The top 15 online fundraising platforms for nonprofits

Fundraising is an ongoing challenge for nonprofits, but fundraising platforms can be valuable. With features like custom donation forms, detailed reports and analytics, and integrated payment processing, these tools can help you run an effective fundraising campaign, even when you’re on a limited budget. 

Whether your nonprofit has run dozens of fundraising campaigns before or you’re planning your very first, these tools can contribute to your success.

Online fundraising platforms can help streamline the fundraising process, increase your nonprofit’s reach, and encourage donors to give.

What is an online fundraising platform?

An online fundraising platform is a type of online tool or software that allows users to create and manage fundraising campaigns from start to finish. Online fundraising platforms are great for nonprofits looking for an easy way to interact with donors and meet fundraising goals.

The benefits of using online fundraising platforms for nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations can benefit greatly from using online fundraising platforms to manage donations, events, and campaigns. With just a few clicks, you can send or share your fundraising campaign with others to spread the word. Reach people who might be interested in your nonprofit by sharing your fundraisers on social media, via email, or otherwise.

How to choose the right online fundraising platform

Now that you know what a fundraising platform is, it’s time to choose the right one for your needs. Consider the pros and cons of each before deciding which is the best fit for your nonprofit. 

We’ve made it easy for you to choose the perfect online fundraising software by compiling information about 15 of the best platforms. Learn more about each platform and how it could benefit your nonprofit in our list below.

1. Jotform: Best for affordable, no-code fundraising forms and apps

With Jotform’s donation forms and apps, your nonprofit can easily collect donations. You can customize any form or app template you choose or build your own from scratch.

Jotform integrates with more than 30 of the most popular payment processors, including PayPal, Square, Stripe, and Authorize.net, so you can collect donations directly. Jotform doesn’t charge any extra fees for these transactions, so your nonprofit receives all of the donations, minus your chosen payment processor’s fees. 

Tracking your donor data is just as important as getting the donations, and Jotform Tables can help you organize and store that data. To save time, consider using one of the many nonprofit table templates, including a fundraising calendar template and a donation list template.

You can also easily collect and manage donations through Jotform Apps, our online app builder. Jotform App Builder requires no coding skills and there are no additional fees to create an app. Just add the Donation Box element to your app to collect funds from donors. You can even create custom suggested donation amounts and add a progress bar to track how much has been donated. 

Once you’re satisfied with the look and feel of your donation app, simply share it with your audience through a link or QR code, or even embed it on your website, to start gathering donations. With Donation Box, your nonprofit can collect donations through your choice of 30-plus payment gateway integrations. 

Enjoy other great features like fundraising pages, reporting, and donor data management analytics. Track donations by using Jotform Inbox and Jotform Tables. Compared to other products, Jotform Apps and the Donation Box element offer a more comprehensive solution for all your fundraising needs, along with powerful, native payment gateway integrations to choose from.

As an added bonus, nonprofits enjoy a 50 percent discount on Jotform’s plans, starting at $17 per month.

Key features:

• More than 10,000 templates for a wide variety of uses
• Includes an array of popular payment integrations so you can get your donations quickly and directly
• Lets you collect and organize your data in one place with Jotform Tables
• Pricing: Free Starter plan; paid plans start at $17 per month for nonprofits
• Best for: Affordable, no-code fundraising forms and apps

2. Fundly: Best for crowdfunding

Fundly is a crowdfunding platform designed for both individuals and nonprofits. With Fundly, you can customize your donation page and then share that page with friends, coworkers, and family. Those very people can help you raise money by sharing the campaign to their social media, generating awareness of your fundraising work.

If you’ve never created a campaign before, Fundly’s guides, tips, and tutorials will walk you through the process. All donation pages are mobile-friendly, and they work with any browser. The free Fundly iOS mobile app keeps you updated and lets you edit your campaign from your phone, no matter where you are.

Fundly has no startup fees, and you don’t have to raise a specified minimum to access your donations, although the organization’s payment processor, Stripe, charges a fee of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per donation.

