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If you work in the education sector, you’ve most likely participated in a fundraiser or two. Whether you’ve raised funds for an after-school program, to support a sports team, or to build new facilities, fundraising has played an important role. Fundraising software for schools makes online fundraising easier so you can spend more time making connections with the people that are more likely to donate to your cause.
If you’re looking for fundraising software that will help you raise money from students and alumni, your best bet is to invest in software that actively works to meet the needs of schools and other educational organizations. By using a platform with a comprehensive set of tools, your school can utilize popular fundraising campaigns for youth (like crowdfunding) and effectively reach out to alumni for continued support.
Researching the best fundraising software for schools can take a while, especially if you don’t quite know where to start. Below is a list of top fundraising platforms for schools:
- All-in-one fundraising software for schools
- Marketing software for education
- Additional fundraising software for schools
- Fundraising software for schools
- Qgiv by Bloomerang for educational organizations
All-in-one fundraising software for schools
Bloomerang | All-in-one software for education
Bloomerang is a powerful all-in-one fundraising software for nonprofits that helps nonprofits fundraise while keeping its processes donor-centric. With powerful donor management tools, as well as fundraising add-ons with Qgiv by Bloomerna, this fundraising software is perfect if you’re trying to raise money while sustaining or increasing your donor retention rate. Having a loyal donor base is very attractive to nonprofits because it usually also means consistent support as well.
From an interactive dashboard, Bloomerang users are able to review their donor retention efforts and also view suggestions for improvement. In this same platform, you can track your various fundraising campaigns and get a better sense of incoming donations, reports, and your donors.
When to consider Bloomerang
Bloomerang understands that private and other independent schools have unique challenges when it comes to fundraising. If your private school has trouble reaching out to those after they’ve graduated, Bloomerang can easily compile relevant donor data and outreach information for you.
Private schools often struggle with the best way to keep track of alumni and can easily turn to Bloomerang as their alumni database. Then, they can send potential donors relevant school news and updates, invite them to events, and track their donations all from one platform.
How much does this platform cost?
Bloomerang’s pricing is simple and very straightforward. Depending on the size of your private school, the prices will range. Check out their pricing plans here.
Marketing software for education
Marketing software plays a crucial role in getting the word out about fundraising initiatives. Here are some marketing software options to consider:
Mailchimp | Email automation software for schools
Mailchimp is a comprehensive email marketing platform that offers a suite of tools to help users design personalized email campaigns, automate workflows, and analyze campaign performance. Through robust features such as email templates, segmentation, A/B testing, and analytics, Mailchimp enables you to build stronger relationships with your supporters.
Mailchimp also includes advanced marketing automation tools, such as triggered emails, social media ads, and personalized content recommendations. With a drag-and-drop editor and powerful reporting tools, Mailchimp makes email marketing accessible to both beginners and experienced marketers alike.
When to consider Mailchimp
Mailchimp is ideal for schools looking to streamline their email marketing efforts and improve alumni and donor relationships. Whether you’re sending newsletters, promotional emails, or automated follow-ups, Mailchimp helps ensure that your messages are reaching the right audience at the right time. Schools can benefit from its cost-effective tools to engage supporters, send donation receipts, and even run fundraising campaigns.
For schools looking to scale their marketing efforts, Mailchimp’s automation tools and personalized email sequences help drive engagement without the need for extensive technical expertise.
How much does this platform cost?
Mailchimp offers a range of pricing plans, including a free tier for users with basic needs and paid plans that offer more advanced features. Check out their pricing plans.
Constant Contact | Email marketing platform for education
Constant Contact is a leading email marketing platform with the tools to create, send, and analyze email campaigns. The platform offers a range of customizable email templates, automation tools, and performance-tracking features. It allows users to design professional-looking emails, segment their audience, and track engagement to refine future campaigns.
Constant Contact also provides powerful automation capabilities, including welcome emails, birthday or anniversary reminders, and automated follow-up messages. These features ensure that your emails reach recipients at the right time, keeping your supporters engaged without needing constant manual effort.
