The Top 10 CRMs for Nonprofits & Charities: Streamlining Contacts, Calls, and Partners for a More Efficient Organization

If anyone can benefit from a CRM that provides total contact management, nonprofits and charities are definitely at the top of the list. Just think of all of the people (and segments of people) who your organization speaks with or comes into contact with, in one form or another, in even a single day. Donors, companies, and partners seeking donations and assistance, vendors, and others—they're the backbone of your organization, and keeping them well-managed is going to be integral to your success. 

For traditional businesses, a CRM is the key to sales and customer success. For your charitable organization or nonprofit, the integration of a proper CRM can be your key to increasing donations and driving the organization to a new level of success. This software will help you build deep, meaningful relationships with your donors and the general public, while helping you better manage your operations, events, leads, and more. 

What’s in a CRM?

For the nonprofit, a CRM is an invaluable asset. It offers a cloud-based solution that is scalable and customizable to help organizations manage and document their interactions and contact data. It allows for segmentation and automated marketing that can increase engagement across all channels and can maximize your fundraising efforts by improving efficiencies and implementing the best AI and automation features based on the needs of your specific organization. You can further improve efficiencies by enlisting the assistance of the live receptionists at Smith.ai to handle all of your donor queries and even tackle outbound calls. 

In the list below, we’ve taken the time to review the top 10 CRMs for nonprofits, including some industry-specific platforms and some general-use CRMs that offer all of the features that your organization needs. Some are paid, some are free, but they’re all going to deliver the solutions that your organization is looking for. Plus, when you add Smith.ai’s SMS messaging services, you can connect with donors and others in a whole new way. 

1. HubSpot CRM

As the leading free-forever CRM, HubSpot offers quite a bit without costing a cent. For a nonprofit or charity, that can be the difference between implementing and holding off, in some cases, so it’s definitely at the top of our list. Plus, it’s so customizable and has dedicated contact management tools that translate seamlessly to the nonprofit industry. 

The HubSpot CRM platform includes everything you need to get started with digital donor management and streamlined operations: a clean dashboard with detailed real-time reporting, unlimited users, up to 1 million contacts, deal tracking, pipeline management, and more. Plus, you get the support of the entire HubSpot community of developers, users, and support staff. 

The highlights of HubSpot for nonprofits include:

• Free option? Yes
• Price: Paid subscriptions start at $45 per month
• Automation
• Goal tracking
• Opportunity management
• Contact management
• Scheduling tools
• Integrations with several software platforms and tools

2. Salesforce 

As the leading CRM in the world, Salesforce seems to have a solution for just about every type of industry and organization, including charities and nonprofits. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is an integrated solution that offers total management for all types of charitable organizations. The cloud-based tool can provide real-time insights using AI, and more. 

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud offers tools for email and social marketing, customizable landing pages, grant management, fundraising, service and program execution, dashboards and reporting, and online communities. Plus, through the Power of Us program, Salesforce offers the first 10 subscriptions free for eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. This includes the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) and the Sales & Service Cloud in the Enterprise Edition, and additional discounts are available for other products or additional subscribers. 

You’ll also enjoy features like:

• Free option? Yes, for eligible organizations with 10 or fewer subscribers/users
• Price: $36 per user, per month starting
• Campaign Builder
• Robust donor management tools
• Detailed and customizable reporting
• Social engagement and fundraising
• Support of the #1 CRM brand in the world

3. SALSA

SALSA is used by thousands of nonprofit organizations to handle donor management and streamline the relationship management process by combining a CRM with nonprofit engagement software to deliver the best in machine learning and world-class AI for donor management, advocacy and fundraising, marketing automation, and more. 

With SALSA, users have access to rich donor profiles with unlimited custom field creation options, multi-channel advocacy, unified online and offline donor processing and gift entry, and detailed performance reporting on the user-friendly dashboards. The platform also includes Smart Ask, which is powered by machine learning to help cultivate better donors. Check out features like:

• Free option? No, but a trial is offered.
• Price: $249 per month 
• Customizable team and event pages
• Targeted donor communications
• Grant management
• Gift acknowledgment 
• DIY and digital events management
• Online petitions
• Automated advocacy campaigns

4. NeonCRM

NeonCRM is a cloud-based solution built to support nonprofit organizations specifically, offering thousands of clients across several industries the opportunity to engage with donors, track memberships, manage volunteers, and so much more. There are website and database solutions designed to support all stages of nonprofit development and affordable pricing keeps the budgets of charities in mind. 

The NeonOne platform can be added to Neon’s CRM, adding additional tools for event organization, peer-to-peer fundraising, program management, and more. There are also integrations for QuickBooks and other software. The best features of NeonCRM include:

• Free option? No
• Price: $49 per month to start
• Reports and queries
• Customization and scalability
• Open API
• Social fundraising tools
• Donor management
• Membership management
• Mobile apps

5. Bloomerang

Bloomerang is a dedicated nonprofit CRM and donor management tool that is designed to improve donor engagement and retention while streamlining operations and increasing revenues. The software is easy to integrate and works alongside several other software tools, with a cloud-based deployment that can be scaled to fit your exact needs. 

