Best free donor management software for nonprofits in 2025

Publishing date:

Latest changes:

Introduction

Managing donor relationships is an essential part of managing a successful nonprofit organization. For donor management, attracting new donors and contributors, retaining them, and building a healthy and long-term constructive relationship is vital. To do so, one needs to be able to oversee the complete stream and outline of the donors within the non-profit organization. This helps create order and peace within the organization regarding how, when, and ‘where’ to approach your donors and contributors to build a successful mutual relationship with them. The best way to achieve this is by choosing the best (free) donor management software for your nonprofit organization. We want to save you some time and research, so we have looked at the best free donor software in the market today.

Research

During our research, we found a few interesting things. One is that some donor management software advertises themselves as being free. In the end, they are not really free. This can be due to numerous reasons.

• One is, for example, platform usage fees. While the software might be free to set up, the platform takes a commission on each donor contribution given to your nonprofit.
• A second example is where donor management software has a free option, though it is a minimal option. Therefore, once you start accepting donations, switching to a paid plan would be highly recommended; therefore, in the long term, it would not be free.
• Another example is that while some donor software might be free, installing, setting up, and integrating it into your organization will be so complicated that you need to hire specific consultants. Ultimately, you might need more time and resources in this process. This is especially the case for using software from prominent and established platforms.

While it is absolutely one’s own choice which software to use and whether to pay for it or not, this article is specifically written for helping you find the best free donor management software in 2023. While, it is not easy to find a solid free donor management software, we did find one! If you know any other suitable free solutions, please contact us at info@wpconcepts.net.

Zeffy

Founded around 6 years ago, Zeffy did take a great journey in becoming a leading free donor management software. As a certified B-Corp, they are definitely committed to the industry standards (and beyond). How come Zeffy is free, I hear you ask? It is because they are taking contributions from their users, much like a nonprofit would do. So if you want to contribute to their platform, you are free to do so. With 10k+ nonprofits using Zeffy, they sure have a great resource of experience and knowledge in their team for providing you with the best free nonprofit management software.

Some key features include, but are not limited to:

• Data import option: import historic data from your previous donor management software into Zeffy.
• Donor tracking: easily keep track of all your donors with options for segmentation, smart filters, notes, contact details, receipts and more.
• Offline donation tracking: add donation details from offline donations to keep all data in one place.
• Email campaign management: send and track emails from one place. Including features such as automatic reminder emails and email statistics.
• Customized pre-filled forms: send pre-filled forms specifically customized per donor.

Other solutions Zeffy includes are:

• Website donation collections.
• Peer-to-peer campaigns.
• Ticketing forms for selling event tickets.
• E-commerce solutions for nonprofits.
• Donor membership solutions.
• Raffle and lottery solutions.

Price: free with option for contributions.

Conclusion

Having done our research, we came to the conclusion that Zeffy is the most prominent free donor management software for nonprofits out there at the moment. Moreover, they offer other extensive solutions for nonprofits such as website donation collection software, peer-to-peer campaigns, donor membership solutions and more. Please feel free to contact us for any questions, ideas or feedback you might have.