Discover actionable strategies for sustainable fundraising to secure long-term support for K-12 schools and higher-ed institutions.
Discover AI Summary
• Diversify your donor base by actively engaging small and medium-sized donors with accessible giving campaigns and flexible options. This helps you build a more resilient fundraising strategy and reduces the risk of over-reliance on a few major gifts, which is a common challenge for many institutions.
• Boost your fundraising campaigns by implementing a strong data strategy, ensuring your CRM acts as a knowledge hub to segment donors, track engagement, and predict behavior. A robust data foundation helps overcome inconsistent donor data challenges and informs smarter outreach.
• Build lasting trust and participation by being transparent about how funds are used, sharing impact reports, and involving alumni in decision-making processes through surveys or open communication. This fosters a deeper connection and encourages continued support for your mission.
• Broaden your definition of giving by actively encouraging non-financial contributions like volunteerism for events or mentorship programs for students. These efforts strengthen your community, cultivate a culture of giving back, and often pave the way for future financial support.
• Enhance donor participation and alumni engagement by offering flexible, evergreen giving options, such as recurring donations and custom amounts. Combine this with open and personalized communication to ensure your donors always feel valued, heard, and appreciated.
The importance of fundraising needs no introduction. However, with social, political, and economic elements proving increasingly tricky to predict, institutions of all sizes need to consider how they can make their fundraising strategy resilient to policy changes or the possibility of economic uncertainty.
Even before the sweeping education policy changes, fundraisers were proving increasingly reliant on large donors. According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, the dollars raised increased every quarter throughout 2024, but there were fewer donors at every turn. It goes without saying that an increasing reliance on large donors at a time of declining donor retention runs a huge risk.
In this blog, we’ll guide you through some key points you should look to integrate in order to futureproof your fundraising strategy.
Your large donors are undeniably your biggest champions. However, a future-proof fundraising strategy requires all its donor segments to believe in your cause. You should look to:
Some donors may simply not have felt as connected to your cause as your larger donors. Keeping in mind that every $10 or $50 donation adds up over time, have specific segments and nurture processes for your small and mid-sized donors with a focus on donor retention and long-term community building.
Data is the backbone of modern advancement and fundraising. A well-maintained data system ensures you know who your donors are and how to engage them meaningfully.
Knowing is half the battle, and CRMs should be the knowledge hub to drive your current and future fundraising strategies.
Trust is the foundation of sustainable giving. Being upfront about how funds are used can inspire trust to snowball your donors’ perception of your cause.
Transparency builds credibility, making donors more likely to continue supporting your initiatives.
Corporate entities, especially those associated with your alumni provide great scope for collaborations and can significantly expand your fundraising impact.
There is no guarantee that your emails and events will be noticed by your alumni and donors at the perfect time. Providing a multitude of giving options not only increases the timeframe for donors to contribute but also attracts smaller and irregular donors.
Fundraising goes beyond monetary gifts. Non-financial contributions foster the culture of giving back and are crucial to building your donor community.
These contributions build community goodwill and often pave the way for future financial support.
While your institution would obviously have some common points of contact, you’ll need to go further to inspire donor loyalty. Your institution needs to feel approachable, and your donors need to feel heard. Here are some things to keep in mind:
At the end of the day, fundraising relies on your donors and their willingness to support your cause(s). By focusing on sustainable practices, your institution gains the flexibility to adapt to donor trends and economic shifts, essentially future-proofing your fundraising strategy.
If you’re looking for a long-term partner for your fundraising efforts, do give us a shout and we’d love to answer your questions and show you how we can help!
Sustainable fundraising focuses on creating long-term financial stability for an institution by diversifying revenue sources and fostering regular contributions. It ensures that you maintain consistent supporter engagement while adapting to changing economic and political dynamics.
While building a sustainable fundraising strategy requires effort, it becomes manageable with the right tools and approaches. Leveraging data, fostering trust, and offering flexible giving options can simplify and strengthen your efforts.
Start by identifying companies that share your institution’s values. Reach out with a concise and clear proposal that highlights mutual benefits. Focus on co-branded initiatives and emphasize the positive publicity their business can gain through the partnership.