When to consider Constant Contact
Constant Contact is great for schools looking to up their email game. Whether you’re looking to steward supporters, boost engagement, or promote events, Constant Contact’s tools are designed to help you grow supporter lists, send donation receipts, and engage with your community regularly.
For schools looking to improve email open rates and conversions, Constant Contact provides powerful segmentation and A/B testing features, which allow for more personalized and relevant communication with your audience.
How much does this platform cost?
Constant Contact offers several pricing plans based on the number of contacts and features needed. Check out their tiered pricing plans.
Buffer | Social media management for schools
Buffer is a social media management platform that can help you manage, schedule, and analyze their social media content. Buffer enables users to plan and publish posts across multiple social media channels such as Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and Instagram from a single dashboard. The platform’s robust scheduling tools allow you to organize posts in advance, ensuring consistent and timely content delivery.
Buffer’s collaboration features make it an excellent choice for teams, allowing multiple users to work together on content creation, approval workflows, and campaign tracking. The platform also supports social media monitoring, enabling you to track mentions and stay engaged with your audience in real time.
When to consider Buffer
Buffer is perfect for schools looking to share their fundraising efforts on their social media. It’s particularly beneficial for schools that need to schedule content across multiple platforms, engage with supporters, and track the effectiveness of their social media campaigns. Buffer’s simple yet powerful tools can help you maintain an active and consistent online presence without the need for complex workflows or time-consuming manual posting.
For schools looking to improve their social media ROI on fundraising, Buffer’s analytics and performance reports provide valuable insights that can help refine content strategies and enhance audience engagement.
How much does this platform cost?
Buffer offers a range of pricing plans to suit different needs, including a free plan for individuals or smaller teams with basic requirements. Take a look at their pricing plans.
Additional fundraising software for schools
360MatchPro | Matching gifts software for education
360MatchPro is the top matching gift automation software that nonprofits can use. With access to one of the largest and most comprehensive matching gift databases, fundraising professionals can use 360MatchPro to identify match-eligible donors and automate making that ask with all the necessary information and access to forms. Additionally, 360MatchPro can track matches that are submitted and even automate the process of following up.
Corporate matching gift programs can be a huge revenue boost for any organization, as your donors don’t actually have to give additional money. All they have to do is submit a matching gift form to their eligible employers!
When to consider 360MatchPro
Universities can find a lot of value in investing in a matching gift automation tool. Many alumni and other supporters will go on to work for employers and companies that have matching gift programs and other corporate giving programs. With 360MatchPro, your university can increase your fundraising without having to ask your alumni and recent donors for more money.
360MatchPro will automatically screen your recent donors and send them their relevant matching gift information. Your university can double or even triple these recent donations if the matching gift submission has been accepted.
How much does this platform cost?
360MatchPro is a complete matching gift marketing platform for larger institutions like universities.
DonorSearch | Wealth screening software for schools
DonorSearch is a powerful prospect research tool used by many nonprofit organizations. With access to the nation’s largest philanthropic database and a robust wealth screening tool, DonorSearch can help you determine the best donors to contact and who is most likely to make the biggest impact with their gifts. This is great for organizations trying to increase their major gifts, annual funds, or planned gifts.
Major gifts make up a large portion of a nonprofit’s annual fundraising, especially for educational institutions. Don’t let this fundraising strategy fall by the wayside! DonorSearch helps with major gifts fundraising by compiling an RFM (Recency Frequency Monetary value) score using wealth screening and its philanthropic database. This score determines how effective a prospect’s donation will be toward your organization.
When to consider DonorSearch
Private and other independent schools often seek out just a few prospective supporters and alumni to help them increase their fundraising. Major gifts, annual funds, and planned gifts are all highly-desirable donation types that schools love to receive. This is because their impact is large and more dependable than smaller, infrequent donations.
