Nonprofits tackle complex challenges that require careful planning and execution. From fundraising campaigns to community outreach programs, each project demands a strategic approach to ensure maximum impact. That's where project management comes in.
By leveraging specialized nonprofit project management software and proven techniques, you can boost efficiency and effectiveness. This guide explores the world of nonprofit project management, covering essential stages, key benefits, and best practices.
We'll also showcase seven powerful software tools designed to streamline processes, foster collaboration, and drive results.
Table of Contents
What is project management for nonprofits?
5 stages of project management for nonprofits
Why do nonprofits need project management tools?
Top 7 project management software for nonprofits
How to choose the best project management software for your nonprofit
Project management best practices for nonprofit organizations
Final words on nonprofit project management
Nonprofit project management FAQs
What is project management for nonprofits?
Project management is about getting things done efficiently. It's the art of guiding a team to achieve specific goals within set time frames and budgets. It involves leading a team to achieve specific goals within defined constraints, such as time, budget, and scope.
For nonprofits, effective project management is essential to running your nonprofit successfully. It helps nonprofits turn their ideas into reality, making sure every project pushes their mission forward and benefits the communities they serve.
5 stages of project management for nonprofits
1. Conception
The first stage nurtures an idea into a clear vision. It involves brainstorming, feasibility studies, and defining the outcomes you want to achieve. Your nonprofit must determine why it is undertaking this project and how it will benefit your organization.
In this initial stage, project objectives are defined alongside the scope of work and desired outcomes.
2. Planning
The next phase is to create a blueprint that will serve as a roadmap guiding you throughout the project. It involves breaking down your project into manageable tasks and putting them in a logical sequence. You define project budgets and develop a comprehensive plan.
Project managers often lay out their plans using a Gantt chart. It offers a visual representation of the entire project schedule and scope. Some Gantt charts can automatically highlight the most critical tasks that directly impact the project's timeline.
3. Launch
The launch phase is when you kick off the project and get to work. During this phase, project managers may need to reallocate resources or adjust time or tasks as needed. They also identify and mitigate risks, deal with any challenges, and oversee execution.
4. Monitoring
This phase involves tracking the project performance against the plan to ensure it's on schedule. The project manager also monitors each person or team's progress.
5. Closing
Finally, your project comes to an end, and you turn in the final deliverables. In this end phase, you acknowledge all team members' support and efforts. It is a good practice to conduct a retrospective analysis of the project. This helps to identify best practices and errors, and capture lessons learned for future projects.
Why do nonprofits need project management tools?
1. Strategic planning
The key benefit of a project management solution is that you can automate planning and scheduling. Powered by AI, these solutions provide insights into project timelines, challenges, and deliverables.
You can create a strategic plan for your fundraising event within a specified timeframe and budget. Project management tools will update your plans and track progress against your baseline.
2. Enhanced transparency
There are hundreds of moving parts at nonprofits, and the executive team needs a way to keep track of multiple initiatives at once. Project management solutions offer the transparency they need to run essential projects easily.
With features like portfolio or summary views, nonprofits can enhance team-wide transparency and decrease unnecessary back-and-forth.
3. Improved team collaboration
Another great benefit of using a project management system is that it offers an excellent way for teams to collaborate. It keeps all the communication related to a project in a centralized place. You can access insights like project timelines, task progress, and status updates. It also allows you to share information, coordinate, and discuss tasks in real-time.
4. Simpler file access and sharing
Project management solutions offer storage for all essential files. Team members can make changes, leave feedback, and annotate documents.
5. Easy reporting
Your major supporters and stakeholders want evidence of the impact of their investment. Project management systems offer reporting features that automatically generate detailed impact reports for donors.
Top 7 project management software for nonprofits
1. Asana
Best for: Nonprofits looking for a comprehensive task and project management tool
Asana offers a versatile platform for nonprofits to juggle multiple projects, regardless of their size or complexity.
With Asana, you can create different boards for various programs, such as fundraising campaigns, event planning, and grant management. Within each board, define different tasks, assign responsibilities, set deadlines, and watch progress.
