8 Best Cheap Email Marketing Platforms for Nonprofits

• Nonprofit email marketing is about relationships, not transactions, and you need a platform that understands this.
• Automation should save time without adding complexity to individuals who already have very full plates.
• The “best” platform is subjective and depends on your size, strategy, and structure, so it’s best to do your research before choosing.

Your nonprofit runs on the passion of your team and the generosity of your community, but these alone aren’t enough. To capitalize on their commitment, it’s essential to have a well-tuned marketing strategy. Email marketing plays a pivotal role in this, helping you spread the word about your mission and involve more supporters.

To do this, you need reliable email marketing software for nonprofits: an always-on assistant that keeps everyone connected and your relationships with volunteers and supporters growing.

Your perfect match should be easy to use and have all the features you need to meet your nonprofit objectives. These include a beginner-friendly email editor, list segmentation and management, pre-built automated workflows, and comprehensive reporting.

To help you out, we looked into the top options and analyzed where they excel and where they fall short. We evaluated each tool based on the key use cases and factors that matter to nonprofits, so you can find the tool that serves your operations and resources best.

Why use an email marketing platform for nonprofits

Nonprofit leaders are used to doing a lot with limited time and resources. Choosing an email marketing platform that was built with nonprofits in mind simplifies tasks while maximizing impact.

Here’s how:

• Building trusting relationships: In nonprofit email marketing, your goal is to build deeper connections over time. The right email software helps you nurture supporters to increase recurring giving, volunteering, and event participation, while strengthening community.
• Engaging audiences with targeted emails: Nonprofits tend to work with more diverse lists than other businesses. Your databases may include first-time or long-term donors, volunteers, event attendees, sponsors, and community members. Segmentation allows you to group your supporters based on certain characteristics like their donor engagement history and deliver tailored emails. 
• Staying on top of important campaigns and events: Many nonprofit teams are lean or rely heavily on volunteers. Crafting automated workflows makes it easier to keep up with monthly or seasonal milestones, such as year-end giving campaigns or bi-annual donation reminders, without requiring constant manual attention.
• Supporting multiple campaign objectives: As a nonprofit, you’re not only after donations. Your emails often rotate between volunteer recruiting, raising awareness, sharing community stories, and driving change. Using ready-made nonprofit templates and flexible drag-and-drop builders, email solutions help you design different types of campaigns and customize them to your branding.

How we selected the tools: methodology

To create this guide, we researched and tested top nonprofit email platforms. Our goal was to match different tools with the varied needs and resources of different organizations. 

Rather than focusing only on feature lists, we considered factors that matter most to nonprofit teams: ease of setup, usability, scalability, and value-for-money pricing. We also evaluated how well each tool helps teams manage campaigns while working with limited staff and experience, or tight budgets. We used the same methodology for every tool to ensure consistency.

More specifically, our testing process included:

• Signing up for trial accounts and watching live demos where available.
• Building email campaigns and multi-channel automation workflows for common nonprofit use cases, such as welcome series and event reminders.
• Comparing drag-and-drop builders, automation depth, list-building and management tools, reporting dashboards, and integrations.
• Reviewing industry-specific features, including nonprofit email templates, built-in CRM capabilities, and supporter behavior tracking.
• Analyzing pricing structures, nonprofit discounts, subscriber limits, and feature restrictions across tiers.
• Checking public deliverability reports, using built-in spam testing tools where provided, and sending test emails to different providers, such as Gmail and Outlook.
• Reading user reviews on G2 and Capterra to understand each service’s limitations and usability issues.

We’ve also included Constant Contact in this comparison because it meets the key criteria for email software for nonprofits, such as industry-specific pre-made templates, discount, and beginner-friendly list management and automation.

8 top cheap email marketing software for nonprofits compared

Here, you’ll find a quick overview of the best email marketing software for your organization, including their pricing and strong points. We’ve also included details on the nonprofit discounts available and the plans they apply to.