Schools can easily take advantage of DonorSearch and gain a better understanding of their alumni and donor database. With DonorSearch, you can know:
- Where your alumni/donors are and what they’re up to.
- Each alumni’s/donor’s wealth level and giving capacity.
- Each alumni’s/donor’s philanthropic history and giving affinity.
With this information at your fingertips, you can make the right fundraising ask of the right donor.
How much does this platform cost?
The pricing for DonorSearch varies depending on the size of your donor database. For more information, try their free trial.
Fundraising software for schools
Qgiv by Bloomerang | Best fundraising software for schools
Qgiv by Bloomerang is a comprehensive software solution that can manage all your fundraising needs in one platform. From hosting an annual holiday fundraiser or raising money for scholarships, Qgiv equips you and your team with the right tools. With Qgiv, you can:
- Customize and set up online donation forms.
- Register students and parents for events and field trips.
- Create unique forms for different departments or clubs.
- Have access to peer-to-peer fundraising tools.
- Host and manage events for all to enjoy.
- Restricted donations so donors can choose where their funds go.
- Facilitate text fundraising for an easily added revenue stream.
Equip your fundraising team with Qgiv’s tools! You’ll be streamlining processes and engaging your constituents in no time.
When to consider Qgiv
Qgiv aims to serve all types of educational nonprofits and school organizations. Whether you’re a part of the fundraising team for an elementary school, university, private school, or even an alumni group, you can take advantage of this fundraising platform.
With Qgiv, you can host all types of fundraising events to reach as many of your students and supporters as possible. Qgiv’s software is effective because the Qgiv team understands the needs of an education-based fundraiser. Let’s go through a couple of examples and how you might leverage Qgiv’s tools:
- Fundraising for a club. Build unique forms for your specific club while still using your school’s branding, colors, and logo. You can also easily set up restricted gift options on an unlimited number of pages to better track progress for individual clubs and groups.
- Giving Tuesday campaign. Elevate your Giving Tuesday campaign by using peer-to-peer tools to give students the power to raise money on your behalf. This way, they can fundraise for their own friends and families, reaching an exponentially wider audience than you could reach on your own.
- Live fundraising event for parents and supporters. Depending on the type of school, your educational institution may host large fundraising events to raise money. Easily plan and manage your events using a variety of registration options. Qgiv has specific tools to help run auctions, include a mobile bidding tool. You can also use text fundraising at your event and watch your progress in real-time with a live screencast of incoming gifts.
No matter the type of campaign you want to host, Qgiv can empower better fundraising with the right tools.
How much does this platform cost?
Qgiv’s price depends on the type of plan you want. You can choose a specific functionality Qgiv offers or go for the most comprehensive platform in order to maximize your fundraising success.
To learn which plan and package is best for your educational organization, check out our pricing page here.
BetterWorld | Crowdfunding platform for education
BetterWorld is a fundraising and event management platform designed to help organizations raise money, engage supporters, and create fundraising campaigns. Offering tools for peer-to-peer fundraising, event ticketing, auctions, and donor engagement, BetterWorld can help schools connect with their supporters in a meaningful way.
With its integration with social media, BetterWorld can help schools expand their reach and raise funds. The platform also features analytics to track donations and participant engagement for schools to make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.
How much does this platform cost?
BetterWorld is free to use but does have a credit card fee.
99Pledges | Pledge drive software for schools
99Pledges is a pledge drive fundraising platform that helps schools create personalized fundraising pages and reach out to their communities for donations. With social media and email integrations, 99Pledges facilitates the spread of fundraising efforts quickly.
The platform also supports event registration, donation tracking, and leaderboard features to gamify campaigns and encourage participant competition. Schools can use 99Pledges to raise funds through walkathons, readathons, or other community-driven events.
How much does this platform cost?
99Pledges is free to use but has a transaction fee.
Bonfire | T-shirt fundraising platform for schools
Bonfire is a platform that enables schools to raise funds through the sale of custom-designed t-shirts. With no upfront costs, users can launch fundraising campaigns where the t-shirts are printed and shipped to customers once the campaign ends.
