Nonprofits need CRMs just as much as businesses: A good CRM helps nonprofit teams manage donors, volunteers, events, and outreach campaigns—streamlining operations, improving donor retention, and driving mission impact.
Top nonprofit CRMs balance ease of use with robust features: Tools like Nutshell, Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, and Bloomerang offer donation tracking, contact segmentation, automation, and reporting—essential for managing stakeholder relationships and optimizing fundraising.
Affordability and scalability matter: Many nonprofit CRMs offer free or low-cost tiers, but long-term value lies in selecting a solution that integrates well, supports automation, and grows with the organization’s needs.
Whether you have only a handful of donors or a database overflowing with them, each and every one is essential to the success of your nonprofit.
But nurturing new donors to be long-term supporters of your organization is easier said than done.
According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s Q1 2024 report, the donor retention rate fell by type across the board, from those who donate less than $100 to those donating more than $50,000. In other words, any donor you acquire is more likely to float away a year after their first donation than they are to stick around.
That means nonprofits have to burn valuable time and money constantly hunting for new donors, but it also presents an opportunity: How would it affect your nonprofit’s bottom line if you could significantly raise your retention rate through better communication and nurturing?
Managing a nonprofit requires a formalized system of retaining donors, volunteers, beneficiaries, and board members and building relationships with them so your organization can reach its goals. And the best CRM for charities also provides features like donor management and email marketing. Read on to learn more about the best CRM software for nonprofit organizations (NPOs).
Looking for a quick comparison? Here’s what each CRM does best:
💬 ChatGPT
🔍 Perplexity
🤖 Claude
🔮 Google AI Mode
🐦 Grok
To create this guide, we assessed over 50 nonprofit CRM solutions across eight key criteria essential to nonprofit success. We evaluated each platform on ease of use, donor management capabilities, email automation, reporting features, integration options, pricing transparency, customer support quality, and nonprofit-specific functionality. We analyzed user reviews from Findstack, TrustRadius, G2, SoftwareReviews, and other industry review platforms to ensure our ratings reflect real user experiences rather than vendor claims.
Finally, we prioritized solutions that balance robust features with affordability—recognizing that nonprofits operate under tight budget constraints where every dollar spent must directly support the mission.
The ratings you’ll see throughout this article (on a 5-point scale) represent an aggregated evaluation of these criteria. Higher ratings indicate platforms that excel across multiple dimensions, while lower ratings don’t mean a CRM is “bad”—just that it may be better suited to specific nonprofit needs or have trade-offs in certain areas.
A nonprofit CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system is a tool that helps nonprofit organizations manage their relationships with key stakeholders, such as donors and volunteers. The main objective of nonprofit CRM software is to centralize and organize contact information, track donations, and facilitate communication efforts.
Although you may associate CRMs with B2B sales, they can be just as helpful for nonprofits and other organizations that need to manage their contacts and strengthen relationships. A charity CRM could ultimately lead to improved fundraising outcomes.
Relationship management software for nonprofits allow organizations to communicate and build relationships with the advocates they rely on. Rather than relying on unwieldy spreadsheets of donor information, nonprofits can utilize a charity CRM to develop and execute a donor outreach and retention strategy, resulting in more long-term relationships that support their mission.
CRMs can help you fulfill the unique goals you have as a charity or NPO. Here are some benefits of using a CRM for nonprofit organizations:
When 67% of nonprofits are already using a CRM, it’s clear the tool provides a major advantage. It’s the key to turning one-time supporters into lifelong advocates.
With nearly 80% of new donors lapsing, your first follow-up is critical. A CRM lets you automate a thank-you email or create a task for a personal call the moment a first-time donation comes in. This simple, prompt acknowledgment is the first step in building a lasting relationship.
A CRM is the perfect tool for managing a recurring giving program. You can track your monthly donors, automate their receipts, and send them exclusive impact updates. This is how you build a reliable revenue stream—in fact, recurring donor programs grew an average of 127% over five years.
Donors who stay with you give more over time. Research shows that over five years, a donor’s annual giving can increase by 224% compared to their first gift. A CRM helps you do this by treating donors “like investors,” as 2024 trends suggest they expect. You can segment your email lists (which 48% of donors prefer for updates) and send targeted reports on the specific programs they funded, showing them the tangible impact of their support.
Just look at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Before they adopted a CRM, their event and donation data was scattered across different systems, making personalized engagement difficult. After implementing a CRM, they saw a 20% increase in event participation and a 15% growth in donation totals.
