Fundraising Platforms: 10 Top Systems

Running a nonprofit isn’t an easy job. Recruiting and managing donors, planning campaigns, reaching for fundraising goals…the list of to-dos is long, and it’s your mission at risk if you fail.

For decades, CharityEngine has been helping nonprofits change the world through technology. We’ve spent a lot of time developing a platform that breaks data silos and helps you raise at least 15% more than you can with other providers.

But CharityEngine isn’t always the right solution for every nonprofit, and we care about each nonprofit finding the best technology partner for them.

If you want a full suite of donor management and fundraising tools, you’ll want to go with a comprehensive platform like CharityEngine or some of the other options we list below. If you want fundraising platforms that don’t necessarily include donor management, we offer our choices for those as well. Some of these offer specific functionality that will be helpful depending on what your fundraising goals are.

These ten platforms are all worth a solid look. Decide what your nonprofit needs and see if one of these companies might be a good fit.

While we will offer details on each vendor, here’s a quick list of top features if you don’t have time to read the whole article. If you want to check out one company, click on the company name in this list and you’ll jump to that section.

Best-Of Features of Top Fundraising Platforms

We will start with ourselves and some other full-service systems and then share a list of other platforms you might want to check out:

1. CharityEngine: Best complete fundraising and donor management system that keeps data in one unified system
2. Bloomerang: Best fundraising software for smaller nonprofit organizations
3. Bonterra: Best conglomerate of different systems; good for teams that want lots of functionality and are able to change systems easily
4. Fundraise Up: Best for nonprofits that don’t want to sign a lengthy contract
5. OneCause: Best for mobile bidding
6. Givebutter: Best low-fee or free option
7. Donorbox: Best for nonprofits with less complicated needs
8. DonorSearch: Best for prospect research
9. WealthEngine: Best for wealth screening
10. Eventbrite: Best for event ticketing and management

Now, let’s take these one by one and check out the details to help you make an informed decision.

10 Top Fundraising Platforms for Nonprofits

1. CharityEngine

CharityEngine is your one-stop shop for donor management and fundraising software. With a full suite of tools, including advocacy, events, and text-to-give as well as direct mail, email automation, and AI/BI-powered giving probability insights, you don’t need to integrate with another system for core fundraising tools. You get a 360-degree view of all donor interactions in real time.

This is also the only fundraising platform offering native payment processing that speaks directly to the big credit card companies, saving you money.

Representative Clients: Wounded Warrior Project, Easterseals, Rescue Village

2. Bloomerang

As the headline states, users do love Bloomerang! And for nonprofits wanting basic functionality without paying for a lot of extras, it’s a solid solution. The software offers solutions for donors, volunteers, fundraising, and even payments.

Given its ease of use and basic tools, it makes sense that smaller and midsize nonprofits are Bloomerang’s biggest fans. With an easy learning curve and excellent customer support, this system will suffice for those starting out and needing a simpler UX.

Representative Clients: The Education Foundation of Lake County, 500 Festival Foundation, First Tee of Greater Akron

3. Bonterra

Bonterra, as we’ve said before, represents a trend in the nonprofit CRM industry. It is the result of a larger company acquiring smaller players—like Salsa, EveryAction, and Network for Good—and offering all that technology under one roof. If your nonprofit needs extensive functionality and you don’t mind integrated systems (as opposed to native technology), Bonterra might be a perfect fit.

The only caveat is that Bonterra users should know that they can be moved from one system to another at any time. Whether they’re sunsetting technology, discontinuing support from an acquired system, or they’ve just added a new company to the portfolio, Bonterra aims to keep nonprofits on their technology toes.

Representative Clients: Clubhouse Giving Day, CASA of Los Angeles, Audubon

4. Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up offers fast giving for donors, boosting donations. Its focus is on payment processing, but the software also includes donation pages. It boasts AI optimizations that right-size ask amounts and opportunities to upgrade donors. Fundraise Up is the only donation platform built for multi-country fundraising and it can be integrated with many systems, including nonprofit CRMs.

