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Nonprofit software

2026 Bloomerang Reviews: Features and User Feedback

March 23, 2026
TL;DR — The Short Answer

Verdict: A real donor CRM at the wrong price point for most small nonprofits. Earns its keep for mid-size orgs with dedicated development staff. Overkill for grassroots or all-volunteer teams.

What works: Ease of use, donor stewardship depth (engagement scoring, interaction timelines, household management), strong reporting, and responsive support.

What doesn't: Per-record pricing punishes growth; $1,980/yr minimum subscription before a donor gives; Canadian orgs and small teams pay for features they can't use.

Best for: Mid-size nonprofits with a dedicated major-gifts fundraiser or stewardship staff who will actively run the database day to day.

Worth considering if: You're growing past roughly 5,000 donors, need wealth screening and retention dashboards, and have a software budget closer to $500/month than $0.

Table of contents

Bloomerang is a real donor CRM. The engagement scoring, household management, interaction timelines, and wealth indicators its loyal users praise are genuine. The honest question is not "is Bloomerang any good?" It is: "is your nonprofit at the stage where paying $125 a month before a donor gives a dollar earns its keep?"

For most small or all-volunteer nonprofits, the answer is no, yet. The base CRM is $125 a month, billed annually. Add Bloomerang's fundraising tools and that floor rises to about $1,980 a year before a single donor contributes. Payment processing sits on top. And the subscription scales with your contact list, so growing your supporter base raises your overhead first.

This review walks through what Bloomerang actually costs, what real users say on Capterra, G2, and Trustpilot, who it serves well, and where a free fundraising platform like Zeffy fits instead.

Bloomerang at a glance

  • Capterra: 4.7 out of 5 (1,287 reviews)
  • G2: 4.6 out of 5 (896 reviews)
  • Trustpilot: 3.9 out of 5 (236 reviews, bloomerang.co)
  • Software Advice: 4.7 out of 5 (1,287 reviews, shared Gartner review pool with Capterra)
  • Starting price: $125/month for CRM, billed annually. Fundraising tools start at $40/month. Payment processing 2.2% + $0.30 per card, 1% + $0.30 per ACH/EFT.
  • Verdict: A real donor CRM at the wrong stage for most small nonprofits. Earns its keep for mid-size orgs with a dedicated major-gifts fundraiser. Overkill and overpriced for grassroots or all-volunteer teams.
Bloomerang reviews and pricing overview

Who should use Bloomerang (and who shouldn't)

This is the load-bearing question, so we lead with it. Bloomerang is built for stewardship workflows that pay off when a dedicated person actually runs them. If that's you, the price is fair. If it's not, you'll pay for capacity you can't yet use.

✅ Bloomerang earns its keep if:

  • You have a dedicated major-gifts fundraiser or stewardship staff member running the database day to day.
  • You actively use constituent and household management, interaction timelines, and engagement scoring.
  • You're a mid-size org with a software budget closer to $500 a month than $0.
  • You're growing past roughly 5,000 donors and need real segmentation, retention dashboards, and wealth indicators.

❌ Bloomerang is the wrong stage if:

  • You're a 1-to-3-person team or all-volunteer.
  • You have fewer than 5,000 donors and no dedicated development staff.
  • You're a Canadian nonprofit (you'll pay for US-only features you can't use).
  • You're keeping volunteer or supporter lists in spreadsheets because adding contacts to your CRM raised your subscription tier.
  • Your budget is closer to $0 than $500 a month.

The structural issue for small orgs is the per-record pricing model. Bloomerang's bill scales with your contact count, so adding the 1,000 volunteers from your last fall event can push you into a higher tier. Several small-org reviewers describe quietly keeping contacts out of the database to avoid this, which defeats the purpose of having a CRM at all.

For a small nonprofit: if you're priced out of Bloomerang or trimming contacts to stay in a tier, you don't have a Bloomerang problem, you have a stage problem. Start free, upgrade when complexity actually demands it.

