Getting up and running as a brand new nonprofit is a major challenge—and costly software is a huge part of that. Finding the right donation tools early in the planning process will help you build a solid foundation to grow on.
Any nonprofit can benefit from free and low-cost fundraising software that can give you a major leg up! We’ve developed a guide to over 24 of our best suggestions for platforms that your team should consider during the search for your software.
Utilizing free and cost-effective fundraising software as a part of your strategy is an excellent method for managing your campaigns and bringing in new streams of revenue, all without shelling out too many overhead costs. Here’s what we’ll cover in this guide:
- Free Fundraising Software + Tools for Nonprofits
- Low-Cost Fundraising Software for Nonprofits
- Donor Management Fundraising Software
- Our Favorite Fundraising Software Companies
Let’s jump in and learn all about our favorite fundraising software solutions and what makes them unique.
Free Fundraising Software + Tools for Nonprofits
Your leadership makes your mission possible by taking control of the behind-the-scenes work. Arm your organization with the tools you need to streamline communication and improve operations at no cost.
1. Snowball
Snowball is an online fundraising platform that features streamlined donation pages, event management tools, fundraising thermometers, and more.
While providing an easy and innovative way to accept gifts, Snowball’s online donation software allows nonprofits to process donations faster—which means you get paid faster and can use the contributions more quickly!
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Snowball’s Essential plan includes a comprehensive suite of tools, including an online donation page, recurring gifts, access to transaction and donor data, unlimited admin access, and effective online support. This means all of your fundraising tools will be in one place, so you can avoid the hassle of transferring data from one system to another!
Additional Details
Our Essential plan is completely free to start using, plus a standard processing fee of just 2.9% + 30¢ per donation. We do, however, give users the option of leaving a tip to support our free service!
If you decide later to upgrade your plan to include text-to-give software, the Snowball Premium plan is available as an inexpensive annual subscription. We’ll uncover all of the perks of our premium plan later in the article.
2. Bonfire
Bonfire’s free fundraising site specializes in customized and branded apparel, such as t-shirts, hoodies, and tank tops. When you sell your organization’s apparel with Bonfire, you’re given a fundraising page to promote your cause and sell as many items as possible.
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Hosting a Bonfire campaign is a unique way to raise money for your organization and get new donors involved. What’s better than getting a gift in return for your generosity? When supporters purchase your merchandise, your organization gets the profit! But supporters aren’t limited to purchasing t-shirts to help your cause. They can provide additional donations unrelated to purchases.
Additional Details
Bonfire handles the finances by managing every step so you don’t have to worry about up-front costs and wasted inventory. The services are completely free— they simply deduct an 8% fee from donations made upon checkout. They’ll even ship your orders for a flat $5 shipping rate to anywhere in the U.S! Try out their pricing calculator for the most accurate estimate.
3. ShopRaise
ShopRaise is an online shopping platform that is totally free for your organization and your supporters to use. When your supporters download the ShopRaise mobile or web app, they can shop at their favorite retailers in support of your cause. Your organization can earn up to 10% of every transaction!
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
In addition to being free, using ShopRaise doesn’t require much investment of your staff’s time or resources to advertise the opportunity to your supporters. ShopRaise provides you with custom marketing materials to distribute.
Your supporters likely already shop at the retailers on the ShopRaise platform. Nationwide stores like Walmart, Petsmart, and Macy’s are on the app, meaning supporting your cause can be seamlessly integrated into your supporters’ daily lives. All they have to do is download the app and make their regular purchases. There’s no downside to signing up. This is as easy as fundraising gets!
Additional Details
When a ShopRaise user chooses your organization to support at the beginning of their ShopRaise app experience, the app rebrands to feature your organization’s name and logo. That means your brand appears on the users’ iPhone (or Android) home screens, plus your organization’s name pops up whenever they select a different store or proceed to checkout. These valuable branding opportunities are just one of the perks of using this effortless fundraising platform. Visit their page to get started with ShopRaise.
4. 99Pledges
99Pledges is an effective peer-to-peer fundraising platform, perfect for fundraising events such as walk-a-thons, dance-a-thons, read-a-thons, or any similarly structured fundraiser. The online fundraising pages are easy for donors to share with their networks via email, text, and social media.
