ARTICLE
15 Top Online Fundraising Platforms to Ramp Up Donations
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Online fundraising is essential for nonprofits, but these types of initiatives come with unique challenges. Average online fundraising revenue declined by 1% in 2023, a continued downward trend after two years of monumental growth inspired by the global pandemic. To ramp up fundraising even in the face of challenges, your nonprofit must equip the right online fundraising platform for your needs.
This guide dives deep into virtual fundraising platforms your nonprofit can use to strengthen your online fundraising strategy, comparing features, costs, and more. We’ll cover:
- Online fundraising platforms: FAQs
- 12 essential features to look for in a fundraising platform
- Top online fundraising sites for nonprofits
First, let’s discuss the basics of fundraising platforms and why they’re a good investment for your nonprofit.
Online fundraising platforms: FAQs
What are online fundraising platforms?
Online fundraising platforms or fundraising sites for nonprofits are software solutions that your organization can use to solicit, accept, and process donations made via the internet.
These platforms can be used for year-round fundraising for your annual fund or they can be used for individual fundraising campaigns hosted during certain times of the year. For example, one tool might power the standard online giving page on your website, while simultaneously using another different platform to host a timely crowdfunding campaign for a specific program. Both of these virtual fundraising platforms raise money online, but in different ways and under slightly different circumstances.
What are the benefits of online fundraising platforms?
An online fundraising platform offers the following benefits for your fundraising strategy:
- Store and assess donor data to create targeted outreach campaigns. With the help of an online fundraising solution that’s integrated with your nonprofit CRM, you can automatically store donor information in donor profiles. This allows you to track all donor interactions and reach out to donors at the right times.
- Give donors an easy way to show their support. Supporters can use these platforms to give quickly and easily from their laptops, desktop computers, and mobile devices. Many online fundraising sites also have tools for supporters to gather donations on behalf of your organization.
- Report on fundraising data. Fundraising platforms can consolidate all fundraising data in one system, allowing you to get an at-a-glance view of your ongoing fundraising campaigns. By using a fundraising tool that integrates with other software solutions, you can ensure seamless data transfers between platforms, enhancing your reporting capabilities.
Essentially, online fundraising platforms are robust systems that increase fundraising efficiency by consolidating fundraising data, reports, and donor information in one place.
What are the common costs associated with online fundraising tools?
Before we dive into our list of top fundraising sites for nonprofits, it’s helpful to know the common costs and payment terminology associated with these solutions. Here are a few types of fees to know about:
- Platform fees: The cost of using the fundraising platform, typically billed annually or monthly.
- Processing fees: Charges from payment processors (like PayPal or Stripe) to process online transactions.
- Transaction fees: A percentage or fixed fee levied on each donation.
There may be additional fees depending on the system you invest in, such as data migration or platform implementation costs.
You may also be interested in using a free fundraising platform. These solutions are budget-friendly for growing nonprofits looking to level up their fundraising. However, some platforms that initially seem free may come with unforeseen startup costs. Do your research before choosing a platform to ensure you understand all the costs required for the full setup process.
What are the different types of donation platforms?
Donation platforms encompass more than just solutions for accepting online donations. These software tools can manage a wide variety of fundraising activities, including:
- Crowdfunding: Create a primary campaign page and share it via social media, email, and other digital platforms to collect donations from a wide audience.
- Peer-to-peer fundraising: Empower supporters to create personal fundraising pages based on your nonprofit’s main campaign page and share their pages with family members and friends.
- Auctions: Plan silent and live auctions with tools that make it easy to procure items, plan the event, facilitate bidding, and deliver items to winners.
- Events: Plan and carry out engaging nonprofit events such as walk-a-thons, concerts, galas, and other fundraising opportunities.
- Merchandise: Design custom, branded merchandise, such as T-shirts, mugs, or hats, to sell to supporters and generate a new revenue stream.
- Text-to-give: Use a centralized platform to create a text-to-give keyword and facilitate SMS donations.
Our list below includes options for each of these fundraising activities to help you find the right tool for your specific needs and goals.