Best nonprofit email services by use case

Now let’s go through each platform’s pros and cons and highlight the features that stood out during testing. 

1. Constant Contact

Pricing: starts $12/month, 30-day free trial

Nonprofit discount: up to 30% on annual plans

Best for: small and midsize nonprofits looking for user-friendly campaign creation across email, SMS, social media, and events

Constant Contact makes it simple for nonprofits to create and automate their emails. You can quickly set up welcome series, donation thank-you messages, and event reminders, all using a sleek and clean interface.

We selected a pre-made email template to craft a volunteer sign-up campaign. If you have a custom design ready-to-use in Canva, the platform allows you to pull it into your emails through the dedicated integration.

Using the email builder, we dragged and dropped images, videos, and RSVP blocks to see how it works. The “check for errors” feature saved the day before hitting send, flagging mistakes and suggesting ways to refine our email.

The platform’s automation allows you to manage nonprofit newsletters, event communications, and volunteer updates easily. On top of that, the same workflow can combine both email and SMS actions.

To tailor messages for donors, volunteers, and event attendees, you get custom tags and fields to group subscribers. You can set up sign-up forms, landing pages, lead magnets, and ads to attract and capture new contacts. 

What sets Constant Contact apart is  its built-in event marketing functionality that can save you from using extra tools. For example, you can promote fundraising or volunteering events, accept donations, send email invites, or follow-up with surveys to improve community experience.

Key features

• Drag-and-drop editor with impressive email template library
• AI Assistant for campaign creation, content generation, and repurposing
• SMS and social media marketing tools
• List-building tools, such as sign-up forms and lead magnets
• Comprehensive reporting dashboards to monitor key metrics

Pros

• Easy to set up and and manage
• Teams plan for larger nonprofits that want to maintain consistent communications across locations
• Dedicated ChatGPT App to create, modify, and preview emails within app conversations
• Award-winning phone and chat customer support on all paid plans

Cons

• Unlimited workflow templates are saved for Premium plan users
• SMS functionality is currently available only in the US and Australia

Pricing

Constant Contact’s entry-level plan costs $12/month for up to 500 subscribers, offering email templates, social media and event marketing tools, plus basic automation. They also offer a nonprofit discount of up to 30% on annual plans.

Although there’s no free plan, you can test the software’s features through the 30-day free trial.

2. Brevo

Pricing: starts at $9/month, free plan

Nonprofit discount: 20% on every paid plan

Best for: nonprofits that want multi-channel communication through email, SMS, live chat, and phone

Think of one channel you want to reach your community through, and chances are, Brevo has it covered. This well-rounded software is an excellent choice if you want to bring together multiple touchpoints like email, SMS, WhatsApp, and live chat. 

Email creation felt lightweight, with an intuitive editor that let us create and customize a nonprofit campaign in minutes. We loved how easy it was to set up our branding kit to reuse styles in future templates. Dynamic content blocks allowed us to display different volunteer stories or donation details within the same email, depending on recipients’ interests.

Automation is fast to set up, but what stands out is how Brevo extends it beyond email, triggering SMS and WhatsApp messages. This is particularly useful for sharing time-sensitive updates like last-minute local charities.

You also get a straightforward CRM that lets you monitor customer interactions and store donor data without hopping between platforms. There’s also a landing page and sign-up form builder to help you collect new contacts. 

A unique feature is Brevo’s Phone and Meetings options, allowing you to receive and make calls or book meetings to streamline communication with donors and team members. 

Key features

• Multi-channel approach with email, SMS, WhatsApp, and push notifications
• Transactional messaging through email, SMS, and WhatsApp campaigns
• Built-in CRM to keep all customer interactions under one roof
• AI tools for content creation and send time optimization

Pros

• Easy navigation, especially for an all-in-one solution
• Free plan that covers the essentials
• B Corp Certification that reflects the platform’s commitment to ethical responsibility 

Cons

• No A/B testing and landing pages on Free or entry-level tiers
• Automation feels somewhat basic 
• Users must upgrade to Professional to access WhatsApp

Pricing

Brevo’s paid plans start at $9/month with the Starter plan for 500 subscribers and 5,000 emails, including SMS marketing and simple automations. Nonprofits and charities get a 20% discount on paid plans.