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Each participant in your campaign receives a customizable donation page that’s ready to share— no technical set-up required! Your team can track your fundraising activity by increasing social shares and the total amount raised in donations.
Additional Details
99Pledges campaigns are free to run! Additionally, your organization keeps 90% of all donations made online via credit card and PayPal and 100% of all donations made via cash or check.
5. Fundly
Fundly’s crowdfunding platform lets users customize an online donation page for their campaign. The site allows you to easily update your fundraising pages with photos, videos, and personal anecdotes to engage with your audience and encourage repeat visits to your content. An excellent bonus is that your team can do it all from your smartphone with Fundly’s mobile app!
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Fundly is all about helping your team getting your word out about your fundraiser. With optimized content and a straightforward user interface, your fundraising pages will attract supporters. In addition, Fundly’s integration with Facebook Open Graph Actions shares all of your campaign activity to your Facebook profile for more exposure for your cause.
Additional Details
It’s free to get started with Fundly, who then only charges a platform fee of 4.9%, in addition to a standard credit card processing fee of 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.
6. Fundraising Letters
Fundraising Letters is an online fundraising solution that provides downloadable templates for constituent correspondence, including matching gift requests, sponsorship letters, donation requests, and thank-you letters.
These templates allow for a streamlined communication process and help build solid donor relationships. You can use these standardized fundraising letter templates as a starting point and then personalize each letter as much as you want to engage your donors.
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Each letter template includes a separate section with key takeaways and a short explanation of why that particular letter is effective. There are over 80 fundraising letter templates to choose from, each of which is optimized for a different target or occasion.
Additional Details
All of these customizable fundraising letters and templates are 100% free to download and use as you choose. Simply enter your email address, and the templates will be delivered to your inbox in minutes so your team can start drafting your appeals as soon as possible.
7. Fundraising Report Card
During your campaign, there are many important metrics to be aware of and major data points to collect—it can be tough to get started collecting and evaluating this key fundraising data. With Fundraising Report Card’s innovative tools, nonprofits can analyze reports tracking different fundraising metrics and suggest actionable insights to take things to the next level.
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Fundraising Report Card allows you to take advantage of the unlimited potential available in your fundraising data. This will help you build and grow your donor relations by offering insights into key performance indicators, growth tracking, acquisition reports, lapsed donors, and churn.
Additional Details
Since Fundraising Report Card is free to join, your nonprofit can enjoy zero fees as you learn more about how your fundraising strategy is performing. If you like what you see, you can upgrade to any of their additional three low-cost plans that start at just $30/month.
8. Google Analytics
As Google’s own digital analytics software, Google Analytics provides insights into key marketing metrics concerning your audience, advertising, behavior, conversions, and more. This software can also provide recommendations concerning which social platforms can target audiences most effectively.
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
With this tool, you’ll be able to see insights native to Google’s analysis tools that can help your team make more informed decisions going forward. For example, you’ll learn your visitor’s journey, and view key demographics of your audience, including the gender, age, and location of individual users.
Additional Details
Google Analytics is completely free to use and perfect for small to mid-sized organizations! There is, however, a premium version called Google Analytics 360 for the largest nonprofits and other enterprises that can cost over $150,000 annually.
9. Mailchimp
As an all-in-one marketing automation platform, Mailchimp helps you promote your nonprofit and any campaigns you run with key promotional tools such as email campaigns, social media marketing, and digital advertisements. The platform then supplies real-time performance reports and key insights into your campaigns, allowing you to analyze and improve your strategy as necessary.
Why This Free Fundraising Software Stands Out
Implementing a strategic marketing plan is crucial to getting the word out about your fundraisers and general nonprofit endeavors. This intuitive fundraising software allows you to take advantage of key tools without needing a background in design or marketing.
Additional Details
Mailchimp offers four different plans, with the most basic tools available at no cost and the premium plan reaching upwards of $299/month. The free plan includes access to a marketing CRM, basic marketing templates, and custom audience targeting.
It’s surprising these fundraising software options are free with the extensive capabilities they offer! Be sure to check out upgrade options for even more benefits.
