Donation Management Software                

Donation management software is a great tool for nonprofits and charities. It helps you collect donations, keep track of your donors, and manage the finances of your organization. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best donation management software options out there, including one that even comes at no cost!

In this guide, we review the aspects of Donation Management Software, best donor management software for nonprofits, donor database for nonprofits, and church donation management software.

Donation Management Software

Donation management software helps nonprofits collect money, keep track of donors, and manage the finances of their organization. If your organization needs a donation processor to handle donations, raise funds through fundraising campaigns and events, or manage volunteer signups and email marketing: look no further! We’ve compiled a list of some of the best donation management software options out there.

Donation processing

  • Make it easy to donate. Donors should be able to donate easily, especially if they’re new to making donations online. This means providing an intuitive interface and clear instructions on how to use the software.
  • Enable multiple types of donations. Most donation management software will allow you to accept both online and offline donations, so make sure that your donation management software is compatible with both processes.
  • Offer secure processing methods for all types of donations (including credit card, cash and check). If your organization has a brick-and-mortar location where people can bring in checks or cash, then ensure that this option is available within your donation processing system as well as online options like PayPal or Stripe (for credit card payments).
  • Provide real-time tracking for all funds received so donors know exactly how much money is being collected at any given time during a campaign or event – this way you can record their contributions accurately from start until finish!

Fundraising campaigns

Fundraising campaigns are a great way to get people to donate money, whether it’s for a cause, an event, or just because you want them to.

Fundraising campaigns can be used in many different ways. For example:

  • You could use fundraising campaigns as part of an event such as a charity auction or race day. This will help raise funds for your event and attract more people who want to take part in it. It also gives participants something else to do during their day out with friends and family instead of just watching races all day long!
  • You could use fundraising campaigns as part of a project like building houses or schools in developing countries where there isn’t enough money available from public sources like governments or NGOs (non-governmental organizations). By donating money through these kinds of projects people feel good about themselves while still making sure they’re helping other people who need some extra support back home too!

Event scheduling

In addition to managing the donations you receive, you can also use our donation management software to manage your events. With event scheduling tools in our software, you’ll be able to create a schedule for speakers and volunteers. This will help your organization keep track of who is doing what and when they need to be there.

You can even use this feature as an easy way to ensure that each speaker doesn’t overlap with another one during their presentation time slot!

Volunteer management

Volunteer management software is an indispensable tool for any nonprofit with a large volunteer base.

It can be used to communicate with volunteers, organize their efforts and keep track of time spent on projects. It also makes it easy to assign tasks and manage their progress in real-time, enabling you to see at a glance how efficiently your volunteers are working or whether certain areas need more attention.

One of the most popular volunteer management platforms is Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge (formerly known as Blackbaud CRM). This tool offers many features that make it ideal for nonprofits, including:

  • A scalable system that works for small organizations as well as large ones—you can use Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge with just a few employees up through hundreds of staff members or thousands of volunteers
  • An intuitive interface that allows you to easily manage all aspects of your organization’s fundraising efforts
  • Integration with other Blackbaud products such as Donor Perfect Online Giving Platform

Email marketing

One of the most important things you can do as a nonprofit is to communicate with your donors and supporters. Email marketing is a great way for you to share news, updates, thank you messages and more. The more you reach out to your supporters, the more likely they are to donate again in the future! In fact, email campaigns have been shown to increase donations by an average of 26%.

Reporting and analytics

There are a variety of reports and analytics available in donation management software, but the most important ones to look for include:

  • Contributions by channel. This report shows you how much money came in via different channels (e.g., credit card, check), which allows you to see where your organization is getting the most contributions from. That data can help you decide where to allocate your fundraising efforts—for example, if an email campaign drove tons of donations for one month but not for another month, it might be worth doing more emails in the future instead of other activities like direct mail campaigns or telemarketing calls.
  • Donor retention rate. This report shows how often donors give back after giving once; this helps you figure out if there’s a certain type of donor who gives repeatedly over time (and thus has high value).

Accounting and budgeting integration

You can import all of your financial data into the system, so you never have to record a single transaction by hand. This includes bank statements and credit card statements, but it also includes any other kind of accounting file. Furthermore, you can create budgets and forecasts for each department or project using the software’s powerful budgeting tools. You can track actual vs. budgeted numbers every month, which is useful for forecasting future revenues and expenses or seeing how well past sales goals were met. Finally, if you use an accounting program like QuickBooks Pro or Sage 50 Accounts Plus that exports data in CSV format (Comma Separated Value), you can export this data directly into those programs from Donation Tracker Pro’s interface at no extra charge!

