Top 8 Donor Databases for Nonprofits in 2025

Choosing the best CRM donor database is a critical decision for nonprofits. Having a single system to store every detail about supporters and constituents requires a significant amount of trust and validation that the data will always be accurate, compliant, and accessible at a moment’s notice.

So, how do you decide the best donor management platform that you can rely on as your organization scales? Below, we’ll outline the top 8 donor databases for nonprofits to kickstart your first-time search or enhance your transition to something new.

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What is a donor database?

A donor database is a system, platform, or software that provides nonprofits and charitable organizations with everything they need to manage donors. At its most basic level, donor database software for nonprofits typically includes an organized list of donor information, such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers. 

While donor databases, nonprofit CRMs, and donation management tools often work together, they each serve a slightly different purpose. Donor databases focus on storing supporter information. CRMs (Customer Relationship Management systems) take it a step further by managing relationships and engagement across multiple channels, and donation management tools are specifically designed to handle the processing, tracking, and reporting of contributions.

Donor databases have become increasingly sophisticated as AI and other technological advancements are introduced year after year to personalize donor outreach. Today, most options will help nonprofits engage donors at the precise right time, automate tasks to build relationships, and identify giving history to inform strong strategies.

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Can I use spreadsheets to track my donors?

The quick answer is yes. A spreadsheet can technically track donor data, especially for organizations just getting started, but it often takes time and can’t always guarantee accuracy. 

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Nonprofits may track the following information in a spreadsheet:

• Donor contact information such as name, address, phone number, and email.

• Donation history, including amounts, dates, and types of donations (one-time, recurring).

• Communication records and notes on interactions, thank-you notes, and follow-ups.

• Donor segments are based on giving levels, interests, or engagement.

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How to find affordable donor database solutions

A donor or fundraising database makes it simpler for organizations to track this information automatically and in sync with fundraising software. As a donation or transaction occurs, the data is immediately stored in an accessible hub to be filtered and sorted later.

There are several affordable (and 100% free) donor database software options available below that we’ll cover side by side with paid donor databases so you can see what might work best for your nonprofit.

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How does a donor database benefit nonprofits?

A nonprofit donor database is a centralized platform where all interactions that occur over time with various individuals through multiple campaigns and support types are consolidated into a single view. That oversight can equip teams with everything they need to focus their efforts and achieve more results from their donor relationships.

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• Organized donor information: Donor data management is readily available at any time, eliminating the need for manual sorting of crucial information or specific results.

• Strong donor relationships: It’s much easier to engage donors regularly when you see how they interact and what they respond well to, increasing donor retention rates.

• Targeted fundraising: Personalization can be a breeze with access to crucial donor information for emails, donation pages, and other appeals.

• Automation and time savings: Ditching manual work can make even the leanest teams available to donors 24/7 through automated emails and tasks.

• Donor retention: Donors stay when they feel valued and updated, making donor management a pivotal tool for flagging re-engagement opportunities or boosting loyalty.

• Compliant reporting: Analytics are secure and accurate, providing you with peace of mind regarding annual reporting and financial management.

• Nonprofit scalability: Data-driven decisions support growth paths for the future and point to the best areas to focus fundraising efforts.

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What features should I look for in donor database options?

It’s helpful to know whether you are looking for a more straightforward solution with essential features or need specific features to raise money. Beyond that, it’s even more important to think about features you may need in the future as you grow and goals shift. 

This way, you can evaluate donor management software options to choose something that you won’t have to change once you put in the time to train your team and move all of your data over. 

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Some top features of customizable donor databases include:

• Donor management

• Donation tracking and processing

• Reporting and analytics

• Communication and engagement

• Task automation

• Event management

• Integrations with other fundraising tools

• Workflow management

• Data security and compliance

• Integrations with other fundraising tools

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What are the top CRM database options for nonprofits?

Here's a full breakdown to help you enhance your donor communications with the right donor database.

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Zeffy: A nonprofit-focused and affordable donor database solution

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Zeffy is an online fundraising platform that features a free donor database solution, allowing you to securely store and organize donor and member data in one trusted location. Zefffy is a comprehensive all-in-one solution that offers everything a nonprofit needs to host creative campaigns and straightforward donation pages, while seamlessly tracking everything in a single donor database. 

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Ideal for: All nonprofit organization looking for a free, scalable, and nonprofit-focused platform.

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Donor database overview

With Zeffy’s free donor management software, nonprofits can reach the right supporters, engage them with tailored messaging, and automate communication to capture donors at the right moment. Whenever a supporter interacts with a Zeffy fundraising campaign or donation page, their information is stored to facilitate access, filtering, searching, and segmenting later.

