Ah, email. It remains a favorite fundraising tool. After all, it’s cost-effective, convenient, and flexible. Whether you are nurturing your donors, prospecting for new ones, promoting events, or sending out year-end appeals, the right email marketing platform can help you deliver personalized, targeted emails—automatically.
As with most tools for nonprofits, there are a lot of options on the market. How can you tell which is right for you?
Without a crystal ball, all you can really do is…homework.
We’ll jump in and help! We’ve rounded up some solid options for you to consider. Take a look at our list, check off a few that sound good, and ask for demos.
There is a perfect solution for your nonprofit. Let’s see if we can help you find it.
For each of these, we’ll offer an overview and some pros and cons, as well as tell you what type of nonprofit is a good match.
CharityEngine is a powerful, all-in-one nonprofit CRM, fundraising, and marketing platform built just for nonprofits. It offers built-in email marketing tools and automation. Because all donor data lives in one place, organizations can send highly targeted, automated campaigns that align with personal preferences, giving behavior, and engagement history.
What we love:
This is the only system growing nonprofits need. It combines all your fundraising tools and data in one place, giving you a 360-degree view of donor engagement and history. CharityEngine’s email marketing platform allows you to:
The platform offers advanced segmentation and automation and strong reporting, as well as 99% email deliverability. It’s your best option for multichannel marketing because your tools are all in one spot.
A word of caution:
We’ll be honest! The platform is robust. There’s comprehensive onboarding and training, but the smallest nonprofits might be overwhelmed.
It’s best for:
Growing nonprofits looking for a unified system to run multichannel campaigns anchored by intuitive, easy-to-use email marketing automation.
Virtuous offers responsive fundraising tools, including a robust email marketing engine. It’s designed to help nonprofits create personalized donor experiences across all channels, to include email and direct mail. The company has coined the term “responsive fundraising” and published a few books about it.
What we love:
Virtuous offers a lot of personalization and dynamic content tools. Automation is based on donor behavior, and there’s a visual campaign builder. We love how Virtuous focuses on personalized donor journeys to drive effective communication.
A word of caution:
The platform is expensive, both in terms of onboarding and implementation. They don’t offer case management, which makes it hard to be really responsive to donor requests, and the platform doesn’t have custom donation forms, advocacy, auctions, or e-commerce, so clients are often cobbling together tools for desired functionality.
It’s best for:
Midsize to large nonprofits that can handle a learning curve and high price tag.
We can’t talk email marketing without talking about Mailchimp! It’s a highly user-friendly platform known for a drag-and-drop editor and automation features. It’s not built for nonprofits (or any other specific audience), but it does offer special pricing for organizations like yours.
What we love:
The smallest of teams cannot go wrong with Mailchimp. It is easy to use, offers polished templates, and you can try it for $1. The pricing is great for those starting out.
A word of caution:
Mailchimp is a general-purpose email tool designed for small businesses. It won’t provide donor-specific features, and it will get significantly more expensive as your list grows. And it’s a third-party tool, meaning you will have to integrate it with your CRM and push data into your system.
It’s best for:
A small nonprofit just starting email marketing—and one that wants a low-cost option.
Bloomerang is a donor management platform with built-in email marketing tools. Emphasizing donor retention, it offers a straightforward user interface and segmentation, A/B testing, and templates.
What we love:
The focus on donor retention is fantastic and a critical focus for so many nonprofits. The email suite is part of the CRM and the platform offers easy-to-read engagement tracking.
A word of caution:
Limitations. Whether it’s limitations on email capabilities, limitations on design, or limitations on other functionality growing nonprofits need, it’s hard for a rapidly growing nonprofit to have all the tools it needs.
Best for:
Nonprofits with standard requirements and a focus on donor retention.
Constant Contact is another name you’ll hear a lot from smaller nonprofits. It’s a veteran in the email marketing industry, and it offers a straightforward way to build, schedule, and send email campaigns. It offers some extras, such as tools for events, surveys, and social posts.
What we love:
It’s been around for a while, and it’s a solid option for nonprofits starting out. It’s user-friendly and offers discounts for nonprofits. Deliverability is reliable and it’s a flexible platform.