Online registration

Online registration is a great way to increase your donations. It can be used for any type of event, whether it’s for one-time or recurring events, and multiple types of events. Online registration can also be used for fundraising campaigns.

best donor management software for nonprofits

To run a successful organization that depends on donations, it’s important that you have an excellent system to organize your work. You’ll need to manage a donor database, onboard new donors efficiently, store donation forms, run social media campaigns, and generally streamline your fundraiser processes. Without the right software and campaign management tools in the form of donor management software, this can be a challenging undertaking.

Donor management software is like customer relationship management (CRM) software; only it’s for non-profits. The software is essential for large and small not-for-profit businesses that want to run non-profit CRM, donor communication, event registration, outreach, and other fundraising efforts.

In this article, we look at the best donor management software on the market today. Keep reading to discover how you can use contemporary tools to manage your donor engagement and donor membership management. 

The Best Donor Management Software List

Below is our selection of the 12 best donor management software for fundraising campaigns, peer fundraising, managing direct mail with donors, storing donor information, and maintaining the donor base at the levels you want.

Donor Management Software FAQs

Before I look at the best donor management software in our list, let’s start by looking at some of the main questions I often encounter when talking about donor management tools that can help non-profit teams run some of the best fundraising events.

What is Donor Management Software?

Donor management software is a kind of computer program that assists teams in non-profit organizations involved in fundraising understand and take maximum advantage of their relationships with donors. These programs assist organizers in managing donor data and analyzing the data to ensure that donors keep funding projects.

Donor management software helps teams automate processes and manage workflows better. The technology ensures that processes that would take days when done by hand can be done in real-time in seconds. The software accomplishes this by providing user-friendly templates that can be customized for different campaigns.

Data gathered by these tools allows organizations to segment and sort both potential and current donors. This makes it possible to operate strategically and apply different approaches for diverse donors. This data includes donor behaviors and financial capacity, thus providing non-profit organizations with specific, actionable takeaways and fundraising strategies.

Why is Donation Management Software Important for NGO Teams?

Donor management software helps non-profit organizations run their processes more efficiently in a coordinated way. It makes tasks that would have taken hours, if not days, easily accomplished in minutes, if not seconds. It reduces the workload of staff members and frees up more time to concentrate on finding more donors.

The software helps organizations to put in place systems that improve relationships between the donor and the non-profit organization by building trust through secure transactions. The donation tool makes it possible for donors to share their personal and financial information without worrying that this will compromise their security. 

Analysis of the donor data acquired can be used to segment the donors. Based on their experiences, messaging and support can be personalized.

What Should Non-Profits Look for in a Donation Management Software Tool?

When you’ve decided on getting software for your non-profit, there are several elements you should consider: the capacity or member size the tool can handle, how easy the tool is to use, and the type of support you can expect from its developers or vendors. 

Find out the essential features that help you know who your donors are, how much they donate, the times they are likely to donate, and whether the donors have seen your correspondence. You also need to consider whether the software will assist you in monitoring donor retention.

The best way to get a grasp of each tool’s features is to ask for a demonstration. Check how many users can have accounts, as well as their access levels.

Testimonials are essential to the selection process. Reach out to the fundraising tool’s previous and current clientele to get real, unbiased, and independent user feedback.

Donation Management Software Comparison Criteria

To search for the best donation management software for non-profits, I use the following criteria: 

Donation Management Software Key Features

Below are some of the most critical features that software delivering donor management solutions should have:

Tracking Donation History

Donor management software should help teams track all volunteers, donors, and event attendees in one place. An important feature for monitoring fundraising campaigns and activities of the non-profit is the ability to provide a history of donors.  

Email Marketing

In donation management, communication is vital. Therefore, it is important that you consider if the fundraising software you want will allow for automated email marketing. This can help maintain and improve the donor list and donor retention because your projects remain in the donors’ minds. Also, donors want news about what their donations are being used for.

Reporting and Tracking

It is important to track all your activities to determine areas that are working and those that need improvement. Reports should tell you which campaigns are raising the most money, which campaigns lead to the most engagements, and which donors are donating to each campaign.

The ability to produce automated custom reports is also a feature that allows you to define the report you wish to have and when to get it for quick reviews of trends.

Process Automation

Process automation improves the efficiency of your organization. Some of the features you will find in the leading donation management software include creating personalized emails, receipts, and statements. All this can help to create a positive relationship with the donor community.

Online Donation Portal and Recurring Giving

Software Advice, an online resource for software buyers, carried out a study that showed that 20% of shoppers considered an online donation portal a “must-have” feature for organizations that want donations. Online donation portals allow donors to select how often they make donations and set recurring donations as well. They also allow donors to make donations as they make purchases. 