Sustainable fundraising reduces reliance on unpredictable sources of income, enables long-term planning, and fosters stronger donor relationships. It ensures financial stability, even in uncertain times, and allows institutions to focus more on their mission.
Table of Contents
Subscribe
See how modern advancement teams bring alumni engagement and fundraising together.
2024 was an interesting year for fundraising professionals. Persistent and emerging challenges in the nonprofit landscape coincided with some. While some issues carried over from previous years, new dynamics reshaped the way organizations navigated their work.
Last year was a year of highs and lows for fundraising and advancement professionals. From staffing struggles to shifts in donor behaviors, the year brought challenges that tested the resilience of nonprofits across sectors. However, these hurdles also paved the way for innovation, collaboration, and strategic rethinking, setting the stage for what 2025 might bring.
The donor landscape in 2024 presented an interesting problem. While overall donations increased, the donor pool continued to shrink. According to the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), there was a 2% increase in total donations but a 4.5% decline in the number of individual donors. This trend posed a significant challenge for nonprofits reliant on a broad donor base for smaller, recurring contributions.
Staffing shortages and high turnover rates continued to be among the most pressing concerns for nonprofits in 2024. According to a study by NonProfit PRO, nearly 70% of nonprofits reported struggling with staffing challenges, citing underfunding and burnout as primary drivers.
This crisis was compounded by the competitive job market, which made it difficult for nonprofits to attract and retain talent. High turnover negatively impacted team morale and operational efficiency, forcing many organizations to stretch already limited resources to achieve their goals.
The rise of AI and other tech tools has been both a blessing and a challenge for nonprofits. While AI offers powerful capabilities—from predicting donor behavior to automating administrative tasks—it also requires significant investment in training and implementation. Many teams struggled to fully integrate these tools due to lacking technical expertise or financial resources.
The use of AI also brings forward some ethical concerns that increasingly became relevant throughout the year. There exists the risk of over-automating donor communication, which could lead to a loss of the personal touch that is central to alumni engagement. For smaller organizations, the hype around AI could also lead to investments in tools that did not align with their needs, diverting funds from more pressing priorities.
Despite the challenges, nonprofits showcased remarkable resilience. Many embraced hybrid fundraising models, combining virtual and in-person events to engage a broader audience. Charity Digital reported that organizations leveraging digital tools for storytelling and donor engagement saw significant returns on investment.
Additionally, DonorBox emphasized how nonprofits that invested in robust donor communication tools experienced improved retention rates, especially during year-end campaigns.
As we move into 2025, nonprofits more than ever need to build on the lessons of 2024 by focusing on sustainable growth and strategic innovation.
Resilience emerged as a defining characteristic in 2024, and nonprofits should ideally look to build upon it by adopting sustainable strategies and scalable practices, to better navigate uncertainty and a world that’s throwing a lot of innovations at us without leaving us much time or resources to consider our approach to each of them. With all that being said, we’d like to explore some broad focus areas that teams and institutions alike should watch out for in 2025:
The excitement surrounding AI and other technologies in 2024 often led to unrealistic expectations for nonprofits. A research paper published by Lauri Goldkind, Joy Ming, and Alex Fink critically assessed AI’s role in human services, questioning whether it offered genuine value or was simply a trend driven by hype. The study concluded that while AI holds transformative potential, it requires proper alignment with an organization's size, mission, and resource constraints to be effective.
Throughout 2025, Nonprofits should be shifting focus toward scalable and budget-conscious technology solutions. For example, a hypothetical smaller team that only needs a CRM and basic analytics could leverage low-cost digital tools and achieve better outcomes if these tools are customized to their specific workflows and objectives, as opposed to trying to cover all their bases and wasting both resources and time spent on upskilling.
The staffing crisis doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon with 68% of organizations reporting difficulties with recruitment and retention in 2024. Common challenges include toxic work cultures, burnout, uncompetitive salaries, and insufficient training opportunities. Increased investment in professional development, equitable pay structures, and supportive workplace cultures have been big talking points for a while but now they need to become key priorities. Policies aimed at reducing burnout, such as flexible work schedules and mental health support should be a good starting point.
