25+ Best Online Tools for Nonprofits in 2026

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Table of contents

• Comparison table: the 25+ tools at a glance

• Fundraising and donations

• CRM and donor management

• Email marketing

• Design

• Website

• Accounting

• Volunteer management

• Project management

• Team communication

• Paid acquisition and analytics

• AI and automation

• Social and recruiting

• Zeffy's API and integrations

• Which 5 tools you can probably skip

• FAQ

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There's a lot of technology aimed at nonprofits. The problem isn't finding tools, it's finding ones that are actually free (not "free-with-a-catch"), built for small teams, and that work on a phone at a Saturday morning fundraiser.

We run Zeffy on a small team. We use most of the tools below ourselves, and we've watched 100K+ nonprofits on the platform pick the same handful over and over. So instead of another 35-tool catalog padded with software the writer has never opened, this is the short list, organized by what each tool actually does, with a comparison table up top, a "which 5 you can skip" section, and a final section on how the keepers plug into Zeffy for free. And no, we didn't get paid any money to talk about them here.

Comparison table: the 25+ tools at a glance

Categories are ordered by how often a typical small-team nonprofit touches each one. "Works with Zeffy" notes whether the tool connects natively, through Zapier, or via the free Public API.

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Fundraising and donations

1. Zeffy

Full disclosure: this is us. Zeffy is the only 100% free fundraising platform in North America. Donation forms, ticketing, raffles, peer-to-peer, memberships, online stores, and Tap to Pay for in-person events are all $0 — we cover the credit card fees too, so 100% of what donors give reaches the mission. Forms set up in under 5 minutes, embed cleanly into any site, and are mobile-first (which matters because most donors give from a phone now).

• What it replaces: paid platforms that charge 2 to 5% per donation plus monthly fees.

• Pricing: $0. Always.

• Best for: every nonprofit. If you're picking one tool from this list, start here.

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CRM and donor management

2. HubSpot for Nonprofits

HubSpot offers a free CRM that handles up to 1 million contacts. We use it at Zeffy and love it. The free plan is genuinely robust — contact records, deal pipelines, email tracking, 2,000 marketing emails a month, and forms.

• Free tier covers most small nonprofits indefinitely.

• You can integrate HubSpot with Zeffy so donation and ticketing data flows into your CRM automatically.

• HubSpot publishes nonprofit-specific guidance if you want a head start.

• If you outgrow the email limits, route through Brevo or Mailchimp rather than upgrading.

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3. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud

Salesforce offers 10 free licenses to eligible nonprofits through its nonprofit program. It's powerful, and it's overkill if you don't have a dedicated admin. We recommend Salesforce to larger organizations that already have someone comfortable in CRM admin work. Pair it with Zeffy through Zapier or the Public API.

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4. Zeffy donor management

If your fundraising volume doesn't yet justify a standalone CRM, Zeffy's built-in donor management already captures every gift, ticket, recurring donor, and auto-issues tax receipts. Many small nonprofits run on Zeffy + a spreadsheet for years before adding a CRM.

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Email marketing

5. Mailchimp

Mailchimp is the default for nonprofits running newsletters. The free tier covers small lists; templates are polished; automation is decent. If your list is growing past a few thousand, the price curve gets steep. See our roundup of Mailchimp alternatives for nonprofits.

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6. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

Brevo prices by emails sent rather than contacts stored, which usually wins for nonprofits with large but quiet lists. It also covers SMS and transactional email under one roof.

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7. Zeffy newsletter and donor email

If your email needs are mostly thanking donors and sending a monthly update, Zeffy's newsletter and emailing tools are free and live next to your donor records — no second tool required.

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Design

8. Canva for Nonprofits

Canva for Nonprofits is free for verified 501(c)(3) organizations in the US and CRA-registered charities in Canada. You get all Canva Pro features: brand kits, premium templates, background remover, the works. Apply here. It's the single biggest free upgrade most small nonprofits can give their marketing.

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Website

9. WordPress

WordPress powers roughly 43% of the web. It's free at its core, the community is huge, and you can add a free Zeffy donate button to WordPress in a few clicks with no coding. For most nonprofits this is the right answer for their main site.

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10. helloDarwin

If you need a developer, video team, or copywriter for a specific project, helloDarwin matches nonprofits with vetted agencies for free. Submit a brief, get three candidates within 48 hours.

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Accounting

11. QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks is the default for nonprofit accounting in North America — most auditors, bookkeepers, and treasurers already know it. The catch elsewhere is the sync cost: other fundraising platforms charge $17 to $29 a month for QuickBooks sync. At Zeffy, you can connect QuickBooks in under 5 minutes and it's always free, with payouts auto-categorized by campaign or fund.