Event Planning and Project Management

For most non-profit organizations, event management is an inevitable task. Therefore, the right software should allow non-profits and their teams to put their focus where it is required: attracting more donations. They can work with a greater number of donors across different fundraising campaigns and events.

The software should also allow teams to collaborate across campaigns and get an idea of what the workflow looks like. This will ensure that projects are completed within budget and planned timelines. The project management feature also allows team members to get an idea of where each campaign is in the pipeline. 

The Lead Pastor is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you click through links on our site — learn more about how we aim to stay transparent.

Overviews of the 10 Best Donor Management Software

Here’s a brief description of each of the donor management software on my list, showing what it does best, plus screenshots to showcase some of the features.

Kindful is donor management software that focuses on building relationships with donors. It offers fundraising, donor management, and communication tools. The software also comes with tracking and reporting tools. 

Pricing for Kindful starts at $100 per month.

Aplos is a software that assists non-profits or churches in getting a grasp on their accounting. Other features provided by the software include donor or member management and communication, automatic tracking of gifts and recurring donations, fundraising tools, and much more.

Pricing for Aplos starts at $59 per month. 

Salesforce’s Non-Profit Cloud unites constituents and organizations. The software promises to help “build and maintain trusted and lasting relationships with supporters and beneficiaries by delivering the experiences they need in changing times.” 

Salesforce for Non-Profit is designed mainly to cater to the needs of non-profits, educational institutions, and foundations that provide grants. 

Salesforce for Non-Profit pricing starts at $48 per user per month.

Built by Microsoft Azure, Blackbaud is designed to meet the marketing and fundraising needs of non-profits. It provides excellent insight via its data intelligence.

Blackbaud pricing is available upon request.

Donorperfect is a suitable fundraising solution for non-profits. It provides insight into the drivers of donations, donor segmentation, and communications via personalized emails. Event managers can use its auction management tools to manage silent, live, mobile, and online charity auctions.

donor database for nonprofits

Consider this—7 out of every 10 donors only donate once. Not enough to shock you? Let’s add to the mix that 77% of donors leave due to a lack of communication. A donor database trumps a post-it note or spreadsheet any day of the week, but what one is right for your nonprofit?

With the right donor management tool to fit your organization’s needs, you have a better shot at communicating in the right way and building better relationships. When you communicate well with the right frequency, donors don’t leave your nonprofit behind!

To make it easy for you to navigate this article, we’ve broken our discussion into three helpful sections:

Let’s get started shopping for the perfect database!

1. Yes, There are Donor Database Solutions for Small Nonprofits!

As a small nonprofit, your budget doesn’t have much room to, well … budge.

Just because money might be tight doesn’t mean you should sacrifice comprehensive donor management tools! Like their larger counterparts, smaller nonprofits should use a donor database that allows them to gain insight into their constituents. With more insight comes more ability to strategize, and with better strategy comes support! These software options are well-suited for nonprofits that don’t need an extensive array of fundraising tools but still require the functionality of a database that a spreadsheet can’t provide.

GiveLively

This is the rare situation where “you get what you pay for” doesn’t apply. Although you have to apply to use GiveLively’s software, it is truly a free donor software for nonprofits! While not robust in terms of marketing support or the other bells and whistles larger platforms offer, it is a solid tool for new nonprofits. If you’re currently using a spreadsheet to track donors, this is a great way to get started with a more secure and sophisticated solution.

DonorPerfect

Donor Perfect’s solution is a long-standing and pretty highly regarded software. Through your Techsoup membership (free for nonprofits!) you can secure a base DonorPerfect package at a deep discount. If you’re running a simple operation you may find it a bit overwhelming, but for small nonprofits that have complex operations, it is a great solution. It helps your team manage donations, contacts, receipting, reporting, and email, from a single system.

DonorDock

Unlimited contacts? Yes, please. That’s just one of the “grow with you” features of this up-and-coming donor database solution. DonorDock boasts a pretty comprehensive suite of features and an Apple-Esque intuitive interface. Don’t let the fact that this software is newer to the market distract you from the fact that it’s ahead of the pack in modern capabilities.

Auxilia

All the bells and whistles of the big guys with an easy-to-use interface and affordable price – that is Auxilia! With a design built for small teams and those seeking a user-friendly interface, Auxilia is a low-stress (sorta fun:-) way to manage donor data. This software is especially great as it prioritizes integration with social media platforms. If your nonprofit is (or, is striving to be) digital-first in your donor acquisition and correspondence, this is a highly recommended tool.