Additionally, peer mentoring and community-building efforts are gaining traction. Nonprofits can leverage mentorship programs and peer support networks to foster a sense of community within their teams, leading to improved job satisfaction and retention.
At the heart of every nonprofit is its people—the staff, donors, and volunteers whose collective efforts drive change. By fostering positive internal cultures and focusing on impactful strategies, nonprofits can inspire trust and loyalty, ensuring their mission thrives in the years to come.
Nonprofits have responded to the recent donor market shifts by focusing on deepening relationships with existing donors. Strategies such as targeted communication and personalized outreach have since become standard practice. 2025 should be a good year for teams to consolidate knowledge of their tools and long-term goals so that they continue fostering donor loyalty seamlessly. A key area of focus will be on small and medium-sized donors and how teams can turn them into loyal donors moving forward.
With federal budget cuts for nonprofits and institutions seeming likely on the horizon, advancement and nonprofit teams especially in the US will need to explore sustainable alternatives to reach their goals.
That’ll just about do it for now but with 2025 seeming a difficult year to predict, there should certainly be a lot more to talk about in the coming months.
Key focus areas for fundraising in 2025
2024 was an interesting year for fundraising professionals. We go over some of the key learnings from last year to figure out key focus areas for 2025.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
The best peer-to-peer fundraising platforms help educational institutions and nonprofits boost donor engagement through personalized giving pages, social fundraising, and CRM integration. These tools streamline campaigns with built-in analytics, gamification, and mobile optimization. While some options are completely free, others cater to large-scale fundraisers that require advanced data synchronization and scalability.
The right tools can make all the difference in modern fundraising. In this blog, we’ll highlight some of the best options on the market and explore what you can expect out of them.
.avif)
Peer-to-peer fundraising, or P2P fundraising, is a type of crowdfunding in which your organization encourages its supporters to fundraise for your cause. Typically, these supporters will create an individual fundraising page and share it with their friends, family members, and social media followers to raise money.
A peer-to-peer fundraising site is the software that allows your supporters to create a donation page, share it with their personal network, and collect donations to support your mission.
Typically, most fundraising tools today include features such as:
When shopping for a peer-to-peer fundraising tool, you’ll need to weigh the cost of the tool against the value it provides. However, it can be difficult to know the true cost of using the platform, depending on the software’s pricing structure. Get familiar with these common structures:
To compare tools with different pricing structures, calculate what each platform will cost you, on average, for a certain period of time.
Whether you’re a K-12 school ,higher ed institution, or a nonprofit, in no particular order, here are some peer-to-peer fundraising platforms that you should consider:
(Prices are based on publicly available data at the time of writing and are subject to change over time)
Almabase runs on a philosophy of integrating into your CRM and existing workflows, which remains true for their peer-to-peer fundraising features. Almabase boasts native sync with most higher-ed CRMs due to their TrueSync integration, combined with superior customer support and a willingness to integrate your ideas into their long-term vision. Almabase offers customizable pages and leaderboards powered with inbuilt text and email communication features built to drive donor engagement through organic and personalized communication.
Almabase’s pricing depends entirely on your needs. Learn how Almabase empowers your p2p strategy, Schedule a personalized demo and get a quote.
GoFundMe Pro (formerly Classy) is a peer-to-peer fundraising platform optimized for maximum nonprofit impact. It provides ready-to-use templates for scalable, high-impact campaigns and equips supporters with intuitive tools to advocate for the cause.
GoFundMe Pro offers features like campaign templating, embedded videos and livestreams, progress thermometers, team structures, and mobile-optimized pages. The platform also supports recurring gift options and flexible payment processing, and has a mobile- and user-friendly interface.
GoFundMe Pro offers a standard “Essentials” plan and a “Partner” custom plan.
Bloomerang Fundraising (formerly Qgiv) is a fundraising platform offering tools for donation management, event planning, and donor engagement. It provides features like customizable donation forms, peer-to-peer fundraising, and text-to-give options
Bloomerang Fundraising starts at $40 per month if purchased as part of a bundle with Bloomerang CRM.
