What is Donor Management Software? 11 Best Options for 2023

This image shows someone using a computer, representing the importance of carefully planning your donor management software search.

Donor management software, also known as a donor management system or a CRM for nonprofits, can help your organization save time, connect with donors more deeply, and boost fundraising.

Effective donor management technology is more crucial than ever—according to the Giving USA 2023 report, the majority of website traffic in 2022 came from mobile devices, and over 75 percent of Gen Z and Millennial donors prefer giving online. To effectively connect with your audience members, you need the right software solutions to reach them on their favorite platforms.

To help you understand everything you need to know about donor management software, this guide will cover the following topics:

Explore a donor management solution that prioritizes strong relationships. Schedule a Bloomerang demo.

What is donor management software?

Donor management software is a type of nonprofit software that helps organizations track, assess, and grow their relationships with their donors. As a tool that’s designed to help with donor relationship management, the software helps nonprofits organize donor data, identify donor trends, and increase the likelihood of receiving future donations.

Are donor management tools useful for small nonprofits?

Smaller nonprofits often have tighter budgets, and they usually have smaller teams too. That’s why we recommend investing in a donor management solution even when your nonprofit is a small operation. These tools can do the work of a part-time or full-time staff member for less than $150 per month, depending on which software you use.

Investing in nonprofit management software early is also essential for setting the foundation for organizing your fundraising and donor data. Small nonprofits that use spreadsheets to manage their donors often find that their data becomes disorganized and difficult to understand as they grow. This can be a headache for staff members whose time is already limited by development efforts, leading their team, and communicating with their supporters.

Choose the right donor software for your sized nonprofit. Complex donor management systems for nonprofits like Salesforce require a lot of customization and maintenance—specialized resources that small nonprofits often don’t have. Others require multi-year contract commitments—locking in small nonprofits for up to three years.

We recommend choosing donor management software that’s simple, scalable, and still powerful. The best nonprofit software offers onboarding and training to help you move all your data into your new system. They’ll also be able to integrate with the other tools you’re already using, so you don’t have to learn entirely new systems for everything you do like email marketing and events.

Benefits of donor management software for nonprofits

Donor management software is designed to help you manage all your donor data in one place. It’s a great alternative for organizations that have outgrown spreadsheets or are looking to understand and utilize their data to maximize their fundraising efforts.

Here are some additional benefits that this software can bring to your organization:

This image shows the benefits of using donor management software, outlined in the list below.

  • Improve efficiency. Automate data entry and reduce manual errors. Manage all donations in one location, even if they are obtained across multiple platforms like social media sites, email campaigns, and events.
  • Identify promising fundraising opportunities. Donor management software can also use wealth screening to predict which donors are more likely to give larger amounts of money, show if and how donors are connected, and highlight giving habits. For instance, Bloomerang’s donor management software integrates with DonorSearch, a prospect research tool. This integration allows nonprofits to find new donors who have supported similar organizations in the past and appropriately upgrade existing donors.
  • Personalize donor outreach. Use your nonprofit CRM to track donors’ previous involvement, such as past events they’ve attended, donations, or communications they’ve had with staff members. Then, personalize your outreach to them by referencing their past engagement in your letters, emails, and texts.
  • Report on fundraising progress. Gain a bird’s-eye view of your entire supporter base and run automated reports on essential metrics, such as donor retention or average donation amounts for different donor segments. Monitor the success of your fundraising campaigns and make adjustments as needed for greater future success.

Does donor management software work with other apps?

Most donor management software solutions integrate with other apps to provide nonprofits with additional tools and seamless data collection. Donor management platforms often integrate with solutions such as:

This image shows different platforms that can integrate with your donor management software (explained further below).

  • Email marketing platforms
  • Donation processing software
  • Accounting software
  • Event management tools
  • Payment processors
  • Membership management tools
  • Prospect research solutions
  • Auction software

We recommend conducting a data audit of your online fundraising ecosystem to understand what software you will need to connect with your donor management platform.

11 best donor management software options for nonprofits

Investing in donation management software makes engagement with your donors so much easier, but looking online for the best software can feel overwhelming.

We’ve compiled 11 top solutions to help simplify the research process:

Bloomerang

This image shows Bloomerang’s donor management software platform.

Donor management software overview

Bloomerang helps organizations retain more donors with a CRM platform tailored to nonprofit needs. The user-friendly platform makes it easy for your staff to manage supporter relationships and track past interactions to build genuine connections.

Bloomerang is specifically designed to keep the most important mission-related information at the forefront of your system, such as donor retention and new fundraising opportunities.

Stand-out features

This donor management software empowers nonprofits to grow and deepen their donor relationships with features like:

  • An interactive dashboard to monitor important metrics like donor retention and campaign progress
  • A constituent timeline to see each supporter’s past interactions in one place, from events they’ve attended to emails they’ve opened and gifts they’ve made.
  • Engagement and generosity scores to identify highly engaged donors with a high giving capacity who would be promising major donor prospects.
  • Donor segmentation capabilities to group donors based on shared characteristics and send targeted communications that speak to each group’s interests and motivations.
  • Robust integrations that allow you to seamlessly connect your current software solutions to your donor management platform.

