Non-profits can definitely put their best foot forward by using these marketing tools, apps and resources. From time-saving scheduling or even free apps, creative tools and analytics I have found many teams benefit from checking out these popular marketing tools, apps and resources.
Social Media
The place to begin if you are a new nonprofit is to first register to gain access to their social media platform’s nonprofit programs. Meta, YouTube and others enable certain features to support registered Nonprofits for free.
Buffer is a San Francisco-based company offering free essential social media tools (max. 3 channels) to help NFPs improve their reach. YouTube Tutorial They also offer up to 50% off for nonprofits.
HootSuite Is a Canadian alternative, but no longer offers free basic accounts as of March 2023. They do offer discounted (75% off when last checked) professional plans for non-profits.
Sprout social, CrowdFire are popular social media management tools.
Canva was founded in Australia in 2013. It provides a graphic design platform that provides tools for creating social media graphics, presentations, postcards, promotional merchandise and websites. It now offers a free pro account to registered nonprofits.
To complete Adobe Express now offers nonprofits free software as well.
Vista Create (formerly Crello) is another alternative / similar to Canva.
Grammerly – allows users to upload a document to check for common grammatical mistakes.
Unsplash – The app provides wallpapers and the full site provides a diversity of free images and tips on how to give photographers attribution (Under “About Us”). Browse images to see both paid options via iStock and fully free images.
Otter.ai – Each free account gets 600 minutes of transcription each month to generate a transcript of your videos (to be A.O.D.A. compliant). YouTube’s machine-generated sub-titles may also be a great option. You can also leverage tools like Otter.ai voice meeting notes – OtterPilot™
ChatGPT and other A.I tools are of course growing. Check out our blog posts on using ChatGPT or other popular A.I tools.
Website & Analytics
The largest platforms smaller nonprofits use to create their websites are platforms like WordPress, Drupal, Hubspot, GoDaddy, etc. and we highlight many fundraising and CRM systems below as well. Regardless of the platform the Google suite of apps continues to be popular.
Google Analytics (G4) continues to be the most used free analytics platform for nonprofits and charities. What has continued to shift is the need to have integrated data in order to be able to make data driven decisions. Many nonprofits are still struggling to integrate social media analytics (e.g. sprout social, Buffer, Meta, Social Champ, etc.), email analytics (e.g. MailChimp, Shopify, Constant Contact, etc.) and SEO (SemRush, Google Search Console, etc.). When integrating all this data with CRM tools, teams can often use tools like Tableau to help the data tell a story.
Google Drive, for example, enables users to store up to 15GB for free and makes file sharing easy. Alternative Drop Box allows users to store up to 2GB for free.
Google Ads are included as they are a key platform for all Nonprofits that have applied for a Google Ad Grant. This platform enables digital advertisements that appear across the Google ecosystem, including Search, YouTube, and Discover. These ads can help drive traffic to your website by targeting users who research topics similar to your nonprofit’s mission.
SurveyMonkey – A key part of engaging a community of followers is ensuring they have a voice and that you understand their needs and interests. SurveyMonkey is an easy-to-use market research tool that allows non-profits to set up online surveys, share them via emails, website or social media accounts and see real-time results and easy-to-understand reporting. An alternate is Alchemer (was Surveygizmo).
LiveAgent – offers a limited free account for a real-time chat service as this can be aother great feedback channel.
Mail Chimp – If you are just starting out to send marketing emails MailChimp is a popular platform that can help. To access the nonprofit discount, first set up a free plan and contact the billing team to register your organization. Teams can set up trigger welcome emails or personalize emails based on specific audiences/interests. You can easily collect subscribers from Facebook, Twitter and WordPress. If you have less than 250 contacts, Cyberimpact is a Canadian alternative. Constant Contact is also another popular alternative that offers nonprofit discounts.
General / Admin.
Statista – another often requested source that doesn’t yet have a phone app – Is a searchable site to find statistics and facts to support your case for support. In Canada, we also benefit from having the StatsCanada app at our fingertips.