So you may already be convinced that relationship management software for nonprofits is a good investment (we agree!). But which one should you choose? With countless CRM options available, it helps to understand what exactly you plan to use your CRM for. Here are some CRM features we think every nonprofit organization can benefit from:
Good donor management CRM software should be able to help you gather your list of contacts – including donors, partners, and volunteers – and organize your contact database in a way that makes sense for your team.
Contact management features such as tagging and filtered search are essential to the day-to-day tasks your nonprofit team does. Nutshell not only has all these features, but we also offer free data importing assistance to get your team up and running from Day 1 (even when you’re just trying out our free trial).
One of the most important features to look for in a CRM is its ability to centralize all your communications and interactions (whether by email, phone, or Teams meeting) within an organized donor or partner profile. Using nonprofit software that stores every conversation, meeting, and update in a single, easily accessible location makes it much easier to track engagement and status of various donors. This ensures that your team has a clear, up-to-date understanding of each partnership. This not only helps prevent important details from slipping through the cracks but also enables more personalized and timely follow-ups, fostering trust and collaboration with your NGO partners.
No problem. To see if Nutshell is the right choice for your sales team, start a 14-day free trial today!
Email communication is likely one of the main methods your organization uses to keep in contact with donors, sending reminders or messages of gratitude.
Using a CRM with your email communication allows your nonprofit to send bulk emails and spares you the grunt work of sending individual emails with features such as email templates. Additionally, CRM automation should help you send timely messages by triggering automated emails depending on the actions of your donor or prospect.
A lot of potential donors come across your organization via events, both online and offline. A good CRM for nonprofits should be able to integrate with your event management software.
Integration with your CRM allows you to streamline new contact data entry or update records to reflect whether a prospect or donor attended an event, letting you send a personalized follow-up email.
You’d likely also want to integrate your CRM system with your favorite invoicing software, corporate giving software, or social media profiles. A CRM for fundraising can help you centralize your data across multiple platforms of your choice.
Accurate reporting can help your organization understand exactly how much contribution you’re receiving, informing you about what’s working when it comes to your fundraising efforts, and what can be improved. You can even track individual team members’ productivity to better manage your nonprofit team.
These we believe are the bare essentials for the ideal CRM for nonprofits. In addition, some nice-to-have charity CRM features (that you may deem as essential to your organization) include:
Nutshell includes all the above-mentioned features and more at affordable pricing. Try Nutshell and get firsthand insight into how Nutshell can boost your fundraising with an intuitive all-in-one CRM system!
Attend a live guided tour!
Every Tuesday at 11am ET/8am PT
Every Friday at 3pm ET/12pm PT
We’ve found eight of the best CRMs for nonprofits on the market. Let’s dive into how they can help organizations like yours reach fundraising goals and achieve your mission.
| CRM | Rating | Best For |
| Nutshell | 4.8 ⭐️ | Nonprofits wanting flexibility, automation, and an affordable all-in-one solution |
| Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud | 4.6 ⭐️ | Large nonprofits needing enterprise features and complex donor management |
| Fundly | 4.3 ⭐️ | Nonprofits with deep donor tracking and grant management needs |
| Bonterra | 4.2 ⭐️ | Nonprofits prioritizing sophisticated email marketing and segmentation |
| Donorbox | 4.1 ⭐️ | Nonprofits combining fundraising and donor management |
| Bloomerang | 4.0 ⭐️ | Nonprofits focusing on reducing donor attrition and improving retention |
| CiviCRM | 3.9 ⭐️ | Budget-conscious nonprofits willing to invest in technical expertise |
| Bitrix24 | 3.8 ⭐️ | Nonprofits needing team collaboration, volunteer coordination, and group communication |
Rating: 4.8 ⭐️ out of 5
Best for: Nonprofits wanting flexibility, automation, and affordability all in one
Nutshell is built on the principle that every organization is different—and that’s especially true for nonprofits. Rather than forcing your nonprofit into a standardized template, Nutshell lets you shape your CRM, marketing, and engagement tools to fit your unique workflows, donor segments, and fundraising strategies. It’s the rare platform that gives you all the flexibility of an enterprise CRM without the enterprise price tag or complexity.
Nutshell offers five CRM tiers starting at $13/user/month (Foundation), $25/month (Growth), $42/month (Pro), $59/month (Business), and $79/month (Enterprise). All tiers include unlimited contacts, unlimited storage, and free technical support. Annual billing offers a discount.