Key features:

• Its iOS mobile app allows you to manage your campaign wherever you go
• Easily embed your donation page onto your organization’s profile with the Facebook integration 
• No minimum requirement to transfer funds
• Pricing: Free, with a payment processor fee of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents through Stripe
• Best for: Crowdfunding

3. Donorbox: Best for managing recurring donations

If you’re looking for a platform that’s quick and easy to use, then add Donorbox to your list. This fundraising software lets you create an optimized donation payment system in just 15 minutes, so you’ll be up and running quickly.

While this platform is easy to use, it’s also plenty powerful. You can embed the donation form into your website or use Donorbox’s popup widget.

Donorbox puts donors in control of their giving, enhancing the donor experience and encouraging recurring donations. Donors can manage their monthly recurring donations, and you can give them the option to cover processing fees so your nonprofit sees more of each donation. Your donors can even donate from their text messages with Donorbox’s Text-to-Give feature.

You can get started for free, but even on a standard free plan, Donorbox charges a 1.75 percent platform fee, along with payment processing fees. There are also fees for optional integrations like Mailchimp, Salesforce, and Raiser’s Edge.

Key features:

• Donors can manage their information and payments through their own portal 
• Turn a device into a donation kiosk for in-person events
• Text-to-Give makes donating easy 
• Pricing: Paid plans from free to $139 per month, with a platform fee of 1.5 percent
• Best for: Managing recurring donors

4. Donately: Best for simple, quick set-up

With Donately, you can easily streamline your fundraising, keeping all of your efforts centralized within a modern dashboard.

This comprehensive tool offers donation pages, embeddable donation forms, recurring donation options, data reporting, peer-to-peer fundraising, a donor portal, and many other features so you can leverage your fundraising and donor relationships. This platform is suitable for nonprofits, churches, businesses, and agencies.

Donately features text messaging tools that can support your organization’s communication and help you spread news of your campaign. Options like customized text codes and responses put you in charge of your campaign. Donately even integrates with other apps like Zapier, Google Sheets, HubSpot, and Insightly to save you time.

You can choose from three plans, including a free startup plan with a 4 percent platform fee.

Key features:

• App integrations like Zapier and Google Sheets streamline the donation process 
• Donately’s donor portal lets donors access and manage their information
• Donors can cover fees for your nonprofit
• Pricing: Three pricing tiers, from free to $49 per month, with platform fees from 2 to 4 percent
• Best for: Simple, quick setup

5. Snowball: Best for text-to-give and event donations

Snowball offers an array of useful tools that can help your nonprofit raise money for your causes and programs. Features include custom text-to-give keywords, live event tracking and thermometers, the ability to sell event tickets, customizable online donation forms, and more. 

The platform’s CRM helps you manage donor data, track donations and gifts, and sort and export data. With Snowball, you can even create silent auctions.

With all of these tools located in one place, Snowball can become a valuable asset for any nonprofit, whether you’re gathering donations for a campaign or hosting an event that requires attendee registration.

Snowball offers upfront pricing, and its Essential plan carries no monthly or annual fee. Instead, the company applies fees of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction, giving you access to many of the platform’s features without subscription fees. Additional paid plans are available, and they include more of the platform’s features.

Key features:

• Online store builder lets you raise money by selling products
• Has its own CRM tools, some of which are available with its free plan
• Donors have the option to cover processing fees 
• Pricing: Plans ranging from free to $849 per month, with a fee of 2.5 to 2.9 percent plus 30 cents
• Best for: Text-to-give and event donations

6. Qgiv: Best for great customization options

Qgiv features the essentials you need to support all of your fundraising efforts, including donation forms, text fundraising, events, auctions, and peer-to-peer campaigns. 

Top perks include the ability to customize your donation receipts to demonstrate each donation’s impact, donation forms that you can customize with your nonprofit’s branding, and mobile-friendly donation pages.

With Qgiv, you even have the option to purchase a handheld giving kiosk that you can use to process donations at events and board meetings or right in your lobby.

Qgiv offers seven different plans, and its Start plan has no subscription fees. Paid plan costs and features vary, but the upper-level plans offer the features and capabilities that can support even a large nonprofit with extensive fundraising efforts.

