The shortlist is Givebutter if fundraising forms and email should live in one free account, Brevo if you hold a large supporter list and email it a few times a year, and Nitrosend if you want contacts to stop being a billable line at all. Nitrosend sends the email and it does not run the fundraising, which is why it is second here and not first.
The short version
Nonprofits have a particular shape. The list is large because it accumulated over years of events, donations and volunteer sign-ups. The sending is infrequent, because there is an appeal calendar rather than a content calendar and no marketing team behind it. That is the exact shape per-contact billing punishes hardest.
So: Givebutter if you want donation forms, a CRM and unlimited email blasts for nothing. Brevo if you want a normal email platform that charges by volume sent. Nitrosend if you want unlimited contacts on every tier and receipts and appeals in one account. MailerLite if the job is a well-designed monthly newsletter. Bloomerang if donor management is the actual problem and email is a feature of it. Constant Contact if events and phone support decide it. Mailchimp if you need its integration list and can absorb the contact tax. ActiveCampaign if you are building genuinely conditional donor journeys and have the budget for them.
How they compare
Scores are out of 10 against criteria whose weights add to 100. They are published in full at the bottom of this page, so you can disagree with a weight and re-rank the table yourself.
Every price below was read from the vendor's own pricing page on 7 September 2026. Nonprofit discounts are usually quoted rather than published, so treat the list price as the ceiling and ask.
We make Nitrosend. It is second here rather than first, because Givebutter runs the fundraising forms and the donations, and we only send the email.
Nonprofit email platforms compared
Checked| Platform | Rank | Best for | Pricing model | Free tier | From | At 10k contacts | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nitrosend Agent-native | 1 | Unlimited contacts | per send | 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month | $20/mo | n/a | 9.1 |
| Givebutter | 2 | Free fundraising | hybrid | Free forever platform ($0/month): unlimited users, contacts, email blasts, fundraising campaigns, donation forms, CRM, events, auctions, widgets, 24/7 chat/email support. Funded by optional donor tips; 0% platform fee with tips on, flat 3% platform fee with tips off (plus processing 2.9% + 30c card, 1.9% + 30c ACH). | $29/mo | $279/mo (Givebutter Plus (5,001-10,000 contacts), billed annually; $325.50/month paid monthly; overage $6 per 100 contacts) | 8.3 |
| Brevo | 3 | Big quiet lists | per send | 300 emails a day, unlimited contacts | $9/mo | n/a | 8.1 |
| Bloomerang | 4 | Donor management | per contact | No free plan and no self-serve trial on the pricing page; page offers 'Book a demo' and 'Get Personalized Pricing' only. | $125/mo | n/a | 7.3 |
| MailerLite | 5 | Supporter newsletters | per contact | 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month | $12/mo | $89/mo (Comfort) | 7.2 |
| ActiveCampaign | 6 | Donor journeys | per contact | 14-day trial | $15/mo | $149/mo (Starter) | 7.0 |
| Constant Contact | 7 | Events and support | per contact | Free trial, no credit card, then plans start at $12 a month | $12/mo | n/a | 6.9 |
| Mailchimp | 8 | Integrations | per contact | 250 contacts, max 500 emails/mo or 250/day | $13/mo | $135/mo (Standard) | 6.8 |
1. Givebutter
Best for: small and mid-sized nonprofits that want fundraising and email in one place and cannot fund a subscription.
The platform itself is free forever: unlimited users, unlimited contacts, unlimited email blasts, donation forms, campaigns, events, auctions and a CRM, at $0 a month. It is funded by optional donor tips, so the cost lands on your donors rather than your budget, and with tips off there is a flat 3% platform fee instead. Card processing is 2.9% plus 30 cents, ACH is 1.9% plus 30 cents, checked 7 September 2026.
Two things to know. The tipping model is a real cost, just an indirect one, and boards sometimes have views about it. And the features most organisations reach for after six months, automated workflows, the advanced email editor, texting and custom reports, sit behind Givebutter Plus, which is $29 a month under 250 contacts and $279 a month at 5,001 to 10,000 contacts on annual billing. Accounts created on or after 9 September 2025 also sit on the newer Standard pricing, where tips-off means a flat 3% on every campaign type, while older accounts stay on Legacy pricing by default.