Plus, Bloomerang’s platform offers other built-in tools for volunteer management, fundraising, marketing, and payment processing.

Pricing

Bloomerang’s pricing starts at just $119 per month and scales up based on the number of contacts in your database.

Bloomerang helps nonprofits retain 10% more donors than the industry average. Request a live demo.

DonorPerfect

This image shows a chart in DonorPerfect’s donor management system.

Donor management software overview

DonorPerfect is a donor management and fundraising platform that helps nonprofits raise more, automate data entry processes, and keep track of essential metrics.

Stand-out feature

This solution offers flexibility for customizing your database and dashboard and displaying the most important information for your unique strategies. Plus, user-based security features keep donor information safe using varying access levels.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $99 per month. Contact DonorPerfect for a free quote.

Little Green Light

This image shows the homepage for Little Green Light, a nonprofit donor management software solution.

Donor management software overview

Little Green Light’s donor management software offers an effective option for nonprofits looking to transition from spreadsheets to a more robust platform. Many types of organizations use this solution to keep donor data organized, including K-12 schools, arts and culture organizations, human services, libraries, and more.

Stand-out feature

Little Green Light enables multiple valuable integrations with other leading software solutions, such as MailChimp, Double the Donation, and WordPress.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $486 per year.

Keela

This image shows actions you can take using Keela, a donor management software solution.

Donor management software overview

Keela offers a robust suite of donor management, fundraising, marketing, and reporting tools to help deepen supporter relationships.

Stand-out feature

Keela offers a Smart Ask feature to improve your donation requests by knowing who to ask, how much to ask for, and each donor’s preferred communication channel.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $134 per month.

Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack

This is a screenshot of the product page for Salesforce’s Nonprofit Success Pack donor management software.

Donor management software overview

The Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) is a nonprofit CRM tool built on Salesforce, a leading CRM software provider. The NPSP is a good option for nonprofits already using Salesforce to manage constituent data.

Stand-out feature

Easily manage recurring giving and predict future revenue with recurring donation features.

Pricing

Your first 10 NPSP subscriptions are free. Visit the Salesforce website for more pricing information.

Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT

This image represents Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge NXT donor management system.

Donor management software overview

Raiser’s Edge NXT is Blackbaud’s CRM offering for nonprofits. Leverage end-to-end gift management and streamlined workflows to expand your fundraising efforts.

Stand-out feature

AI-driven suggested donation amounts and valuable prospect insights help nonprofits grow donor relationships through smart, data-driven tactics.

Pricing

Contact the Blackbaud team for pricing.

Virtuous

This image shows actions you can take in Virtuous’s donor management software.

Donor management software overview

Virtuous combines fundraising, marketing, donor management, and volunteer management tools into one robust platform for nonprofits.

Stand-out feature

Virtuous helps organizations increase their productivity through intelligent forecasting, a custom gift ask pipeline, and simple configurability.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $400 per month.

Givebutter

This image shows Givebutter’s homepage.

Donor management software overview

Givebutter is a free fundraising platform and donor CRM that offers customizable, mobile-optimized fundraising tools that you can embed into your website.

Stand-out feature

Easily important unlimited contacts from your old system or start from scratch with Givebutter’s automated tracking features.

Pricing

Givebutter is free, with a 2.9% + 30¢ processing fee that is mostly covered by donors.

Neon CRM

This screenshot shows the homepage for Neon CRM, a donor management platform for nonprofits.

Donor management software overview

Neon CRM is tailor-made for small and medium-sized nonprofits looking for a donor management platform to expand their fundraising efforts.

Stand-out feature

Simplify your reporting process and make data-driven decisions with the help of user-friendly reports, including 40+ pre-built options.

Pricing

Pricing starts at $99 per month.

Classy

This image shows Classy’s donor management software features.

Donor management software overview

Classy unifies donation management, fundraising events, and peer-to-peer campaigns under one roof with a variety of revenue-boosting features.

Stand-out feature

Classy places a strong emphasis on promoting your nonprofit’s story, with customizable donation pages and personalized donor outreach to advance your mission.

Pricing

Contact Classy for custom pricing.

DonorDock

This screenshot shows the DonorDock homepage.

Donor management software overview

DonorDock is a donor management solution that helps reduce data silos to view all fundraising and marketing efforts at a glance.

Stand-out feature

Stay up to date on donor stewardship opportunities with DonorDock’s Action Board. This tool offers daily recommendations, reminders, and alerts to ensure you’re taking advantage of every opportunity to connect with donors more effectively.

Pricing

You can start using DonorDock for free.

Features to look for in donor management software

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to finding the best donor management software. There are many options to choose from, each with its own set of features. That’s why we recommend that you consider exactly which features are most important for your nonprofit when evaluating solutions.

