operate, as well as to integrate with other apps.
15% of Overall Score
We assessed the solutions to see the quality of help and support they offer to their users. Most of them provide access to self-help resources, but a few stand out by offering support 24/7. Some include customer support via phone, live chat, and email during business hours.
10% of Overall Score
We checked customer reviews on reputable sites to learn how satisfied their customers are. We also noted common issues that the users had. Apart from reviews, we weighed the features that stood out, their value for money, and their popularity to narrow down the best nonprofit CRM recommendations.
Freshsales: Best Overall CRM for Nonprofits
Freshsales
What We Like
- Free plan supports an unlimited number of users
- Robust contact management, including auto-profile enrichment from social media
- Multi-currency support for accurate recordkeeping
What's Missing
- Calling features not available on the free plan
- No nonprofit-specific features like grant management
- Lacks online store capabilities
Freshsales Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Unlimited number of users
- Growth: $15 per user, per month
- Pro: $39 per user, per month
- Enterprise: $69 per user, per month
- Freshsales Suite (Sales + Marketing): Ranges from $0 to $69 per user, per month
- Free trial of paid plans: 21 days
Add-ons:
- CPQ (Configure, Price & Quote): $19 per user, per month
- Workflows: $5
- Phone credits: Starts at $25
*Based on annual pricing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
Freshsales is a general-use CRM that offers a built-in phone system and pay-as-you-go call rates that support nonprofits’ outreach efforts. You can also use its lead management features to organize your donors and gain a visual representation of ongoing transactions. These capabilities—combined with its reporting tools, mobile app, affordable pricing, 24/5 support, and auto-profile enrichment—helped propel it to the top spot of this list.
Like HubSpot CRM, Freshsales allows you to create automated emails for donation campaigns, fundraisers, and events. Its webforms help you gather information from stakeholders and minimize errors during manual data transfers. You can also use its custom fields to manage different funds, and leverage its mobile app to connect with volunteers and donors while on the go.
What’s missing from Freshsales are nonprofit-specific features like grant and member management found in NeonCRM. It also does not have ecommerce tools for order management and payment processing. If you are looking for a nonprofit CRM with telephony and online store capabilities, consider Bitrix24.
Freshsales Features
Freshsales’ built-in phone dialer (Source: Freshsales)
- Contact management, account management, contact lifecycle stages, and activity timeline
- Tasks, appointments, and notes
- CRM renaming modules
- Sales pipeline and deal management, sales goals, and sales forecasting
- Data import and export, and data migration
- Built-in phone dialer, buy local and toll-free numbers, and inbound caller ID
- Chat widget and conversation threads
- Website integration tools include classic forms, smart forms, and website tracking
- Role-based access
- Artificial intelligence (AI)-based insights
- Reports and dashboards
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android
- Access to 24/5 customer support via phone, chat, and email
Read our Freshsales review for a closer look at the features and benefits of this CRM solution.
HubSpot CRM: Best Free CRM for Nonprofits
HubSpot CRM
What We Like
- Free access to online nonprofit resource library
- Permanently free plan for unlimited users
- Easy upgrade for more marketing or sales tools
What's Missing
- Free plan lacks customer support
- Some third-party integrations cost extra
- Plan add-ons can be costly
HubSpot CRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Supports an unlimited number of users
- HubSpot for Startups: Ranges from $40 to $89 per month
- Marketing Hub: Starts at $45 per month
- Sales Hub: Starts at $45 per month
- Service Hub: Starts at $45 per month
- CMS Hub: Starts at $23 per month
- Operations Hub: Free plan for data-syncing HubSpot with third-party apps; paid plans start at $45 per month
- CRM Suite: Starts at $45 per month
- Free trial for paid plans: 14 days
*Based on annual pricing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates.
HubSpot CRM is a general-purpose CRM that supports unlimited users and up to 1 million contacts. It offers a forever-free plan packed with features for managing nonprofit activities, like bulk email sending and lead generation via webforms or pop-ups. This solution also gives you free access to a library of nonprofit resources with topics that include content marketing, marketing plan templates, persona templates, and how to secure more donors.
Organizations with bigger budgets for CRMs may apply for HubSpot CRM’s nonprofit program, which offers a 40% discount for eligible nonprofits subscribing to higher tiers. However, this could still be expensive, as the lowest qualifying plan starts at $360 per month. While you can easily upgrade to paid plans, the cost can add up quickly. If you are looking for other free CRMs for nonprofits, try Freshsales or Bitrix24.
Another disadvantage of HubSpot CRM is that its free tier only offers community support. Unlike Freshsales, its email, phone, and chat support are only available with the paid plans. Also, you can only collect payments by using its Stripe integration with its quotes feature. In contrast, nonprofit-specific CRMs like NeonCRM allow you to process payments within the system.