Asana gives you a head start on your projects with custom templates. You get real-time updates on the state of each project, so you can troubleshoot any possible error. The software allows you to create automation rules to streamline workflows.
For instance, you could set up a rule to automatically assign high-priority tasks to specific team members when managing a major donor campaign.
Pros and cons
Pricing
Eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations get a 50% discount from Asana.
- Personal: Free version; suited to individuals and small teams
- Starter: $10.99; suited to growing teams to track their progress and hit deadlines
- Advanced: $24.99; suited for larger organizations
2. Notion
Best for: Nonprofits looking for all-in-one workspace to manage tasks, projects, and information
Notion is an all-in-one tool for your team to stay connected and organized. It allows you to create, manage, and collaborate on various content, including notes, documents, to-do lists, and more.
With its AI capabilities, Notion allows you to create higher-quality project documents faster. You can create a project's first draft in seconds or ask AI to make your plan more effective. Notion AI functionality suggests the next steps and recommends solutions. It automates tedious tasks related to projects to optimize outcomes.
Pros and cons
Pricing
501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations secure 50% off on Notion’s Plus Plan. Other plans include:
- Free: Invite up to 10 users
- Plus: $4 instead of $8 per month and invite 100 users
- Business: $15 per month and invite 250 users
- Enterprise: Contact the sales team for pricing
3. Monday.com
Best for: Nonprofits that need a flexible and visual project tracking tool
Monday is a simple and versatile project management tool suitable for a wide array of projects. With user-friendly, customizable templates, you can plan, track, and organize fundraising easily.
Your organization can visualize its entire donation pipeline. It shows where donations are going and automates personalized fundraising texts and emails. The platform is also an excellent option for recruiting volunteers and assigning tasks. You can embed recruitment forms, assign volunteer shifts, and visualize their availability and capacity.
Pros and cons
Pricing
- Free plan: For nonprofits with up to 10 team members
- Business: For nonprofits looking for enterprise-grade control and support. Prices are available upon request
4. Trello
Best for: Small nonprofits looking for a simple and visual tool for project management
Trello is a free project management software designed for teams seeking a simple solution. Similar to a Kanban board, it presents tasks as customizable cards with due dates, labels, assignees, and attachments. With an intuitive drag-and-drop feature, Trello makes it easy to create boards, lists, and cards.
Trello offers dedicated support for grant management. Its custom fields allow you to identify grant types and sizes and manage them from planning to execution.
Pros and cons
Pricing
Trello has special discounts (up to 75%) for nonprofits and educational institutions.
- Free plan: For teams or individuals looking to organize a project
- Standard: $5 per month for small teams that need to manage work and enhance collaboration
- Premium: $10 per month for teams that need to track and visualize many projects
- Enterprise: $17.50 per month for up to 50 users; for more, the price varies
5. ClickUp
Best for: Nonprofits looking for a customizable project management tool
ClickUp is known for its customizable interface and flexibility. It allows you to adapt the platform to address your specific requirements and preferences. You have 15+ project views to suit your project needs. These include views like Kanban boards for simple task organization and Gantt charts for detailed milestone tracking.
The platform offers docs, an AI writing assistant tool, budget management, goal tracking, and even an inbox.
Pros and cons
Pricing
Nonprofits can apply for a discount on paid plans by submitting a form on the ClickUp website.
- Free plan: Best for personal use
- Unlimited: $7; best for small teams
- Business: $12; best for mid-sized teams
- Enterprise: Best for large teams — contact the sales team for a quote
6. Hive
Best for: Nonprofits looking for an all-one project and campaign management tool
Hive's features allow nonprofits to tackle multiple complex projects simultaneously. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to set and track milestones, ensuring your team stays aligned with organizational goals.
You can align with both full-team members and part-time volunteers to brainstorm initiatives as a team and get on a Zoom call with Hive.
Hive offers flexible project views, which include Kanban, Gantt, Table View, and Portfolio. Each team member can choose to view projects in the chart type they prefer.
Pros and cons
Pricing
Hive offers nonprofit discounts of 10% on its plans.
