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Fundraising Software

How to find the right Fundraising Software

Learn more from our team about Fundraising pricing, features and benefits in our Fundraising Buyers Guide

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The benefits of fundraising software

  • Streamlined volunteer management: Fundraising software can speed up registrations and improve communication with volunteers. It stores details such as volunteers’ contact information and assigned tasks or events. You get quick access to volunteer information, which can be used to plan a workforce for future events.

  • Simplified reporting for data analysis: Fundraising software automates the process of compiling and analyzing donor data. It allows nonprofits to generate custom reports as well as compare and share pledge and donor data in a simple format such as PDF or CSV. It offers a dynamic view of the data to help you effectively evaluate the status of your fundraising goals. 

  • Wider presence and reach: The software helps you manage data about donors, prospects, events, and donations. This data can be used to classify donors on criteria such as demographics and donation patterns. Based on the classification, you can create custom marketing strategies for different types of donors and expand your reach.


Typical features of fundraising software

  • Donor management: Manage donor relationships during various stages/activities by collecting data such as contact information and previous outreach information.

  • Payment processing: Accept, record, and reconcile financial transactions, including credit card transactions. 

  • Contribution tracking: View and track donors' contribution history.

  • Campaign management: Manage your workflow of marketing actions.

  • Recurring donation management: Manage and track gifts that have been pledged monthly, annually, or at a fixed interval of time.

  • Event management: Schedule and manage registrations, donations, auctions, ticket sales, and event communication.


The cost of fundraising software

Most products in the market are priced on a “per month” basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on the starting prices.

Price ranges*:

  • $15 - $40

  • $40 - $99

  • $99+

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offerings found on vendor websites as of June 14, 2019. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

The above list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. An enterprise or premium product that is priced higher may include additional features such as peer-to-peer fundraising, donor wealth screening, and batch gift entry.


Considerations when purchasing fundraising software

  • Type of solution: Before you purchase a tool, figure out the type of software your nonprofit requires. There are various types of fundraising software such as donor databases or nonprofit CRM, online fundraising software, association management software, event planning software, and mobile giving software. If a solution doesn’t have the necessary functionalities, check out other tools in the market. 

  • Ease of managing data: Nonprofits often have to deal with a large amount of data such as donor data, donations, volunteers, event schedules, and logistics information. Look for data automation features such as data cleanup, record merging, reports generation, and tracking data submitted through online forms. 

  • Multiple donation options: As online giving is a core function of fundraising software, it’s important to have diversified online donation options. The fundraising software should support options such as text giving, peer-to-peer fundraising, and matching donations. It could also have inbuilt or integrated payment processing capabilities.


Relevant fundraising software trends

  • Online donation is the way to go: Nearly half of baby boomers in the U.S. donate online. Donors are also adopting digital wallets because of the widespread use of mobile phones. Therefore, mobile-optimized giving pages and forms are vital in attracting and converting donors across all age groups—from the tech-savvy Gen Z to baby boomers. 

  • Video engagement is rising: A HubSpot study found that millennials have a strong preference for video and social-based content. According to a 2018 survey by Wyzowl, 87% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool to increase user engagement and improve brand loyalty, especially among millennials. Nonprofits are also picking up on this trend and using videos to engage with their audience.

  • Chatbots to be added to fundraising software: The popularity of voice-based search and social messaging apps is rising, and so is the need to provide donors instant gratification. This is where chatbots come into the picture. A chatbot integrated into social messaging apps helps you engage your donors better. You can automate several tasks such as solving queries, helping donors make payments online, as well as recording and managing donor data.


Sources

Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Capterra’s fundraising software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in Capterra’s top 20 most popular directory that offer them.

The following sources were used for this document:

1. 37 Staggering Video Marketing Statistics for 2018 (Date accessed: June 14, 2019)

2. Gen Z is Mobile Only, Not Just Mobile Only (Date accessed: June 14, 2019)

3. What Chatbots Can Do for Nonprofits: Top 5 Things (Date accessed: June 17, 2019)

4. Top 5 Tech Trends for Small Business (Date accessed: June 17, 2019)

5. Video Marketing Statistics 2019 (Date accessed: June 14, 2019)

6. Content Trends: Preferences Emerge Along Generational Fault Lines (Date accessed: June 14, 2019)

7. How to Engage Different Generations of Donors (Date accessed: June 14, 2019)