You won’t be pushed into a lengthy contract with Fundraise Up, but you might be surprised by some fees that pop up. In general, though, you’ll find this to be a decent payment processing option to help with fundraising.

Representative Clients: Partners in Health, The Salvation Army, Boys & Girls Clubs of America

5. OneCause

OneCause is a great solution for auctions and mobile bidding. The platform helps teams manage auctions and mobile bidding, events, online fundraising, and text-to-give. Given this focus, it doesn’t necessarily offer the core tools a nonprofit might want, such as mass email functionality.

If you’re a nonprofit hosting multiple auctions a year and you’re not looking for donor management or other outreach tools, OneCause might be a company you want to contact.

Representative Clients: The Hill Country Ride for AIDS, Faith’s Lodge, Shedd Aquarium

6. Givebutter

See the “Sign up – it’s free” button in the upper right corner of the home page? Givebutter is a free fundraising platform that is, at its core, approachable. It was started by three friends and offers easy integration with many accounting systems. This company consistently gets high marks for an intuitive and user-friendly interface and great customer service.

If you’re a small nonprofit, give this vendor a call. Be wary of fees taken from donations; they’re not excessive but they can add up. Explore this platform carefully to ensure it’s got everything you need…then have fun with it!

Representative Clients: Northwest Film Forum, Big Shoulders Fund, Knock Knock Give a Sock

7. Donorbox

Donorbox offers a limited free version and is popular among small nonprofits. It’s easy to use and easy to integrate and the vendor doesn’t require a contract. You can quickly create a branded donation form and get started on campaigns. Users say it’s a solid solution for simple donations.

This might not be a hefty-enough solution if you’re looking for a fully loaded nonprofit CRM. But if you have limited funds and want to make a fundraising splash quickly, call Donorbox.

Representative Clients: Peak Lab Rescue, Carolina University, Jewish Studio Project

8. DonorSearch

DonorSearch is all about prospect research. The software integrates wealth data, donation history, and engagement to provide strategic insights on who to approach, when to approach them, and how much the ask should be.

This platform integrates with other systems that don’t offer AI or giving probability. Because it’s a third-party integration, you’ll want to watch data hygiene (duplicate entries or missing data) and the timeliness of information as data syncs can slow down delivery.

Representative Clients: Rutgers University Foundation, St. Andrews School, DuBois Catholic School

9. WealthEngine

Another prospect research solution is WealthEngine. For the last few decades, this wealth screening tool has helped fundraising, marketing, and business development professionals create strategies to reach the right people and build their prospect pipeline.

While CharityEngine is an authentic all-in-one fundraising platform, we have powerful APIs for integrations, and we partner with some third-party systems. Given WealthEngine’s success as the industry’s first donor pyramid and wealth modeler, we do have an integration with WealthEngine available for clients that wish to use the technology.

Representative Clients: M&T Bank, Case Western Reserve University, Signature Theater

10. Eventbrite

Eventbrite is a common integration for small nonprofits needing a basic event registration solution. It’s not expensive (and even free for up to 250 marketing emails a day and your first few dozen tickets sold) and offers customized event landing pages, ticket sales, and a marketplace so people can find your event.

Most robust fundraising software solutions will include more comprehensive event capabilities. But if you’re just getting started with events and you’re not sure you’re committed to them, give Eventbrite a try. It’s low risk and easy to use.

Representative Events include: 2024 Louisiana Crawfish Festival, Women’s History Month Festival, George Washington University’s Civic Learning Week National Forum

Fundraising Platforms for Any Nonprofit

The good news is that good technology is abundant on the market, much of it designed to help nonprofits succeed. If you need checklists that will help you pinpoint what features are most important to your organization, check out this free guide to selecting a nonprofit CRM. In it, you’ll find helpful worksheets and checklists to steer you on the right path to the perfect tech.

If you’re ready to dive in and talk to vendors, give us a call. Your current system might be fine, or we might recommend a few integrations with providers we’ve listed above. Or, who knows? We might just find out we’re a match made in heaven.