The best CRM for small nonprofits

The best CRM for small nonprofits is the one priced and built for the list you actually have, not the one built for a ten-person development department. For a team of one to three people, that usually means a flat monthly price, a trial you can run on your own donors, and a database that handles the jobs a small team repeats every week: logging a call, flagging an overdue pledge, sending a thank-you, and pulling a report for the board.

The situation that sends someone shopping for a new CRM is usually not subtle: a filing deadline missed because nobody pulled the list in time, or a board member asking why last year’s biggest donor never got a thank-you call. By the time you are comparing vendors by name, the spreadsheet has already told you it is not enough.

This post compares Bloomerang, Little Green Light, DonorPerfect, Givebutter, Donorbox, and FundHero on the jobs a small team needs done and what each one costs once every tier is added up.

Key Takeaways
– Bloomerang’s CRM plan alone runs $125 a month and its all-in-one bundle is $242 a month, both billed annually; FundHero’s Starter plan is $7.99 a month for up to 250 contacts and five users.
– Little Green Light charges $45 a month for up to 2,500 constituent records and gives a 30-day free trial with no card required, but online giving is priced separately from the base plan.
– DonorPerfect starts at $99 a month and suits an organization ready for round-the-clock phone support and deeper reporting, more than most two- or three-person teams need on day one.
– Givebutter’s free plan covers unlimited contacts and donation pages, and its fee drops to 0% when a donor’s tip covers it, but pledge tracking and pledge reminders are not what it is built around.
– Whatever CRM you pick, count the payment processing fee on top of the subscription. FundHero’s is 4.9% plus 30 cents per donation, and every vendor charges something similar.

What a small nonprofit actually needs from a CRM

A CRM built for a two- or three-person nonprofit team has to do five things: keep every donor’s calls, pledges and gifts on one timeline, flag what is overdue before someone has to ask, let more than one person work from the same list, take gifts online without a separate login, and produce the report your board already expects. We cover these five jobs in more detail here, and they are the yardstick to hold every tool below against, not the length of its feature list.

Keep that list in mind while you read prices, because the cheapest plan that cannot flag an overdue pledge or log a call is not actually cheaper. It just moves the work back into a notebook.

Bloomerang: strong on donor retention, priced by bundle

Bloomerang is built for nonprofits of any size and is strongest where retention work lives: an engagement score per donor, predictive giving signals, and marketing automation inside its CRM tier. As of October 2026, Bloomerang’s pricing page lists the CRM alone at $125 a month, a Fundraising add-on at $40 a month that requires the CRM, a bundled all-in-one plan at $242 a month, and a separate Volunteer module at $119 a month, all billed annually and priced by constituent record count rather than by seat.

Unlimited users on every plan is a real advantage for a nonprofit that wants every board member logged in without counting seats. The tradeoff is price: a small nonprofit choosing Bloomerang’s CRM alone pays more per month than FundHero’s top tier, the Organization plan, which includes unlimited contacts and users.

Little Green Light: transparent pricing and a 30-day trial

Little Green Light prices by constituent count on one plan with everything included: $45 a month for up to 2,500 records, $60 a month for up to 5,000, and up it goes from there, with no setup fee, no cancellation fee, and a contract-free month to month term. Little Green Light’s pricing page also offers a 30-day free trial with no card required, longer than most competitors give.

Its list of integrations, QuickBooks, Stripe, PayPal, Zapier, Constant Contact and Mailchimp, outnumbers what FundHero connects to today. What it does not fold into the base price is online giving: Little Green Light quotes donation processing separately, at 2.2% plus 30 cents per transaction, where FundHero builds donation pages, recurring donations and fee coverage into every tier at no extra charge.

DonorPerfect: more depth, once you are ready for it

DonorPerfect’s pricing page starts its three tiers at $99 a month. Every tier includes donor management, donation forms, payment processing and volunteer tracking; the higher tiers add round-the-clock phone support, QuickBooks integration, batch gift entry, and, at the top, an API and custom reporting built for a larger shop.

That depth costs more than most two- or three-person teams spend before their donor list grows past a few hundred names, so it is worth a second look once you are there, rather than the first CRM a nonprofit with one part-time staffer buys.

Givebutter and Donorbox: donation-first, CRM second

Both of these tools put the donation page first and the donor record second, which can work well if events, auctions and peer-to-peer campaigns fill most of your calendar. Givebutter’s free plan covers unlimited contacts and donation pages at no monthly cost, and its platform fee drops to 0% when a donor’s tip covers it, falling back to a flat 3% plus standard card processing when tips are turned off. Its paid Plus tier starts at $29 a month for organizations with 250 contacts or fewer and adds automated workflows and deeper reporting.

