nationbuilder.com
NationBuilder is a cloud-based CRM and fundraising tool with a focus on online constituent engagement and action. Individuals are placed on and move along paths that correspond to how the constituent interacts with an organization, with clearly identified next steps and an assigned “point person” responsible for the relationship. Online donation and engagement pages are all designed to encourage taking action, and an organization can daisy-chain pages into a logical series of actions. Users can also assign “social capital” points to constituents for various actions to measure engagement.
The paths assigned to constituents are the primary focus of their records, with additional address and biographical information located in tabs. The system allows both individual organization records, with organizations also connected to paths. Individuals can also be connected with other constituents and organizations in the database via relationships. NationBuilder captures basic contact and biographical information, which can be extended via custom fields (available for Pro plan subscribers at an additional cost).
A Twitter integration allows users to import constituents’ Twitter followers or accounts they are following for acquisition purposes. In your database, you can also tag constituents who interact with your Facebook and Twitter posts to understand who engages with your social media content. The system allows you to broadcast emails, texts, and Facebook and Twitter messages, but does not include the ability to generate letters. It is easy to set up automated email series, but automations require a Pro plan subscription and there are additional fees for more than one automation. You can also set up a custom domain to allow your organization to receive incoming email, which some small organizations use as their inbox tool.
The system supports one-time, monthly, and in-kind gifts—with credit card and ACH payments processed by NationBuilder’s own payment processor or via a payment processor integration with ActBlue—as well as pledges. Donations are connected to campaigns and source (email or an online form) via tracking codes. You can export transactions for reconciliation with Finance. Membership management requires a Pro subscription, with an add-on required if you need to support more than one membership type. The system includes a variety of dashboards with key metrics and charts tracking goals, activity, growth, finance, and contacts. You can also produce a formatted annual report with one click from the dashboard page.
The NationBuilder Starter plan begins at $348 per year, but does not include custom fields and permission, membership management, email automations, or A/B testing. The Pro plan starts at $1,188 per year. A nonprofit with 1,000 contacts would pay $468 per year under the Starter plan and $1,428 under the Pro plan. A nonprofit with 15,000 contacts would pay $6,228; databases larger than 15,000 contacts require an Enterprise plan, which has custom pricing.