HubSpot CRM Features
Free nonprofit resources (Source: HubSpot CRM)
- CRM tools include contact management, contact website activity, companies, deals, tasks, activities, and company insights
- Marketing tools include forms, email marketing, ad management, landing pages, shared inbox, and list segmentation
- Service tools include ticketing, email scheduling, and ticket closed reports
- Integrations include Gmail, Outlook, Messenger, and App Marketplace
- Reporting dashboard for activity and performance metrics
- Email tools include shared inbox, email tracking, email templates, and canned snippets
- Sales documents
- In-app calling via voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP)
- Access to community support, knowledge base, and HubSpot Academy
For more details on this solution’s features and capabilities, check out our HubSpot CRM review.
Bitrix24: Best Ecommerce CRM for Nonprofits
Bitrix24
What We Like
- Offers free plan and 15% discount for nonprofits
- No transaction processing fees
- Free mobile app
What's Missing
- Free tier lacks mass email tools
- Per-plan limits on the number of products sold in the online store
- Complex interface makes it difficult to deploy and navigate for non-technical users
Bitrix24 Pricing at a Glance*
- Free: Basic features for unlimited users
- Basic: $35 per month for up to five users
- Standard: $70 per month for up to 50 users
- Professional: $140 per month for unlimited users
*Based on annual pricing. Monthly and quarterly pricing are also available at slightly higher rates, while two-year contracts come at a lower price.
Bitrix24 is a fully customizable CRM you can use to track and engage with your donors and supporters. It offers collaboration tools, such as group chats, video conferencing, and calendars, you can use to coordinate with your volunteers. Nonprofits located in regions with limited internet connectivity can use its on-premise software, which is installed directly on the computer and uses in-house servers.
In addition, Bitrix24 also has an easy-to-use ecommerce module that lets you launch an online store with just a few clicks. It includes e-shop templates and a product catalog, as well as tools for order and inventory management.
While Bitrix24 offers many advantages for nonprofits, its complex interface can prove to be a trial for non-technical users. Moreover, its telephony feature is not included in the free plan, and bulk emailing is only available in the top two tiers. Freshsales, on the other hand, offers built-in calling across all plans, while HubSpot CRM’s bulk emailing feature is included in its free tier. For an alternative that has grant management capabilities, try NeonCRM.
Bitrix24 Features
Activity Stream acts as a feed for current projects and team activities (Source: Bitrix24)
- 15% discount for eligible nonprofits and faith-based organizations
- CRM features include unlimited leads, deals, contacts, quotes, invoices, product catalogs, and pipelines
- Collaboration tools include video calls, video conferencing, online storage, company drive, calendar, webmail, company social network, workgroups, polls, and knowledge base
- Task and project management
- Contact center includes built-in telephony, CRM forms, live chat, and website widget
- Website builder and landing pages
- Ecommerce tools include CRM store, products, orders, checkout scripts, payment processing, inventory management, revenue, and zero transaction processing costs
- CRM marketing includes customer segmentation, segment-based email marketing, Facebook advertising, and email templates
- Sales intelligence includes automatic customer journey tracking, analytical reports, automated ad management, call tracking, and offline ad tracking
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android
- Self-help resources encompass knowledge base, webinars, training courses, partner assistance
- Live chat support
To explore if it is the right CRM solution for you, read about its features and benefits in our Bitrix24 review.
NeonCRM: Best Nonprofit CRM for Fundraising & Donor Management
NeonCRM
What We Like
- Tier pricing based on the number of records needed
- Easy-to-learn, intuitive interface
- Includes social network integration and campaign emails
What's Missing
- Complicated pricing structure
- Phone support requires an additional fee
- Lacks email integration
NeonCRM Pricing at a Glance*
- Essential Light: $49 per month (less than 500 contacts)
- Essentials: $99 to $299 per month (1,000 to 15,000 contacts)
- Impact: $149 to $599 per month (1,000 to 25,000 contacts)
- Empower: $299 to $749 per month (1,000 to 25,000 contacts)
Add-ons:
- Data conversion an configuration: Starts at $600 to $1,500+ one-time fee
- Training & consulting: $600 to $1,500 one-time fee (ranges from 4 to 10 hours)
- Website design: Starts at $125 to $350 per month (two-year contract)
*Based on monthly pricing.
NeonCRM is a full-featured nonprofit CRM that offers tools for fundraising, donor management, and grant management. It also has modules for event planning and membership management, as well as tools for reporting and analytics. In addition, its built-in email platform allows you to create and track mass email campaigns. Like HubSpot CRM, it gives you access to a library of online nonprofit resources, but the selections here are wider.
One of NeonCRM’s greatest weaknesses is its complex pricing scheme—each plan has five tiers, each according to the number of contacts. It also offers a limited number of integrations that include fundraising, email marketing, community management, database optimization, events, and accounting apps. In comparison, Donor Tools has a much simpler pricing model and supports an unlimited number of donors and transactions.