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Top features

• Import options to bring in donor contacts and past transactions to Zeffy

• Automatic contact list updates after a donation or purchase

• Filtering and simple export of contact lists

• Donor files with notes, tags, and segmentation support

• A clear view of all emails and donation history for each supporter

• Contact preferences and payment details

• Automatic email communications and tax receipts

• Email statistics like open rate, clicks, and unsubscribes

• Pre-filled fundraising forms personalized by donor history or campaign goals

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Pricing

Zeffy is 100% free, without hidden costs or transaction fees.

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What users say

“I love that they have options for automatic tax receipts, thank you emails, reminder emails, the ability to add and even require short answer questions with specific purchases, and options to add notes to any order. I also love the data we can export to excel - specifically the weekly payout details and all the information for each purchase. I also like that we have the ability to scan e-tickets for check in!” - Jennifer T.

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Bloomerang: A scalable donor management system

Bloomerang is a fundraising solution built by professionals to manage large communities of constituents. Its donor database can track interactions and engagement with supporters, volunteers, sponsors, and grant givers.

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Ideal for: Mid-to-large nonprofits focused on long-term donor engagement and personalized stewardship.

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Donor database overview

The Bloomerang donor database helps nonprofits retain donors, send the right message, identify more fundraising potential, and use data to inform decision-making. The tool is robust and is great for larger organizations looking to manage a wide array of constituents in one simple system.

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Top features

Bloomerang’s donor database offer nonprofits:

• An interactive dashboard to monitor donor retention, campaign progress, and new donations

• A consistent timeline that displays the history and visually represents interactions 

• Wealth screening data to see a donor’s giving history and publicly available wealth data 

• An engagement meter that provides an individual’s current engagement at a glance, encompassing a score based on past interactions, giving, volunteer work, and response to marketing efforts

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Pricing

Plans begin at $99 a month, billed annually. Features like fundraising, volunteer management, and membership management come at additional monthly fees.

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What users say

“What I really like about Bloomerang is how easy it is to use. Its dashboard gives you a clear view of donor engagement and fundraising performance, which makes tracking and improving your efforts straightforward. The reporting tools are also very handy for analyzing your data and making smart decisions.” - Al-nor A.

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Givebutter: A lower-cost donor database system

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Givebutter is an affordable nonprofit software with contact relationship management (CRM) capabilities that help track and understand donation patterns for effective donor stewardship. Personalized contact profiles gather contact information and engagement timelines to assist data-driven outreach.

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Ideal for: Smaller nonprofits or startup initiatives with growing supporter lists and limited budgets.

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Donor database overview

Givebutter’s CRM donor database nurtures relationships based on how individuals engage with an organization. The solution is a great alternative to spreadsheets and manual processes, offering more intuitive ways to search through and organize a donor database.

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Top features

Givebutter helps nonprofits with:

• Contact management and donor segmentation

• Easy reporting and exporting 

• Quick view of donation data at a glance 

• Filtering and sorting 

• Monitored payment status

• Transaction control center for resending donation receipts and ticket purchase records

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Pricing

Givebutter is an inexpensive option, but it does come with a platform fee of between 1% and 5%, depending on the fundraising tools used. This fee may be waived if the organization enables optional tips from donors. An additional 2.9% plus a $0.30 processing fee per transaction is deducted from each donation or purchase total, which donors also have the option to cover.

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What users say

“Givebutter has been a fantastic platform for our fundraising needs. The transition was smooth, and the interface is incredibly user-friendly. Their tutorials made it easy to get started, and whenever we had questions, customer service was responsive and helpful.” - Elle U.

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Little Green Light: An all-in-one donor management software

Little Green Light is a comprehensive donor management software solution featuring user-friendly tools. Organizations can build online donation forms and customized forms for campaigns to accept one-time or recurring donations, funneling them back into a donor database to nurture in the future.

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Ideal for: Environmental and education-focused organizations managing diverse donor and volunteer networks.

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Donor database overview

Little Green Light’s donor management software is an affordable option that helps nonprofits track donations, manage events, and report on success as they fine-tune their fundraising strategies. The essential donor management features are a great place to begin tailoring engagement and communication.

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Top features

Little Green Light gives nonprofits the ability to:

• Create custom reports or use templates to see data

• Track monetary, in-kind, memorial, honorary, and matching gifts

• Set up tasks and reminders to monitor progress toward goals

• Access constituent profiles with a history of the relationship 

• Manage active and lapsed donors with membership renewal dates

• Manage volunteer hours and generate statements

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Pricing

Plans begin at $45 per month based on the number of constituents the organization wants to manage. Monthly rates do not include transaction fees of 2.2% + $0.30.