What real users say about Bloomerang (pros)

Bloomerang's strongest reviews cluster around four themes: ease of use, donor management depth, reporting, and support. These are honest strengths, and we name them. Quotes below come from Capterra, G2, and Trustpilot to show how sentiment holds across platforms.

Easy to learn, easy to use

There aren't a million different products and service packages that you have to juggle to use your donor data. Reports are super easy to build. Donor acknowledgement is really as easy as a push of a button!
— Megan B., Capterra
It has been a great database for our small organization. The training videos, the library of resources and Bloomerang University were extremely helpful in getting us set up and using the system to its fullest potential.
— Verified Reviewer, G2
Bloomerang is very user friendly and easy to navigate. It is easy to pull reports, search for constituents, and enter donations.
— Verified Reviewer, Capterra

Support and training that holds up

Bloomerang is easy to use, reports are easy to build, donations are easy to enter and donors are easy to manage. Bloomerang provides free trainings that are very useful and can be shared with your team based on function and need, as well as excellent customer service and support.
— Mindy D., Capterra
The customer support team is incredibly responsive and helpful. Every time I have had a question or issue, they have resolved it quickly and thoroughly.
— Verified Reviewer, G2

Donor follow-up workflow in one place

We love the task and note functions as it reminds us when we need to follow-up with a donor and gives us the ability, in one central location, to make notes on how we have completed the task or any other communication with the donor.
— Michelle F., Capterra
The engagement score is one of my favorite features. It helps us prioritize outreach and make sure we're not missing lapsed donors who were once very engaged.
— Verified Reviewer, G2
The reporting capabilities are outstanding. I can slice and dice our donor data in ways that were impossible with our previous system, and the retention dashboard gives me a clear picture of where we stand every month.
— Verified Reviewer, G2
Bloomerang has made our year-end appeal process so much smoother. We can segment by giving history, send acknowledgements in bulk, and track who opened what, all in one place.
— Verified Reviewer, Capterra

Behind these quotes sit Bloomerang's genuine product strengths: constituent and household management with de-duping, interaction and touch-point timelines, two-way email logging, grant tracking, case and program management, RFM and AI-based engagement scoring, a donor-health dashboard, and a US wealth and prospect plugin. If you have staff who run these workflows, that depth is what you are paying for, and it is real.

For a small nonprofit: these strengths only convert into impact when someone owns the database. If no one on your team will spend a few hours a week in the CRM, the pros above describe a tool you'll pay for but rarely open.

Bloomerang pricing breakdown

Common Bloomerang complaints (cons)

The most frequent critiques echo the stage-fit issue. Cost relative to small-org budgets is the loudest one, and the per-record pricing model makes it worse over time. Quotes here span Capterra, G2, and Trustpilot.

Pricing punishes growth

Bloomerang's pricing can be on the higher side, particularly for small nonprofits. The software's cost is based on the number of records in your database, so the more donors you have, the more expensive it can be.
— Verified Reviewer, Capterra
The price point is very high for what you get if you are a small to mid-size organization. The cost increases significantly as your contact list grows, which feels counterintuitive when you are working hard to expand your donor base.
— Verified Reviewer, G2
We had to limit the number of contacts we added because each tier jump was adding several hundred dollars a year to our bill. That defeats the purpose of having a donor database.
— Verified Reviewer, G2

Functionality has soft spots

Due to its ease of use, there are some limits to functionality. Also when we purchased it their online donor landing page and monthly donor programs were lacking somewhat. I believe they have made some gains with this. We went with a third party that integrates with Bloomerang which works well.
— Erica H., Capterra
The event management side of things is pretty basic. We still have to use a separate tool for ticketing, which means more logins and more reconciliation at the end of each event.
— Verified Reviewer, G2

Email and task scheduling friction

We do have some issues with formatting emails and letters that we're working through. I also don't like that you cannot apparently schedule reminder emails for tasks or assign multiple responsible parties for tasks.
— Megan B., Capterra
The email builder is clunky compared to a dedicated email platform. For a system at this price, I expected something more polished.
— Verified Reviewer, G2
Support is good, but the wait times have gotten longer over the past year. For a subscription at this price, I'd expect faster response windows.
— Verified Reviewer, G2

The pattern across the lower-star reviews is consistent. Bloomerang is competent at what it does, but small and Canadian orgs pay full subscription for features they cannot use, and the per-record model means a successful awareness campaign that doubles your contact list also raises your software bill.

