Donor Management Software Comparison: What’s Right for Your Nonprofit?

When you’re comparing donor management platforms, the sheer variety of software choices can be a bit overwhelming. Some platforms offer versatile, feature-rich solutions. Others are designed for simpler, more basic contact management. 

Choosing the right tool can be tough! With the right set of features, you can deepen donor relationships and engage more easily with constituents. With the wrong program, though, you can face cost creep, frustrations, and poor communication.

This donor management software comparison will go over some of the most popular options, rounding up their features, benefits, and challenges to help you make the right choice for your organization. Let’s take a look.

Let’s Compare These 6 Popular Donor Management Software Options

A good donor management system will help you store and organize your supporters’ data, track your campaigns’ progress, and engage with your community more effectively. But how can you know which solution is the best for your own unique needs?

Comparing a few different elements—like features, pricing, and which types of people tend to use which tool—can all help. Each of the platforms listed below are trusted as top donor management options among nonprofits and associations. 

Taking a look at their specific features, as well as the benefits and challenges of the systems as reported by their users, will help you understand how snug a fit each might be for your organization.

Neon CRM is a platform designed to deepen your donor connections and improve your ability to connect with and engage your donors and other supporters. With our help, you can track donor data, personalize communications and appeals, build online donation forms, and simplify your workload.

Features	Benefits	Challenges
Donor tracking and insights Engagement timelines User-specific dashboards Intuitive, customizable reporting Flexible fields Comprehensive fundraising features Automated workflow and communication tools Email management  Flexible donation pages and forms Event and volunteer management Grants management	Revenue-based billing Personalized communications Comprehensive management Automated tools Great for running classes Robust Quickbooks integration	Large organization support  Initial ease of use Simultaneous live/virtual event management

Is Neon CRM a Good Fit for You?

Neon CRM is an all-in-one solution designed with the needs of small and midsize nonprofits in mind. While we work with organizations of all sizes, from small grassroots movements to large multi-state associations, our typical clients are looking for a donor management platform that will grow with them. 

That’s why our revenue-based pricing model makes us a particularly desirable option for rapidly growing organizations.

Since the costs associated with our different packages are based on your revenue—not the number of contacts you have in your system—you can do things like grow your email list or build a base of donors without worrying about creeping costs or having to delete valuable information.

Bonterra is a comprehensive platform with streamlined donor management features and the option to add on extra tools. It’s particularly noted for its grassroots organizing, advocacy, and mobilization features, which make it a great tool for managing political campaigns. Bonterra’s solutions include the platforms that used to exist separately as EveryAction and Network for Good.

Features	Benefits	Challenges
Top-tier organizing and advocacy support Payment gateways Email and mobile messaging  Fundraising and Giving Days features Event and volunteer management Canvassing support Phone banking  Automated tools and predictive analytics Case management Grants management	Ease of use in data management Customizable workflows  Automated tools Strong onboarding process Comprehensive solution Multi-media support	Lots of add-ons that can increase costs Difficult to use more advanced features Integration limitations Little custom template support Complex, click-heavy system Data transfer problems

Is Bonterra a Good Fit for You?

Bonterra is a platform that’s best used by those managing a lot of records. It serves a wide range of large nonprofits and has a complex feature set that makes it a great comprehensive option. It’s also highly suitable for PACs and grassroots advocacy campaigns. However, small and midsize organizations may find that the cost and complexity of the software can quickly grow beyond their capabilities.

Bloomerang is a streamlined donor management platform that offers smaller nonprofits a good option to manage contacts, do basic fundraising, etc. It offers the basic features of a donation management platform with few bells and whistles. Additional capabilities, like volunteer and management, are available for an additional cost.

Features	Benefits	Challenges
Email management  Donor database tools Automated donor receipts Mail merge support Workflow management  General reporting  Engagement tracking  Historical communication records	Ease of use Good basic features Strong customer service Cost-effective	Integration dependent Limited reporting Few customization options Data upload difficulties

Is Bloomerang a Good Fit for You?

Bloomerang is a great solution for small nonprofits that need a simple and cost-effective database management tool. However, its limited features may not be appropriate for rapidly growing organizations that need more support.

DonorPerfect—a company based in Montreal, Canada—is a software provider that serves a wide range of nonprofits with a specific focus on Canadian markets. It’s another more comprehensive tool for nonprofits with features that can be used to manage activities for your entire organization.

Features	Benefits	Challenges
Automated tools  Engagement tracking Donor database management  Payment processing Reporting and analytics Online donation forms and templates Integrations	Cost-effectiveness Ease of use Clear, simple user interface Fast rollout and onboarding	Limited customizability Few default reporting features Inefficient database tools Poor duplicate records support

Is DonorPerfect a Good Fit for You?

DonorPerfect is good for small to midsize organizations that can keep a close eye on their data cleanliness, although some large organizations report challenges with data merges. It’s also favored by some Canadian nonprofits looking for a domestic company to provide support.

Oracle is, of course, much more than a CRM. It’s an enterprise that provides just about anything you can find in the cloud. For those organizations that need donor management software, it offers Oracle NetSuite Social Impact.

Features	Benefits	Challenges
Financial management Reporting tools Relationship management tools Efficiency tracking Compliance and regulatory tools Community access and support  Integrations	No-cost options Comprehensive management Robust features Built-in compliance	Difficult to learn Focused on resource management Reporting limitations  Minimal campaign support

Is Oracle NetSuite a Good Fit for You?

Oracle NetSuite Social Impact is an application-based program. Some nonprofit users may be eligible for no-cost activation and a donation of its basic-level platform. This may make it a good solution for organizations that are just getting started. The program is also an ERP (enterprise resource planning) application, meaning it is more focused on operations than donor management.

GiveSmart is another platform that’s a small part of a much larger brand—Community Brands. GiveSmart is the donor management segment of its suite of products.

Features for Donor Management	Benefits Reported by Users	Challenges Reported by Users
Custom field One-click report sharing  Payment management Intuitive search technology Mobile payments  Integrations  Implementation support	User-friendly interface High customizability Virtual auction support Simple reporting	Printing problems User permission issues Few custom query options Expensive for service offered

Is GiveSmart a Good Fit for You?

Many users tout the benefits of this platform, specifically for its auction and live event management functions. This platform’s fundraising tools are much more robust than its donor management tools, but organizations that depend largely on in-person events for donations may find the features of this platform particularly helpful.

Find Out Which Donor Management Platform is Right For You

When you look at the above donor management software comparison, you’ll see tons of different features to consider as you evaluate your options. Picking the platform that best suits your organization’s needs will help you get the most out of your investment without taking on too much additional work or expense.  

To help you along in your decision-making process, we’ve created a short quiz that synthesizes some basic info about the size, status, and needs of your nonprofits into a custom CRM recommendation. Take the quiz today!