With Bloomerang, nonprofits will be able to manage their entire donor and constituent ecosystem, including monitoring with real-time metrics. You can create and customize forms to make giving easy and records will be automated with form submissions for easy tracking. Plus, Bloomerang offers:

• Free option? No
• Price: $19
• Automated emails and notifications
• Integrates with several apps and software platforms
• Volunteer management
• Grants management
• Automated recordkeeping
• Rich analytics on performance and donations
• At-a-glance view of engagement by donor

6. EveryAction

EveryAction is a nonprofit-specific CRM that is full of standard CRM features and all the right nonprofit tools, including digital marketing and social media tools, online fundraising and advocacy resources, and donor segmentation that will ensure that you can access the most valuable insights possible. 

In EveryAction, you’ll also find mobile optimization, customizable reporting dashboards, virtual event management, and more. The unified platform makes it easy for you to scale to your needs to optimize interactions with prospects, donors, and others, creating better outcomes for the organization. Highlights of EveryAction include:

• Free option? No
• Price: $109 per month 
• Targeted email campaigns
• Custom reporting with some of the most sophisticated features available
• Mobile contribution options
• Grant management
• Access to a network of 47 million+ Action Profiles 

7. DonorPerfect

The DonorPerfect CRM platform is designed for small nonprofits and charitable organizations looking for a cost-effective way to step into the future of technology. This platform makes it easy to create nonprofit forms for your organization, engage donors, generate and boost prospects, and automate tasks that don’t need dedicated attention. 

DonorPerfect helps nonprofits raise more money online and save their time for what matters, thanks to automation tools galore. There are remote onboarding and training tools available for those new to the platform, and an open API ensures that you get all the integrations that you need. You’ll also enjoy a custom report builder and export templates. The key highlights include:

• Free option? No
• Price: Starts at $99 per month
• Monthly giving reports
• Online donations
• Capital campaigns
• Volunteer management
• Donor management
• Scalability
• Customizable forms
• Nonprofit resources library

8. Kindful

Kindful offers a dedicated CRM with donor management and fundraising management software that will give you insights like you’ve never imagined. This platform saves time on repetitive tasks with automation and AI, provides valuable insights to deepen your connections with donors, and even ensures seamless donor communication at every step of the journey. 

With Kindful, you’ll be integrating a platform that cares as much about your mission as you do. You’ll have access to a robust reporting system and plenty of customizable features, along with an open API for easy integration with Google, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, and others. The best features of Kindful include:

• Free option? No
• Price: $100 per month for up to 1,000 contacts
• Email performance metrics
• Lead accounting and donor management
• Fundraising tools
• Automated email marketing, receipts, mailers, and thank-you's
• Scalable, customizable design

9. Monday.com

Monday.com is a leading CRM solution for those who are looking for a better way to manage their nonprofit organization. It offers contact management, order management, team projects, and events, fundraising and donor lead capturing, donor pipeline management, and other tools. 

The scalability of this platform is what sets it apart. It offers some of the best customization options for the price and makes it easy to manage donors and deals on the go. You can automate and integrate, streamline, and get a top-down view of each donor profile and see where things stand at all times. Real-time reporting makes it easy to stay on track. The key features of Monday.com include:

• Free option? No, but there is a free trial.
• Price: Starts at $8 per user, per month
• Full mobile CRM
• Full API access
• Timeline views
• Automations
• Donor forecasting
• Gmail and Outlook integrations

10. Daylite (for Mac)

Although it’s only currently available for Mac and iOS, Daylite makes the list for nonprofit organizations because it has handy tools to manage all kinds of donor relationships. There are call notes, email and meeting notes, follow-up reminders, and integrations with Apple Mail, Contacts, and iCal to ensure that everyone is on task and every task is on schedule. 

Daylite does offer a free trial for users who want to give it a shot and has one of the lowest prices on this list at just $29 per month. It offers an SaaS deployment and an app for iPhone and iPad, along with donor management, email marketing, volunteer management, and other features. 

The highlights of Daylite include:

• Free option? No, but a trial is offered.
• Price: $29 per user, per month
• Membership management function
• Donor and Volunteer management segmentation
• iCal integration
• Reminders
• Robust reporting engine
  

Smith.ai enhances your CRM for total contact solutions designed for the nonprofit industry

As a nonprofit, you have special needs and demands. At Smith.ai, we want to ensure those needs are taken care of at every touchpoint, helping you provide the total contact management that your organization depends on for growth and success. From the advanced database and reporting features of a modern CRM to the 24/7 answering services of our dedicated live receptionists, together we can create the perfect solution for your client relationship management that scales to fit your exact needs. Ask about our:

• Donor screening and callback services
• After-hours and overflow answering services
• SMS text answering
• Donor payment collection
• And anything else we can do for you!
  

We can integrate with several of the CRM platforms on the list above to help facilitate a hands-off approach to your clients, vendors, and other contacts, including new leads and potential business opportunities that could help you grow. We also offer integrations for billing, scheduling, customer support, automation, and other needs. You’ll be able to automate and streamline things like marketing, sales, and even communications, across multiple channels and do it all for a lot less than you think. 

Plus, when you invest in your nonprofit or charity organization with our combined solutions, you’re giving yourself and your team the chance to focus their efforts where they are needed and let technology do its job in taking care of the logistics and day-to-day operations. If you’re ready, learn more about our live chat and the many integrations we offer, or schedule your demo or consultation today. You can always reach us at (650) 727-6484 or hello@smith.ai.