12 essential features to look for in a fundraising platform
Online fundraising platform features vary based on each solution’s main focus, but some offer multiple features within one system. Let’s explore a few common features of robust fundraising platforms:
1. Customizable donation pages
Your online giving tool should allow you to create customizable, branded donation pages that include your nonprofit’s unique logo, colors, and typography. These giving forms should offer a streamlined user experience, allowing donors to complete transactions in a few simple steps. They should also be mobile-responsive, automatically adjusting to smaller screen sizes to offer an equally positive user experience across devices.
2. Peer-to-peer and crowdfunding functionality
Both peer-to-peer and crowdfunding campaigns are effective ways to capture your audience’s attention online. Peer-to-peer functionality makes it easy for supporters to design personalized fundraising pages and share them with family members and friends to raise gifts on behalf of your cause. On the other hand, crowdfunding tools allow your nonprofit to create a main campaign page and share it widely via social media and email to raise donations using a centralized platform.
3. Communications and marketing tools
Contacting your supporters quickly is essential to push urgent fundraising campaigns toward their goals. Your fundraising software should enable centralized communications via email and text. Look for expansive features like audience segmentation and personalized donor acknowledgments.
4. A secure payment processing platform
A reliable payment processor helps increase donors’ trust in the giving process, reassuring them that you’ll keep their private payment information safe. Search for a solution that offers built-in security safeguards, like PCI-compliance, data encryption, and tokenization.
5. Multiple payment options
20% of donors will rethink their gift if your nonprofit doesn’t offer their preferred payment option. Seek out an online fundraising platform that enables multiple payment methods, including credit and debit cards, ACH, digital wallets, and Tap to Pay.
6. Recurring giving opportunities
Recurring giving generates reliable support for your nonprofit. Donor retention rates for recurring givers are much higher (around 60%) than new donors (around 20%). Your online giving software should enable donors to turn their one-time gifts into recurring monthly donations with the click of a button on your digital donation page.
7. Conversion optimization
Research shows that 90% of organizations surveyed in the nonprofit, education, and healthcare sectors leverage AI for one or more engagement and marketing use cases. If your organization is ready to make the most of these innovative tools to increase fundraising ROI, search for a fundraising platform that offers AI-driven conversion optimization tools. For example, Bloomerang’s fundraising platform uses integrated AI technology to dynamically generate recommended gift amounts based on a donor’s likelihood to give.
8. Auction functionality
Auctions require specific planning considerations that differ from other types of fundraising events. You must plan for streamlined bidding, an engaging guest experience, and a simple checkout process. If you’re hosting a virtual or hybrid event, you must also consider how you will present auction items and enable virtual bidding. Your online fundraising platform can manage these tasks in one central location.
9. Text-to-donate capabilities
About 25% of donors use their mobile devices to submit their gifts, highlighting the importance of offering convenient mobile donation options. Fundraising solutions that enable text-to-donate allow you to reach donors where they are with fundraising appeals on their mobile devices. Donors will simply text a keyword to your nonprofit’s dedicated phone number and receive a link to your mobile-optimized donation page, where they can immediately give.
10. Third-party integrations
Integrations extend your fundraising software’s functionality by merging it with your existing tech stack. This process ensures you can transfer data smoothly across platforms. Prioritize finding an online giving tool that maintains direct integrations with other software platforms, including marketing, accounting, productivity, and project management solutions.
11. Donor portals
Empower donors to take charge of their charitable giving with donor portals. They can view their giving histories, update payment information, and adjust recurring giving amounts or frequencies. The best part is that portals enable donors to complete all of these tasks independently without needing to contact a member of your staff.
12. Reporting features
You should be able to create custom recurring reports in your fundraising platform that highlight the most important metrics for your fundraising goals. Sharing insights across your team should be simple. You can use these features to adjust your nonprofit’s strategy as needed and increase ROI.
For most nonprofits, it’s often worth finding an online fundraising platform that offers multiple or all of these features within one system. That makes it easier to keep your data organized and immediately accessible.