Low-Cost Fundraising Software for Nonprofits
Check out these practical and effective tools to boost your nonprofit’s fundraising revenue. Learn more about our top recommendations for taking your online fundraising to the next level.
10. Snowball Premium
Snowball’s fundraising software is the most effective solution for organizations that need user-friendly features on their donation pages, event pages, and text-to-give campaigns.
With Snowball Premium, you have unlimited access to event ticketing tools and the entire Snowball suite of digital fundraising features, including text-to-give. This can take your campaign from good to great at a low price.
Why This Low-Cost Fundraising Software Stands Out
Beyond the capabilities your team receives with a Snowball Essential account, Premium offers bonuses that make it worth the upgrade. For instance, you can host an unlimited number of campaigns and events on the Snowball Premium platform each year. If you’re looking to run a text-to-give campaign to drive your mission forward, you can set an unlimited amount of text trigger words to make for the most effective fundraiser yet.
Additional Details
The Snowball Premium plan is a low-priced annual subscription at $549 with a transaction fee of 2.5% + 30¢.
11. Double the Donation
Double the Donation is the go-to matching gift fundraising tool. Their database allows your organization to easily market matching gifts to your supporters, and streamline the matching gift submission process.
Why This Low-Cost Fundraising Software Stands Out
Double the Donation has the most comprehensive matching gift database in the nonprofit space, and it is constantly growing and being updated by their team. Your organization can embed the database widget easily onto any page to provide a quick and easy way for your donors to look up their eligibility and submit their match requests.
Additional Details
Double the Donation costs $499 per year for complete access to their database and their partnership network of turnkey integrations. Plus, you can try out Double the Donation for free for 14 days!
12. GivingMail
GivingMail is an excellent fundraising product for any organization looking to raise more funds with direct mail. Leveraging direct mail as a part of your campaign can be difficult.
GivingMail helps organizations write, print, and distribute effective fundraising letters. By using their services, you can save time and can redirect focus to further fundraising efforts.
Why This Low-Cost Fundraising Software Stands Out
GivingMail offers powerful templates and design assistance when crafting your fundraising letters. They’ll even print and distribute your mail for you!
Additional Details
The price for GivingMail depends on your optimal fundraising package. Their prices are as low as $1.00 per piece, which includes postage!
13. Funds2Orgs
Funds2Orgs is an online fundraising platform that helps you organize and carry out a shoe drive for your nonprofit. This type of campaign simply asks for donations of gently worn used and new shoes to be picked up by a member of the Funds2Orgs team. These donated shoes are then exchanged for a check to your organization’s cause!
Why This Low-Cost Fundraising Software Stands Out
This is an interactive and engaging fundraiser that you can host without asking for monetary donations from your donors. Your supporters likely have old shoes lying around, and it’s easier to part with a pair of old sneakers than hard-earned cash!
Additional Details
Funds2Orgs’ shoe drive fundraisers are free to host, with zero out-of-pocket costs— and you’ll receive a check within two business days of wrapping up your fundraiser.
These low-cost fundraising software options are excellent for organizations looking for a cost-effective way to upgrade from basic tools. Look into the best option for your team, and drive your fundraising further.
Donor Management Fundraising Software
Donor management tools are crucial to the success of your organization. You can store pertinent information on your supporters that your team can use to strengthen your relationship with the donor and encourage future giving.
14. Bloomerang
Bloomerang is an all-in-one database solution for nonprofits that value functionality, adaptability, and user experience above all. Not only is Bloomerang’s robust donor management database an invaluable tool for building relationships in your community, but it also empowers you with the expert fundraising technology you need.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
With an interactive dashboard, Bloomerang helps nonprofits keep track of their fundraising progress through customizable fundraising tools. Since Bloomerang is cloud-based, you’ll never have to worry about outgrowing the system: it’ll scale with your cause as it grows.
Additional Details
Bloomerang offers a streamlined software product for startup nonprofits called Bloomerang Lite, completely free up to your first $100k in annual revenue. For those who have outgrown the Lite version, Bloomerang also offers more robust plans starting at just $99/month.
15. CharityEngine
CharityEngine is an effective CRM solution that will store your relevant data about donors. This software is a complete solution from the start of the donor journey to encouraging recurring donations.
