01Donor and household records
Open two household members, an organization, and a gift with a soft credit.
A useful result: You can distinguish the payer, relationship, and recognition without counting the same gift twice.
Compare nonprofit CRMs and AI fundraising software
The best nonprofit CRM is the one your organization can implement, trust, and use to move donor relationships forward. Compare donor management, fundraising workflows, AI assistance, migration, and three-year cost with the same scenarios in every demo.
Watch the 1 min 51 sec Gratona walkthrough · Giving context, donor research, and assigned stewardship work
Compare platforms
Use these starting points to build your shortlist. Each product has a different scope. Decide whether you need a donor system of record or a giving tool that connects to the CRM you already use, then compare the workflows and costs that matter to your organization.
| Your priority | Product to explore | What it offers | What to confirm in your demo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your priorityStewardship across giving, events, trips, and programs in one CRM | Gratona | What it offersDonor and household records, recurring giving, sponsorships, events, mission trips, stewardship plans, Donor Intelligence, and Tali. | What to confirmFollow one relationship across programs, participation, research, and assigned work. Confirm included modules, setup, and AI capacity. |
| Your priorityFundraising and a core donor database with no CRM subscription fee | Givebutter | What it offersCore CRM, giving tools, contact profiles, households, and giving history. Advanced capabilities are offered through Givebutter Plus. | What to confirmIdentify which workflows require Plus, then compare subscription and payment costs for your expected usage. |
| Your priorityDonor management, communications, and day-to-day stewardship for a lean team | DonorDock | What it offersCRM, email and text, gift tracking, reporting, and to-do lists. | What to confirmWalk through your reporting, communications, and recurring-gift workflow. Confirm what onboarding and migration include. |
| Your priorityFundraising alongside programs, outcomes, and broader organizational workflows | Salesforce for Nonprofits | What it offersA nonprofit platform spanning fundraising, marketing, program and outcome management, and other functions. | What to confirmName the exact products in the proposal. Confirm configuration, implementation, integrations, and ongoing administration. |
| Your priorityBetter online giving while keeping your existing CRM | Fundraise Up | What it offersDigital fundraising tools including donation checkout and recurring giving. | What to confirmDemonstrate the connection to your CRM: donor matching, gift attribution, recurring updates, refunds, and reconciliation. |
Checked : Gratona, Givebutter, DonorDock, Salesforce for Nonprofits, Fundraise Up.
Six checks for choosing the best nonprofit CRM
Test these six workflows before choosing a CRM. Ask each vendor to show the same sample records using the plan included in your quote, so you can compare the results rather than feature names alone.
02Recurring giving
Show a successful payment, a failed payment, and a cancellation.
A useful result: Staff can see the commitment, payment status, next step, and responsible person.
03Stewardship
Open a household that gives to two programs and attends an event. Build a relationship plan, assign a move, and record the interaction.
A useful result: The next staff member can see the relationship context, owner, planned work, completed interaction, and next due date.
04Reporting
Build a report of donors who gave last year but not this year, then open the underlying records.
A useful result: You can explain the filters and totals and reproduce the result.
05AI assistance
Prepare a donor briefing and a recommended next step using CRM history and available research. Show the evidence and missing information.
A useful result: Staff can distinguish sourced facts from estimates, correct the output, and turn the reviewed next step into assigned work.
06Migration
Import a sample with relationships, gift dates, designations, and communication preferences.
A useful result: You can reconcile totals, spot exceptions, and agree on acceptance checks before cutover.
Use the full vendor scorecard: 92 requirements, 24 demo scenarios, and a three-year cost model. Free, with no email gate.
Use the Fundraising Atlas promise audit to turn one donor commitment into specific actions, owners, and completion checks before testing a CRM.
Can the CRM explain these three gifts?
Alex gives $100. Jordan, in the same household, gives $50. Alex’s employer gives a $100 match, with a $100 soft credit to Alex. Ask the vendor to enter or import the records, then show the reports below.
- Total gift revenue
- $250
- Three distinct gifts: $100 + $50 + $100.
- Direct household giving
- $150
- Alex and Jordan’s gifts. The employer remains a separate payer.
- Household recognition, including the match
- $250
- The $100 soft credit adds recognition, not another payment.
For this exercise, include soft credits in household recognition and exclude them from gift revenue. The reports should expose that choice. Adding recognition to revenue would count the same money twice.
This is a worked example with fictional records, not a customer result or vendor test. Field names are a mapping reference; adapt them to each vendor’s import format. Use sample data in a demo workspace.
Download the three-gift sample (CSV)Explore donor and household records · Plan migration acceptance checks
Compare the full three-year cost
Ask every vendor to quote the same contact count, users, giving volume, communications, integrations, and required workflows. Request a breakdown for each year, including the assumptions behind renewal prices.
- Software and modules
- Which required features are included? What changes as contacts or users grow?
- Setup and migration
- Which sources, records, attachments, mappings, and validation work are included?
- Payments
- What platform and processing charges apply at our projected volume and transaction count?
- Communications and AI
- Which allowances apply, and what happens when we exceed them?
- Integrations and administration
- What needs another subscription, a consultant, or ongoing staff time?
- Support, renewal, and exit
- What support is included? What can change at renewal? How do we export our data?
Already looking at a vendor?
If a product is already on your list, jump straight to its detailed comparison.
Where Gratona fits
Gratona brings giving, participation, donor intelligence, and stewardship into one fundraising CRM. Your team can spend less time assembling the history and more time building relationships.
Understand how each person is involved
Connect recurring gifts, program support, sponsorships, event participation, and mission trips to your donor records. Keep the household, organization, and communication history in view as the relationship grows.
Explore Gratona CRMCarry the stewardship work forward
Give relationship plans an owner, scheduled moves, and a record of what happened. Tasks, reminders, acknowledgements, and reports help your team keep the work moving between conversations.
Explore Gratona FundraisingArrive with the research and context
Donor Intelligence combines public-source research with permitted CRM context, relationship signals, and ask guidance. Tali helps prepare summaries, briefs, drafts, and next steps your team can review.
Explore Donor Intelligence and stewardshipA small example of the connection
Someone registers for an event and adds a gift to its designated program. Their registration and gift connect to the donor record, and the event experience can offer a path into monthly giving. Your team can see that involvement alongside the relationship’s existing history when planning the next conversation.
Explore Gratona EventsProduct walkthrough · 1 min 51 sec
Watch context become a stewardship plan
Follow a test donor from giving history to an existing Donor Intelligence profile, a saved staff task and a relationship-plan draft. Recorded in Gratona’s demo workspace and edited for length.
Read the walkthrough
- Review the test donor’s $150 in recorded giving and two recurring commitments in the donor record.
- Open the existing Donor Intelligence analysis. This partial profile identifies public capacity as unknown and grounds its estimated ask guidance in recorded giving.
- A staff member writes a preparation task, saves it and reopens it. The description, assignee and donor link stay attached to the work.
- Create a qualification-plan draft and add the relationship strategy, interests to confirm and communication guidance. The included phases remain available for staff review before activation.
The recording uses an existing analysis; it does not show a new research run. Staff write the task and plan. The plan remains a draft, and no donor message is sent.
Start with Gratona as your CRM. Add Tali when your team is ready. Review current product availability for the capabilities your organization needs. Grants is in private beta.
Bring your shortlist to a demo
Bring one relationship that involves several parts of your work: program giving, an event or trip, and a promise your team needs to keep. We’ll map the records, review the preparation, and show who owns the next action. Then we’ll confirm plan scope, migration, and cost against your shortlist.