School Fundraising Software: 10+ Choices That Help Match Gifts
Schools often rely on fundraisers to supplement limited funding and provide increased access to education, extracurriculars, and other activities. With the right school fundraising software, your team can have exactly the tools you need to raise money for your efforts in the most effective ways possible.
Many of our favorite school fundraising solutions fall into one of two categories: donation form software or donor management software.
Are you ready to explore our top picks along with reviews for each? Let’s start with the basics.
What Is School Fundraising Software?
Fundraising software is a specific kind of technology that helps all sorts of individuals and groups raise money in the most efficient way possible.
If you’re a school looking for a more specialized solution, school fundraising software takes educational institutions’ unique needs into account to provide a perfectly crafted fundraising experience for students, staff, loved ones, alumni, and the greater community.
What Are Matching Gifts?
Are you familiar with the idea of corporate philanthropy or corporate giving? Matching gifts are a subset of these types of giving programs where companies match donations made by their employees to charitable causes and nonprofit organizations—like schools! These donations are often matched dollar for dollar, though companies can choose their own match rate, typically between .5:1 and 3:1.
So what does that mean for your school? Essentially, you can receive free bonus donations from your existing supporters’ employers! Take a look here:
The problem is that matching gift funding is severely underutilized, with billions of available dollars going unclaimed each year. Luckily, the right software can help your team make the most of matching gifts.
Let’s dive in with our fundraising software recommendations!
Top School Fundraising Software for Donation Forms
Your school’s donation forms are one of the most important pieces of software you’ll need. Supporters and donors typically experience your donation forms firsthand, and choosing your providers carefully can help ensure the process for users is as seamless as possible.
Let’s discuss a few of our suggested donation form providers:
GiveCampus
Founded in 2014, GiveCampus donation software has raised more than $1 billion in charitable giving for schools across the world. The GiveCampus platform is inclusive of K-12 schools, higher ed institutions, and other nonprofit educational organizations.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Social fundraising platform incorporating crowdfunding, social proof, and networking relationships for success
- Streamlined giving process via Apple Pay, instant bank transfers, credit cards, and more
- Customizable donation forms that better appeal to various audience segments
Not to mention, GiveCampus supports matching gift fundraising through a seamless integration with industry-leading matching gift provider, Double the Donation. Through Double the Donation’s innovative automation tool, 360MatchPro, your school can incorporate matching gifts directly into the donation process and help raise more corporate revenue at every step of the way.
AlumnIQ
AlumnIQ is a favorite school fundraising software provider that works exclusively with higher ed institutions, colleges, and universities. Through powerful aggregation and reporting projects, AlumnIQ is able to provide data to organizations like PCUAD, STAFF, and CASE.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- User-friendly and easy-to-complete online donation forms
- Event registration, check-in, and reporting (including for signature events like Homecomings and reunions)
- Email marketing and constituent engagement backed by smart data insights
Plus, many of your school’s alumni are likely eligible for matching gifts—which is why AlumnIQ has formed an integration partnership with 360MatchPro by Double the Donation. This way, fundraisers can easily incorporate a matching gift plugin into their donation forms and confirmation screens!
Wilson-Bennett Technology
Wilson-Bennett Technology specializes in phonathon management, although the team also offers services for enrollment management, survey collecting, and annual fund consulting. WBT typically works with colleges and universities along with other nonprofit groups and schools on their digital engagement campaigns.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Donor Direct, a unique and innovative calling software for cost-effective automated outreach
- Student-led remote outreach programs for segmented and personalized alumni communications
- AI-driven strategies based on machine learning, caller-to-prospect compatibility matching, campaign performance projectors, software-assisted checklists, and more
If you’re looking to promote matching gifts to your school’s donors, Wilson-Bennett has you covered through a partnership with Double the Donation’s matching gift automation tool, 360MatchPro. During donation request calls, the agent simply asks the prospect for their employer information. This is then input into the Double the Donation search database, with results being relayed to the donor over the phone and by email follow-up.
Almabase
If you’re raising money for a high school, college, or university, Almabase might be right for you. Since 2014, this platform has raised millions of dollars for educational institutions by taking an alumni-centered approach to fundraising.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Easy campaign shareability through Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, and text messaging with personalized messaging
- Strategic gamification through leaderboards, thermometers, challenges, tributes, ambassadorships, and more
- Streamlined donation process in under 60 seconds from any device and through multiple payment processors
Almabase also takes matching gifts seriously, equipping their clients with the right tools to leverage corporate dollars through a partnership with 360MatchPro. This integration allows donors to conduct a quick search of Double the Donation’s company database directly within your donation confirmation screen.
Community Funded
Community Funded was founded in 2011 as a powerful fundraising solution for nonprofit, healthcare, and education organizations. Since then, they’ve processed more than 315 thousand gifts totaling $250+ million dollars for 100 institutions.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Easy campaign-building tools that allow fundraisers to go live in minutes with no coding requirements
- Peer-to-peer fundraising with ambassador-based, crowdfunding, and social campaign functionalities
- Giving Day management across multiple campuses and departments for a seamless fundraising experience
To take your fundraising a few steps further, Community Funded offers a native integration with Double the Donation and their automation tool, 360MatchPro. With this partnership, Community Funded clients can leverage a comprehensive matching gift search tool to drive more matches.
Custom Donations
Custom Donations is a fantastic fundraising solution designed for nonprofits and schools to help their teams collect maximum revenue. All you need to get started is a Stripe account and an SSL certificate!
