Are you curious about adopting a CRM for your nonprofit organization? Maybe you’ve got an existing system that isn’t quite meeting your needs. Maybe you’re still using Microsoft Excel for a lot of your donor management but you’re looking to upgrade. The truth is, with the right tools and technology services for nonprofits—including CRMs, other digital tools, and consulting services to help you find the right tech stack—your mission can advance to new heights.
But no matter your reason for searching for a CRM, we know there’s probably one thing on your mind, and that’s the price. We’ve created this guide to help you think through your nonprofit CRM options, including sharing information on pricing, features, and how to find the best tool for your organization.
Which CRM Is Best for Nonprofits?
Before diving into your options, it is important to know that the best CRM for nonprofits is the one that meets the needs of an organization and helps them achieve both short- and long-term goals. Essentially, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Whether you’re looking for the best free CRM for nonprofits or a powerful paid product, there are a lot of options to sort through. Use these tips to help narrow and organize your search.
- Think Through Your Needs: What kinds of nonprofit CRM features are essential to your team? If you use existing tools that you want to keep, what integrations do you want or need? Meet with your team to talk through a wish list.
- Determine the Numbers of Users: Many CRMs base their pricing model on the number of users or contacts. Understand now what these numbers are—and what they might grow to in the upcoming years.
- Set a Budget: Think through how much you can realistically afford to spend on a CRM monthly or annually. Be sure to budget for possible upfront costs during the implementation stage. And keep in mind that spending a little extra may actually reduce costs elsewhere by streamlining processes.
How Much Does a Nonprofit CRM Cost?
CRMs offer a wide variety of features and services. As such, pricing structures for CRMs vary significantly from free all the way up to hundreds of dollars (or more) per month. But don’t let the possibility of a high price tag deter you from finding the right CRM for your organization. We promise there’s a solution out there for you.
Without further ado, here is a list of CRMs to help you start your nonprofit CRM comparison. From a free nonprofit CRM to advanced cloud solutions that’ll integrate into an existing tech stack, this list is a great way to start your search process.
- Bitrix24 CRM: Bitrix24’s free version includes features like social media integrations, basic automation, invoicing, and unlimited CRM records. Their free version is limited to 5 GBs of storage, which may hinder larger nonprofits. Bitrix24 also offers paid versions, with pricing ranging from $49 to $299 per month (with discounts if paid annually.)
- Bloomerang CRM: Bloomerang’s free edition, Bloomerang Lite, is designed for small nonprofits. As such, it allows for a maximum of 250 CRM records, in addition to other features like donor engagement scoring, unlimited online giving forms and pages, and wealth screening. For larger nonprofits or those requiring more features, Bloomerang pricing ranges from $19 per month to $499 per month.
- Blackbaud eTapestry CRM: There are many Blackbaud CRM options available. For nonprofits, one of the most popular choices is eTapestry. eTapestry provides functionality for donor management, marketing, communications, reporting, analytics, and more. eTapestry pricing is personalized based on an organization’s unique needs.
- Breeze CRM: Billed as a church management CRM, Breeze is mainly used by churches and other houses of worship to manage databases, create groups, build communications, maintain donor and volunteer information, assist in event planning, and more. Breeze offers one plan that costs $50 per month.
- Kindful CRM: Kindful’s CRM has features that assist in fundraising, donor management, marketing and communications, and reporting. Kindful also offers various integrations to assist you in connecting it with an existing tech stack. Kindful bases pricing on the number of contacts you’ll need to store, with prices ranging from $100 to $700 or more per month.
- NeonCRM: NeonCRM offers three packages with various features, but each package includes fundraising and membership management tools, analytics, reporting options, unlimited customer fields, volunteer management, email and direct mail tools, and more. Neon CRM pricing ranges from $99 to $299 or more per month.
- Salesforce: Salesforce offers a dedicated nonprofit CRM, the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), that offers features to help organizations with fundraising, marketing, engagement, program management, and grant management. Salesforce for nonprofits pricing starts at $48 per month (if billed annually). Eligible nonprofits may also be able to access the Salesforce.org Elevate Power of Us Edition at no cost.
- Salsa CRM: Salsa CRM offers many app integrations, which can be helpful for teams looking to integrate it into an existing tech stack. It provides features like donor profile creation, donation tracking, direct mail preparation, grant management, and more. Salsa offers customized pricing based on your organization’s specific needs.
- Virtuous CRM: As a CRM, Virtuous focuses predominantly on fundraising and donor management. However, it also offers tools and dashboards to help organizations with communications efforts, development plans, volunteer management, and the automation and streamlining of certain tasks. Virtuous plans start at $400 per month.
Want even more options? Software review companies like G2 often publish large lists of all the best platforms out there. Here’s a list of their top-ranking nonprofit CRMs.
Computers in Ministry: Your Partner in Technology
Does that list of CRMs have your head spinning? You’re not alone. Many organizations struggle to find the right technology tools. From identifying options to sorting through the sheer number of features, it’s a lot. In fact, that’s precisely why we founded Computers in Ministry (CIM)—to help nonprofit organizations accomplish their mission through tech strategy, stewardship, service, and education.
With CIM, we believe CRMs and other tech tools can truly shape your mission for the future. We meet with nonprofit teams to understand their current tools, their wishlist items, and their budget to help deliver and implement the right CRM for the job. Interested in learning more about our services? Reach out to us today. We’d love to chat about our work and learn more about the great things you do every day.