For nonprofits who need to accept online donations, many different types of donation software should be considered. Some have built-in marketing functions (such as Constant Contact), and some manage volunteering hours. Most all of them allow monthly recurring donations.
Choosing the suitable donation software for your nonprofit is a big decision and will depend on your organization’s needs. We researched the various options to help you make an informed decision about which one is best for you!
Our Top 5 Donation Software For Nonprofits
Donation Software For Nonprofits Reviews
1. Best Overall: QuickBooks Enterprise Nonprofit
If you are a nonprofit and want to make your donor management process easier, QuickBooks Enterprise Nonprofit has your needs covered. This donation software follows the tried-and-true QuickBooks model, making it the most popular product in its category. It is easy to learn and use, which is ideal for busy nonprofits with limited staff.
This donation management software can handle every aspect of an organization’s financial transactions. It handles both individual donors as well as large groups seeking to make a single contribution or multiple contributions at once.
Whatever your needs for tracking donations, these features will help you achieve them with the most effective donation software in its field.
QuickBooks Enterprise Nonprofit handles all accounts, deductions, and expenses, can print receipts and reports, and export them to numerous file formats. It offers a comprehensive yet intuitive option for managing donor information, including address, phone number, goals, and what you need to know about each individual donor.
This software is also integrated with Windows Live Contacts, making it possible to directly link a donor’s contact information to their donation record. This makes it easy for donors to follow up with the nonprofit at any time if they want to make sure their gift was handled correctly.
Pricing Plans
- Simple Start – $12.50/mo.
- Essentials – $20/mo.
- Plus – $35/mo.
- Advanced – $75/mo.
All Plans Include
- Income and expenses.
- Invoice and payments.
- Tax deductions.
- Powerful reports.
- Receipt capture.
- Bill management.
- Time tracking.
- On-demand training.
- Workflow automation.
- Data restoration.
2. Best Customizable Option: Aplos
Aplos is donation management software. It is an easy and affordable way for nonprofits to create, track, and report on donations. Aplos is open-source and can be downloaded free of charge. It is available for Linux, Windows, and Unix platforms. It supports multiple languages. It also has a mobile app so that nonprofits can use their smartphones to manage donations in the field or over the phone.
Aplos Features
- Creating Forms and Giving Pages to collect donor information.
- Tracking donations in real-time so you know the exact dollar amount raised at any given time.
- Reporting with various filters for making sense of your organization’s data.
- Integrating with 3rd party services like PayPal, Stripe, or Authorize.
Pricing Plans
- Aplos Suite – $29.50/mo.
- Aplos Suite + Text to give – $39.50/mo.
- Aplos Suite + Advanced accounting – customized solutions starting at $159/mo.
All Plans Include
- Free email & phone support.
- Customizable reporting.
- True fund accounting.
- Budgeting tools & reports.
- Donation tracking & giving statements.
- Event registration & tickets.
- Integrated online giving tools.
3. Best Range Of Features: Nonprofit Plus
Nonprofit Plus is a free online software donation platform helping nonprofits raise money. It includes an in-depth review of the product and features list for all donors. There are many frameworks out there to take your non-profit crowdfunding campaign to the next level.
However, fundraising can be a confusing process where full-stack fundraising platforms are not available or cost too much money, so that’s why our site exists; it provides an affordable alternative for nonprofit organizations to start a crowdfunding campaign with our software products and features at no additional charge!
Nonprofit Plus Features
- No need to register or provide personal information; pay one fee and get unlimited custom software forms tailored to your needs.
- All fields are customizable, and you can create as many custom forms as you need.
- All users have access to all the custom software forms. Once created, your customized form can be shared among any number of groups or individuals at no extra charge.
Nonprofit Plus features include the following:
- Track donations made through your website and in other ways.
- Daily financial reports of all donations received in a month.
- Create different forms for your donors and collect their data.
- Create a one-time donation that is not shown in your monthly report. Remove the recurring donations from your monthly report.
- Get notified when people make a donation through Nonprofit Plus software.
- Send an email to the donor when you send them a message.
All Plans Include
- Fund accounting.
- Restricted funds.
- Grant management.
- Donor management.
- Fixed assets.
- Encumbrance accounting.
- Cash management.
- Reporting and dashboards.
4. Best Customizable Option: Netsuite
Netsuite software supports the needs of nonprofits in two ways. The first is by helping them manage transactions and keep online databases up to date with up-to-date information on donors while at the same time soliciting new donations from their supporters.
The second way this donation software helps nonprofits is by providing a low-fee payment gateway that nonprofits can use to process credit card transactions through various high-street banks safely. This results in safer transactions for both donors and recipients, as they don’t need to share sensitive information about their bank accounts or cards with each other.
Netsuite is a platform that allows its users to send donations through online transactions that are secure, private, and totally free. It also helps nonprofits help themselves.