Zeffy is a 100% free fundraising platform for nonprofits, offering peer-to-peer fundraising, crowdfunding, donation pages, and recurring giving options. This tool generates revenue through optional tips that donors can provide in addition to their donation. It allows fundraisers to join as individuals or teams and create their own fundraising pages. The platform is also known for being simple, intuitive, and customizable
Zeffy has no fees and instead runs on optional tips from donors.
Donorbox is a fundraising platform that allows nonprofits to launch peer-to-peer fundraisers in a few steps. It provides customizable donation forms and supports recurring donations via various payment methods.
Donorbox also offers features for managing donors, sending personalized emails, and recording donor communications. The platform provides resources like onboarding emails, courses, and templates to support nonprofits in their fundraising efforts.
For peer-to-peer fundraisers, Donorbox charges a flat 1.75% platform fee for a main campaign and 2.95% for a supporter’s campaign.
Bonfire specializes in fundraising through custom merchandise sales. Nonprofits, schools, and even individuals can design their own custom merch and sell it via Bonfire’s free online stores.
Bonfire supports peer-to-peer campaigns (which it refers to as “giving campaigns”) by allowing your supporters to create and share t-shirt fundraisers on behalf of your organization—then, all of the money they raise is sent directly to your nonprofit.
Bonfire is completely free to use, and your nonprofit keeps 100% of the profits. There’s an 8% processing fee on additional donations, but if you verify your nonprofit status with Bonfire, that fee is reduced to 3.5%
Givebutter provides tools to launch peer-to-peer campaigns, complete with donation forms, fundraising pages, event management, a built-in CRM, and marketing tools to analyze your progress and streamline workflows. Their fundraiser teams offer a great choice for organizations looking to gamify their peer-to-peer fundraisers as well.
Givebutter offers a popular “free forever” plan, as well as a paid option starting at $29/month. If your organization opts out of having donors cover fees, Givebutter charges 1% for donation forms, 3% for pages, and 5% for events and auctions, as well as a payment processing charge of 2.9% + ¢0.30 per transaction.
GiveCampus is a fundraising platform for educational institutions, providing solutions for online giving, giving days, crowdfunding, P2P fundraising, and more. It blends peer-to-peer outreach, social media, and gamification to engage more donors and increase fundraising. The platform allows schools to execute giving days, year-end appeals, and crowdfunding campaigns.
GiveCampus also offers features like matches and challenges to inspire donors and make them feel like their contributions are making a difference
GiveCampus has three platform plans: Essentials, Professional, and Enterprise. Additionally, pricing will vary depending on the modules you require.
As a Blackbaud product, JustGiving is a great choice if you are used to the Blackbaud CRM environment. Compared to other platforms on this list, JustGiving is relatively simple both in its presentation and its scope. This makes it an easy choice for teams just starting out or looking for something simple for a one-off event. However, there may be better choices for teams that want a more comprehensive solution that spans multiple fundraisers and year-long campaigns.
JustGiving charges platform fees and a standard payment processing fee based on your geographical location and payment platform. Crowdfunding pages are free to set up. While UK charities do not need to pay a platform fee, they do have a subscription model.
Gravyty leverages predictive AI technology to provide frontline fundraisers with personalized insights into donor behavior. This innovative approach helps organizations enhance their outreach efforts by automating email drafts tailored to individual donors while integrating seamlessly with existing CRM systems. Gravyty's focus on personalization empowers fundraisers to build stronger relationships with donors.
While some information is available online, interested organizations will need to contact Gravyty for a custom quote.
Bonterra’s peer-to-peer fundraising product (formerly DonorDrive) offers smart and customizable P2P fundraising solutions that empower supporters to create personalized experiences at scale. Its features include an intuitive event builder, personalized coaching for fundraisers, gamification elements like leaderboards, social media integrations, and seamless CRM integration, which enhances supporter engagement significantly
Bonterra offers three tiers—Essentials, Pro, and Enterprise—with pricing based on customer needs.