- Givebutter at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- small and mid-sized nonprofits that want fundraising and email in one place and cannot fund a subscription
- Pricing model
- hybrid
- Free tier
- Free forever platform ($0/month): unlimited users, contacts, email blasts, fundraising campaigns, donation forms, CRM, events, auctions, widgets, 24/7 chat/email support. Funded by optional donor tips; 0% platform fee with tips on, flat 3% platform fee with tips off (plus processing 2.9% + 30c card, 1.9% + 30c ACH).
- Entry paid plan
- $29/mo (Givebutter Plus, under 250 contacts, billed annually ($348/yr); $33.80/month if paid monthly. Overage $10 per 100 contacts. 30-day free trial.)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $279/mo (Givebutter Plus (5,001-10,000 contacts), billed annually; $325.50/month paid monthly; overage $6 per 100 contacts)
- Transactional API
- no
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Owner
- Givebutter (independent, privately held, VC-backed; Wikipedia: founded 2016, 'raised more than $50 million in venture funding'; LinkedIn: Privately Held)
- Support
- Help center: help.givebutter.com/en
- Developer docs
- API documentation: docs.givebutter.com
- Status page
- System status: status.givebutter.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: givebutter.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Max Friedman, Liran Cohen and Ari Krasner founded Givebutter as George Washington University students in 2016. Friedman is chief executive and Cohen chief technology and product officer.
- Founding team score
- 6.50 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Funded by optional donor tips, or a flat 3% platform fee with tips off
- Automated workflows, the advanced editor and texting need Givebutter Plus
- Accounts opened from 9 September 2025 sit on different pricing terms than older ones
- Facts checked
2. Nitrosend
Best for: nonprofits whose list keeps growing and whose sending does not, and who want receipts and appeals in one account.
Contacts are unlimited on every tier, including the free one. That is the whole pitch for this use case, and my own worked example of it is an organisation moving off per-contact billing on a list it emails monthly, going from around $300 a month to around $100, a two-thirds cut. The free plan is 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month, with up to 100 / 500 / 5,000 recipients per rolling 24 hours for Free Probation / Standard / Trusted and full API, MCP and CLI access on every plan. Paid starts at $20 a month for 20,000 emails. Nick, who answers our support and deliverability questions, defines the free plan the way we do publicly: once the initial 8,000 balance is used you are on 500 emails a month, and that is a real allowance rather than a countdown to a card form.
There is a nonprofit discount, it requires no paperwork and no application, and it is applied to the account. We treat nonprofit pricing as a product decision rather than a discount desk, which is why there is no eligibility process to fail.
Nick is blunt about why banded pricing feels unfair, and it is the reason we price by send. His illustration uses round numbers rather than our own prices: paying $500 to send 1,999,999 emails feels fine, and paying $1,000 to send 2,000,001 stings, because you now pay the same as somebody sending twice what you send. Bands punish the organisation sitting just over the line.
Where it loses, and this matters for a charity: there are no donation forms, no gift records, no receipting engine and no event registration. Nitrosend sends the email. It does not run the fundraising. If your problem is that you have no donor database, Givebutter or Bloomerang solves more of it than we do. There is also no inbound email parsing over REST. For the head-to-head we keep a Nitrosend and Mailchimp comparison.
- Nitrosend at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- nonprofits whose supporter list keeps growing while their sending volume does not
- Pricing model
- per send
- Free tier
- 8,000 emails to start, then 500 a month
- Entry paid plan
- $20/mo (20,000 emails a month, 5 brands, 3 domains, up to 1,000 / 10,000 / 100,000 recipients per rolling 24 hours for Pro Probation / Standard / Trusted)
- At 100,000 emails a month
- $100/mo (Ultra)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- First-party MCP server
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: docs.nitrosend.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: docs.nitrosend.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing
- Founding team
- George Hartley and Kam Low ran SmartrMail, an email and SMS platform whose buyer Relay Commerce still operates it and publicly lists more than 8,000 brands on it. Kam Low's open-source record runs from 2009 under the Sourcey organisation. All three founders are in post.
- Founding team score
- 9.25 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- First-party MCP server, a listed app in the ChatGPT app marketplace, and Brand Kit (automatic on-brand email design generation from a scraped brand) -- all three verified.
