Which Email Marketing Software Is Best For Your Nonprofit?

KindfulNovember 23, 2020

Header image for best email marketing software for nonprofits

We know that finding the best nonprofit email marketing software is essential for your email marketing strategy. Reaching donors, expanding your audience, and connecting with your supporters are vital to your nonprofit’s success. That’s why it’s important to choose a software that has all the features you need at the price that’s best for your organization.

We recent surveyed 2,502 nonprofit professionals in our Fundraising Confidence Report and collected data on the most popular email marketing tools. We found that the most popular platforms were Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Emma, and Gmail.

Most Used Email Marketing Tools By Nonprofits

Pie chart showing data for the best and most popular email marketing software for nonprofits including Gmail, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and Emma

While Gmail is a great service on its own, using email marketing software like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or Emma can greatly improve your marketing strategy, allowing you to send personalized emails to targeted audiences and receive valuable data to improve your outreach.

In this post, we’ll share the most popular email marketing software options for nonprofits. For each, we’ve included which organization they work best for, our favorite features and integrations, and a pricing breakdown so you can make sure you choose an option that fits your budget.

Best Email Marketing Platforms for Nonprofits Comparison

Software Recommended for Favorite Feature Works with Kindful Pricing starts at
Kindful Donor management & CRM Kindful BCC Yes $100/month
Mailchimp Affordability Automation Yes Free
Constant Contact Customer support Deliverability Yes $20/month
Emma User experience Segments Yes $89/month
Gmail Internal use G-suite applications With Kindful BCC Free

Kindful

product image of kindful email marketing for nonprofits

Recommended for: Nonprofits of any size looking for donor management and CRM software that integrates with the best-in-class email marketing providers.

Favorite feature: Kindful BCC. Even if you’re using Gmail to send your emails, you can take advantage of Kindful BCC to track all of your email communication with your contacts and donors.

Favorite integrations: With Kindful, you don’t have to give up the email marketing software you already know and love. Simply connect your software and your data will automatically sync both ways, allowing you to segment your communication to different groups.

Kindful works with:

Pricing: Monthly, contact-based. Kindful’s pricing starts at $100 per month, and it’s free to integrate Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Emma, and any other apps you use. Nonprofits also receive free phone and email support from our Nashville-based Support Team.

Mailchimp

product image of mailchimp email marketing for nonprofits

Recommended for: Nonprofits of any size looking for an affordable platform with a variety of marketing features. Their free plan offers access to a Mailchimp domain and website builder.

Favorite feature: Marketing automation. Mailchimp offers advanced marketing automation that allows you to welcome new subscribers, follow up, or connect with a customized response without taking time away from your mission.

Favorite Integrations:

  • Kindful
  • Shopify
  • Squarespace
  • Google Analytics

Pricing: Monthly, contact-based. Mailchimp offers a free plan that allows you to use several features of other paid subscription plans. Paid plans start at $9.99 per month and increase based on the number of contacts and audiences. Mailchimp also has nonprofit rates featuring a 15% discount.

Learn More About Mailchimp for Nonprofits

Constant Contact

product image of constant contact email marketing for nonprofits

Recommended for: Nonprofits looking for responsive customer service and reliable deliverability. Constant Contact seamlessly integrates with your marketing team to help you develop the outreach strategy you need and boasts a 97% email deliverability rate to ensure that your communication gets where it needs to go.

Favorite feature: Customer Service. It’s no secret that email marketing can be difficult. Constant Contact has mitigated a lot of the frustration with real-person customer support that can help you with anything from product questions to marketing strategy.

Favorite Integrations:

  • Kindful
  • WordPress
  • Shopify
  • Zapier
  • Google Analytics
  • Eventbrite

Pricing: Monthly. Plans start at $20 per month and are great for nonprofits looking to develop professional email and marketing campaigns but don’t need all the additional features of the more expensive plans. They offer a 20% 6-month prepay discount and 30% for 12-month prepay.

Learn More About Constant Contact for Nonprofits

Emma

product image of emma mail marketing for nonprofits

Recommended for: Nonprofits that want a highly-customizable user experience and templates that get your audience’s attention.

Favorite feature: Segmentation. Emma’s adaptable segmentation lists allow you to define, specifically, who you want to reach out to. This allows you to target your outreach and save time on finding similar audiences.

Favorite Integrations:

  • Kindful
  • Salesforce
  • Eventbrite
  • Zapier
  • Google Analytics

Pricing: Monthly. Plans start at $89 per month and offer a wide range of features, including real-time reporting and analytics, A/B content testing, and several segmentation tools. More expensive plans are geared toward large brands, franchises, and companies with high-performance marketing strategies.

Learn More About Emma for Nonprofits

Gmail for Nonprofits

Product image of Gmail for nonprofits email tool

Recommended for: One-to-one emails and internal team collaboration apps.

Favorite feature: Access to G Suite applications like Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and Google Meet.

Favorite integrations: With the help of Zapier, you can integrate Gmail with a number of your favorite software tools, including email marketing tools that are better suited for marketing campaigns. Some available integrations with Zapier include:

  • Mailchimp
  • Constant Contact
  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Square
  • Shopify
  • Facebook
  • Squarespace
  • WordPress
  • Eventbrite
  • QuickBooks

Pricing: Monthly. Plans start at $0 per month and include unlimited users, 30 GB cloud storage, shared Drives, and access to other Google applications.

Learn More About Gmail for Nonprofits

Choosing The Best Email Marketing Software For Your Nonprofit

Your email marketing platform is an essential part of your nonprofit software ecosystem, but it’s not the only part. We recommend that you make sure you invest in an email marketing provider that integrates with the rest of your software suite before making the final decision.

Make sure your email marketing platform will:

  • Save your contact segments in your donor management platform.
  • Automatically merge donor information so you can create more targeted, informed, and effective online fundraising campaigns.
  • Track subscribes, unsubscribes, click-through rates, and more metrics from your email marketing tool directly within your CRM.
  • Include your email metrics in your donor management system’s reports for a complete picture of your supporters.

Schedule a live demo with our partner Bloomerang, and we’ll show you how easy it is to create and automate reports, utilize online and offline fundraising tools, quickly integrate and access all your data, and ultimately create more time to engage your donors.

Filed Under:   Donor Management