For a small nonprofit: the cons are not "Bloomerang is bad." They are "Bloomerang is built for a bigger org than mine." That's a stage problem, not a quality one, and the right answer is a different tool until your workflow grows into Bloomerang's strengths.

Bloomerang pricing: what you'll actually pay

  • Bloomerang CRM: $125 per month, billed annually. Price scales with the number of records or contacts in your database. There is no transparent published tier table, so you'll need to contact sales for an exact quote at your size.
  • Bloomerang Fundraising tools: starting at $40 per month, added on top of the CRM subscription.
  • Membership management: included as a CRM feature, not a separate paid module.
  • Payment processing: 2.2% + $0.30 per card transaction, and 1% + $0.30 per ACH or EFT transaction. (Some third-party sources cite 3.2% + $0.30. The figure here is the one published on Zeffy's verified compare page.)

The minimum realistic annual subscription for an org running CRM plus Fundraising tools is:

  • $125 12 = $1,500 per year for CRM
  • $40 12 = $480 per year for Fundraising tools
  • Roughly $1,980 per year in subscription alone, before a single donor contributes

Add payment processing on every gift, and remember that the CRM tier rises as your contact list grows. Bloomerang's transparency around the tier ladder is low. You will not get an exact future-year cost from the website; you'll get it from a sales call.

Bloomerang is not free. The processing fee is a real per-donation cost, and the subscription is a hard floor whether you raise $5,000 this year or $500,000.

For a small nonprofit: the cost question is not "can we afford $125 a month?" It is "will we use $1,980 worth of Bloomerang this year?" If your stewardship workflow today is a spreadsheet and a Mailchimp account, the answer is almost always no.

Bloomerang vs Zeffy: true-cost comparison

Here's the all-in math for a small nonprofit raising $50,000 a year across roughly 600 card donations (about an $83 average gift).

Cost lineBloomerangZeffy
CRM subscription$1,500/yr ($125/mo 12, billed annually)$0
Fundraising tools$480/yr (starts at $40/mo)$0
Card processing (~600 gifts $83 avg)~$1,277/yr (2.2% + $0.30)$0
Year-1 total~$3,257/yr$0

Two things to notice. First, the subscription line is the biggest one, larger than processing fees, and it does not flex with your fundraising results. You owe it whether you raise $5,000 or $500,000. Second, the table understates Bloomerang's growth cost: as your contact list grows, the CRM subscription tier rises with it. With Zeffy, growing your supporter base does not raise your software bill, because there is no per-record pricing and unlimited contacts and users are included.

Zeffy is 100% free for nonprofits. No platform fee, no transaction fee, no credit card fee. Ever. Zeffy is funded by optional contributions from donors at checkout.

For a small nonprofit: $3,257 a year is a part-time staff stipend, a year of insurance, or a season of program supplies. If Bloomerang's CRM depth is not actively running your stewardship, that money does more good on the program side.

Bloomerang features: what's included

Bloomerang's feature set is broad and stewardship-led. Here's a closer look at what's in the box.

Donor CRM

Full donor profiles with contact history, household and constituent management with de-duping, interaction and touch-point timelines, RFM-based engagement scoring, donor-health dashboards, and (in the US) a wealth and prospect screening plugin. This is the deepest part of the product and the reason orgs with development staff stick with it.

Online giving

Donation forms, recurring gifts, and tribute giving are part of the Fundraising add-on. The base CRM does not include the public-facing donation page; that lives behind the $40-per-month Fundraising tools tier.

Email marketing

Two-way email logging, list segmentation, and email open and click tracking are built into the CRM. If you want the same basic capability without a subscription, you can send newsletters and segmented emails from your dashboard on Zeffy for free.

