Best nonprofit software of 2021

The best non-profit software will help such organizations better administrate and manage their daily activities.

However, non-profit organizations have unique needs in that they need to be able to handle many different aspects that normal businesses do not normally have to deal with.

Aside from the extra layers of compliance and accountability, non-profits don't have customers or sell products/services in the strictest sense, but they do have donors and voluntary projects they need to be able to manage, along with accounts and asset valuations.

Non-profits also need software to manage volunteers as well as communicate with them. They also require the means to manage marketing and promotional material sent out to the public.

However, while non-profits may have complex needs, the software still needs to be simple and easy to use, without complicating matters, and be as comprehensive as possible.

Here then are the best in non-profit software platforms.

For general websites, we've featured the best CMS.
Best non-profit software at a glance:
Neon
Little Green Light
CharityTracker
Bloomerang
DonorPerfect
Wordpress

1. Neon
A comprehensive offering with built-in metrics dashboards
REASONS TO BUY
+Well-featured platform
+Metrics for insight and analysis
+Plenty of help if you get stuck
Neon puts all your data and tools in one place, helping nonprofits to improve efficiency and organization so they can “focus on the work that really matters”, to quote the Neon team itself.

Many of the platform’s creators come from a non-profit background which means they understand the administrative and operational pain points of running such an organization, and should help them design a service catered to these specific needs. Users are able to create online forms, engage donors, plan events, manage members, track volunteers, and get insights from built-in metrics dashboards.

There are also features for email marketing, taking payments directly at competitive rates, as well as volunteer management.

The platform is comprehensive and pretty straightforward to use, but if problems do pop up, a host of tutorial guides are on hand to walk you through any issues. These are particularly useful in the early stages of getting acquainted with the Neon platform.

The price point may perturb smaller nonprofits, but this is not the most expensive offering of its kind, and comes highly recommended if budget allows.

2. Little Green Light
Sophisticated fundraising and donor management system
REASONS TO BUY
+Plentiful customization options
+Easy-to-use
+Useful categorization of donors
Little Green Light is a sophisticated fundraising and donor management system that does a lot of the digital legwork for nonprofits. In the words of its creators, “timely insights that the data provides mean fundraisers work smarter – not harder – to connect supporters to their mission.”

A wealth of features are on offer here, including a fully customizable dashboard, customizable reporting, constituent and contact management, the creation of acknowledgment messages and receipts, integrations with other software platforms you may be using, and customized, trackable mailings.

The automatic categorization of donors (top donors, most active, and so forth) is a particularly handy feature, enabling users to home in on certain targets without sifting through reams of data to identify them in the first place.

With so many tools on offer, it may be worth utilizing the extendable free trial to fully get to grips with the platform and make sure it’s right for the needs and skillset of your staff. A further boon is a user-friendly design, plus a heap of video tutorials to help the unacquainted acclimatize to the system, and make good use of its numerous features.

3. CharityTracker
Focusing on effective communication and collaboration
REASONS TO BUY
+Highly user-friendly
+Excellent customer support
REASONS TO AVOID
-Reports are somewhat limited in scope
CharityTracker enables different charitable organizations in the same community to collaborate with one another to improve the efficiency of their services.

The creators came up with the idea for the platform off the back of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in 2005. They noticed the scarcity of communication between different agencies trying to help displaced families in their home town of Florence, Alabama, which led to duplicated operations and poor management of resources.

CharityTracker address these issues by enabling users to communicate in real-time – with each other, and with their communities. Features include a shared client case database, tracking and reporting, post bulletins and referrals.

An extremely easy-to-use interface is one of the key pluses here. Navigation across different features is simple, which should save time training users. With many of these users potentially being volunteers with little knowledge of IT and data entry, this is an invaluable aspect of the platform. Its round-the-clock tech support is excellent too, so any problems that do arise should be nipped in the bud swiftly.

For the data-heads who like to really get under the bonnet with their analyses, the reports may seem a little limited and cumbersome, but there is little else to fault with this well-priced service.

4. Bloomerang
Well-designed platform that’s optimized for mobile use
REASONS TO BUY
+Makes intelligent suggestions for improvements
+Useful social media hub
REASONS TO AVOID
-Less scope for customization than rivals
Bloomerang helps nonprofits reach, engage and retain donors with its feature-packed platform. The company claims to have worked with “high-level thought leaders in philanthropy” to create a service that makes it easier than ever to build strong relationships with donors.

The software’s core features include a dashboard that displays the organization’s donor retention rate along with suggestions on how to improve that, as well as future incoming donations.

Users can also manage reports and accounts, while a social media hub monitors what constituents may be tweeting about your organization. It’s a shame Facebook and Instagram aren’t enabled, but lots of platforms don’t have this tool built-in at all, so we’re not complaining.

Design is a strong point, with campaign progress showed as soon as you log in, while a clean, user-friendly design is employed throughout. You don’t have to be a software expert to make use of the platform, and it’s also been optimized for mobile for those who wish to log in on the move.

Bloomerang boasts an impressive array of features but it is slightly less customizable than other services, which can be frustrating when trying to tailor the platform to the specific needs of each user within the organization. Given the higher entry price point for the most basic setup, this is something of a drawback.

5. DonorPerfect
One-stop-shop for fundraising and donor management
REASONS TO BUY
+Top-notch customer support
+Integrations with other services
REASONS TO AVOID
-Not the most fully-featured offering
DonorPerfect is a one-stop-shop for fundraising and donor management. It promises to “supercharge your nonprofit’s fundraising initiatives and cultivate your most valuable relationships” via its software platform.

The roster of features include the ability to manage constituent contacts and donor development, send personalized communications, report and analyze results, integrate with other products and services, as well as being able to collect donations and information online.

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A standout feature of DonorPerfect is its extremely attentive support team. Unlike many other services, there is always somebody ready to help at the end of the phone. Sometimes scanning tutorials just doesn’t answer your question, and long waits for assistance can be frustrating, so the ability to speak directly to someone about an issue is a strong selling point.

DonorPerfect doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of other services we’ve covered here, but it remains very comprehensive, and only really hard-core users will exhaust the options at their disposal.

6. Wordpress
The free CMS
REASONS TO BUY
+The cheapest option
+Easy to use
+Very versatile
+Good for start-ups
REASONS TO AVOID
-Not an all-in-one solutions
Wordpress was originally developed as a blogging platform, but over the years since it's became an incredibly versatile platform for setting up websites - anything from basic personal websites to powering global news sites.

What makes Wordpress work so well as a CMS is its versatility, and huge third-party plugin support, all of which can help make a simple website into something much more powerful. Even better is that many themes and addons are free to use, making Wordpress an idea choice for building a website while as a start-up.

This would allow new non-profits to ensure they have a web presence and engage in communications, and as your site needs develop the chances are you'll find a plugin that will deliver the extra functionality you need.

However, all that being said, some of the above portals do a great job of bundling everything you need from the start. Additionally, while there are a lot of free options for Wordpress there is also a big paid-for market, and in the long-run something like NeonCRM might actually prove more cost-effective.

Even still, while your non-profit is still developing Wordpress can provide a very cost-effective way of getting and growing an online presence - all you would have to pay for is web hosting. Alternatively, instead of a CMS such as Wordpress you could try a website builder instead.

By: Will Dalton, Brian Turner