2. Many Options for Donor Databases for Medium-Sized Nonprofits

If your organization is smack dab in the middle, you’ve got a little bit of money to invest in donor management, and your number of constituents is growing. Even if you’re quickly on the rise, your nonprofit probably doesn’t have the budget to spend an arm and a leg. You’ll need to find a donor database that can accommodate your ever-changing needs and afford you the flexibility you need to grow your donor list. These middle donor management systems are for you!

You’re forward-thinking, so shouldn’t your donor database be, too? Driven gets high marks for social integration and helping nonprofit leaders to see donors from a 360-degree perspective. There’s nothing worse than realizing you overlooked one of your volunteers or members as a top donor, and this software won’t let you make that mistake!

Network For Good is a platform that can affordably scale with your organization if you’re seeking a standalone CRM/donor management tool. While a change to their software packages has added cost for event ticketing, a full suite of functionality is still there for nonprofits with multi-channel approaches.

At Bloomerang, nonprofit success relies on donor engagement and satisfaction. With their database, your donor retention rates are upfront and center on the dashboard so you know exactly how your organization is doing. You’ll also get a view of each individual constituent’s giving history to track fundraising success on a macro or micro scale! Bloomerang engagements are measured in “cold,” “warm,” “hot,” and “on fire!” You’ll get smart reports, a timeline of individual constituents, access to email distribution designed to increase retention, and printed direct mail pieces.

As your nonprofit grows, you’ll be doing more and more to attract and retain support, right? So, you’ll need a donor database that does a few more things, too. Humanitru will help your organization grow through almost any channel, including membership, events, and even volunteers. Best of all, it’s highly integrated with platforms commonly used in the nonprofit sector, including MailChimp and Constant Contact.

3. The Bigger you are, the Bigger the Deal Your Donor Database is!

As a large nonprofit, you’ve got more constituents and a little bit more to spend. That said, you need a database that can accommodate a significant number of contacts without sacrificing usability. If that sounds like the kind of database you’re in the market for, check out these donor management systems that were built to handle large amounts of donors.

Raiser’s Edge, Blackbaud’s fundraising and relationship management solution, offers tons of different giving options all in one place—major giving, annual fund giving, planned giving, and online giving. Plus, you can build a 360-degree view of your supporters and host all of your management in the cloud. With a strategic look at your constituents, you’ll have no problem retaining current donors and building your database through targeted marketing efforts. Bonus – they have a mobile app so you can track your donors on the go!

Well known in the for-profit space, Salesforce is also available for large nonprofits with complex fundraising and donor management needs. Instead of sales, track donations and manage your donors like you would a sales contact. After all, nonprofits are in the business of sales. Unique to the Salesforce system, you’ll have access to pre-integrated applications that can help you with events management and more.

church donation management software

Sometimes talking about money at church can be a touchy subject. But it shouldn’t be! After all, 11 of Jesus’ 39 parables are about money, and there are over 2,000 Bible verses that talk about money, wealth, greed, and the like. With today’s variety of giving platforms available (credit cards, debit cards, checks, cash, mobile app; the list goes on) it’s more important than ever for churches to track church donations. It would be nearly impossible for a church to build an accurate budget at the start of a calendar year if they aren’t able to track church donations accurately and regularly.

Did you know that individual donations make for the largest share of charitable and church giving in the United States?

What are the benefits of Church Donation Tracking Software?

A proper church donation tracking software will take all the guess work out of your accounting and financial forecasting. Knowing how much to pay staff, what events to throw (and how frequently), how generous your church can be for other local or benevolent needs, and what’s in the bank for missions all comes down to how accurately your church donation tracking software is.

What are the features of Church Donation Tracking Software?

There are several key features of using a church donation tracking software. You’ll be able to see detailed deposit information, search gifts by name and email, view summary deposit reports, create tax receipting, and have access to a host of incredible accounting and admin tools, making your finance team happier than ever.

Not only does a solid church donation tracking software help make sense of complex church finances, but it also works to alleviate some of the administrator responsibilities and many hats of the church leaders, and they’ll build greater confidence in the software managing what is otherwise done manually, with a greater possibility for human error.

Beyond tracking donations, you can integrate with church management software for attendance tracking, event management, volunteer scheduling, donor management, people management, church apps, and more! Great for small churches, midsize churches, and megachurches, donation tracking software is sure to be a game changer for all religious organizations.

With Tithe.ly you can get started for free (that’s right, $0) and have your church donation software up and running in no time at all. There is no setup fee. No monthly fee. No credit card required! You can cancel at any time. The features are endless. Give it a try!