Top online fundraising sites for nonprofits
Because fundraising platforms can be used in so many different circumstances and there are so many providers out there, we’ve compiled a list of the top solutions and compared each platform based on features and pricing.
| Fundraising platform | Favorite feature | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Bloomerang | Donor profiles | Starts at $99 per month |
| Qgiv | Mobile-friendly fundraising campaigns | Free to get started with |
| Fundraise Up | AI-powered donor stewardship suggestions | 4% fee per transaction |
| Donately | Donation pages | 4% platform fee |
| Snowball Fundraising | Text-to-give process | 2.9% + 30¢ transaction fee |
| Bonfire | T-shirt fundraising | 3.5% processing fee |
| OneCause | Mobile bidding | Depends on the package |
| Regpack | Registrations | $125 per month with a 2.1% payment processing fee |
| Handbid | Auctions | 3.5% + 30¢ credit card processing fee |
| Eventbrite | Event ticketing | Scalable pricing based on tickets sold |
| Gratavid | Donor appreciation videos | Contact for pricing |
| TrueGivers | Data hygiene and screening | Minimum $2,500 for use of the platform as a service |
| DonorSearch | Prospect research and wealth screening | Contact for pricing |
| GiveButter | Multi-platform fundraising tools | 2.9% + 30¢ processing fee |
| 360MatchPro | Matching gift fundraising | Starts at $999 per year |
1. Bloomerang
Online fundraising platform overview:
Bloomerang is the top donor management solution on the market. Our specialty is helping nonprofits build relationships with supporters through their fundraising campaigns.
Once supporters give to your nonprofit through your virtual fundraising platforms, this information is stored in your Bloomerang database. This data can then be used to improve your donor retention strategy, which leads to more revenue.
Our favorite features:
Some of the features Bloomerang offers include:
- Robust donor profiles. The profiles provide a centralized view of each donor’s engagement with your nonprofit and help you create effective messages based on your donor data.
- Interactive dashboard. Customize your dashboard to show the fundraising metrics most important to your nonprofit’s mission and campaign success. You can use it to keep an eye on your donor retention rate, campaign progress, and more.
- Customized reports. Pull reports with the most important metrics for your nonprofit’s success. These reports provide in-depth information about your top donors, monthly supporters, loyal constituents, and more.
Bloomerang was built by fundraising professionals in the industry, ensuring the software is equipped with the tools necessary to capture data and engage your audience both now and in the future.
Pricing:
Bloomerang’s pricing starts at $99 per month and scales based on the size of your nonprofit.
2. Qgiv
Online fundraising platform overview:
Qgiv offers a virtual fundraising platform that lets nonprofits make the most of online and hybrid event opportunities. Their event pages are only the beginning; they also provide registration and ticketing pages to attract and process attendees.
Our favorite features:
Qgiv is one of the most effective and successful virtual platforms for events because of its features like:
- Peer-to-peer software. Generate excitement leading up to your next event with Qgiv’s peer-to-peer fundraising software. Ask volunteers to invite their friends and family to attend your next event while also spreading the word about your upcoming event opportunity.
- Online auction tools. If you’re hosting an auction, you can take it online with Qgiv. Supporters can view auction items and bid online during virtual, in-person, or hybrid events.
- Text-to-give software. Qgiv’s text-to-donate platform can be used during events, allowing supporters to give to your organization via their mobile device.
Qgiv has several integration partners that can help you make the most of your fundraising strategies and events, including Salesforce, DonorPerfect, and Bloomerang. The Bloomerang integration allows your nonprofit to map all of the data you collect through Qgiv campaigns to the correct donor profiles in your donor database.
Pricing:
Get started with Qgiv’s free plan, or level up to their $25 per month Giving Essentials plan. Learn more about pricing.
3. Fundraise Up
Online fundraising platform overview:
Fundraise Up is a virtual fundraising platform that is dedicated to creating a speedy giving process for supporters. This dedication to speed helps drive conversions, earning your organization more donations through your website.
Our favorite features:
The Fundraise Up platform includes the following features:
- Mobile responsiveness. With Fundraise Up, all of your donation pages automatically resize to fit any size screen. This means all of your supporters will have a smooth donation process, no matter if they give from their laptop, tablet, or mobile phone.