Key features:

• Substantial key fundraising features such as text fundraising and auctions all in one platform
• Ability to build your own plan by adding specific Qgiv products, so you don’t have to pay for something you don’t need
• Ability to process donations in person
• Pricing: Free plan, Giving Essentials plan for $25 per month, plus a la carte pricing for features like text-to-give
• Best for: Great customization options

7. OneCause: Best for user-friendly platform

A versatile fundraising solution, OneCause supports custom online giving pages, mobile bidding and auctions, peer-to-peer giving, and Text2Give. You can also add gamification tools like contests and badges to your donation pages to encourage donors to stay engaged. 

This platform offers more than 125 reports and analytics to keep you up to date on your campaigns and events. Payment processing, live software support, and CRM integration are just a few of the other perks.

OneCause offers a variety of tiered plans, depending on the type of fundraising you want to do.

Key features:

• Gamification helps maintain your donors’ interest
• Donors have the option to cover additional fees for your nonprofit
• Pricing: Contact for pricing details
• Best for: User-friendly platform

8. RaiseDonors: Best for self-service donor portal

With RaiseDonors, you can easily create donation pages that convert and motivate viewers to donate. With unlimited donation pages and embeddable donation forms, you can use this platform for all of your fundraising needs. Custom reporting keeps you up to date about your campaign’s progress. 

RaiseDonors also offers many features — like custom receipts and thank you pages — that save you time while maximizing your campaign’s effectiveness.

You can connect this fundraising software with your CRM as well as with your email, marketing, and analytics tools.

RaiseDonors offers a Standard plan for organizations that raise less than $1 million per year and a Pro plan for organizations that raise more than $1 million per year. Both charge a 1.5 percent platform fee. Contact sales for plan rates.

Key features:

• Includes donor portal so donors can view and manage their information on their own
• Donors have the option to cover additional fees for your nonprofit
• You can embed an unlimited number of donation pages into your organization’s website
• Pricing: Free or $99 a month with a payment processing fee of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents
• Best for: Self-service donor portal

9. Vision2: Best for church fundraising

Designed for churches, Vision2 is a giving platform that allows members to donate online, by cash and check, or through mobile and text-to-give options. Churches can access customized donation forms with the option to create recurring gifts.

This platform is versatile, and there’s no limit on transactions, donation amounts, the number of users, or support. There are also no contracts or annual or monthly fees. Contact Vision2 for a demo and pricing information.

Key features:

• Hosts integrations with multiple church management systems
• Give2 mobile app and text fundraising make it easier for donors to give
• Donor portal lets donors use self-service tools
• Pricing: Contact for pricing details
• Best for: Fundraising for churches

10. Double the Donation: Best for matching gift programs

Designed to harness the power of matched giving, Double the Donation can help maximize your donations. 

This platform makes it easy for donors to match donations and includes matching gift forms and guidelines to help donors make their contributions. Donors can even search the matching gift database to find out if their employers will match their donations, which can help encourage donors to give or to give more.

Double the Donation offers three plans. The first 360MatchPro Standard plan starts at $2,500+ per year and is for nonprofits that raise more than $10,000 in matching gifts per year. Double the Donation also offers a 360MatchPro Standard plan for $999 per year for small nonprofits that raise less than $1 million in total revenue or $10,000 in matching gifts.

For larger nonprofits, Double the Donation offers a 360MatchPro Enterprise plan with customized pricing.

Key features:

• Donors can easily request matching gifts from their employers with Double the Donation’s database and autosubmission feature
• Has integrations with multiple types of software and apps, including other fundraising platforms
• Pricing: Starting at $999 per year
• Best for: Matching gift programs

11. 4aGoodCause: Best for small nonprofits

The 4aGoodCause campaign builder will guide you through the process of developing your campaign step by step. This all-in-one solution also supports event registration, crowdfunding, and donor management. The platform’s CRM can help you track giving history and build donor relationships.

It also features integrations with well-known apps like Salesforce, Mailchimp, and Facebook. 

4aGoodCause is affordably priced and offers three plans. Its Grassroots plan is $132 per month and can process up to $100K online per year. If you choose to pay annually, the cost goes down to $99 per month.

Key features:

• Many key fundraising features such as event registration and CRM tools
• Integrations with popular apps and platforms including Mailchimp and Facebook
• No platform transaction fees, so your nonprofit gets more from its donations 
• Pricing: Starting at $99 per month
• Best for: Small nonprofits

12. Funraise: Best for outstanding customer support

Funraise offers everything you need to get your fundraising campaign off the ground. The platform provides donation forms that connect your site to your database for streamlined data collection and processing.