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What users say

“This is great if you are a smaller organization--maybe no more than 2,000-3,000 donors. It features basic gift entry, pledges, contact info, etc. If you are a nonprofit just getting started, this could work for you.” - Rosie C.

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DonorPerfect: An advanced donor management system

DonorPerfect is a fundraising software with an online donor management database to support communications, automated workflows, and insights that inform a strategic fundraising approach. DonorPerfect comes at a higher price point, known for its rich integrations that enable the creation of a large-scale system capable of pulling donor data from any nonprofit organization's specialty tool.

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Ideal for: National or multi-branch nonprofits with more complex operations and high data needs.

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Donor database overview

DonorPerfect’s donor management software provides a deep view into how a supporter progresses through the donor lifecycle, pinpointing key interactions and strengthening relationship-building strategies. The platform offers numerous features to meet the needs of complex or niche fundraising requirements.

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Top features

DonorPerfect offers nonprofits:

• A quick way to sort, select, and access donor data

• Real-time information updates for team collaboration

• Automatic refresh of donor addresses

• Targeted messaging per donor segment

• A single history of financial transactions and contacts

• Instant duplicate data checking

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Pricing

Plans start at $99 per month and increase with the addition of more features in the Plus and Pro options.

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What users say

“I have found the program overall to be user friendly. I am not a tech savvy person so to have an easy to use program is extremely helpful. I have found most solutions within the knowledge base.” - Jeff W.

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Neon One CRM: A strong donor engagement platform

Neon One offers a revenue-based pricing model to support charities as they grow. The software features CRM capabilities that integrate with various third-party applications, including accounting, email marketing, and event management, making it an excellent choice for organizations with a robust fundraising process.

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Ideal for: Mission-driven nonprofits juggling donors, members, and volunteers across various campaigns.

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Donor database overview

Neon One’s CRM supports teams that do it all, from managing donors and members to sending emails and hosting fundraising campaigns. The platform focuses on relationship building and offers additional ways to interact with donors, leveraging strong data.

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Top features

Neon One provides features like:

• Donor tracking and management

• A user-centric dashboard

• An engagement timeline to personalize experiences

• Reporting with 40+ pre-built reports or custom report options

• Membership portal

• Volunteer management

• Workflow automation

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Pricing

Pricing starts at $99 per month for essentials, with the cost increasing for more robust plans that unlock additional features.

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What users say

“I appreciate all that can be done in Neon. There are so many options, things I didn't even know we could keep track of. I also appreciate that there are a lot of customization options.” - Haley C.

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Funraise: An AI-focused donor management system

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Funraise is a nonprofit solution for fundraising and donor database management. The platform utilizes machine learning and AI to enable intelligent fundraising decisions across donation forms and omnichannel giving.

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Ideal for: Tech-savvy nonprofits looking to maximize data insights and donor personalization.

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Donor database overview

Funraise’s donor management tool provides a clear and straightforward view of donor information, helping nonprofits navigate easily. Automation and intelligence drive smart fundraising strategies that leverage donor data to foster long-term relationships, acquisition, and retention efforts.

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Top features

Funraise gives nonprofits the tools to:

• View individual gifts in detail

• Report on simple or complex donation database reports with filters 

• Assign a gift to team members using automated rules

• Allocate how donations should be used

• Tag donations to track performance and flag processing roadblocks

• Handle refunds quickly and seamlessly

• Manage donation pledge records

• Track specific landing pages and URLs

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Pricing

With three-tiered plans available ranging in functionality, organizations can request a quote to determine pricing.

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What users say

“Moving all of our fundraising needs to Funraise was the best thing we have ever done. We are a small grassroots organization and depended on PayPal to process donations but were in need of something more robust that could handle campaigns, data tracking, peer to peer campaigns and provide a comprehensive CRM. Funraise provides all of this for a very reasonable price.” - Melissa Y.

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Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT: A great option for donor segmentation

Blackbaud Raiser Edge is the best option for large-scale organizations looking for specific donor management features and analytics that integrate with Blackbaud’s fundraising platform. All tools are built for fundraisers with robust intelligence and end-to-end gift management, offering organizations the flexibility to create.

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Ideal for: Universities, hospital foundations, and legacy organizations managing major gifts and complex donor portfolios.