Donorbox builds flexible recurring-gift schedules, embeddable donation forms and pop-ups, and a donor portal where a recurring donor can manage their own gift without calling you. Neither tool was built around tracking a pledge with an amount, a date and a reminder the way a CRM for call time or in-person asks is. That gap is the first thing a nonprofit still making asks by phone or face to face will feel.

FundHero: one flat price, built for a two- or three-person team

FundHero’s three plans are Starter at $7.99 a month for one donation page and up to 250 contacts with up to 5 users, Professional at $24.99 a month for unlimited donation pages and up to 2,500 contacts with up to 5 users, and Organization at $84.99 a month for unlimited donation pages, contacts and users. Card processing runs 4.9% plus 30 cents per donation on every tier. Check current pricing before you commit, since every vendor in this post updates its own page from time to time.

Smart Groups and Tasks with automatic reminders surface outstanding pledges and un-thanked gifts so the follow-up becomes a list to work through, not a fact someone has to remember. Donor Profiles and Contact History log every call, email, text, pledge and gift on one timeline, with a login for each board member or volunteer. Recurring Donations and Fee Coverage are part of every donation page, not sold separately, and premade reports export to Google Sheets or Excel for the board meeting.

FundHero does not try to match Bloomerang’s predictive donor scoring or DonorPerfect’s accounting integrations. It is sized for the nonprofit that is still answering its own phones and does not want a $125 bill before it has sent its first thank-you.

What a CRM costs for a small nonprofit, fees included

Every CRM in this post has two prices, and the second one is easy to miss. The subscription is the number on the pricing page. The second price is payment processing, charged on every online gift whether or not a donor covers it: FundHero’s is 4.9% plus 30 cents per donation, Little Green Light’s online giving runs 2.2% plus 30 cents, and Givebutter’s standard rate is 2.9% plus 30 cents when tips are off.

Run both numbers against your actual gift sizes before you compare subscription prices alone. A nonprofit taking fifty gifts of $40 a month will spend more on processing over a year than most of these subscriptions cost, so ask every vendor for both figures before you sign anything.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best CRM for small nonprofits?

There is no single best CRM for small nonprofits; the right one depends on your budget and which job matters most. A two- or three-person team on a tight budget usually does better with a flat, low monthly price like FundHero’s Starter plan, while a nonprofit focused on predictive donor retention may prefer Bloomerang’s deeper CRM tier despite the higher cost.

How much does a nonprofit CRM cost?

Expect a monthly subscription plus payment processing on every online gift. As of October 2026, FundHero starts at $7.99 a month, Little Green Light at $45 a month, DonorPerfect at $99 a month, and Bloomerang’s CRM tier at $125 a month, each with its own processing rate on top.

Is Little Green Light or Bloomerang better for a small nonprofit?

Little Green Light costs less for a small list and gives a longer free trial, which usually fits a small nonprofit’s budget better. Bloomerang’s CRM goes deeper on donor retention and engagement scoring, which matters more once an organization has a development team dedicated to major gifts.

Can a free tool like Givebutter replace a nonprofit CRM?

It can replace the donation page and basic contact list, but it is not built to track a pledge with a date and a reminder the way a CRM for phone or in-person asks is. A nonprofit that still calls or visits major donors will likely need that piece from somewhere.

Do I need a CRM if I am still using a spreadsheet?

A spreadsheet works until more than one person needs it at once or a follow-up has to happen without anyone remembering it. Once a board member, a volunteer and a staff member are all touching the same donor list, a shared record starts paying for itself.

How long does it take to switch to a new nonprofit CRM?

Plan on about a week of real work: cleaning the spreadsheet, importing contacts and past gifts, checking a sample against your bank records, and rebuilding your call list. Do it between deadlines rather than during one, and keep the old spreadsheet read-only for a month afterward.

Choosing the best CRM for your small nonprofit

The best CRM for small nonprofits fits your budget and still tracks a pledge, flags a thank-you, and hands you a report on demand, which matters more than how long its feature list runs. Bloomerang, Little Green Light and DonorPerfect each do real work well, at a price built for a bigger team than most small nonprofits start with. Givebutter and Donorbox cover the donation page but not the pledge and follow-up side of the job.

Weigh the subscription and the processing fee together, at the size you expect to be next year, and measure every option against the five jobs this post opened with.

If FundHero looks like the shape your team needs, start a free trial. No payment information is required, so you can import your real donor list and test the follow-up tools yourself before you decide anything.