Download now: Use our nonprofit pipeline worksheet to standardize your efforts and build a roadmap for your success.
Nutshell pricing options start at $13 per user per month for Nutshell Foundation and $42 per user per month for Nutshell Pro. All Nutshell subscriptions include unlimited contacts and free technical support.
$ 192
per year
per user per month
per user per month
per user per month
per user per month
per user per month
Nutshell
1 User/s $
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
Annual Charge $
$ 0
$ 0
$ 0
Additional monthly charge $
Rating: 4.6 ⭐️ out of 5
Best for: Large nonprofits needing enterprise-grade features and complex donor management
Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is the enterprise solution for nonprofits with sophisticated operations, multiple programs, and complex reporting needs. It’s a unified platform built specifically for nonprofits that combines constituent relationship management, fundraising, program management, and impact measurement—all designed by Salesforce experts who understand the nonprofit space.
First 10 users are free (with Salesforce nonprofit eligibility). Additional users: $60/month (Nonprofit Edition) or $100/month (Nonprofit Cloud Plus). Annual billing available.
Rating: 4.3 out of 5
Best for: Nonprofits with deep donor tracking and grant management needs
Fundly CRM was created by a team with nonprofit backgrounds, and it shows. Every feature is purpose-built around how nonprofits actually work. If your nonprofit manages grants, tracks detailed giving history, and needs to monitor event registrations and donor engagement across multiple campaigns, Fundly provides a comprehensive dashboard purpose-built for these workflows.
Starting at ~$60/month for the Starter plan. Enterprise and larger organizations negotiate custom pricing.
Rating: 4.2 out of 5
Best for: Nonprofits prioritizing sophisticated email marketing and donor segmentation
Bonterra (formerly Salsa) is the CRM for nonprofits that live and breathe email marketing. If your nonprofit runs frequent email campaigns to different donor segments, uses triggered email sequences, and needs powerful segmentation tools, Bonterra’s marketing automation is unmatched. It combines CRM capabilities with enterprise-class email marketing features in one platform.
Custom quote required. Pricing varies based on list size, user count, and features needed. Expect higher costs for larger nonprofits.
Rating: 4.1 ⭐️ out of 5
Best for: Nonprofits combining fundraising and donor management in one platform
Donorbox is an all-in-one platform that brings together donation processing, fundraising pages, and donor management into a single system. Rather than juggling separate tools for donations (PayPal, Stripe) and donor management (Salesforce, Nutshell), Donorbox puts everything in one place. It’s particularly powerful for nonprofits that want seamless online giving integrated directly with donor records.
Fee-based: 1.5% per donation (plus payment processing fees). No monthly subscription fee if you use the tip-based model. Optional $29/month for Donorbox Plus (advanced automation).
Rating: 4.0 ⭐️ out of 5
Best for: Nonprofits focused on reducing donor attrition and improving retention
Bloomerang is a specialized donor database solution laser-focused on one mission: helping nonprofits reduce donor attrition and increase lifetime donor value. If your nonprofit’s top priority is keeping donors engaged and coming back year after year, Bloomerang’s approach—analyzing donor behavior patterns and surfacing at-risk donors before they lapse—is its superpower.
Starts at $49/month based on annual billing, with pricing tiers based on the number of contacts in your database. Unlimited users included.
Rating: 3.9 ⭐️ out of 5
Best for: Budget-conscious nonprofits willing to invest in technical expertise
CiviCRM is the open-source alternative for nonprofits that want powerful features without the premium price tag—but with an important caveat: it requires someone on your team (or a hired consultant) with technical expertise to set up and maintain. If you have in-house technical talent or a budget for implementation support, CiviCRM delivers sophisticated functionality at a fraction of the cost of proprietary platforms.
Free to download. Optional: cloud hosting (~$50−$200/month depending on provider) and/or implementation consulting (varies by consultant, typically $100−$200/hour).
Related: Can your sales team be fully effective with a free online CRM?
Rating: 3.8 ⭐️ out of 5
Best for: Nonprofits needing team collaboration, volunteer coordination, and group communication
Bitrix24 is a broad platform that combines CRM, collaboration tools, communication features, and project management into one system. It’s ideal for nonprofits where volunteers and staff need to coordinate events, communicate in real-time, and share files alongside managing donor relationships. Think of it less as a CRM-first platform and more as a unified workplace where CRM is one piece of a larger picture.
Free plan: Unlimited users with limited storage. Paid plans start at ~$49/month with additional features and storage. Annual billing offers discounts.
