5 Best Donor Management Software for Nonprofits – 2024

In the world of online giving, analyzing donor databases and giving personalized experiences is a huge part of any nonprofit organization. As per a 2022 survey, 62% of respondents said people would no longer be loyal to a brand that delivered a non-personalized experience.

To effectively connect with your contributors and make a one-to-one connection, it’s crucial to have the right donor management software.

A donor database software will store the data of your donors and provide you with the necessary insights to make that connection. 

After researching numerous options, we’ve rounded up the 5 best donor management software for nonprofits in this article, to make your fundraising process more impactful.

What is donor management software?

A donor management system, also known as donation management software, is a tool that allows you to store and track your donor’s information, their giving history, and their giving behavior with detailed reporting.

It allows you to effortlessly gather, store, and organize donor data with the capability to craft a highly effective fundraising strategy.

Using a donor database tool, you can improve relationships with your supporters to grab their attention more to raise more funds.

Benefits of donation management software

People are continuously changing their giving behavior. To survive in this changing world of giving, you’ve got to keep yourself updated over time.

Gone are the days when fundraising was all about collecting donations. Now it’s more about making meaningful relationships with the donors and keeping them updated on your efforts.

Donors love to get recognized for their contributions. So, make them your partner in the journey of change. 

To do so, you need information about donors – their profile, their way of giving, how often they donate, the amount they used to contribute, etc.

These are the data a nonprofit donor management software stores in it. Fundraisers utilize these data to develop their strategies and achieve their goals. You can manage and organize all this information with a single tool.

One of the biggest benefits of donor database software is that it reduces the hassle of manual input and errors, resulting in saving a lot of time.

Some additional advantages of donation management software include:

• Improved efficiency
• Personalized donor outreach
• Detailed reporting
• Analyzing data
• Tracking donor history to improve donor retention rates

It’s important to know their last donation when you’re about to reach out to donors to ask for repeat donations. 

​​Knowing their giving ability, you can suggest an amount, which makes this appeal more personalized. 

Remember, the better you know your donors, the stronger your connection will be, compelling them to stay with your organization for the long run.

5 Best donor management software for nonprofits

There are a number of donor management software programs available. To give you a compelling idea, we’ve rounded up the five top donation management tools for nonprofits that give you complete insight into your contributors. 

• Paymattic
• Givebutter
• Funraise
• Donorbox
• Springly

Let’s dig deeper into each of these nonprofit donor management softwares and explore their functionalities.

Paymattic

Paymattic is one of the go-to plugins for accepting donations and payments. It’s wide range of payment gateways, beautiful-looking donation forms, and user-friendly UI make it a popular choice in the WordPress community.

It has a built-in donor management feature, which is apparently underrated. Use this software to store donor information and track their contributions.

It offers integration with FluentCRM to communicate and nurture the relationship with supporters. You can easily access donor details and their history from the complete profile.

Paymattic’s donor profile allows you to see how much a donor has donated to date, including how many campaigns he has participated in, how many emails you’ve sent, how many have been opened, and many more.

Its “Customer Spending Graph” allows you to track their giving behavior. 

Recently, it has introduced two of the most demandable features for nonprofits, which are ‘Leaderboard’ and ‘Donor Dashboard’’.

People can view the top contributors, which encourages them to be a part of it. The “Donor Dashboard” feature is the complete management feature itself.

Whenever someone makes a contribution, he’ll get access to his user dashboard. From there, he can manage his submission stats. This also allows the user to manage his recurring donations or subscription payments.

Donation management features:

• Complete donor dashboard
• Manage one-time and recurring donation
• Segment donors with custom tags
• Donor timeline and history
• Donor Leaderboard
• Email, mailing address, and phone validation
• Customer Spending Graph
• Advanced donor filters
• Detailed report

Givebutter

Givebutter is a complete fundraising platform with one of the best donor management systems in it. Including donation forms, fundraising events, and auctions, it comes with several helpful integrations as well.

To nurture relationships and make data-driven decisions, it offers donation management and CRM for nonprofits. 

You can easily access your donor details and turn your contacts into connections with this donation management software.