- Suggested donation amounts powered by machine learning. Suggested donation amounts can create a sense of social proof, giving supporters a frame of reference as to how much is “normal” to give. Using Fundraise Up’s AI technology, you can determine the right donation request amount for each donor and determine the best times to request upgrades.
- Powerful peer-to-peer fundraising features. These features include donor portals where fundraisers can view their stats, such as how much they’ve raised so far and who is giving to their pages.
Fundraise Up also integrates seamlessly with your Bloomerang donor database. All of the donation information collected via Fundraise Up pages will be reflected automatically in the donors’ profiles and the funds raised will be recorded as a part of the campaign in Bloomerang.
Pricing:
Fundraise Up’s pricing starts with a self-managed option that extracts a 4% transaction fee. Learn more about pricing.
4. Donately
Online fundraising platform overview:
Donately provides a virtual fundraising platform for nonprofits, churches, businesses, and agencies. They provide donation pages that are specifically designed to convert more website visitors into donors.
Our favorite features:
These modern donation pages include features such as:
- Customization options. Catch your donor’s eye by leveraging Donately’s customization features to brand your fundraising pages to your organization. Then, embed that page directly into your website for a seamless user experience.
- Recurring donation buttons. By including a recurring donation button directly on your donation page, you’ll encourage supporters to give on a regular basis.
Donately provides a dashboard that makes it easy for your nonprofit to gather fundraising data from your donation pages. You can view all kinds of insights from this dashboard, such as the average donation amount and weeks with the highest donation volume.
Pricing:
Donately offers a free plan with a 4% platform fee. Learn more about pricing.
5. Snowball Fundraising
Online fundraising platform overview:
Snowball Fundraising offers a virtual fundraising platform designed for text-to-give campaigns. This solution is perfect for events and on-the-go fundraising campaigns where supporters can contribute by simply texting the number associated with your campaign.
Our favorite features:
Snowball’s text-to-donate functionality is a user-friendly feature for both donors and nonprofit staff.
Here’s what the text-to-give process looks like using Snowball’s software:
- Your nonprofit chooses a toll-free or shortcode number to associate with your campaign.
- Supporters send a customized trigger word and their donation amount via text message to the associated number.
- Supporters receive a link that connects them directly to your organization’s giving page.
- Supporters click the link and their donation is processed in seconds from their mobile device.
Using this software, supporters at your auction can also leverage your dedicated phone number to submit bids for various auction items.
Pricing:
Get started with the free Essential plan that comes with a 2.9% + 30¢ transaction fee. Learn more about pricing.
6. Bonfire
Online fundraising platform overview:
Bonfire is a t-shirt fundraising platform that allows your nonprofit to set up an online store that supporters can visit to buy your organization’s branded t-shirts.
Our favorite features:
To make the most of your t-shirt fundraising campaigns, Bonfire offers the following features:
- Customizable t-shirts. Upload your own artwork to the Bonfire platform or use their design tools to create a shirt that is branded to your organization. Feature different branded designs for specific campaigns or offer a collection of staples all year long.
- Various merchandise types. While Bonfire brands itself as a t-shirt fundraising platform, you’re not limited to only selling t-shirts. Bonfire also offers hats, tank tops, sweatshirts, mugs, pet clothes, and more, all of which can be branded to your organization.
- Branded online stores. Use your organization’s own logo and colors to customize your online store.
Although there’s a processing fee to use the software, registered nonprofits receive a heavy discount.
Pricing:
Verified nonprofits can access a reduced 3.5% processing fee.
7. OneCause
Online fundraising platform overview:
OneCause offers a number of solutions as a part of its online fundraising platform, all of which can be used to enhance your online fundraising strategies. However, their platform’s bread and butter is the mobile bidding solution.
Our favorite features:
OneCause’s mobile bidding software provides tools that help with every step of the online auction process, including:
- Developing solicitation letters and tracking various items’ procurement status as you work to fill out your auction item list.
- Selling variously priced ticket packages.
- Encouraging people to bid on their favorite auction items directly from their mobile devices. They’ll receive alerts when they’re outbid, increasing engagement and potentially jumpstarting bidding wars.