With CharityEngine’s platform, your team can launch advocacy and fundraising campaigns, reach supporters, and report on important KPIs. With this, you’ll maintain good data hygiene with their automated services.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
In addition to their CRM, this platform offers secure payment processing with PCI certification. Your organization and donors can have peace of mind that their sensitive data is stored safely.
With CharityEngine, you’re also able to manage events by storing information about your venue, speakers, and ticketing data in a central hub. Then, use your event’s data with the software’s custom reporting and dashboard features. It’s now easy for your organization to track fundraising and campaign data to make better inferences for the future.
Additional Details
CharityEngine starts at $499 a month.
16. Lumaverse
Lumaverse is a comprehensive fundraising software solution that can equip your team with the tools for more targeted fundraising to maximize their efforts. Manage your donor data, event information, registration, and marketing with this all-in-one product. This software can transfer data collected from your crowdfunding campaigns to your intuitive fundraising and donor management system with ease.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
Lumaverse offers such a diverse array of tools and services that any organization is bound to find a package that fits their needs. Their software is affordable for the smaller nonprofits looking to get started with a simpler solution and grow alongside larger-scale organizations.
Additional Details
Their CRM plans begin at only $65 per month. Or, use the free trial for 30 days to determine if your team wants to invest in Lumaverse’s software.
17. CiviCRM
CiviCRM is a constituent relationship management tool that helps keep your donor data organized, standardized, and accessible to your whole team. This tool offers management tools regarding membership, event hosting, and advocacy campaigns in addition to a standard contact management feature to boost your efforts and strengthen relationships.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
CiviCRM is classified as open-source, which means it’s is easily customizable to meet your nonprofit’s specific needs. This tool allows organizations to centralize constituent communications, expand upon their current donor base for deeper engagement.
Additional Details
CiviCRM is completely free to use, with upgrades available for purchase beyond their basic features. Additionally, they provide extensive self-service resources as well as the option to consult an expert for any issues that arise concerning the installation or customization of your CRM.
18. Salesforce NPSP
The Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) is a set of nonprofit-specific data management tools built onto the existing Salesforce CRM software. The NPSP reports and analyzes data from your donors, volunteers, and events to provide a comprehensive look at your nonprofit as a whole.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
The NPSP provides Salesforce’s unique features and a wide range of apps available. These attributes make it an excellent data and donor management choice for organizations that want to form strong data-driven strategies.
Additional Details
The Nonprofit Success Pack can be added onto the main Salesforce structure for free for eligible nonprofits, as made available through the Salesforce AppExchange. Keep in mind that additional apps and customizations will require investments.
Our Favorite Fundraising Software Companies
In addition to the excellent options above, check out some of our other favorite software companies. These options can help equip your team with tools needed to hit your fundraising goals to drive your mission forward.
19. DonorSearch
DonorSearch offers a powerful prospect research tool in addition to other services that simplify the fundraising process. By helping you find exactly who to target with individualized prospect research, you’ll have a better understanding of how to distribute your time and marketing efforts effectively. With wealth screening and proven philanthropy data, DonorSearch will give you the most accurate view possible and reduce the need for manual research.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
The prospect research tool will give you basic background information on the individual or corporation, such as birthplace, occupation, family information, and philanthropic history! The results give you a list of their recent donations, including the type of gift, location, amount, and date.
Additional Details
While their main services are contracted, a condensed version of the prospect research tool, called DS Giving, is free and perfect for an introduction to prospect research for smaller nonprofits!
20. 360MatchPro
360MatchPro, created by Double the Donation, is a complete matching gift automation tool. Nonprofits frequently miss out on matching gifts because they can’t possibly reach out to every single match-eligible donor, or they don’t have the time to reach out to ask if someone is match-eligible.
With 360MatchPro, you don’t have to. The platform uses email scanning capabilities to find supporters who work for companies with known matching gift programs and can identify and reach out to supporters with unknown employers.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
Don’t miss out on significant matching gift revenue any longer. With 360MatchPro, you can build a personalized and automated communication stream to reach out to your donors, educate them on matching gifts, and then encourage them to complete their matches.
Additional Details
360MatchPro starts at $3,000 per year. Contact Double the Donation to learn more about how you can supercharge your matching gift program today.