NeonCRM Features
Fundraising campaign data dashboard (Source: NeonCRM)
- Fundraising module that supports unlimited fundraising campaigns
- Modules for management of members, volunteers, grants, events, and files
- Mass email and letter creation
- Activity tracking and prospecting
- Online store
- Application and survey builder
- Constituent-facing features include donor login portal, branded forms, website forms, and URL masking
- Reporting tools include prebuilt and custom reports, customizable analytics dashboards, and ZIP code radius reporting
- Automated receipts, emails, letters, and workflows
- Integrations include QuickBooks and over 25 free third-party integrations
- Access to support center guides and videos, Neon Academy free courses, monthly consultations, unlimited email support, phone and live chat support (Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time and 24/7 for urgent technical issues)
Kindful: Best Nonprofit CRM for Building Donor Relationships
Kindful
What We Like
- Supports unlimited users
- Email and phone support on weekdays
- Self-import tool for contacts and transactions
What's Missing
- Contact-based pricing has an expensive entry-level plan
- Lacks email tracking
- Complex imports may require costly support team assistance
Kindful Pricing at a Glance*
- 1,000 to 5,000 contacts: $100 to $200 per month
- 5,000 to 25,000 contacts: $300 to $400 per month
- 25,000 to 55,000 contacts: $500 to $600 per month
- 70,000 contacts: $700 per month
- 70,000+ contacts: Contact sales for pricing
- Onboarding: $199 one-time fee
- Consulting services: Ranges from $33 to $359 per month
*Based on annual pricing. Monthly pricing is also available at slightly higher rates. All plans support an unlimited number of users.
Kindful is a nonprofit CRM that offers tools for building and nurturing donor relationships, fundraising, and reporting. It provides actionable analytics, improving donor acquisition and retention. In addition, it integrates with other fundraising, events, auctions, and volunteer management apps to automatically sync records and transactions. This platform also supports unlimited users and features a self-import tool for your contacts and transactions.
However, like NeonCRM, its contact-based tiered pricing can be confusing, and the entry-level plan is also expensive. Other providers, like HubSpot CRM, offer a free plan that also supports unlimited contacts and has email tracking features, while Donor Tools uses a very simple pricing model. Still, it gains a slight advantage over other nonprofit CRMs by not charging additional transaction fees on top of the standard credit card processing costs.
Kindful Features
Donor lifecycle dashboard (Source: Kindful)
- Unlimited users
- Permission levels for admin users
- Self-import tool
- Tasks and notifications
- No additional transaction fees
- Fundraising tools include donation pages and forms, donation tracking, reporting, recurring giving, registration forms, peer-to-peer fundraising pages, crowdfunding pages, company gift matching, and event registration
- Donor management features include donor lifecycle analytics, donor and contact records, group and list segmentation, donor account logins, transaction batch entry, in-kind gift entry, pledge tracking, household and relationship tracking, and custom fields
- Donor communications tools in the form of automatic email receipts, acknowledgment receipts, year-end tax summaries, email and letter templates, and solicitation emails
- 13 report templates and unlimited custom reports
- Integrations include payment processors, fundraising, ecommerce, email marketing, accounting, analytics, volunteer management, and political advocacy apps
- Support via chat and email (on demand) and phone (Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Central Time)
Donor Tools: Best Nonprofit CRM for Donation Management
Donor Tools
What We Like
- Reasonable processing fees
- Supports unlimited donors and donations
- Online payment security through WePay
What's Missing
- No Automated Clearing House (ACH)**
- Lacks contact import capabilities
- Does not support payments made outside of WePay
Donor Tools Pricing at a Glance*
- $39 per month: Unlimited donors and donations
- Processing fee: 2.3% + 30 cents per donation for all cards
- Free trial: 30 days
*Based on monthly pricing.
**ACH is an electronic funds transfer system for domestic low-value payment transactions in the U.S.
Donor Tools is donation management software for nonprofits, NGOs, charities, and churches. It features a very simple interface that makes it easy to set up, learn, navigate, and use. This nonprofit CRM supports an unlimited number of donors and records. It also stands out among all the providers in this list because of its no-frills, one-pricing scheme.
While Donor Tools is very easy to use even for beginners, its simplicity also applies to its feature inclusions. It is not as robust as Kindful, which offers donor lifecycle journey analytics and fundraising tools. Customer support is also limited to email, and payments can only be processed via WePay. If you are looking for an alternative with more advanced customer support and more payment options, check out Bitrix24 and NeonCRM.
Donor Tools Features
Donations report (Source: Donor Tools)
- Donation management
- Online giving
- Giving statements
- Documentation of physical giving (cash, in-kind, gifts, and checks)
- Branded web page
- Donor receipt
- Payment processing via WePay
- Report generator
- Email support