- Allowing your auction winners to check out directly from their phones.
OneCause offers unlimited auction events as a part of their software subscription package. If you host auctions throughout the year, OneCause is an effective and efficient way to get the event tools your organization needs.
Pricing:
Visit the OneCause website for information on pricing plans.
8. Regpack
Online fundraising platform overview:
Regpack’s online fundraising platform is first and foremost a registration solution. Your nonprofit can encourage supporters to sign up for your various classes through custom registration pages and embeddable registration forms.
Our favorite features:
Regpack supports different types of learning opportunities, such as:
- Online courses. If you offer online learning opportunities for supporters, volunteers, or other community members, use Regpack to set up a streamlined registration process. Gather insights about conversions, learn about the individuals who signed up, and raise funds all at the same time.
- Camps. Do you offer camps or similar opportunities? Regpack can help facilitate camp sign-ups, streamline operations, and get data-driven insights to inform future camp offerings.
Regpack’s software can create a seamless registration experience with conditional logic. Conditional logic allows your nonprofit to personalize the registration process for all of your supporters. For example, you might ask your event attendees about dietary restrictions. Those who say they don’t have any notable restrictions will move on to the next question, while those who say they do will be prompted to give additional information.
Pricing:
Regpack’s pricing starts at $125 per month with a 2.1% payment processing fee.
9. Handbid
Online fundraising platform overview:
Handbid is an auction platform designed for nonprofit organizations. They provide auction software as well as other fundraising tools for hosting peer-to-peer and crowdfunding campaigns.
Our favorite features:
This virtual fundraising platform offers a number of unique opportunities for nonprofits to engage their audiences, including:
- Web-based and live event auctions. Choose the options that will best engage your particular audience.
- Livestreaming tools. Your nonprofit can livestream various auction activities and opportunities during your virtual and hybrid events.
- Handbid TV. Handbid offers a broadcast of live metrics from the auction so supporters can see how you’re progressing toward your fundraising goals.
Handbid’s platform provides multiple convenient ways for your supporters to stay engaged in your auction.
Pricing:
Handbid offers custom auction packages. All packages come with a 3.5% + 0.30 credit card processing fee.
10. Eventbrite
Online fundraising platform overview:
Eventbrite offers a basic event registration solution for organizations or individuals, whether they’re trying to raise money or simply encouraging more people to attend a free event. It’s the perfect solution for small nonprofits that are just getting started with virtual and in-person event opportunities.
Our favorite features:
Eventbrite offers essential event-hosting features, including:
- Customized event pages. Customize your Eventbrite page with your organization’s logo, colors, and images.
- Ticket sales. Sell tickets through your event registration page. For events giving away free tickets, the Eventbrite platform is also free!
- Attendee marketplace. Your organization can gain access to new viewership through the Eventbrite attendee marketplace, which allows those who follow Eventbrite to see your event and sign up.
Eventbrite is perfect for organizations that are just starting to throw events.
Pricing:
Eventbrite is free for your first 25 tickets sold and pricing scales up from there. Learn more on the Eventbrite pricing page.
11. Gratavid
Online fundraising platform overview:
The average donor retention rate is around 45%. Increasing your donor retention rate is one of the fastest paths to increasing your revenue. And how do you increase this rate? By showing appreciation for your supporters.
Gratavid is a software solution that enables your nonprofit to send personalized thank you video messages to each of your supporters.
Our favorite features:
This software offers features that give you the ability to:
- Customize your videos to match your brand.
- Add social sharing buttons to spread the word about your appreciation.
- Send videos through email and text messages.
- Integrate with other top platforms on the market, including Bloomerang.
Thank you videos are the perfect way to thank your supporters who give via virtual fundraising platforms.
Pricing:
Contact for pricing.
12. TrueGivers
Online fundraising platform overview:
TrueGivers provides nonprofits with insight into the donors in their databases through CRM data hygiene and enhancement sergices.
Our favorite features:
The software provides helpful features such as:
- National Change of Address updates. Get notified when a supporter’s address changes. That way, you can reach them via direct mail and encourage them to update their credit card information if necessary.