The free plan is a good choice if you’re starting out, but keep in mind that you can’t send more than 300 daily emails.

3. Mailchimp

Pricing: starts at $13/month, free plan

Nonprofit discount: 15% off paid plans

Best for: nonprofit organizations in need of multi-step yet flexible automated journeys 

Mailchimp ranks among the top email marketing software options for nonprofits looking to engage donors and volunteers on multiple touchpoints, such as email, SMS, and social media. 

The email editor is easy to work with, and there’s a nice variety of stylish email templates. To add personality to your nonprofit emails, you can enrich them with visuals from Canva, your Instagram account, or stock image sites. 

Automation is where Mailchimp shines, with a visual builder that helps you set up detailed customer journeys. Its large integration ecosystem simplifies connecting apps like your donor tools and event management platforms.

For lead generation, you have landing pages, sign-up forms, and social media ads. We also liked that you could easily create and include surveys  to your emails to gather audience feedback.

Also, some must-have features are saved for paid accounts, so it’s not uncommon to outgrow the free version. This is a pain point we also ran into during testing. 

Key features

• Intuitive automation builder to design detailed customer journeys
• CRM to manage all audience data from a single dashboard
• AI tools to repurpose emails into nonprofit social media posts and SMS
• A/B and multivariate testing

Pros

• Large selection of polished email templates with plenty of customization options
• Brings together marketing and transactional emails, plus SMS and social media
• Advanced segmentation, including tools that help you prioritize contacts based on their engagement

Cons

• No access to fully-designed templates for free users
• Costs increase quickly for nonprofits with advanced automation needs
• Lowest-tier plan users can’t access the platform’s AI features

Pricing

Mailchimp’s Essential plan starts at $13/month for 500 subscribers and up to 5,000 emails. It includes the email builder, segmentation, and list-growth tools but not in-depth reports. As for nonprofit discounts, you’ll get 15% off paid plans, which is lower than those offered by Constant Contact or Brevo.

There’s also a free plan for 250 contacts, but it’s limited even for basic tools, such as pre-made templates.

4. MailerLite

Pricing: $12/month, free version

Nonprofit discount: 30% on all paid plans

Best for: nonprofits looking for beginner-friendly marketing automations without overspending

MailerLite has made a name for itself thanks to its clean interface and ease of use, making it a good fit for nonprofit organizations with small teams that lack technical expertise.

The email builder is packed with design options for tweaking pre-built email templates. We could also save content blocks and import branding assets, two features that helped speed up campaign creation.

MailerLite’s intuitive tools go beyond email, offering a simple builder to create websites or landing pages. If you need to learn more about your audience, the platform also makes it easy to add quizzes and surveys into any page.

Regarding automation, you can set up flows to welcome and thank new donors, re-engage inactive volunteers, or invite subscribers to events. You can grow your contact database using sign-up forms, popups, and landing pages. 

Key features

• Flexible email editor with more than 70 ready-made content blocks
• Blog and website builder
• Landing pages, sign-up forms, and popups to collect email addresses
• Transactional emails and SMS

Pros

• User-friendly navigation
• Unlimited email sends on the top-tier plan
• iPad App to collect contacts in person, for example at community fairs

Cons

• Automation is on the simple side
• Free users only get 14-day email and live chat support
• Transactional messaging is charged separately

Pricing 

Paid plans start at $12/month for 500 contacts, 5,000 emails, landing pages and sign-up forms, and limited automation. Nonprofit organizations also receive a 30% discount.

The platform’s free version lets you send 2,500 monthly emails and use a few basic tools.