Bonfire also handles fulfillment, allowing organizations to focus on promoting their campaigns and maximizing support.
How much does this platform cost?
Bonfire charges no upfront fees for creating or running a campaign. Instead, the platform takes a percentage of each shirt sold. Pricing depends on the design and the number of shirts sold.
DonorsChoose | Classroom crowdfunding platform for education
DonorsChoose is a crowdfunding platform where teachers can post project requests for supplies, technology, books, and other resources, and donors can choose which projects they wish to support.
DonorsChoose makes it easy for individuals to directly support specific teachers and classrooms, creating a personalized giving experience. The platform also provides transparency by showing exactly how donations are used.
How much does this platform cost?
DonorsChoose is free for teachers to use to create and share projects.
Fundly | Social fundraising platform for education
Fundly is a crowdfunding platform that helps schools raise money for different causes, events, and charitable initiatives. Fundly allows users to create customized fundraising pages, share them on social media, and accept donations online.
The platform offers features such as donor tracking, campaign analytics, and mobile compatibility, allowing users to run campaigns from anywhere. Fundly’s flexible payment options help provide choices for fundraising efforts of all sizes.
How much does this platform cost?
Fundly is free to use but does have payment processing fees for each donation made.
JotForm | Online form software for schools
JotForm is an online form builder that allows schools to create custom forms for various purposes, including surveys, event registrations, applications, and donations. The platform offers a drag-and-drop interface for non-technical users to design professional forms without coding.
JotForm integrates with popular apps like PayPal, Google Sheets, and Mailchimp to streamline data collection and automation processes. With its online form builder, JotForm provides a versatile solution for all your form-building needs.
How much does this platform cost?
JotForm offers a free plan with limited features, as well as several paid plans based on the number of forms and submissions required.
OneCause | Awareness campaign software for education
OneCause is a fundraising software solution that helps organizations raise money through events, auctions, and awareness campaigns. It offers tools for mobile bidding, ticketing, and capital campaigns for educators to use while raising funds.
OneCause also includes features for peer-to-peer fundraising, online donations, and event registration for different types of campaigns.
How much does this platform cost?
OneCause offers pricing based on the organization’s fundraising needs.
Classy | Community fundraising software for schools
Classy is a crowdfunding platform from gofundme that helps organizations manage their fundraising efforts. With tools for peer-to-peer fundraising, event ticketing, recurring donations, and donor engagement, Classy provides options for users to raise money and build supporter relationships.
The platform also offers analytics and reporting tools to track donor behavior and campaign performance.
How much does this platform cost?
Classy offers a range of pricing options based on the size and needs of the organization.
PledgeCents | Personal pledge drive software schools
PledgeCents is a fundraising platform tailored for schools and educators looking to raise money for classroom projects, supplies, and educational initiatives. Teachers and school administrators can create fundraising pages for specific needs, and donors can choose to support projects directly.
PledgeCents offers social media integration, donor tracking, and personalized campaign tools to make it easy for schools to promote their efforts and engage with their community.
How much does this platform cost?
PledgeCents is free to use but has a payment processing fee.
Qgiv by Bloomerang for educational organizations
Qgiv by Bloomerang offers a comprehensive solution for all of your education-based fundraising needs. No matter what type of school you are, you can easily create and customize your own fundraising campaign with Qgiv’s vast fundraising tools.
With its flexible online donation forms, event management and registration tools, donor management tools, and more, your school will be seeing fundraising improvements in no time. Explore the way that the following schools and educational organizations used Qgiv:
Qgiv for universities
Universities often find themselves fundraising, no matter if they’re a public or private institution. These funds go to general upkeep and the resources schools give their students to succeed. This money can also fund important programs and offer scholarships to students in need.