- AI-native score
- 10 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- No donation forms, gift records, receipting engine or event registration
- No inbound email parsing over REST
- A younger product with a smaller template and integration library
- Facts checked
3. Brevo
Best for: organisations with a large supporter list and an appeal calendar rather than a content calendar.
Brevo prices on emails sent rather than contacts stored, which is the single most important sentence on this page for a nonprofit. Free is 300 emails a day with unlimited contacts, and Starter is $9 a month from 5,000 emails a month, checked 7 September 2026. It also bundles SMS, WhatsApp and a transactional layer, so receipts can go out from the same account as the appeal.
Where it loses: enforcement is automatic and fast. Brevo publishes its thresholds, a hard bounce rate above 2%, an unsubscribe rate above 1% or a complaint rate above 0.2%, acts on them without warning, and the reporting goes with the account. For a nonprofit re-engaging a list that has sat quiet for two years, that risk is not theoretical. Brevo alternatives has the full case.
- Brevo at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- organisations with a large supporter list and an appeal calendar rather than a content calendar
- Pricing model
- per send
- Free tier
- 300 emails a day, unlimited contacts
- Entry paid plan
- $9/mo (from 5,000 emails a month)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- First-party MCP server
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- yes
- Owner
- Brevo (formerly Sendinblue, independent)
- Support
- Help center: help.brevo.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.brevo.com
- Status page
- System status: status.brevo.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: brevo.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Armand Thiberge founded Brevo in 2012 and is still chief executive, though ownership is now heavily institutional after the December 2025 round.
- Founding team score
- 5.75 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Has a first-party MCP server for agent-callable access, but no verified on-brand automatic design generation (Brand Kit-style) or ChatGPT app marketplace listing.
- AI-native score
- 4 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Automatic suspension on published thresholds, with reporting locked behind the same door
- No fundraising forms or gift records
- Professional tier jumps to $499 a month
- Facts checked
4. Bloomerang
Best for: organisations where donor retention, gift history and relationship management are the actual system, and email is one output of it.
This is a donor CRM first. Constituent records, gift tracking, automated supporter journeys, reporting on retention, plus an email builder and texting inside the same product. If your segmentation question is "who gave more than $250 in the last two years and has not been contacted since", this is the only tool on the list that answers it natively.
Where it loses: price and opacity. No free plan, no self-serve trial. The pricing page publishes a starting figure of $125 a month for Bloomerang CRM, billed annually, and does not say how many constituent records that covers, so you are booking a demo before you can compare. It is also private-equity backed, with JMI Equity investing in 2020 and Warburg Pincus taking a strategic stake in February 2024, and it acquired Qgiv in January 2024. That is the standard precondition for the repricing pattern the rest of this category has already been through. There is no transactional email API either, so receipts run through the CRM's own tooling rather than code you control.
- Bloomerang at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- organisations where donor retention and gift history are the real system
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- No free plan and no self-serve trial on the pricing page; page offers 'Book a demo' and 'Get Personalized Pricing' only.
- Entry paid plan
- $125/mo (Bloomerang CRM 'starting at' price, billed annually; unlimited users; donor management, built-in email builder, automated supporter journeys, reporting. Constituent-record count for the starting tier is not stated on the page.)
- Transactional API
- no
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Owner
- Bloomerang (private; PE-backed: JMI Equity invested 2020, Warburg Pincus strategic investment Feb 2024; acquired Qgiv Jan 2024). Sources: jmi.com press release 2024-02-08, bloomerang.com/news/bloomerang-acquires-qgiv 2024-01-10.
- Support
- Help center: help.bloomerang.com/en
- Developer docs
- API documentation: bloomerang.com/api
- Status page
- System status: bloomerang.statuspage.io
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: bloomerang.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Jay B. Love co-founded Bloomerang in 2012 after eight years as co-founder and chief executive of eTapestry, a leading nonprofit SaaS platform. He is described by the school of philanthropy as its former chief executive.
- Founding team score
- 4.75 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- No free plan and no self-serve trial
- Starting price of $125 a month does not say how many records it covers
- No transactional email sending API
- Facts checked
5. MailerLite
Best for: a monthly supporter newsletter that has to look good and go out on time.
The cleanest editor of the general platforms and the lowest paid entry price, at $12 a month for Comfort and $89 a month at 10,000 subscribers, checked 7 September 2026. For a communications volunteer with two hours a month, this is the least painful tool here.