Let’s explore a list of features to consider when making your checklist:

Fundraising tools

  • Recurring giving. Allows donors to make automatically scheduled donations.
  • Donation pages or forms. A landing page where your donors can make online donations.
  • Donation buttons. Embeddable buttons on your website that will redirect to your donation page.
  • Peer-to-peer fundraising tool. Allows you to launch campaigns where your supporters create teams and fundraise on your behalf.
  • Crowdfunding tool. Allows your supporters to launch their own campaigns and fundraise on your behalf.
  • Event registration tool. Allows you to accept online event registrations and give tickets for your events.
  • Wealth screening. Uses public records to estimate the giving potential of your donors.
  • Matching gift tool. Finds employee matching gift opportunities for your donors.
  • Text-to-give. Allows you to collect donations over text.
  • Payment processing. Collects donations via credit card.

Donor communications

  • Email receipts. Generate email receipts for donations, usually automatically.
  • Automatic tax summary generator. Generates tax summaries for individual donors and usually allows you to send out your end-of-year tax summaries simultaneously to all your donors.
  • Email marketing platform. Send mass mailings to your contacts.
  • Communication history. Shows every interaction you’ve had with your contacts, including visits, phone calls, emails, and direct mailings.
  • Contact and donor segmentation. Filter out your contacts based on a set of criteria, allowing you to target your communication to a relevant group and include personalization.

Donor management

  • Pledge tracking. Track and collect donation pledges from your donors.
  • Contact profiles. Create pages for each of your contacts with their giving history, communication history, and more.
  • Donor accounts. Give your donors the ability to view and manage their giving history, recurring donations, tax receipts, and more.
  • Group segmentation. Create lists of your contacts based on certain filters.
  • Tasks and reminders. Automatically set tasks and reminders to help maintain donor relationships.
  • Household tracking. Track relationships among your donors and streamline communication.
  • Donation tracking. Track every transaction you receive through cash, check, credit card, etc.
  • Self-import tool. Import data into your database from offline sources.
  • Custom fields. Create custom fields for your donation page and registration forms.
  • Contact duplicate finder. Identify multiple data sources for a single contact and merge them together.
  • In-kind gift tracking. Track, report, and document in-kind gifts from donors.

Tracking and reporting

  • Donor analytics. See high-level insights on your donors using a system like donor analytics, donor pyramid, etc.
  • Custom reports. Create your own reports based on certain criteria.
  • Scheduled reports. Set certain reports, like lapsed donors, that will be emailed to you or another group of people on a recurring basis.
  • Donor and contact records. See detailed insights on your contacts with records of all the interactions between your organization and the contact.
  • Donor dashboard. Visualize your organization’s health in one simple dashboard.

Apps and integrations

  • Email marketing integrations. Integrate data from email marketing tools like Mailchimp and Constant Contact.
  • Accounting integrations. Integrate data from accounting software like QuickBooks.
  • Fundraising tool integrations. Integrate data from other fundraising tools you’re using like GoFundMe Charity, Qgiv, and iDonate.
  • Event registration and auction integrations. Integrate data from other event registration, event ticketing, and auction platforms like Eventbrite, TicketSpice, and Handbid.
  • Payment processing integrations. Use outside payment processors to collect donations like Square, PayPal, and Stripe.

How can you choose the right donor management software?

Selecting the best CRM solution for your nonprofit requires careful consideration. The right tool can serve your nonprofit effectively for years to come, so it’s worth it to set aside some time for a thorough deliberation.

Follow these steps to help find the right solution for your organization:

  1. Determine your must-have features. Of the features listed above, which ones will help your nonprofit address its most significant pain points? Identify your must-have and nice-to-have features to look for a solution that meets your needs.
  2. Request demos for your top options. As you walk through each demo, make sure to ask questions and visualize how your nonprofit could use the tool to your advantage.
  3. Consider your budget. Keep your budget in mind while reviewing top options. Consider investing in a solution with scalable pricing that evolves as your nonprofit grows.
  4. Keep your goals in mind. Consider your organization’s future aspirations and look for a solution that can grow with your nonprofit. Be wary of solutions that require multi-year commitments.
  5. Get your team’s input on your final decision. Consult with fundraising team members who will use the new system daily to get their feedback on your top options.
  6. Prioritize implementation and training. After selecting a donor management solution, prioritize seamless implementation and staff training. It can be challenging to get team members up and running with a new system, so be sure to offer plenty of training materials and answer any questions staff may have.

Need some help finding the right software solution for your nonprofit? Download our free buyer’s guide.

The bottom line

Donor management software for nonprofits organizes and analyzes donor information to help you maximize your fundraising efforts.

If you’re interested in learning more about these solutions, check out these additional resources:

Your donor management software should put relationships at the forefront. Bloomerang helps nonprofits raise more and create lasting change. Schedule a demo.