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Flexible direct, recurring, and general donation options for donors to give with ease
- Transaction fee payment options, which tend to increase the average donation size
- Customizable gift receipting and thank you messages to automate donor follow-ups
And don’t forget matching gifts! Custom Donations partnered with industry-leading matching gift provider Double the Donation to ensure their customers can make the most of these corporate giving opportunities. With Double the Donation’s automation tool, 360MatchPro, users will be able to easily incorporate a searchable matching gift plugin into their online custom donation forms and on the confirmation screen for next steps.
Anthology
Anthology is a higher-ed-based fundraising platform that previously went by the name of iModules. With this solution, colleges and universities can take a strategic approach to fundraising, event management, and donor stewardship, often leading to bountiful results.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Flexible giving options ranging from short-term crowdfunding campaigns or Giving Days to multi-year capital campaign fundraisers
- Gamification strategies to drive engagement and increase donor participation in fundraising
- Smart engagement analytics that help guide fundraising efforts and highlight wins and opportunities for improvement
You can also leverage matching gifts within the Anthology platform thanks to their native integration with 360MatchPro—Double the Donation’s automation software. With this tool, donors will be prompted to input their employer information in the online donation form and, upon doing so, are met with company-specific program guidelines on the confirmation screen.
Booster
Booster is a popular fundraising platform catering to K-12 schools looking to up their fundraising efforts. In the past 20 years since its inception, the Booster company has grown to include solutions such as Boosterthon, Booster Tech, and Booster Spirit Wear.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Interactive platform that drives student engagement and increases efforts towards reaching a fundraising goal
- Fun runs and choreographed group dances that raise money for your school and provide an exciting event for participants
- Online donation site that allows you to easily collect and follow up with pledged donations
Then, get your donations matched by leveraging corporate matching gifts. Booster integrates with Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro to provide customers access to the world’s largest corporate giving database. Once activated, Double the Donation’s matching gift search plugin will appear on Booster form confirmation screens!
Top School Fundraising Software for Donor Management
Your school’s donor management software, also known as a constituent relationship management system or CRM, is a critical component of the behind-the-scenes process when it comes to fundraising. After all, it helps provide effective fundraising experiences for both your team and those supporting you.
Here are a few of our favorite CRMs for school fundraising:
UC Innovation
UC Innovation was founded in 2011 as a CRM software and consulting company in the higher ed fundraising space. Built on the Salesforce CRM, UC Innovation provided innovative solutions for nonprofits and schools aiming to boost their advancement strategies.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Out-of-the-box fundraising solution that allows schools to begin raising money sooner
- Prospect management tools that allow development officers to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward potential donors
- Continual innovation initiatives that ensure the software is constantly keeping up with customer demand and new developments
One critical development in school fundraising involves making the most of matching gifts. With UC Innovation, you can leverage Double the Donation’s matching gift automation software within the CRM thanks to a technology integration making it possible.
Blackbaud
One of the leading names in nonprofit and school fundraising, Blackbaud offers a range of fundraising tools for effective donor relationship management. Since its founding in 1981, Blackbaud has worked to provide innovative cloud-based software to power the social good community.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Data-driven fundraising efforts based on donors’ finances, demographics, behaviors, and lifestyles
- Clear reporting on key fundraising metrics and performance indicators
- Peer-to-peer functionality that equips students and other supporters to fundraise on behalf of your school
Blackbaud also ensures that its clients have the right tools to match gifts by working with the world’s leading matching gift provider, Double the Donation. With Double the Donation’s automation software, Blackbaud customers can make the most of their supporter data and begin collecting the corporate dollars that they’re eligible for.
Salesforce
Founded in 1999, Salesforce has more than two decades of experience working with schools, charities, and for-profit enterprises alike. The Salesforce Education Cloud serves both K-12 and higher ed institutions to provide improved user experiences for schools’ staff teams, students, alumni, and donors.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Strategic and personalized donor engagement across social media, web, email, and mobile channels
- Data analytics tools to help measure and predict fundraising campaign effectiveness
- Branded giving pages that quickly and easily process donations and provide an excellent donor experience
If you’re looking to bring your fundraising to the next level with native Salesforce tools, Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro is available on the AppExchange! This way, the matching gift automation software can leverage surfacing employer data collected through the donation process for matching gift eligibility and help drive more matches to completion.
Ellucian
Ellucian is a campus technology solution with an exclusive focus on higher education. Since 2012, this school-based platform has supported more than 2,700 customers in 50+ countries in their quests towards successful engagement and fundraising.
Consider the following noteworthy school fundraising features:
- Automation tools to streamline donor outreach, data reporting, and other manual workflows
- Tailored donor management to ensure each supporter has a personalized and engaging giving experience
- Data-informed fundraising to help determine where your strategy is thriving and where you have room for growth
Finally, Ellucian encourages matching gift fundraising through a seamless integration with Double the Donation’s automation software, 360MatchPro. Thanks to this partnership, Ellucian clients can easily set up matching gift functionality within their donation forms and on confirmation screens and scan CRM data as well.
Main Takeaway:
Equipping your school with the right software can go a long way for ensuring successful fundraising and efficient operations. We’ve discussed a few of our favorite solutions, but the possibilities are endless.
Just be sure to prioritize a fundraising platform that integrates with matching gift software as well.