- Deceased information. When you know that someone has passed away, you can reach out to their family and offer condolences for their loss.
- Notification emails. Get updates about your supporters’ information, allowing you to take required actions right away.
TrueGivers is most helpful when paired with a donor database, allowing you to keep your supporter information updated.
Pricing:
The platform as a service is a minimum of $2,500 per month. Most users leverage this service as a CRM integration, with varied pricing. Visit the TrueGivers website for custom data services pricing information.
13. DonorSearch
Online fundraising platform overview:
DonorSearch is a prospect research tool for learning about your supporters’ philanthropic and wealth indicators, providing insight into their capacity and affinity to give. This enables you to identify potential mid-tier and major donors.
Our favorite features:
The best part about DonorSearch is how nonprofits can use it to create better-informed fundraising strategies and connect with donors on a more personal level. For example, you can use DonorSearch’s tools to:
- Create a VIP package for your next hybrid or virtual event, inviting mid-tier and major supporters with a more upscale experience.
- Develop specialized outreach for your major supporters before, during, and after a virtual fundraising campaign.
- Ask prospects to get involved in ways other than donating, like volunteering.
DonorSearch also integrates with a number of donor databases, including Bloomerang. This means you’ll see each donor’s generosity and engagement data in their Bloomerang profile.
Pricing:
Contact the DonorSearch team for pricing information.
14. Givebutter
Online fundraising platform overview:
Givebutter is a virtual fundraising platform that allows your organization to launch campaigns, and events, collect and process donations from your website, and send emails and texts to your donors. Supporters can give however is most convenient for them as Givebutter accepts a number of payment methods, including Venmo, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, and standard credit cards.
Our favorite features:
Givebutter’s platform also offers other types of fundraising tools, like:
- Peer-to-peer fundraising. Leverage Givebutter’s peer-to-peer and multi-team fundraising functionality to raise money during campaigns and events.
- Ticket sales. Use Givebutter’s event ticketing software to sell tickets to your next gala, race, or reception. There’s a QR code featured on each ticket, making it easy for your supporters to scan their tickets when they arrive at your event.
Givebutter also integrates with Bloomerang! All you’ll need to do is copy your Bloomerang API Key into Givebutter. Then, you can configure your integration settings, mapping your information so that it appears automatically in your donor database from your Givebutter forms and fundraising pages.
Pricing:
Givebutter has no platform fees but a 2.9% + 30¢ processing fee.
15. 360MatchPro
Online fundraising platform overview:
360MatchPro by Double the Donation is a matching gift platform that can help amplify your fundraising efforts and increase the revenue from your virtual fundraisers by identifying corporate giving opportunities.
Our favorite features:
You can leverage 360MatchPro to discover and automate the matching gift identification process through tools like:
- Email domain identification. This tool identifies potential matching gift eligibility by scanning the email domains of your supporters through a matching gift database. Then it connects supporters who have email addresses from companies that offer these programs with their company’s matching gift application.
- Email automation. Send automated emails to each of your eligible supporters, informing them about the potential to double (or even triple) their donation to your organization through their employer’s matching gift program.
- Revenue dashboard. Use the dashboard to track your revenue that comes in from matching gifts.
Many donations are eligible to be matched, but donors don’t often know that. With Double the Donation, you can identify and inform these supporters of this opportunity, raising even more funds.
Pricing:
The Standard plan is $999 per year. Learn more about pricing.
Wrapping up
Make sure your organization is ready for your next online fundraising campaign by choosing the right software solutions to meet your needs.
If you’d like to learn more about virtual fundraising and software that can amplify your strategies, check out these additional resources:
- 19 Incredibly Easy Online Fundraising Ideas and Expert Tips. As you start planning your next fundraising campaign, check out these helpful virtual fundraising ideas.
- The 25 Best Fundraising Software Solutions to Boost Results. If you’re looking for even more fundraising solutions for your nonprofit, check out this guide.
- How to Buy Fundraising Software That Lasts: Essential Guide. Before you purchase your next virtual fundraising platform, read this guide to help make the right decision.
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