Donation management features:

• Complete donor profiles
• Segment donors using custom filters
• Donor timeline and history
• Duplicate detection
• Email, mailing address, and phone validation
• Organize contacts with custom tags
• Build and export dynamic reports

Funraise

Funraise is an impactful fundraising tool for growing nonprofits to supercharge their donation efforts. To raise funds, it offers donation forms, recurring donations, peer-to-peer fundraising, virtual events, etc.

It has a completely different section for donor management as well. This donation management software offers donor CRM to nurture and track supporter relationships. 

It gives you custom data reports, allows your entire team to manage donors, and collects giving history and interactions.

Donation management features:

• Easily access, edit, and manage all your data in one place
• Automated donation receipts
• Recurring donation management
• Filtering and donor segmentation
• Donor portfolios
• Customized donation reports

Donorbox

Like Paymattic, Donorbox is also a popular fundraising plugin with a built-in donor database system. Its diverse functionality makes it a go-to plugin for nonprofit organizations.

You can accept one-time donations as well as recurring donations with it. It allows accepting donations through multiple payment gateways and has a goal meter to track fundraising progress. 

Donorbox has some powerful features for nonprofits, like the donate button, text-to-give, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer fundraising, etc.

It also integrates with some of the leading CRM tools like Hubspot and Salesforce to sync-up donor and campaign data.

Donation management features:

• Easily collect, analyze and utilize donor information
• Strong donor engagement with MailChimp and Salesforce
• Complete donor profile
• Track donor communications
• Donor filters
• Merge duplicate records
• Donor data overview

The comprehensive features make this one of the best donor management software for small nonprofits.

Springly

Springly is a free donor management software for nonprofits to boost their revenue. It provides simple and efficient campaign creation while attracting donors. With Springly, you can link your donation page to your CRM to track donor information like donated amount, payment type, etc.

It diversifies accepting donations with online and offline payment methods. You can consolidate all your members, donors, volunteers, and prospects into this unified platform.

To encourage multiple donations, you can make targeted communications with this nonprofit donor management tool.

Donation management features:

• Donor tracking
• Online and offline donations
• Easy data import-export
• Donor segmentation 
• Detect duplicate profiles
• Sending donation receipts

How to choose a nonprofit donor management software

Before selecting nonprofit donor database software, there are a few steps you should keep in mind.

• Determine your needs
• Conduct research to evaluate options
• Try free version
• Make your choice 

Determine your needs

Many people make the mistake of not brainstorming their needs before purchasing software. As a result, they end up investing their time and money in the wrong place.

So, make sure you know what you’re looking for. You already know the problem you want to solve with a donation management tool. 

Now create a list of some must-have features you would love to have with the software. Then, think about the software you’re already using.

Do you want a tool to integrate with the existing one, or do you want an all-in-one solution to replace it? 

Lastly, take your budget into account. You might need to make some adjustments as you explore options. So, it’s good to have a starting point.

Conduct research to evaluate options

As all nonprofits are unique and require slightly different features catering to their specific needs, knowing them will help you make your choice and ​​meet your requirements.

Considering your demands and budget, there are plenty of standalone donor management systems or an all-in-one solution available out there. Create a shortlist that meets both requirements.

Try free version

Most premium software has a free version or offers a free trial for a few days. Take advantage of this. There is a high chance that you won’t find all the key features in the free version. 

To clear up your confusion, you can contact the company’s representative or open a support ticket with your queries. Make sure the UI is user-friendly.

Make your choice

At this point, you should have a well-defined idea of the option you’d prefer to pursue. It’s pretty obvious that software can’t perform in every field; you also need to make some adjustments here.

But if one donation management software covers most of your priorities, you should go for it. One more crucial point: make sure the software is lightweight and well-coded.

Wrapping up

In the digital landscape, beyond data storage, donor management software fosters genuine connections, recognizing donors for more than their contributions.

In a world where personalization is key, these platforms provide the bridge between data and impactful strategies, ensuring reaching goals and better retention.

The right donor database software isn’t just a tool; it’s a partner in your overall nonprofit journey.