A nonprofit CRM is a donor database first: who gave, how much, when, through which campaign, and when to thank them and ask again. A sales CRM can be bent into that shape, but the tools built for nonprofits track gifts and campaigns out of the box. They are also priced differently. Some charge by the number of records, one by your organization's revenue, and one is free as long as donors leave a tip. Here is what each costs, from its own pricing page.
The nonprofit CRMs at a glance
| CRM | Starting price | Priced by | Users | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Green Light | $45 a month | Records (up to 2,500 at $45) | Unlimited | 30 days, no card |
| Givebutter | Free; Plus from $29 a month, billed annually | Optional donor tips | Unlimited contacts | Plus: 30 days |
| Neon CRM | $99 a month | Your organization's revenue | Unlimited | Not stated |
| Bloomerang CRM | $125 a month, billed annually | Records | Unlimited | Not stated |
| Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud | 10 licenses free | Users | 10 free, then per user | 30 days, no card |
| Virtuous, DonorPerfect | Not published | Quote | Quote | Demo on request |
What a small nonprofit pays for a donor CRM in the first year
Show the numbers
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Givebutter | $0 |
| Little Green Light | $486 |
| Neon CRM | $1,188 |
| Bloomerang CRM | $1,500 |
| Bloomerang CRM + Fundraising | $1,980 |
Little Green Light: best for a small nonprofit on a budget
Little Green Light has one plan with every feature, and the price depends only on how many constituent records you keep:
| Records | Monthly price |
|---|---|
| Up to 2,500 | $45 |
| Up to 5,000 | $60 |
| Up to 10,000 | $75 |
| Up to 20,000 | $90 |
| Up to 30,000 | $105 |
| Up to 40,000 | $120 |
| Up to 50,000 | $135 |
| Over 50,000 | +$15 a month per 10,000, up to 200,000 |
Users are unlimited and free, and there are no setup fees, no cancellation fees and no contracts. Prepaying saves money: 10% for 12 months, 5% for 6 months and 2.5% for 3 months. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. Online donations go through a payment processor that charges from 2.2% + $0.30 per gift, with no fee to Little Green Light.
What to watch: the 10% discount means paying 12 months up front, and every constituent record counts toward your tier, so clean out duplicates before you import.
Choose it if you have a small team, a tight budget and a database you want to own without a contract. Little Green Light's own page is plain about the price, which makes it easy to budget for.
Givebutter: best for free online fundraising
Givebutter makes its money from optional tips that donors add at checkout. With tips on, nonprofits pay a 0% platform fee and 0% processing fees, and Givebutter says you can add unlimited contacts and use every feature of its free CRM. With tips turned off, you pay a flat 3% platform fee plus card processing of 2.9% + 30¢ (1.9% + 30¢ for ACH bank payments).
Givebutter Plus, from $29 a month billed annually ($348 a year) or $33.80 month to month for up to 250 contacts, adds automated workflows, task management, reporting, texting, video messages, discounted direct mail and a QuickBooks Online integration, with a 30-day free trial. The price rises with your contact count.
What to watch: tips come out of your donors' pockets, on top of their gift. If you would rather your donors never see a tip prompt, compare the 3% fee with a flat subscription elsewhere.
Choose it if most of your giving comes in online through campaigns, events and peer-to-peer pages, and you want to start for nothing.
Bloomerang: best for a growing development team
Bloomerang CRM starts at $125 a month, billed annually, with unlimited users and customizable permissions. The price rises with the number of records you keep. Two modules sit on top:
- Bloomerang Fundraising, for online giving, starts at $40 a month billed annually and must be bought together with the CRM, so the pair starts at $165 a month.
- Bloomerang Volunteer starts at $119 a month, billed annually.
What to watch: Bloomerang publishes only starting prices, billed annually, and Fundraising cannot be bought without the CRM. Its proposals, it says, include training and onboarding, with no surprise add-ons for core features later; ask for the full figure in writing.
Choose it if you have a development staff that works donor relationships every day and you can commit to an annual bill.
Neon CRM: best for events, memberships and volunteers
Neon CRM starts at $99 a month and, unusually, is priced by your organization's revenue rather than its record count, so a growing donor list does not push the price up on its own. Users are unlimited, and live chat, email and phone support are included.
Memberships, events and volunteers are add-on modules priced as a share of the CRM fee: +10% for memberships, +20% for events and +10% for volunteers. Onboarding packages are tailored to each organization and are not priced on the page.
What to watch: the add-ons are percentages of a CRM fee that grows with your revenue, and onboarding is quoted separately, so ask for the first-year total.
Choose it if you run a membership program, ticketed events or a volunteer roster alongside fundraising and want them in one database.
Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud: best for a large organization with admin help
Through its Power of Us program, Salesforce gives eligible nonprofits 10 Nonprofit Cloud Core licenses at no cost, and discounts the licenses after that. List prices start at $70 per user a month for Nonprofit Cloud Sales & Service Core and $125 for Advanced, billed annually on an annual contract.
What to watch: the licenses are free, the setup is not. Salesforce is the most configurable system here and the most work to set up, so plan for a consultant or a capable administrator. If that is more than you need, our Salesforce alternatives compare the cheaper general CRMs.
Choose it if you have, or can fund, someone to run it, and you expect to outgrow the simpler donor databases.
HubSpot, Zoho and the quote-only platforms
HubSpot is free for up to 2 users and 1,000 contacts, and gives eligible nonprofits in North America, Australia and New Zealand 40% off list prices. The discount is for new HubSpot customers only, covers only new Professional or Enterprise products on a one-year contract, not Starter, and HubSpot calls the program a pilot. Zoho CRM is free for 3 users. Both work as a basic donor list, but you build the gift tracking yourself; our free CRM for small business guide sets out what each free plan allows. Other industry roundups: CRMs for realtors and CRMs for insurance agents. See HubSpot CRM pricing and Zoho CRM pricing for the paid tiers.
Virtuous and DonorPerfect do not publish prices. Virtuous splits its plans at $5 million of annual fundraising revenue; DonorPerfect's Core, Plus and Pro plans all show "Get pricing". Ask for the first-year total, including setup and data conversion, before you compare them.
How to choose
- Raising most of your money online, with no budget for software? Givebutter, with tips on.
- Small staff, a few thousand donors and a fixed budget? Little Green Light, from $45 a month with no contract.
- Membership, events or volunteers as well as donors? Neon CRM, priced by revenue.
- A development team ready for an annual contract? Bloomerang.
- A large organization with technical help? Salesforce's 10 free licenses.