- Free plan: Up to 10 workspace members for light project management
- Starter: For $5/annually, with up to 10 workspace users for entry-level management
- Teams: For $12/annually, with up to 50 workspace members with no limits on features and customization
- Enterprise: Contact sales team for pricing
7. Wrike
Best for: Large nonprofits with complex project management needs
Wrike is project management software with advanced functionalities. It can help nonprofit project managers streamline workflows, automate tasks, and predict risks. You can also create Gantt charts and customizable dashboards to view project progress and roadblocks.
The software features complex project templates to break even the largest project into manageable stages. It also allows users to assign tasks and track progress. You can customize Wrike to meet different project and team needs.
Pros and cons
Pricing
- Free: For simple project and task management
- Team: $9.80 per month per user for growing teams
- Business: $24.80 per month per user for all teams across an organization
- Enterprise: Prices are available upon request
How to choose the best project management software for your nonprofit
1. Features and requirements
Project management software varies from simple to complex, offering features like to-do lists or Kanban boards. Assess your needs based on project size, team size, and preferred method.
For detailed functions like work breakdown structure and budgeting, choose a tool like Asana. For visualizing tasks on a Kanban board, consider Trello.
2. Consider budget and cost
Consider your budget when choosing project management software as there are both free tools and pricier options with additional features. As a nonprofit, you may want to search for software with different pricing plans, nonprofit discounts, or free options.
A basic, free project management tool can create checklists, assign tasks, and track progress. A paid version offers advanced features like budgeting and workflow automation.
3. Ease of use
Some project management systems can be complicated to operate and require several days of training for your team to learn how to use them well. Not all nonprofits need such complex tools, especially those with smaller teams. In that case, you should look for a simple interface with the features you need.
4. Integration with tools
Ensure that project management software integrates with other tools your nonprofit uses. This could include accounting software for nonprofits like QuickBooks and communication tools like Gmail and Google Drive.
Project management best practices for nonprofit organizations
1. Align projects with your mission
Before launching any initiative, ask yourself: "How does this project advance our mission?" Make this connection clear to all stakeholders. When projects closely align with your nonprofit's purpose, you'll see increased engagement and better outcomes.
2. Establish a consistent communication schedule
Clear and open communication is key in nonprofit project management, whether with stakeholders or your team. Without it, collaboration and trust can suffer. Ensure you develop a schedule for effective communication while working on your project.
Your project management platform should also boost collaboration among team members and stakeholders. It should have features like discussion boards, chats, and file sharing. This will help your team limit confusion and keep everyone in the loop.
3. Prepare and plan for potential setbacks
In an ideal world, your project will be completed within a specified timeline. In reality, even the best-laid plans face setbacks, so you should prepare for the unexpected. You should adopt a flexible project management approach that addresses unforeseen changes.
4. Record lessons learned
Making a note of lessons learned is crucial for continuous improvement in nonprofit project management.
After each project phase or milestone, schedule a brief team meeting to discuss what worked well and what didn't. Document these insights in a shared, easily accessible format.
Include both successes and challenges, along with specific recommendations for future projects. This practice helps prevent repeated mistakes, allows for knowledge transfer between teams, and contributes to your organization's long-term growth and effectiveness.
Final words on nonprofit project management
As your organization grows and tackles more complex initiatives, you'll likely need integrated solutions that go beyond project management. Consider exploring comprehensive platforms that combine project management with fundraising and donor management capabilities. This holistic approach can streamline operations and maximize your impact, allowing you to focus more on your mission and less on administrative tasks.
Effective project management is the backbone of successful nonprofit initiatives. By implementing the strategies and tools discussed in this guide, you'll be better equipped to tackle complex projects, maximize resources, and drive meaningful change.
Managing growth can be challenging for nonprofits, and that’s where efficient tools become essential to handle increased fundraising and donor management needs. Zeffy, a 100% free platform, supports nonprofits with comprehensive tools without adding financial burden. Combine project management features with Zeffy's fundraising platform to reduce administrative overhead and focus more energy on your core mission.
Nonprofit project management FAQs
