With the end of the calendar year approaching as well as the recent news regarding Anthology, this might be a good time for advancement teams to explore some of the best Encompass (or iModules) alternatives available today.

In this blog, we’ll do just that but also take a look at what a transition from Encompass to Almabase might look like for teams. Let’s get started.

iModules (Encompass) alternatives for advancement teams

All-in-one advancement tools

1. Almabase

Almabase is an all-in-one alumni engagement and fundraising software for educational institutions and nonprofits. It provides tools for building alumni communities, managing events, facilitating donations, and tracking engagement metrics.

Key differences include a strong focus on alumni engagement and digital fundraising automation compared to iModules, which has a broader suite for advancement offices. Almabase emphasizes personalized outreach, integrations, hassle-free events and giving. It also boasts comparatively easier set up and active support.

2. Givecampus

Givecampus is a fundraising platform focused on higher education, known for its social fundraising tools such as peer-to-peer giving, crowdfunding, and giving days.

Unlike iModules, Givecampus specializes primarily in modern fundraising strategies and donor engagement, offering robust social sharing features, video integrations, and campaign management dashboards. Givecampus works best for institutions primarily aiming to run engaging fundraising campaigns and leverage networks for peer-driven giving, including colleges, universities, and K-12 schools.

3. Hivebrite

Hivebrite is an advanced community management platform supporting private networks for organizations, universities, and nonprofits. It enables networking, event management, content sharing, and job boards, all within a branded portal.

Compared to iModules, Hivebrite excels in building versatile online communities and streamlining member interactions. Where iModules centers on advancement and alumni relations, Hivebrite is more customizable and suitable for professional associations, universities with global alumni, and organizations needing diverse community features for members.

4. ToucanTech

ToucanTech is a community and database software enabling schools, universities, and clubs to connect members, manage relationships, and drive fundraising and engagement. It combines CRM capabilities with community engagement tools.

Key differences from iModules include a heavy emphasis on unified data management, private portals, communications, and event features in a modern interface. ToucanTech stands out for integrated CRM and engagement tracking, whereas iModules has deeper legacy advancement functionalities.

5. Gravyty

Gravyty offers AI-powered engagement and fundraising tools for nonprofits and educational institutions, enabling personalized outreach and predictive analytics to increase donor participation.

Gravyty focuses on artificial intelligence to automate donor outreach, steward relationships, and prioritize fundraising tasks. Its proactive AI nudges and email management are not central features of iModules, which is more event and campaign-focused.

CRM alternatives to Encompass

1. Blackbaud

Blackbaud is perhaps one of the most well-known CRM systems for advancement teams in both institutional and nonprofit spaces. Their CRM services are centered largely around Raiser’s Edge NXT (also known as RE NXT) and Blackbaud CRM, both of which have become household names in the advancement industry.

2. Ellucian

Ellucian exclusively focuses on educational institutions through a variety of tools specialized for different teams and tasks. For advancement in particular, you have their CRM Advance which integrates natively with their student lifecycle and ERP-related products.

💡Ellucian has also successfully bid to acquire Anthology's Student Information Systems (SIS) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) since the chapter 11 announcement.

3. Salesforce

When talking about CRMs, it’s pretty much impossible not to mention Salesforce. For educational institutions, you have the Salesforce Education Cloud while nonprofits may find the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud more relevant.

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What a journey from iModules/Encompass to Almabase looks like

Anna Twombley’s team at New England College were iModules users before they adopted Almabase. They were facing a few persistent challenges such as:

• Multiple disconnected tools that wasted time with manual data entries
• Clunky email and website building process
• Confusing alumni and donor experiences
• Alumni felt disconnected to their directory due to the learning curve of the platform

Essentially, a lot of staff time was being spent managing the tool itself, which is not sustainable for many advancement teams like theirs. Moving to Almabase on the other hand, allowed them to:

• Seamlessly sync data with Raiser’s Edge NXT (RE NXT) to eliminate manual data entries
• An updated look to directories, pages, and emails which did not require a huge investment
• Easily create pages and events that freed up a lot of time and resources for the team

Their alumni also felt better connected to their alma mater and their fellow alumni with the addition of a cleaner, more accessible platform for both the directory and event-related pages such as giving days and fundraising forms.

You can check out the full recording of our conversation with Anna as well as an overview of Almabase through the link below 👇

▶️Inside New England College’s Future-Ready Advancement Strategy (Plus a Live Tour of Almabase)

Wrapping it up

At the end of the day, it is up to you and your team’s unique needs that will determine your platform of choice for 2026 and beyond. But we hope we’ve been able to give you a good starting point to find the right fit for you.

If you’d like to learn more about Almabase and how we help institutions and organizations for advancement needs, feel free to book a personalized demo call with us below! ⬇️

Frequently asked questions

How seamless is the transition from iModules to Almabase? What support is available during migration?

Almabase provides dedicated personnel for your onboarding and training as you or your team gets used to Almabase. We also provide readily available live chat, email, and on-call support in case you run into any hiccups.

Is Almabase built only for higher education?

Almabase also supports K-12 schools and healthcare foundations managing donor and alumni communities.

Does Almabase have reporting and analytics tools?

Almabase comes with its own set of reporting and analytics tools for giving, engagement, and donor pipeline data.