This platform helps nonprofit organizations to remove the headache of managing online donations and receivables and the stress of getting poor-quality donation cards printed with poor quality printing. All this hard work (and potentially lost money) can now be done by the organization’s volunteers in a simple and easy-to-use manner. In addition, it makes donors feel respected as they can receive email notifications about how much their donation has helped cause.
5. Best User-friendly: Zoho Books
Organizing and tracking donations is essential for any nonprofit organization. Zoho Books is an online donation software that helps you track your donor and client information, manage volunteers, stay on top of cash flow with the built-in accounting module, and even create invoices.
Zoho Books Features
Track Donors
You can keep track of donors (and their gifts) for future reference or send out thank-you notes. You can also see what kind of donations each donor provides, such as recurring gifts or one-time contributions.
Collate Donor Information
Zoho Books automatically collects donor information such as name, address, and emails. It also allows you to import names from other programs or databases. You can manually add your own notes and tags that will help you organize your contacts in one place for easy reference.
Create Events
The software allows you to create events, manage event details, invite guests, track attendance, and export reports of the event. This is useful if you want to track donor attendance at the events hosted by your organization.
Stay Organized with Cloud Storage
With Zoho Books online cloud storage, you can share documents with different users without worrying about file size or storage space.
Pricing Plans
- Free – €0, for businesses with turnover <50K USD per annum.
- Standard – €12 per organization/month.
- Professional – €24 per organization/month.
- Premium – €36 per organization/month.
All Plans Include
- Custom domain.
- Vendor portal.
- Budgeting.
- Various integrations.
- Custom buttons.
- Validation rules.
- Related lists.
- Custom functions.
- Custom schedulers.
Buyer’s Guide
Donation software is a key part of any nonprofit’s fundraising efforts. With most organizations, the chief problem with donations is that they are unable to process payment securely. Because donations are processed either by check or credit card, monthly recurring fees create additional overhead for an organization struggling to make ends meet. Many organizations struggle to gather enough cash to pay these fees.
Several donation software solutions can help an organization take online donations easily and securely. When deciding which one to use, the most significant factors to consider are your organization’s needs, the price of each solution, and the features of each one.
What Is Donation Software For Nonprofits?
Most nonprofit organizations rely on online donations to sustain their operations. Online donation software for nonprofits is a way for an organization to receive donations securely and easily. Many of them have an easy interface that is also very user-friendly and allows the organization to contact donors right away with a click.
Donation Software For Nonprofits Benefits
The donation software helps with several tasks for your organization, including:
- Accepting online donations.
- Helping to raise funds for an event by soliciting sponsors.
- Managing volunteers and tracking their hours worked.
This is an excellent tool for nonprofits that function on a volunteer basis. Some of the donation software allows you to assign and bill pledges, too. You can also track where all donations are coming from in terms of payment method and credit card processing fees and where they are going by tracking which program or charity each one is earmarked for.
This helps nonprofit organizations to keep track of their expenses and donations, helping them to stay accountable.
How To Choose Donation Software For Nonprofits?
Nonprofit organizations can benefit from donation software. Although most people do not think of them as getting donations, they often depend on this type of non-public support to help keep their doors open.
Here are some factors that can help your organization choose the right donation software for your needs:
Pricing
You can purchase donation software either as a free web app or an ASP or SaaS subscription model. Whenever you have to pay a monthly fee for donation software, you will need to consider if the value of the benefits it provides is worth its price.
Keep in mind that if you plan to use it frequently, even if there are no ongoing costs associated with it, the initial cost could be quite substantial.
If you want to go the ASP or SaaS subscription model, you will have to make sure your nonprofit is already registered and that it has the necessary information and documents in place.
Dedicated Or Team Ownership
If your organization employs a dedicated team of people to work on their donation software, you can choose an ASP designed for one-person teams. However, if your nonprofit decides to opt for an ASP meant for team ownership, consider choosing a development service provider with a good track record of developing software for smaller nonprofits.
Web-Based vs. Desktop Application
When it comes to donation software, it becomes necessary to consider the role for which your nonprofit will use the software. If you are looking for a simple solution that allows people to make one-time or recurring donations through its website, an ASP or SaaS subscription model donation software might be the best option. On the other hand, if you have an old desktop application that needs a new lease on life, consider a web-based solution.
FAQ
What Is The Best Donor Management Software?
The best donor management software is QuickBooks Enterprise Nonprofit. It fits nicely for small-scale projects that can’t justify any other software. With this system, you can match donors with your defined giving targets or identify new opportunities for previously overlooked funding.
What Donation Software Nonprofits Use?
A lot of nonprofits are using donation software. One of the most popular ones is called Aplos. This software works with any form of web technology as well, so it won’t be an issue to implement it on your site.
Is QuickBooks Good For Donation Organizations?
Yes, QuickBooks provides the essential tools and features needed to register, set up, track, report on, and manage all the financial aspects of a nonprofit organization in one easy-to-use program.