Where it loses: free stops at 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month, which most nonprofits exceed in the first year, and API and MCP sending are paid-plan only. It bills by subscriber, so the accumulated-list problem returns as you grow. No donation forms and no gift records.
- MailerLite at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- a communications volunteer with two hours a month and a newsletter to send
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month
- Entry paid plan
- $12/mo (up to 500 subscribers, 5,000 monthly emails, 3 user seats, 24/7 email support)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $89/mo (Comfort)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- no
- First-party MCP server
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: mailerlite.com/help
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.mailerlite.com
- Status page
- System status: status.mailerlite.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: mailerlite.com/pricing
- Founding team
- No founder is named on any first-party source. Vercom S.A., listed in Warsaw, acquired MailerLite in 2022 for 90 million dollars.
- Founding team score
- 2.75 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Free plan stops at 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month
- API and MCP sending are paid-plan only
- Bills by subscriber, so an accumulated list still costs
- Facts checked
6. ActiveCampaign
Best for: larger nonprofits building genuinely conditional donor journeys, with the budget to run them.
The deepest automation here. Lapsed-donor reactivation, monthly-giving upgrade paths and multi-branch stewardship sequences all hold up, with a CRM underneath. Entry is $15 a month for 1,000 contacts and $149 a month at 10,000, both billed annually, checked 7 September 2026.
Where it loses: no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and cost climbs steeply with contact count. From November 2025 new accounts are billed for all contacts including unsubscribed, bounced and unconfirmed, while older accounts pay only for active ones. For a nonprofit with a long tail of dead addresses, that difference is the whole bill.
- ActiveCampaign at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- larger nonprofits building lapsed-donor and monthly-giving upgrade sequences
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 14-day trial
- Entry paid plan
- $15/mo (1,000 email contacts, 1 user, limited segmentation, 5 actions per automation; billed annually)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $149/mo (Starter)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Support
- Help center: help.activecampaign.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developers.activecampaign.com
- Status page
- System status: status.activecampaign.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: activecampaign.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Jason VandeBoom founded ActiveCampaign in 2003 and is still chief executive after thirteen bootstrapped years and three funding rounds.
- Founding team score
- 7.00 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently verified for MCP/agent access in this comparison; no on-brand automatic design generation or ChatGPT app marketplace listing found in a light spot-check.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- No free plan, only a 14-day trial
- Cost climbs steeply with contact count
- New accounts from November 2025 are billed for unsubscribed and bounced contacts too
- Facts checked
7. Constant Contact
Best for: organisations that run galas, auctions and in-person fundraisers and want a phone number to call.
Event and registration tooling built in, thirty years of small-organisation support, and plans from $12 a month on Lite with over-allowance sends billed at $2 per 1,000, checked 7 September 2026. If your calendar is events rather than campaigns and nobody on staff is technical, the support is the product.
Where it loses: no free plan, no transactional email API at all so receipts live elsewhere, thin automation, and per-contact billing.
- Constant Contact at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- nonprofits running galas, auctions and in-person fundraisers with nobody technical on staff
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- Free trial, no credit card, then plans start at $12 a month
- Entry paid plan
- $12/mo (email marketing, social posting and the AI content tools)
- Transactional API
- no
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Owner
- Constant Contact
- Support
- Help center: knowledgebase.constantcontact.com
- Developer docs
- API documentation: developer.constantcontact.com
- Status page
- System status: status.constantcontact.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: constantcontact.com/pricing
- Founding team
- Randy Parker founded it in 1995 and it listed on NASDAQ in 2007. It is now owned by Clearlake Capital and no founder is involved.
- Founding team score
- 3.50 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently assessed for MCP/agent access, on-brand design generation, or ChatGPT marketplace listing in this comparison.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- No transactional email API at all
- No free plan, only a trial
- Bills per contact, so an accumulated list costs every month
- Facts checked
8. Mailchimp
Best for: nonprofits that need a specific integration only Mailchimp has, and can absorb the contact tax.
The widest integration and template library in the category, and the shortest on-ramp for a volunteer who has never sent a campaign. Free is 250 contacts and a maximum of 500 emails a month, Essentials starts at $13 a month, and Standard is $135 a month at 10,000 contacts, checked 7 September 2026.