A word of caution:
If you need a CRM, and most nonprofits do, this isn’t one; it’s essentially just a basic email tool. You won’t find advanced features like automation and segmentation.
Best for:
Nonprofits who want a simple, reliable email tool, and not much more.
EveryAction was one of the many smaller firms swallowed by private-equity-backed Bonterra. It’s an enterprise CRM that includes email marketing tools with powerful segmentation, personalization, and analytics.
If you choose EveryAction, be warned that Bonterra has a history of sunsetting platforms and requiring users to migrate to a more expensive option.
What we love:
We always liked EveryAction, and we still like its robust automation and targeting capabilities. It offers one-click giving to returning donors and multichannel automation, moves management, and grant management.
A word of caution:
When private equity takes over a nonprofit or many nonprofits, the goal often morphs from being client-centric to being profit-centric. This is why platforms disappear, and nonprofits are left scurrying for a new solution. Every Action, when it existed independently, did not work with conservative or right-leaning clients.
Best for:
Large nonprofits with deep pockets and complicated lists or campaigns.
Another good CRM gobbled up by Bonterra but keeping its own identity as much as it can, Network for Good offers basic donor management, email marketing, and fundraising tools.
What we love:
What was good about Network for Good remains: it’s a great choice for very small nonprofits that will outgrow it quickly and not mind moving. It includes good tools to get started with email marketing and fundraising.
A word of caution:
It’s Bonterra, which means there’s not a vested interest in helping you increase your impact. And, as noted, small nonprofits will outgrow its functionality quickly. You can keep shopping in the Bonterra universe, but you’ll run into oddities like the company holding fundraising revenue for 30 days before you see it.
Best for:
Small nonprofits looking for a fail-safe solution to begin communicating with donors via email and raising funds online.
Neon One offers a connected product ecosystem, including email marketing tools, and allows for segmentation, email automation, and tracking within a centralized CRM.
What we love:
Neon offers a CRM and email, as well as decent opportunities for customization and automated triggers based on donor activity.
A word of caution:
The company talks about connectivity, but most tools aren’t built into the system. That means your data is still going to be siloed, and it will be hard to get a complete view of how donors are engaging with your nonprofit.
Best for:
Nonprofits that don’t mind a lot of integrations, as long as they’re all connected in one platform.
Salesforce is not for the faint of heart. It’s a heavyweight CRM that, when paired with the Marketing Cloud, offers advanced email marketing capabilities, including journeys, dynamic content, and AI-powered recommendations.
What we love:
Salesforce has provided industry-leading software for decades, and it lives up to its reputation. The platform offers incredible customization and scalability as well as robust personalization.
A word of caution:
Can we be frank? Salesforce is expensive and complex. Many nonprofits that like the Salesforce reputation find themselves quickly overwhelmed.
Best for:
Large, even enterprise, nonprofits with internal tech support
Klaviyo began as an e-commerce platform, but nonprofits are increasingly drawn to its powerful automation, segmentation, and data-centric approach to email marketing.
What we love:
Love is a strong word! We find Klaviyo to offer excellent automation and real-time segmentation. The suite of analytics is impressive, too.
A word of caution:
If you’re looking for a CRM, you won’t find it here. It’s not designed for nonprofits, so even the advanced features don’t necessarily play to nonprofit needs.
Best for:
Tech-savvy nonprofits who are only looking for a highly customizable, data-rich platform very focused on donor behavior.
Nonprofit software is personal. It’s worth your time to review this list, cross a few off, star a few, and reach out for demos. You’ll know when you find a perfect match.
The right platform will depend on goals, team size, internal resources, and required integrations. It will depend on how many emails you want to send and how many contacts you have.
If you want to consolidate fundraising, donor management, and email marketing into one system, check out CharityEngine, Virtuous, and Bloomerang.
If you’re just starting out or you want something very basic, take a look at Mailchimp or Constant Contact. They’ll help you grow without overwhelming you.
No matter which you choose, email will remain one of the most powerful tools you’ve got to engage your donors. With the right platform, you’ll be able to tell your story, rally supporters, and build lasting relationships to increase the impact on your mission.