5. ActiveCampaign

Pricing: $19/month, 14-day trial

Nonprofit discount: 20% on paid plans

Best for: large nonprofits with multiple programs or advanced nurturing strategies already in place

Next we have Active Campaign, a marketing platform that lets you set almost every supporter action on autopilot. This includes channels like email, SMS, WhatsApp, events, and transactional messages.

The great thing about ActiveCampaign is its advanced AI functionality. Using Active Intelligence, we were able to create an entire campaign, from the email subject line to the CTA. 

ActiveCampaign’s super power is automation. It’s designed for complex marketing and sales automated emails, helping nonprofits manage outreach campaigns and nurture relationships under one roof. 

And this is where the platform’s strength turns into a weakness. The software’s multiple advanced tools come with a steep learning curve. We had trouble mastering key features, which is why we wouldn’t recommend it to nonprofits that want to start sending emails right away.

That said, larger nonprofits can benefit from the platform’s flexible segmentation to build campaigns that guide supporters from the first touchpoint to donation and retention.

Key features

• Multi-channel automation with more than 1,000 ready-made recipes
• Supports nonprofit SMS and WhatsApp marketing campaigns
• Transactional emails
• Predictive sending to reach contacts at the right time based on their engagement patterns

Pros

• Great AI tools to generate an entire campaign across channels
• CRM with advanced tagging and lead scoring 
• Impressive list of integrations 

Cons

• Long setup time and hard-to-master tools
• Inadequate free trial, especially considering the software’s learning curve
• Steep price tag for essential features like advanced segmentation

Pricing

ActiveCampaign’s entry-level plan starts at $19/month, allowing you to have 1,000 contacts and one user. You can use the campaign and automation builder but access to segmentation is restricted. Finally, every nonprofit can claim a 20% discount when signing up for a paid account.

The platform’s 14-day free trial lets you test some key features.

6. Moosend

Pricing: $9/month, 30-day free trial

Nonprofit discount: 25% off paid accounts

Best for: nonprofits that want advanced automation features at an affordable price

Moosend takes an email-first approach, offering powerful features without enterprise-level complexity. It’s a solid email marketing solution for nonprofits with small teams that need to do more with less resources.

The email builder is among the most intuitive we’ve tested. We chose a pre-made newsletter template, dragging and dropping elements like videos and visuals to create our design. 

While testing the platform, we discovered that automation is its strongest point. The visual workflow editor made it easy to craft multi-step workflows based on each subscriber’s email engagement and website behavior. You can also apply conditional if/then logic and use automation recipes for thank-you campaigns, welcome series, and survey emails.

Moosend also helps you send personalized campaigns using dynamic content to reflect unique donor behavior. And you can keep adjusting your strategy by tracking supporter behavior through real-time reports, including click maps and location-specific insights.

Key features

• Drag-and-drop email editor with 130+ email templates
• AI writing assistant for email, landing page, and sign-up form copy
• Transactional emails
• Landing page and subscription form builders
• Spam and A/B testing 

Pros

• Advanced but beginner-friendly automation 
• No email sending limit on all plans, including the free trial
• Flexible pricing with credits for occasional senders

Cons

• Not the best fit if you’re looking for omnichannel campaigns
• Sign-up form and landing page templates look somewhat dated

Pricing

Moosend’s paid plans begin at $9/month, letting you send unlimited emails and use essential tools, such as the email and automation editors, lead generation, and AI product recommendations. For nonprofits, there’s a 25% discount on paid accounts.

The 30-day free trial gives you access to most of the core features. 

7. HubSpot

Pricing: $20/month, free version

Nonprofit discount: 40% on high-tier plans

Best for: larger nonprofits or teams that need alignment between CRM, marketing, and reporting using one dashboard

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing platform that strikes a good balance between ease of use and functionality. Its main strength is that it combines email automation with a built-in CRM. As a result, nonprofit teams can easily track and organize donor interactions across channels and teams.