If your team is using a number of Google apps, the integration to Google Workspace for NonProfits may be something teams could consider in 2025. It includes Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Slides, Meet, and more.
Slack – is a project management tool for teams that are just starting up or for teams working across Canada who need a way to stay in sync. There are a million apps and all our clients have different favourites (e.g. Asana, Google Tasks, etc.) Asana or Trello are examples of other alternatives.
Toggl – a good time tracking tool whose basic plan is free and allows teams to visualize how they are spending their time.
Eventbrite – A terrific tool if you are setting up free events. Their essentials plan is free as long as your event tickets are free (a fee is applied to paid tickets). It lets you easily post your events to other sites such as Google Calendar, Facebook or MailChimp. Ticket Tailor is another similar option to Eventbrite.
Trying to find a date that works for the majority of your volunteers? Try Doodle , a free polling tool that easily surveys what dates would work best.
Fiverr – is a site that allows NFP’s to resource digital marketing freelance skills like graphic design. Consider also partnering with local colleges and university courses that would like to have projects students can work on to gain hands-on experiences via internships.
Volunteer Match also could assist teams in locating Marketing expertise.
No surprise – But Zoom is now for many our favourite digital meeting space. Its free account now limits multi-person meetings to 40 minutes, and Google Meet noted above for example to 1 hour. Nonprofits can also use Zoom to record workshops or livestream events, making them available to broader audiences.
As you consider your needs, ensure you check with any software or app service provider to see if they offer a nonprofit or registered charity discount. TechSoup makes it easy to find this information for Canadian nonprofits.
Fundraising / Crowdsourcing
I am often also asked about options for donation processing, fundraising, peer-to-peer events and crowdfunding. For small non-profits, there are a wide variety of platforms such as:
DialMyCall – isn’t free but does offer a free trial period and a nonprofit discount for sending automated voice or text messages. This can be a valuable service for connecting volunteers, event updates etc. but if you are considering a text-to-give program, also check out the Mobile Giving Foundation Canada.
Go Fund Me is one of the largest platforms that has become popular with both organisations and individuals raising funds. GoFundMe doesn’t charge to start or manage a fundraiser, but when we last checked they have a transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30 per donation, which is automatically deducted. They have also recently announced a social integration partnerships with Meta.
PayPal – Need help collecting funds? PayPal has no setup fee and offers registered charities in Canada discounted rates. Like Square, they also have options for contactless credit/debit payment for events etc. They did make changes to their terms in 2023. PayPal payment processing fees apply to donations made on some partners’ platforms as partners may charge fees.
Canada Helps is another online fundraising option. Also Facebook for example connects directly to your organization’s bank accounts when you participate with their donate button for approved charities / nonprofit fundraising.
There are so many fundraising platforms and tools (e.g. event or auction software to fully integrated fundraising solutions) and helpful sites that compare and contract – to get you started check out list your platform top needs / desired features and then search sites that analyse options like Boomerang/Qgiv, Neon, DonorPerfect, Findly, Classy, Fundraise Up, Give Butter, Giving Fuel, CauseVox, Keela, Bonfire, Double the Donation, Donor Search, Wealth Engine, GrantHub, OneCause, ClickBid, DonorBox, Giftlify, etc.). There are hundreds to choose from.
Your nonprofit CRM’s platform can allow you to easily create online fundraising pages and add them to your website, social media, and email marketing campaigns. Some examples of the largest CRM integrated platforms include:
Salesforce, which is widely used even by nonprofits to manage constituents. An app native to Salesforce is Fonteva Events a nonprofit event management tool that helps organizations plan both in-person and virtual experiences.
Blackbaud is popular for its Raiser’s Edge CRM and peer-to-peer fundraising tools.
Shopify which is widely used when nonprofits are looking to manage an online store to generate revenues. While not free, they do also offer nonprofit discounts. We work with a number of small community nonprofits who prefer this platform.
We hope this list gets you started as you brainstorm new options or look to optimize the tools that best suit the needs of your team.