Reporting and analytics

Customizable reports, retention dashboards, and donor-segment performance views. Reviewers consistently rate reporting easy to use, which is rarer in nonprofit CRMs than you'd expect.

Event and volunteer management

Basic event functionality is included with Fundraising tools. A separate volunteer module is available for $119 per month. For grassroots orgs that lean heavily on volunteers, this stacks the bill quickly.

Integrations

QuickBooks, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and a marketplace of third-party integrations. Useful if you already have a tech stack you do not want to abandon.

For a small nonprofit: Bloomerang's feature list is generous, but most of what a 1-to-3-person team actually uses (a donation form, a contacts database, segmented email) is covered by a free tool. The features that justify the price are the stewardship and analytics layers most small orgs are not yet running.

Customer support

Bloomerang publishes a knowledge base, hosts free training sessions, and offers email and phone support during business hours. Capterra reviewers give the support team a 4.8 out of 5 rating, which matches the qualitative reviews above. Live chat is available inside the product. If you are migrating from a spreadsheet or another CRM, the onboarding is hand-held, not self-serve.

Bloomerang vs alternatives

Bloomerang is not the only choice. Here's how it stacks up against the alternatives a small or mid-size nonprofit will realistically shortlist.

PlatformMonthly costTransaction feesPricing modelCapterra rating
Zeffy$0$0Donor-tip-funded; no per-record, no per-transaction4.8
Bloomerang$125+/mo CRM + $40+/mo Fundraising2.2% + $0.30 card, 1% + $0.30 ACH/EFT (per Zeffy vs Bloomerang)Subscription, billed annually; tier scales with contacts4.7
Donorbox$0 to start (Standard); $150/mo (Pro)Standard: ~2.95% platform fee + ~2.2% + $0.30 processingPer-transaction (platform % + processing)4.7
Little Green Light$39–$119/moProcessing handled by your chosen payment integrationSubscription, tiered by donor-record count4.7

Zeffy wins on total cost and pricing model, and loses honestly on stewardship-CRM depth. There is no engagement scoring, donor-health dashboard, or wealth indicator screening. For the fundraising-first small org, that gap rarely matters yet.

Bloomerang wins on CRM depth, and loses on stage fit and pricing transparency. The per-record model punishes growth; the lack of a published tier table means future-year cost is a sales-call answer.

Donorbox sits in the same form-first category as Zeffy on capability, but layers a platform fee on top of processing. The lighter CRM compared to Bloomerang is fair to call out.

Little Green Light is the budget CRM pick. It is cheaper than Bloomerang at small scale, but the per-record subscription pattern is the same; growing your list raises your bill. No native fundraising surface, so you'll integrate a separate payment processor and lose the one-login simplicity.

Zeffy as a Bloomerang alternative: honest framing

If you're reading a Bloomerang review and the $1,980-a-year subscription floor is the thing giving you pause, you are the reader Zeffy is built for. Here is the honest framing.

Zeffy is a free fundraising platform used by 100K+ nonprofits that have raised $2B+ on the platform. You get contacts, tags, smart filters, saved segments, donor history, automatic receipts, a Members tab and membership dashboard (active, auto-renewing, expiring in 30 days, lapsed), the QuickBooks and WordPress integrations, and email-from-dashboard with open, click, and unsubscribe stats. Unlimited contacts. Unlimited users. No per-record pricing. $0 subscription. $0 platform fee. $0 processing fee.

What Zeffy does not have is Bloomerang-class enterprise stewardship depth. There is no engagement scoring, donor-health or retention dashboards, wealth indicators, household de-duping at Bloomerang's scale, two-way email-thread logging, grant tracking, case or program management, or RFM and AI scoring. Those are Bloomerang's honest edge, and they matter for orgs with dedicated development staff who will actually use them.