21. ABC Fundraising
ABC Fundraising is a tool that helps organizations run profitable product fundraisers. No matter if you’re a religious organization or a sports team, they offer an expansive amount of ideas and options to help your team drive funds to your organization effectively and engagingly.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
ABC Fundraising can boost your funds by providing profitable products, proactive customer support, a resource for selling your products, and an expansive resource for fundraising event ideas of all kinds.
Additional Details
ABC Fundraising offers a free information kit regarding pricing and steps to get started with their software.
22. Boardable
Boardable offers easy-to-use nonprofit board management software that enables your leadership to communicate virtually. With central document storage, discussion areas, remote voting capabilities, and task-tracking functionality, any nonprofit board can go paperless without risking productivity.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
Nonprofit boards drive organizational progress and often need to make timely decisions to promote growth. Thanks to Boardable’s mobile app, your board can conveniently communicate anytime, anywhere.
Additional Details
Built by nonprofit leaders, Boardable offers all the intuitive features organizations need to build highly effective boards. To understand how it’ll work for your team, take the powerful platform for a test drive with the free trial, where you’ll gain full access to the software for 30 days.
23. Donately
Donately is a free-to-use and comprehensive online fundraising solution that can work for nonprofits of any size. Whether you’re looking for a donation-form builder, peer-to-peer fundraising software, or on-site fundraising tools, they have what it takes to bring your fundraising to the next level.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
Donately provides nonprofits with the ability to easily create effective donation forms. Your team can use this free software to build beautiful giving forms representing your nonprofit’s own brand. Once you create these forms, seamlessly embed them on your website or launch a standalone giving page for easy access for supporters!
Additional Details
Donately requires no up-front fees and only charges once you start seeing fundraising success. For your first $100k in fundraising revenue, there is a 3% fee— which continues to decrease as your nonprofit’s fundraising revenue rises.
24. OneCause
OneCause offers useful event management software that helps organizations like yours manage, organize, and run successful fundraisers. From golf tournaments to silent auctions, OneCause can help your team run a memorable event from invitations to closing remarks.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
OneCause provides mobile-friendly capabilities for your guests to give from their own phones at your fundraising event. For example, if you’re hosting an auction, donors can bid on their phones and receive updates when they’ve been outbid.
Additional Details
OneCause offers several packages that vary in pricing. If you’d like to know more information about your organization’s cost, contact OneCause.
25. Soapbox Engage
Soapbox Engage provides helpful Salesforce apps for nonprofits to customize their toolkits and make the most of fundraising data. These apps serve a wide variety of needs with accurate data analytics, donation tracking, donation form building, and event hosting capabilities.
Before Soapbox Engage, choosing the right apps was expensive and time-consuming. With the help of this suite of apps, organizations can use affordable and effective tools in no time.
Why This Fundraising Software Stands Out
Soapbox Engage provides access to valuable tools to connect with donors and drive fundraising. Explore their guide to Salesforce donation apps for more information and examples of apps in action.
Additional Details
Soapbox Engage apps start at $49/month per app, and unlimited packages start at $199/month.
Now that your team has an idea of what excellent fundraising software looks like, make a list of your favorites and seek out more information about how each provider can help you reach your individualized goals.
Wrapping Up
There are plenty of free and cost-effective fundraising software options out there— you just have to know how to find the best ones! Now that we’ve given you the top fundraising software solutions, you can start on your nonprofit’s next campaign. And with the right tools, you’ll be able to save on overhead costs, leaving more revenue to go directly toward your nonprofit’s mission.
Additional Resources
Check out these resources to help with all your fundraising needs:
- How the Top Crowdfunding Websites Compare to GoFundMe: Are you hosting a crowdfunding campaign? Looking for a GoFundMe alternative? We’ve got you covered!
- Virtual Fundraising: The Complete Guide For 2021 & Beyond: Supplement your next campaign with successful fundraising ideas and best practices in this complete guide.
- Online Fundraising Ideas | 24 Effective Virtual Campaigns: Virtual fundraising events are effective, engaging, and can easily be hosted to abide by social distancing guidelines. Find out more in our comprehensive resource!