With so many unique platforms out there, choosing the right one can be a little overwhelming. However, there are several key factors to consider when selecting the right peer-to-peer fundraising software for your team:
Each platform will offer peer-to-peer fundraising capabilities, but you should dig a little deeper to find the right fit for your needs. For example, if you are a small team looking to organize a quick fundraiser, you may end up paying for features you don’t need. On the other hand, if you are looking for a long-term solution, a platform without built-in analytics would be a dealbreaker. Look for features that boost, rather than hamper, your fundraising efforts, and aim for a high return on investment.
Many teams want a tool that scales up alongside them as they engage more donors and alumni, but there is often a point where their needs outgrow the platform. To avoid this, consider both your short-term and long-term goals to determine if the platform’s upgraded pricing tiers will meet your team’s requirements later on. This way, you can simply upgrade to a plan with more advanced features or storage rather than migrating to a completely new platform.
Your staff, fundraisers, and donors should all have positive, smooth experiences when engaging with your fundraising pages. For example, if you want to sell custom merch, both the designing process and purchasing process should be easy and intuitive for supporters. From payment processing to reporting workflows to page load times, there are many aspects you should ask about or test out during a free trial or demo to see if a platform is the right one for you.
Some solutions come with a relatively low learning curve but offer limited functionality. Some, on the other hand, can be the driving force behind all your fundraising strategies but may require in-depth technical and/or coding experience. Try to find a balance between the training time required and potential functionality to ensure high adoption.
Pricing is a key consideration for any tool, but it’s also important to consider the nuances that may arise down the line. Always consider the rates associated with upfront costs, renewals, transaction fees, upgraded plans, and other relevant expenses. Additionally, switching to a new platform inevitably leads to more expenses through database transfers and staff upskilling. Consult with your database managers and other staff members before making a decision.
In the event that something goes wrong, you need to be able to reach the platform provider to resolve the issue. Keep factors like response times on live chat or email support channels in mind. For the long term, you also want to support platforms that onboard customer feedback and have detailed roadmaps for upcoming features.
Both your staff and donors need to be assured that sensitive data like payment information will be kept safe and secure. Always look out for a platform’s data encryption measures, as well as its compliance and authentication processes, to see if it inspires confidence from your donors.
Third-party review sites like G2 and Capterra offer insight into what customers think about specific tools. Keep in mind that these reviews are subjective, but they can be a great indication of how a platform is perceived overall, highlighting positive and negative software trends.
There is no single “best” fundraising website, but you can find the one that is best for your organization. Choose a platform that aligns with your goals, budget, audience, and campaign type.
Yes, a reputable fundraising platform should be able to integrate with your CRM to ensure donor data flows automatically into your central database. This eliminates data silos and the need for manual data transfers.
GoFundMe is a popular tool for personal crowdfunding, but it may lack the tools you need to run a full-fledged campaign. The platforms referenced in this guide offer the specialized tools mission-driven organizations need for branding, tracking donor data, and communications.
Crowdfunding is a centralized process led by your organization using a single donation page. On the other hand, peer-to-peer campaigns decentralize fundraising, empowering many supporters to help you raise money. Peer-to-peer campaigns empower supporters to help you raise money, meaning there are many people fundraising for your cause. Make sure your platform has the tools to support a peer-to-peer campaign.
Look for platforms that include gamification features, such as fundraising thermometers, badges, and leaderboards. These tools spark friendly competition among fundraisers and help them visualize their progress to maintain momentum and engagement.
We hope we’ve given you the tools you need to choose or at least consider some of the best peer-to-peer fundraising solutions out there, as well as the questions you need to ask yourself before adopting one. Whether you’re a higher ed institution optimizing your peer-to-peer fundraisers or a K-12 school just looking to get started, we hope you pick out the right solution and can make a great positive change.