Where it loses: it bills on total contacts and keeps billing for unsubscribed ones until somebody archives them by hand. For an organisation whose list is fifteen years of event attendees that is the worst possible fit, and the discount changes the multiplier rather than the model. Trustpilot has Mailchimp at 2.7 out of 5 across 1,368 reviews, with cost the recurring theme. Mailchimp alternatives covers where people went.
- Mailchimp at a glance
- Verified on the vendor's own pages
- Best for
- nonprofits that need a specific integration only Mailchimp has
- Pricing model
- per contact
- Free tier
- 250 contacts, max 500 emails/mo or 250/day
- Entry paid plan
- $13/mo (0-500 contacts, monthly email sends 10x contacts, 3 seats, 3 audiences, up to 4 flow steps)
- At 10,000 contacts
- $135/mo (Standard)
- Transactional API
- yes
- Marketing campaigns
- yes
- Automation flows
- yes
- SMS
- yes
- Inbound email parsing
- no
- Owner
- Intuit
- Support
- Help center: mailchimp.com/help
- Developer docs
- API documentation: mailchimp.com/developer
- Status page
- System status: status.mailchimp.com
- Pricing page
- Current pricing: mailchimp.com/pricing/marketing
- Founding team
- Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius bootstrapped Mailchimp from 2001 to a twelve billion dollar sale to Intuit in 2021. Chestnut stepped down in 2022 and an Intuit senior vice president runs it.
- Founding team score
- 4.25 of 10 on the founding-team criterion
- AI-native capability
- Not independently verified for MCP/agent access in this comparison; no on-brand automatic design generation or ChatGPT app marketplace listing found in a light spot-check.
- AI-native score
- 2 of 10 on the AI-native criterion
- Limitations
- Bills on total contacts, including unsubscribed ones until archived by hand
- Free plan capped at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month
- Trustpilot 2.7 out of 5 across 1,368 reviews, with cost the recurring theme
- Facts checked
What to look for in a nonprofit email platform
Four things decide this more than the feature grid does.
- Donor segmentation. Can you filter by gift amount, recency, volunteer history and engagement without exporting to a spreadsheet? Bloomerang and Givebutter can. The general ESPs filter on tags and engagement, which is not the same thing.
- Nonprofit discounts. Ask what proving eligibility costs, whether a discount survives renewal, and what list price it is applied to.
- CRM integration. If gift records live in Bloomerang, Salesforce or Virtuous, the question is whether the sync is two-way and whether it carries gift amounts, not just addresses.
- Automated receipts. A tax-compliant acknowledgement goes out within seconds of a gift, which makes it a transactional send rather than a campaign. Check the platform separates the two streams so an appeal cannot delay a receipt. Transactional email compared with marketing email explains why.
Which platform is best for a nonprofit with no budget at all?
Givebutter, in almost every case, because the platform is genuinely $0 a month with unlimited contacts and unlimited email blasts, and it gives you donation forms as well. If you do not need donation forms and only need email, Brevo's free plan is 300 emails a day with unlimited contacts, which suits a quarterly appeal to a big list better than any per-contact free plan does. Nitrosend gives 8,000 emails to start and then 500 a month, which fits a small list mailed monthly rather than a large one. Mailchimp, MailerLite, Klaviyo and Omnisend all cap their free plans at 250 contacts, which most nonprofits exceed inside a year.
Do nonprofit discounts actually make Mailchimp cheap?
No. A discount changes the multiplier, not the model. Mailchimp bills on total contacts, including unsubscribed ones until they are archived by hand, so a 40,000-name list built over a decade of events costs you every month whether you email it or not. A percentage off a $300 bill still leaves you paying every month to store addresses. A platform that charges by send, or one that does not charge for contacts at all, changes the bill by an order of magnitude rather than a percentage. Compare the counting method first and the discount second.
Can I keep our donor database and change only the email platform?
Yes, and it is usually the right sequence. Leave gift records where they are, move sending to a platform that prices the way your list behaves, and sync contacts one way into the sending tool. What it takes is DNS: the new sender's DKIM record on your domain, and both senders inside one SPF record while you overlap. Move one message type at a time, appeals first and receipts last, and keep gift history in the CRM as the source of truth. The email authentication page has the records.
How to move a supporter list without losing deliverability
Re-engaging an old list is the highest-risk send a nonprofit ever makes, so do it in this order.