Turning to university fundraising software is common, especially for institutions trying to expand their outreach and keep track of their growing alumni donor base. Consider the following common university fundraising campaigns and the software solution features you should have:
- Restricted donations. If your school offers multiple scholarships, use your software to either build a scholarship fund donation page and add restrictions for each fund or build individual pages for each one. Donors will love the option to help someone come to your school.
- Peer-to-peer fundraising. College students are some of the most tech-savvy ones out there, so take advantage of this with a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. With capable university fundraising software, each volunteer can create their own personal fundraising page and share it with their network of family and friends.
- Text fundraising. The Tuesday after Thanksgiving, Giving Tuesday, is one of the biggest fundraising days of the entire year. Many universities take advantage of this charitable momentum and host a text fundraising campaign. Just provide your donors with all the information, like the phone number, short code word, and campaign keyword.
Make sure your university fundraising software is able to meet all of your fundraising needs.
Qgiv for private & independent schools
Private and other independent schools often conduct fundraising efforts throughout the school year to supplement their tuition. These are the funds that help maintain your unique programs and provide your students with unforgettable experiences. Private and other independent schools usually aim to target parents and alumni.
Review various fundraising software for education and which ones might be better suited to meet your institute’s unique needs. A solution with these capabilities is a good idea:
- Event registration. Often your school will host field trips or other events and will need a capable system to track guests and attendees. Ensure your school fundraising software can support this, giving options for parents to register their whole family at once.
- Auction fundraising. Many private and other independent schools turn to auction fundraisers as a way to engage parents and alumni. Gather a group of items to auction off and use your software to facilitate event registration, manage bids, and lead the item check-out process all in one place.
- Customized forms. Use your school fundraising software to create customized forms for your school’s unique needs. You can even brand it to your colors and let donors share it on their social media platforms. Create forms for things like paying tutors or paying club dues.
School fundraising software with the above features is sure to help supplement your private school fundraising efforts.
Qgiv for K-12 schools
K-12 schools are guiding some of our youngest and brightest minds. They often host fundraisers to raise the revenue for various programs and the extracurriculars they offer. Fundraisers are a good way to supplement many funds, and schools often rely on it heavily.
Whether you are fundraising to fund a school trip or create a new afterschool program for your students, it’s a good idea to invest in capable fundraising software to help you reach donors. Make sure your tool has these key K-12 fundraising needs:
- Event registration. Grade schools often host fundraising events to engage parents and family. Make sure you can effectively manage and oversee all of the event attendees as well as process donations.
- Donation apps. A cool feature to look for in your fundraising software is a donation app so donors can give in person, even if they don’t have cash or a checkbook on them. This is great during any of your school-wide events. Position a staff member at a stand and equip them with a smartphone or tablet to handle donations in real-time.
- Unique forms. K-12 schools often have a variety of clubs and departments that might all fundraise for their own needs. From the Parent Teacher Association to a student theatre club, your fundraising software for education should allow any club/department to brand and customize each of their forms.
These are just some of the key features to watch out for. There are many other ways K-12 schools can leverage education fundraising software.
Final thoughts
Choosing the right fundraising software for schools is essential to maximizing your potential and achieving your goals. With a wide range of options available, it’s important to consider the unique needs of your school and select tools that fit your objectives.
By leveraging the power of fundraising software, you can streamline your fundraising efforts, engage your community, and create effective fundraising strategies to support your goals. Whether you’re part of a K-12 school, a private institution, or a higher education facility, there’s a tool out there to help you succeed.
Additional resources
It’s important that your school is equipped with fundraising tools that are meant for educational institutions and organizations. If you want to learn more about school fundraising and other general tips, check out these resources:
- 11 Fundraising Ideas for Schools and Clubs to Raise Money Online. Looking for fundraising ideas for your club? Check out this list!
- 25 Sports Fundraisers to Take Your Team to the Next Level. Raising money for your sport’s team? Take a look at these sport fundraiser ideas.
- 10 Steps to Hosting Your Own Walkathon, Bikeathon, or Runathon Fundraiser. Hosting a walkathon? Use this step-by-step guide!