The structural advantage Zeffy holds is the pricing model. The subscription is not tiered by contact count, so growing your supporter base from 500 to 5,000 does not raise your software bill. For the small org currently keeping volunteer lists in a spreadsheet to avoid bumping a CRM tier, that's the whole point.

The fee math, side by side: a nonprofit on Bloomerang CRM plus Fundraising tools pays at least about $1,980 a year in subscription alone, plus 2.2% + $0.30 on every card donation and 1% + $0.30 on every ACH gift. On Zeffy, both costs are $0.

Here is what users on Zeffy say:

Zeffy has been a game changer for our small nonprofit. We went from losing hundreds of dollars a year in fees to keeping every dollar our donors gave us. The donor management tools are easy enough for volunteers to use without any training.
— Verified Reviewer, Capterra
We switched to Zeffy from a paid platform and immediately noticed the difference in our net revenue. The setup was simple, the forms look professional, and the support team actually responds.
— Verified Reviewer, Capterra
For an all-volunteer organization like ours, Zeffy is perfect. There are no monthly fees eating into our budget, and the donor tracking features are more than enough for what we need.
— Verified Reviewer, Capterra

How Loose Ends turned fee savings into mission impact

  • $1,715 saved
  • 1 new hire
  • 2,500+ finished textile projects

The right path for most small nonprofits is Zeffy now, Bloomerang later, if and when wealth screening and stewardship analytics become the real bottleneck. The data exports cleanly when you're ready to migrate.

FAQs about Bloomerang Reviews for Nonprofits

Is Bloomerang really free?

No. Bloomerang's CRM starts at $125 per month, billed annually, and its Fundraising tools start at $40 per month on top of that. Payment processing fees apply to every donation (2.2% + $0.30 per card, 1% + $0.30 per ACH or EFT). A minimum realistic year on CRM plus Fundraising tools is roughly $1,980 in subscription before any donations come in.

What are Bloomerang's transaction fees?

Per the Zeffy vs Bloomerang comparison: 2.2% + $0.30 per card transaction and 1% + $0.30 per ACH or EFT transaction. The bigger cost line for most small orgs is the subscription, not the processing fee, so lead with that when you're budgeting.

Is Bloomerang good for small nonprofits?

It depends on staffing more than size. Bloomerang earns its keep when you have a dedicated major-gifts fundraiser or stewardship staff who actively runs constituent and household management, interaction timelines, and engagement scoring. If you're a 1-to-3-person team or all-volunteer, sub-5,000 donors, with a budget closer to $0 than $500 a month, Bloomerang is the wrong stage. A free fundraising platform covers the workflow you're actually running today.

What's the best free alternative to Bloomerang?

Zeffy is the closest free alternative for the fundraising and donor-management workflow most small orgs actually run. You get a free donor CRM (contacts, tags, smart filters, segments, donor history, automatic receipts, email-from-dashboard), donation forms, ticketing, raffles, auctions, P2P, memberships, and an online store, all in one login at $0 subscription and $0 in fees. Be honest about the gap: Zeffy does not have engagement scoring, donor-health dashboards, wealth indicators, or grant and case management. For most small orgs, that gap doesn't matter yet. For orgs that genuinely run those workflows, Bloomerang remains the right pick.

Can I switch from Bloomerang to Zeffy without losing data?

Yes. Contact records, donor history, and giving data export cleanly from Bloomerang, and Zeffy imports standard contact and donation CSVs. The reverse is also true: if and when your stewardship workflow outgrows Zeffy's CRM and needs Bloomerang's depth, the data moves with you.

Written by
Jessica Woloszyn
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Insights from over $100M in monthly transactions

Quick wins for you:

  • Look for people who attend related events, follow relevant Facebook groups, or subscribe to aligned newsletters.These aren’t just potential donors—they’re your future advocates.
  • Look for people who attend related events, follow relevant Facebook groups, or subscribe to aligned newsletters.These aren’t just potential donors—they’re your future advocates.

See our Guide for Mission Statements

How Loose Ends turned fee savings into mission impact
$1,715
saved
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new hire
2500+
finished textile projects
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