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12. Wave

Wave offers free core accounting (income, expenses, basic reports) and only charges for payments and payroll. If your budget is under roughly $250k and you don't yet need fund accounting, Wave is the cheapest viable starting point.

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Volunteer management

13. SignUpGenius

SignUpGenius handles shift sign-ups and event volunteer slots on a free tier. It's the lightweight pick.

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14. Volgistics

Volgistics is the heavier-duty option once you need to track volunteer hours for grant reporting, manage applications, or run background checks. Paid only.

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Project management

15. Asana

Asana offers a 50% nonprofit discount on paid plans, and the free Basic tier is enough for most small teams. Good for running an annual gala or a multi-channel campaign across staff.

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16. Trello

Trello is the Kanban-board option — visual, simple, free at the entry tier. Lighter than Asana, harder to scale.

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Team communication

17. Slack

Slack has an 85% nonprofit discount on paid plans, and the free tier works fine for teams under 10 people. We use Slack at Zeffy. Plug a Zapier flow in and you can get a Slack ping every time a donation lands.

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18. Zoom

Zoom offers nonprofit pricing through TechSoup. If you're running board meetings or virtual events, the paid tier removes the 40-minute cap and unlocks longer webinars.

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Paid acquisition and analytics

19. Google Ad Grants

The Google Ad Grants program gives eligible nonprofits up to $10,000 per month in free Google search ads. It is the single most underused free resource in the sector. Use it to put your donation page in front of people searching for causes like yours. Google's own management tips are the best place to start.

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20. Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 is free and tells you which pages donors visit, where they came from, and where they drop off. Pair it with a plugin like MonsterInsights if you want the dashboard inside WordPress. You can also track Zeffy forms — contact us with your tracking ID.

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21. Hotjar

Hotjar shows you heatmaps and session replays — where people click, scroll, and quit. Hotjar accepts nonprofit applications for free Business accounts, with preference for non-religious, non-political organizations focused on environmental causes or equality work. The free Basic tier is open to anyone.

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AI and automation

22. ChatGPT

ChatGPT is genuinely useful for nonprofits when you give it the right context. We've written walkthroughs on prompting it well, using it to draft social posts, write donor thank-you emails, plan a fundraising event, and chip away at the grant application process.

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23. Zapier

Zapier connects the tools above without code. It offers nonprofit pricing. Zeffy has a native Zapier app, so you can push every donation and ticket sale into your CRM, accounting tool, or Slack automatically.

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Social and recruiting

24. Linktree

Linktree turns one social-bio link into a landing page for your donate form, store, events, and newsletter. Free tier is enough for most nonprofits.

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25. LinkedIn for Nonprofits

LinkedIn for Nonprofits publishes nonprofit-specific guides and discounts for hiring, board recruiting, and content. It's where most professional sponsor and board outreach happens.

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Zeffy's API and integrations

Once you've picked your stack, the question becomes: how do these tools actually talk to each other without a developer? This is where most "free" fundraising platforms quietly start charging — sync to QuickBooks is $17 to $29 a month elsewhere, API access is locked behind paid plans, and even a WordPress button can sit behind an upgrade.

At Zeffy, the connectors are free. Always.

• Zeffy's free Public API gives read-only access to Payments, Contacts, and Campaigns. Other fundraising platforms lock API access behind paid plans. Zeffy's Public API is completely free.

• QuickBooks integration is native — payouts auto-categorize by campaign or fund and the whole setup takes under 5 minutes.

• WordPress plugin adds a free Zeffy donate button to any WordPress site, no coding required.

• Zeffy AI Assistant lets you ask plain-English questions about your donor data — same underlying data as the API, no SQL needed.

• Zapier app connects Zeffy to 1000+ tools, including everything in this article that supports Zapier.

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Which 5 tools you can probably skip

No competitor listicle will tell you this, because more entries means more affiliate links. We'll tell you. Most small nonprofits don't need all 25.

• 1. A paid CRM, if you're under ~500 donors. HubSpot free + Zeffy's built-in donor records cover you. Salesforce and paid CRMs are great at scale and overkill for a 200-donor org.

• 2. A separate event-ticketing platform. Zeffy ticketing is free, mobile, and issues QR codes and receipts. You don't need Eventbrite charging fees per ticket.

• 3. A standalone peer-to-peer platform. Same logic — Zeffy P2P is included.

• 4. Two project management tools. Pick Asana or Trello. Running both is a meeting tax with no upside.

• 5. A paid email tool, until you outgrow free. HubSpot free covers 2,000 emails a month. Mailchimp free covers 500 contacts. Most nonprofits don't need to pay for email in year one.

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FAQ

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