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Donor database overview

Blackbaud Raiser Edge NXT CRM maximizes a team’s potential and simplifies complex workflows into a focused stewardship strategy. Organizations that manage many donors and have intricate donor journeys may find this solution the most valuable.

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Top features

Raiser Edge NXT can help nonprofits with the following:

• Streamlined donor stewardship and comprehensive donor profiles

• Secure access to reports and updates on giving history

• A central place for donors to view the financial performance of funds

• Enhanced communication with online portals and bulletin boards

• Tailored annual report delivery 

• Personalized outreach and thank you messages

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Pricing

Blackbaud requires personalized quotes per organization.

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What users say

“This is a powerful CRM service/software. We've expanded our utilization over the years, but I still know there are areas we don't even scratch the surface of when it comes to compiling information on donors and potential donors.” - Jeffery C.

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Case study: Over $47K raised with a strong donor database

Community Music School of Santa Cruz knew their donor management system was due for an upgrade when the free version they relied on started charging. The organization was left scrambling until they found a sound solution that was actually 100% free: Zeffy.

Zeffy’s free database software for nonprofits has helped CMS of Santa Cruz raise $47,664 and save an additional $2,383 in transaction fees. What started as a way to track donations turned into a cost-saving fundraising strategy for donation pages, event ticket sales, and any future campaigns the organization wants to host, guaranteeing that all money goes to the cause.

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"I love the ability to quickly email people who’ve attended any one of our past events—it’s simple and the “from” line in the customer’s email is our name, so there’s no confusion. I also appreciate the ability to embed the donation form or ticketing form into our website—it gives us a professional look. Finally, I couldn’t ask for better customer service. My questions are always responded to promptly, and the team always seems to welcome suggestion for future improvements."-Susan Willats, The Community Music School of Santa Cruz

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Future trends in donor management technology

1. Hyper-personalized donor journeys through AI & predictive analytics

Donor databases are getting smart. With AI and predictive tools, you’ll soon be able to tell exactly when someone’s likely to give again—and what kind of message will inspire them to do it. Think of it like having a virtual assistant who knows each donor’s preferences and helps you show up at just the right time with just the right touch.

Imagine sending a personalized thank-you video that’s tailored to a donor's specific giving history and campaign involvement, automated yet deeply personal.

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2. Seamless integration across platforms

No more bouncing between platforms trying to keep your donor info, email lists, fundraising campaigns, and event RSVPs all in sync. The future is all about integration, donor systems that talk to everything else you use so you can spend less time on admin and more time building relationships.

It’s like all your favorite tools decided to become best friends—and now they’re working together for you.

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3. Mobile-first & on-the-go accessibility

Whether you're at an event, working from a coffee shop, or catching up between meetings, donor management is going mobile. Apps and mobile-friendly dashboards are making it easy to update notes, check donor history, or track gifts from your phone, allowing you to stay connected without being tied to your desk.

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4. Enhanced privacy, consent, and data transparency

Donors are becoming more thoughtful about where their money goes and how their data is used. The best donor databases will make it easy for people to manage their preferences, opt in to communications they care about, and see precisely how their information is being protected. 

Transparency isn’t just a nice-to-have; it has become a core part of donor trust. When donors feel seen, respected, and in control, genuine connection and loyalty occur.

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What is the best database for charities?

The best donor database for nonprofits varies depending on an organization’s specific needs, size, and goals. While the options above help begin your evaluation process, it’s essential to reflect on what features are most important to you and what will provide the most value for your budget.

Choosing the right donor management software will look different for each organization, and it's always helpful to consider which donor records are most important and how you define ideal supporter relationships.

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Use this quick checklist to choose the best option

• What are our specific needs and goals? Assess your organization’s requirements, such as tracking each gift, managing donor relationships, generating reports, or integrating with other systems, to determine what is essential and what is merely desirable.

• How user-friendly is the system? Explore how intuitive the database will be for your team, considering ease of use, learning curve, and the availability of training resources and support. (Ex. is it easy to segment prospective major donors )

• What are the costs involved? Consider the total costs, including initial setup fees, ongoing subscriptions, and any additional expenses that may arise if you require access to more features or a robust donor database.

• Is the database secure? Be sure to ask questions about data security and how the tool protects your donors’ sensitive information, ensuring you maintain compliance. 

• Can it scale with our growth? Consider whether the new donor database can handle increasing data volumes and more complex requirements as your organization expands. Look for scalability options and flexibility in terms of upgrades and additional features.

Take some time to think about what stands out as your new donor management system as you deep dive into what each software provider can bring to the table. 

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