How Is Software Different for Churches?

Different churches need different solutions. Like snowflakes, they’re all totally unique! Luckily, there are lots of solutions that are catered to meet your church’s needs across the various platforms that are available. Keep reading on to see a comparison of the 7 best church donation tracking softwares.

How to Chose the Best Church Donation Tracking Software:

More than likely, the manager (or team) of your church finances will be the one using the church donation tracking software. Whoever it is in your church (big or small) that typically counts the money and/or tracks online donations will sigh a huge relief when they switch from manual data entry to a robust donation software.

Nowadays, it’s helpful to donors to receive instant email receipts. Think of it as the “Amazon effect”. People expect a confirmation email or text, especially in response to a generous gift. Instant email receipts, weekly giving reminders, ChMS integrations (with a system like Elvanto) are all important features for a church donation software. Nowadays, 49% of all church giving transactions are made with a card. Making online giving as easy as possible for those individuals who would like to use a credit/debit card is important.

Yes. Absolutely. Remember back in grade school when you had to learn how to do math with pencil and paper, and then at some point in school you were given a calculator? Church donation tracking software is the calculator. You’ll save time, money, and plenty of headaches by automating countless operations and simply looking over the reports as often as you’d like.

This is a good question to consider. Church software will only continue growing and developing in the coming years. Learning how to integrate tech into your religious community will pay dividends over time as the world continues to be shaped by technological innovations.

Here are the Best Church Donation Tracking Software in 2021

Ranked #1 on SoftwareWorld, Tithe.ly scores a 98/100 as a catch-all solution for every church and charitable organization to use in the 21st century. Used by 30,000 churches and organizations, Tithe.ly provides easily customizable solutions for church mobile apps, giving software, accounting and reporting, and more. With a totally intuitive interface, your church will fall in love with this all-in-one tool that customers love.

Tithe.ly boasts a complete giving system that will increase tithes and offerings by making online giving for your church simple while also allowing members to donate directly from your church website.

It only takes 5 minutes to set up and get started and there are no commitments whatsoever. Cancel anytime, risk free!

There are so many awesome features of using Tithe.ly for your church donation tracking software. Below are just a few.

Along with those features, you can easily brand your church donation form so that your logo and branding shows up all over the web form. This gives peace of mind to the donors throughout the process because they will know by the logo each step of the way that they are giving to the right place.

Beyond these great features, you can also track bank deposits, reconcile giving, and easily integrate your favorite accounting tools.

Accounting and bank reconciliation should be simple for your church staff, but all too often church giving platforms make it harder than it needs to be. In order to change that, we’ve gone to great lengths to spend time understanding exactly what churches, ministries, and non-profits need to effectively and efficiently manage their finances and gain the insights needed to grow.

Use cash and check gift entry, gift and deposit reporting, weekly/monthly summary reporting, tax receipting and more. Now with a seamless Quickbooks integration, Tithe.ly will be your new best friend.

It’s $0 to start with no setup fee, no monthly fee, no contract, and no credit card required.

Aplos offers unlimited church giving forms to meet your every need. There is also a fun giving widget that you can embed onto your website so donors can give without ever leaving your webpage. Aplos hosts lots of digital giving features and can also provide text-to-give at an additional cost. The Aplos Suite starts at $59 per month.

PowerChurch offers two different editions: Plus and Online. In comparison to Tithe.ly and Aplos, PowerChurch feels a little bit outdated, but it does boast tools like check in, online giving and administration, powerful record keeping, and more. The software starts at $395.00 per download for a new user.

This system has some great features you might want for church financial reporting. Meet Net Asset accounting standards and comply with GAAP while you confidently track expenses, analyze spending, and clearly communicate fiscal health to the rest of your team. Their entry plan for the giving app starts at $19 per month.

FlockBase has an online giving application that pairs well with its accounting system, which makes reporting, taxes, and IRS compliance much easier. They advertise as being great for small to mid-size churches, so if your church is really big, FlockBase might not have every feature you’re looking for. Their basic plan that starts at $16 per month.

Breeze makes giving and generating reports a “breeze”. Ah, I see what they did there. Along with their tracking software, they also offer powerful reporting, text giving, tax-season statements, and user-specific roles so different users see different features on the app. They have one plan only, and it’s $50 per month.

ACS is secure, accurate, flexible, and offers a built-in ACH options for those who’d like to give directly from their bank account (instead of with a card). ACS also gives the ability to run payroll, run accounts payable, send invoices, and more. Their “MinistryPlatform” has a great check-in suite and an intuitive donations and payments application. They give you pricing after you schedule a demo.

Leave a Comment