Peer-to-peer fundraising can help you build campaign support, and the Funraise mobile app lets you stay on top of your campaign no matter where you are. This platform also includes donor communications like automated emails and texts, along with AI tools.

Nonprofits looking for guidance and education on fundraising can find it in the Funraise University. Six video courses detail everything you need to know about fundraising, including how to create and manage transactions, how to use fundraising intelligence to your benefit, and more. These video courses are free to access, regardless of whether you have a Funraise subscription.

Funraise offers a free plan and only charges a transaction fee if donors opt in to cover it. You can also upgrade to a paid Enterprise plan.

Key features:

• Has two mobile apps — one for nonprofits and one for donors
• Donors have the option to cover transaction fees for your nonprofit
• Artificial intelligence tools can personalize the user experience
• Pricing: Free plan that can be upgraded; contact for paid plan pricing
• Best for: Outstanding customer support

13. Donate Kindly: Best for simple donation collection

For nonprofits exploring fundraising for the first time or for those working with very limited budgets, Donate Kindly offers a free platform full of fundraising tools. Setup is easy and streamlined, and Donate Kindly says you’ll be able to start accepting donations in as little as five minutes.

Donate Kindly features industry-leading encryption, the ability to easily embed forms into your website, and customizable donation form fields and colors.

Donate Kindly doesn’t charge any setup fees. You also won’t have to worry about monthly or annual fees. The organization charges a small 2.9 percent fee plus 30 cents per transaction.

Key features:

• Free to use, but does charge a processing fee for each transaction
• Has the essentials of a fundraising platform, making it fairly simple to use
• Donation forms can be embedded directly into your organization’s website
• Pricing: Free with a fee of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents
• Best for: Simple donation collection

14. 99Pledges: Best for school and team fundraising; pledge drives

With 99Pledges, it’s easy to harness the power of social media for fundraisers. When you create a campaign, each participant gets their own donation page that they can share through social media and email.

You’ll be able to track and share your progress, adding a fun, competitive element to your fundraising — see which participant can raise the most!

After your fundraiser ends, 99Pledges will send you a check within 24 hours.

This platform offers many advantages over traditional pledging. Setup is simple, and you can easily add participants. Donors can donate from anywhere, and they don’t have to pay any transaction fees. With less paperwork and management for organizers, this platform is ideal for many nonprofits.

99Pledges has no startup costs and no platform fee. Organizations just pay credit card processing fees of 3.49 percent and 49 cents per transaction.

Key features:

• Variety of payment options, like credit cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, and Google Pay
• Participants get their own page that they can share to increase exposure to your campaign
• Creates healthy competition by letting participants share their progress, encouraging them to raise more money
• Pricing: Free with a fee of 3.49 percent plus 49 cents
• Best for: School and team fundraising; pledge drives

15. Bonfire: Best for fundraising through custom T-shirt sales

Bonfire is a T-shirt fundraising platform that allows you to sell shirts without having to hold any inventory.

It’s easy to do — just upload your shirt design, launch your fundraiser, and encourage supporters to order shirts. At the end of your campaign, Bonfire will print the shirts and ship them to your donors — and you’ll collect the money you’ve raised.

It also has integrations with Classy for donor management and YouTube to provide links below a video so donors can quickly be redirected to your merch store.

Bonfire has an 8 percent donation fee, but it reduces that to 3.5 percent after verifying that your organization is a nonprofit.

Key features:

• Easy-to-customize online store builder 
• Sell T-shirts as a fun way to promote a message and raise money for your nonprofit
• Has integrations with Classy, YouTube, Linktree, Neon Fundraise, and DonorDrive
• Pricing: Free, with an 8 percent donation free if you enable additional contributions
• Best for: Fundraising through custom T-shirt sales

Comparing your options

Make the most of your fundraising

The right fundraising platform can help you create an ideal donation page, develop your donor relations, explore different fundraising opportunities, and more. These platforms are suitable for nonprofits of many sizes and in many stages of their fundraising journey. With the right platform, you can get more out of your fundraising efforts so you’re better able to accomplish your nonprofit’s mission.

Hand photo created by jcomp – www.freepik.com