If you’ve had successful peer-to-peer fundraisers before, learn how you can build a peer-to-peer fundraising community to help you keep providing meaningful experiences
.avif)
11 great peer-to-peer fundraising platforms for Institutions and Nonprofits 2026
Explore 11 of the best peer-to-peer fundraising sites for schools, higher ed, and nonprofits. Discover how to select the right one for your fundraising needs.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
Alumni are one of an institution’s greatest assets and engaging them isn’t just a matter of maintaining their bond with your institution, but also strengthening it. This is where alumni management software come in to help teams reach out to an ever-increasing alumni population.
Over time, it has developed into its own market with many great choices available. In this blog, we’d like to present you with some of the best options available and what you need to consider so that you can find the best alumni management software for you.
First things first, let’s understand what you should expect from an alumni management software. It serves as the central hub for all alumni bookkeeping and engagement efforts.
It works with your alumni database and/or CRM to maintain an up-to-date directory of your alumni. With this data, it allows you to segment, analyze, and engage your alumni for all your fundraising, communication, and networking needs. Today, alumni management tools can automate directory updates, personalize and automate communication, manage events and programs, and serve as the main hub for all your analytics and reports for these and other efforts. Some tools focus on excelling at a specific offering, such as directory management, while others offer an integrated approach that encompasses your entire alumni relations efforts.
Below, in no particular order, we’ve compiled a list of 10 alumni management software you should consider in 2026.
Please note that certain features and details are subject to change over time.
Almabase is an all-in-one alumni engagement and fundraising platform. Almabase offers an impressive set of features designed to seamlessly integrate with popular CRMs and help teams set up fundraisers, mentorship programs, digital engagement programs, and much more.
Pros:
Cons:
Best for: educational institutions and small to medium nonprofits
Pricing: Almabase offers friendly and personalized pricing based on user needs. Get in touch with us here to get a free personalized demo.
PeopleGrove focuses on the career and networking aspect of alumni and students by offering tools for alumni engagement, career advancement, and mentorship among others.
Pros:
Cons:
Best for: Institutions looking specifically for a mentor/mentee management tool
Pricing: No public pricing. You can speak to a representative to get a quote here.
Hivebrite is an all-in-one community management platform used by universities, nonprofits, and corporate alumni networks. Hivebrite provides a customizable hub for alumni engagement. It’s often praised for combining a wide range of alumni activities – from events and groups to mentoring and fundraising – into one unified platform.
Pros:
Cons:
Best for: Large institutions looking to invest in a comprehensive engagement program
Pricing: Hivebrite has three pricing tiers: Connect, Scale, and Enterprise, with baseline pricing that varies based on each customer. Learn more here.
Graduway (now part of Gravyty) specializes in helping educational institutions build exclusive online communities for their alumni, focusing mainly on alumni engagement and fundraising.
Pros:
Cons:
Best for: Higher-ed institutions looking for versatile administrative tools
Pricing: Graduway’s pricing is not publicly posted. You can request a demo or contact them here.
Encompass (formerly iModules and Anthology Encompass) is a supporter engagement solution. It has a data-driven approach intended to cover each stage of alumni engagement. It is best used in combination with other other ecosystem tools such as Raise and Advance.
Pros:
Cons:
Best for: Customers who enjoy the Encoura software environment
Pricing: Encompass does not have public pricing. You can request a demo or speak to a sales representative here.
EverTrue is an advancement platform that helps alumni and development offices personalize outreach and fundraise more effectively. It’s not a traditional alumni social platform; rather, EverTrue focuses on equipping your advancement team with rich insights about alumni and donors – pulling in data from social media, career info, wealth indicators, and more.
Pros:
Cons:
Best for: Teams who want to engage alumni active on Facebook and mainly prioritize fundraising
Pricing: EverTrue’s pricing is not publicly available. You can request a demo to get a quote here.
360Alumni is an all-in-one alumni networking, management, and fundraising platform geared towards schools and nonprofits that want to build an engaged alumni community and also facilitate giving.
Pros:
Cons:
Best for: Institutions with a technologically proficient alumni pool and a higher budget.
Pricing: 360Alumni requires an initial setup cost, an annual subscription, and transaction fees. You can find more information and request a demo here.