Choosing a CRM for your nonprofit is similar to selecting a CRM for any other organization–consider your unique needs and goals and then compare CRMs to determine which one will best help you meet them.
Here are a few specific steps you can take to find the best CRM for your nonprofit:
At the end of the day, make sure you consider your options.
Our interactive worksheet compares the benefits offered by Nutshell, your existing contact management solution, and any other CRMs you’re currently evaluating.
The average cost of a CRM for nonprofits is between $16 and $120 per month. You can generally expect a higher monthly cost the more users you have on the CRM.
While you can find free CRMs for nonprofits, carefully consider what features you’ll be giving up. A low-cost CRM for charities may or may not be able to provide the functions your organization needs. Be sure to watch out for hidden costs as well. An option that appears more affordable at first glance may end up costing more than expected due to additional fees you weren’t aware of. Always review the pricing details carefully to avoid any surprises down the line.
The best CRM for your nonprofit is the one that fits the organization’s needs and goals. A CRM for small nonprofits should offer powerful features in an easy-to-use dashboard, plenty of automation and customization options, and helpful customer support.
When you’re searching for the best CRM for small nonprofit organizations, look no further than Nutshell. Nutshell has the robust CRM features you need to build more and better donor relationships, grow your organization, and make the biggest impact you can. From tracking donors through your pipeline and automating personal email sequences to collaborating with your team and generating reports, Nutshell helps nonprofits accomplish more.
Nonprofits all have ambitions to reach their goals and complete their mission. To make this a reality, they need donors to help them get there.
That’s why a CRM solution makes a lot of sense for nonprofits: They’re relationship-building machines. Using CRM, nonprofits can make sure a donor never slips through the cracks again, and they’re welcomed into their nonprofit with customized email campaigns and follow-ups.
However, not all CRMs are built the same. Since CRMs are traditionally built for sales teams, it’s crucial for nonprofits to pick a software solution that is geared towards nurturing relationships instead of just closing sales.
Invest in a CRM that’s focused on nurturing your donors, fine-tuning your fundraising efforts, and helping you interact with all your donors on a personal level. After all, the happier your donors are, the easier it will be for your nonprofit to make the biggest impact.
Free CRMs often have hidden costs beyond the sticker price. Setup and customization may require technical expertise (or hiring someone). Limited features in free versions often force paid upgrades once you grow. Some free platforms require payment for integrations, advanced features, or migration support. More importantly, time investment is substantial—free software often requires more staff time to maintain and troubleshoot.
User-friendly paid CRMs like Nutshell offer transparent pricing and often deliver better long-term value when you factor in staff time saved.
A CRM improves retention by automating personalized communications, tracking donor engagement patterns, and identifying at-risk donors before they lapse. Features like email sequences, segmentation, and activity tracking help you send timely, relevant messages that keep donors engaged and connected to your mission’s impact.
There’s no real difference—donor management is simply a CRM function tailored for nonprofits. A CRM manages all relationships (donors, volunteers, partners), while “donor management” specifically refers to tracking donations and donor interactions. Modern nonprofit CRMs like Nutshell handle both seamlessly in one platform.
Implementation typically takes 2-8 weeks for small to mid-sized nonprofits, depending on data complexity and team size. User-friendly CRMs like Nutshell can be set up faster with proper planning (often within days for basic setup). Larger migrations from legacy systems or implementing complex platforms like Salesforce may take 4-6 months, including data migration, testing, customization, and training.
Yes. A flexible CRM like Nutshell can track grant applications, deadlines, and reporting requirements using custom pipelines. You can manage volunteer data, availability, event assignments, and communications. While not grant-specific software, CRMs centralize all stakeholder relationships—including grantors and volunteers—in one place.
We aggregated ratings from multiple independent review platforms including Findstack, TrustRadius, G2, and SoftwareReviews, which reflect thousands of real user reviews. We then cross-referenced these ratings with our own evaluation of nonprofit-specific functionality, ease of implementation, automation capabilities, and affordability.
Our 5-point scale with one decimal place (e.g., 4.8, 4.3) reflects meaningful differences in user satisfaction and platform capability. Higher-rated CRMs excelled across multiple dimensions important to nonprofits, while lower-rated options serve specific use cases well but may have trade-offs in other areas.
Have a question? Need a CRM for a nonprofit? Send us a message or book a meeting with a Sales rep to start the conversation.
Join 30,000+ other sales and marketing professionals. Subscribe to our Sell to Win newsletter!