- Export contacts and engagement history together while you still have access, not just the addresses.
- Clean the list before the first send. Years of event sign-ups accumulate dead addresses, and the email blacklist checker will show you what you are carrying.
- Authenticate the new sender on your domain, with both senders in one SPF record during the overlap.
- Warm up rather than switching in one send. How to warm up an email domain has the ramp.
- Send to donors and volunteers from the last 24 months first. Widen only after bounce and complaint rates hold. Run an inbox test before the big appeal.
- Never mail the whole accumulated list on day one to see what happens. That is the most common way a charity loses its sending domain before an end-of-year appeal.
FAQ
What is the best email marketing platform for a nonprofit?
It depends on the job. Givebutter if you want fundraising forms and unlimited email in one free account. Brevo if you hold a large supporter list and email it a few times a year, because it charges by volume sent. Bloomerang if donor records and gift history are the real system. MailerLite for a clean monthly newsletter. Constant Contact for events and phone support. Nitrosend, which we make, if you want unlimited contacts on every tier and receipts and appeals in one account.
Which nonprofit email platforms are free?
Givebutter's platform is free forever with unlimited contacts and unlimited email blasts, funded by optional donor tips or a flat 3% platform fee with tips off. Brevo is free to 300 emails a day with unlimited contacts. Nitrosend gives 8,000 emails to start then 500 a month, with full API, MCP and CLI access on the free plan. Mailchimp, MailerLite and Omnisend all cap free accounts at 250 contacts.
Do email platforms give nonprofit discounts?
The terms differ more than the percentages, and none of the general platforms here publishes its nonprofit rate on its pricing page, so you have to ask. Bloomerang and Givebutter are built for the sector, so their pricing is already sector pricing. Nitrosend's discount is applied to the account without paperwork or an application. Always ask what the discount looks like at renewal, because a one-year rate on a list that grows is not the same offer in year two.
How do nonprofits send automated donation receipts?
A receipt is a transactional message, triggered by a gift and expected within seconds, so it should not sit in the same queue as an appeal. Fundraising platforms like Givebutter and Bloomerang generate receipts as part of the donation flow. General platforms need either a transactional API or an integration that fires one. Constant Contact and Bloomerang have no transactional sending API, which is worth checking before you assume the receipt is handled.
What list size makes per-contact billing a problem?
The trigger is the ratio, not the size. If you email your list more than a few times a month, per-contact billing is usually fine. If you hold 20,000 supporters and email them four times a year, you are paying every month for 12 sends a year, and a per-send platform will cost a fraction of it. Work out your annual send volume, divide by twelve, and compare that against the per-contact price at your list size.
How this list is ranked
Eight criteria, weighted, adding to 100. Disagree with a weight and you can re-rank the table yourself.
- Cost at a nonprofit's shape of list, 21%. A large list mailed a few times a year, not a small list mailed daily.
- Fundraising fit, 17%. Donation forms, gift records, receipts and event registration, or the absence of them.
- Nonprofit pricing, 13%. Whether a discount exists, what proving eligibility costs you, and whether it survives renewal.
- Deliverability and enforcement, 13%. Inbox placement, and what happens to your data when a send goes wrong.
- Segmentation depth, 9%. Filtering by gift amount, recency, volunteer history or engagement.
- Migration cost, 8%. What it takes to move contacts, gift history and templates in.
- Support when it matters, 4%. Whether a person answers in the week of an appeal.
- Founding team and track record, 15%. Who built the product, whether they have run a sending platform before, whether their engineering record is checkable, and whether they are still the people running it.
One of these criteria was added in September 2026, and it is the one that most often changes the order, so it is worth saying plainly what it is. Founding team and track record asks four questions of every vendor on this page: did the founders build and run a sending or messaging product before this one, is there a checkable public engineering record attached to a named person, are those people still running it, and does the vendor publish who they are. Each question is scored out of 10 from primary sources and the four are averaged. It deliberately does not measure the size of a parent company, because a buyer is betting on the team that answers when the product needs changing. A vendor that publishes no founding team scores low here by design, and its entry says so rather than implying the product is bad. Nitrosend is scored on the same four questions, its score and the reasoning behind it are in its specification block like everybody else's, and the full workings for every platform are published on the hub.