Wild Apricot is a membership management software used mainly by associations, clubs, and nonprofits. It’s known for being affordable and user-friendly, essentially a one-stop system for managing contacts, collecting dues or donations, registering event attendees, and even building a basic website.
Pros:
Cons:
Best for: Associations looking for a simple membership solution
Pricing: Wild Apricot has a transparent payment scheme based on number of contacts and billing cycle. It also has a free 60-day demo. You can find more information here.
ToucanTech is a UK-based alumni management software built for independent schools, colleges, and alumni foundations. It offers an elegant, all-in-one alumni portal that combines a database, community news, events, fundraising, and email features.
Pros:
Cons:
Best for: Teams looking to get started with a comprehensive alumni management CRM
Pricing: ToucanTech’s pricing isn’t publicly listed. You can request a demo and get a quote here.
Join It is a lightweight, user-friendly membership management software. While it’s not exclusively built for alumni engagement, its affordability and ease of use make it a great option for smaller alumni groups, associations, and nonprofit networks.
Pros:
1. While not built specifically for educational institutions, it is one of the more affordable options
2. Has a wide range of integrations with popular tools
3. Users report that it is easy to use and setup
Cons:
1. Does not include fundraising or mentorship features.
2. Basic customization: The platform offers limited branding and customization features, which may not meet the specific needs of larger institutions seeking a tailored experience.
Best for: Small teams that need an affordable and simple member management only solution
Pricing: Join It offers a starter, total, and extra package as well as a custom enterprise package that can be paid monthly or yearly. It also has a free trial. You can find the exact prices here.
Alumni relationships don’t maintain themselves. Without the right systems in place, institutions risk losing the interest of their alumni and missing out on valuable engagement as well as mentorship and fundraising opportunities. An alumni management software helps prevent this by:
1. Organizing and updating alumni directories
2. Building hubs and touchpoints for alumni to get in touch with each other and your institution
3. Simplifying, personalizing, and automating communication (depending on the platform)
4. Facilitating career and networking opportunities, mentorship programs, and exclusive events for alumni
5. Building a strong community online for fundraisers, reunions, and other important events
With so many alumni management platforms available, we’d like to help you refine your shortlist by highlighting some key considerations to make when choosing your next platform. Let’s get
Depending on your institution, you may want a solution that comes with its own CRM or integrates seamlessly with an already existing CRM. Whatever you go with, make sure that there are as little data siloes as possible between your various solutions.
Keep your alumni pool in mind and what social media platforms they historically prefer. A Facebook integration-heavy tool may not be right for you if your alumni prefer LinkedIn groups or Instagram pages. Once you identify a few tools that fit that niche, make sure the level of engagement analytics is to your liking.
Depending on how big your alumni base is, your needs for segmentation, personalization, and automation will vary. If your team is focused on fundraising for a large institution, a platform that includes giving and engagement history may be important for you while it may be an unneeded cost for a small school only looking for simple membership management.
Many of the tools in alumni management offer customizable or contact-based pricing. Try to get a feel for what feels right considering both the short-term (your next three events for example) and long-term (Will the platform scale well into your third annual subscription?) needs. Also keep in mind your already existing software and what you may need to pay extra for considering additional integration costs to keep them in line with your chosen solution.
Most alumni management tools also offer fundraising tools as well. Depending on how the tool is set up, consider how your potential and past donors will engage with your efforts. A solution may be really intuitive for you but be clunky and hard to navigate for your donors. Some donors may prefer networking and donating from the same platform while others think it’s a hassle. Always keep your donor’s preferences in mind before making a choice.
At its core, the effectiveness of alumni software comes down to how well it enables institutions to connect with alumni in meaningful ways and drive tangible outcomes—whether that’s increased participation, stronger professional networks, or higher donations
We’d love to work with you to connect and engage with your alumni better. If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you, feel free to get in touch with us and we’ll be glad to give you a personalized demo!
Top Alumni Management Software in 2026
Compare the 10 best alumni engagement software for alumni relations and advancement teams in 2026. Our blog compares features, pricing, as well as pros and cons.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
.svg)
.avif)
.webp)