The email editor is quick to master, although it lacks the customization options and template variety that competing services offer, at least in the free version. It also took some time to load, though this may have been a temporary issue since we only experienced it twice. 

Now, if you’re sending fundraising campaigns, you can collect payments directly from your emails by using the corresponding block. Also, the platform offers translations for default elements, which can be of great help for global nonprofits.

HubSpot’s automation works directly within its CRM. As a result, it automatically updates supporter profiles, triggers follow-ups, and assigns next steps within your workflow. 

Key features

• Omnichannel automation across email, social media, and live chat
• Website and landing page builder
• Email A/B testing
• Google and social media advertising

Pros

• Free tools for sales, marketing, and content management
• User-friendly CRM
• In-depth reporting tracking email, in-app, and sales interactions

Cons

• Gets expensive fast if you want full functionality 
• Users on free and lowest-tier plans can’t access premium email templates or essential features like A/B testing
• Its extensive toolset can be time-consuming for beginners to learn

Pricing

HubSpot’s pricing starts at $20/month with the Starter plan. It allows you to have up to 1,000 subscribers and use forms, simple automation, and CRM segmentation. They also offer a 40% discount for nonprofits on Professional and Enterprise plans.

If you want to test the waters, HubSpot’s free version gives you a good feel for how its basic tools work.

8. GetResponse

Pricing: $19/month, free plan

Nonprofit discount: 50% off paid plans

Best for: nonprofits looking for a broader marketing suite in a single intuitive and cheap tool

GetResponse provides an impressive stack of multi-channel tools. Email, SMS, web push notifications, and paid ads, all work together to help nonprofits engage their audience and boost visibility.

Creating a nonprofit newsletter is as simple as it gets. The drag-and-drop email builder is fast while the template library has a professional-looking design for almost every occasion. To keep your branding consistent across campaigns, the platform lets you save content blocks and use them in future emails.

Automation setup also feels lightweight, covering workflow examples from simple autoresponders to more advanced sequences, such as reminding supporters about an upcoming volunteer event or sending personalized follow-ups to repeat donors after a contribution. 

What this nonprofit email software does well is helping you build end-to-end donor journeys. These can take the form of sign-up flows with free resources to grow your list or webinar promotions to raise awareness of a cause.

The platform also takes care of building your website and landing pages. You can choose between working with ready-made templates or letting AI do the heavy lifting.

Key features

• Flexible and fast email editor 
• Several list-building tools, including landing pages, sign-up forms, popups, and ads
• Full AI functionality for content generation, website building, and course creation
• A/B testing

Pros

• All-in-one solution with email, social media, SMS, and push notifications
• Built-in webinar creation 
• Unlimited emails on all paid plans

Cons

• Restrictive automation on the entry-level plan
• Overkill for smaller nonprofits that want to focus on email marketing

Pricing

Paid plans start at $19/month for 1,000 contacts. With it, you get unlimited emails, lead generation options, but limited automation and advanced segmentation. As a nonprofit, you can have a 50% nonprofit discount, but you have to add their logo on your site to maintain it.

The free version allows you to have 500 contacts and 2,500 monthly emails.

What nonprofits should look for in an email marketing platform

Regardless of your email marketing goals, you should choose an email platform that makes your life easier, without adding unnecessary tasks to your daily workload.

Here are some criteria to help you find the right tool:

• Deliverability: If your email marketing campaigns land in spam folders instead of the inbox, your donation appeals won’t reach your subscribers. Choose a platform with strong deliverability features that also helps users set up authentication, run spam tests, and manage bounces to maintain trust with email clients. 
• Easy campaign creation: For nonprofits with lean teams or minimum marketing experience, the right tool is often the simplest one. Test different platforms to evaluate their setup process and learning curve. Involve team members to ensure everyone can navigate campaign creation and move between features.
• Industry-specific templates: Fundraising appeals, event invites and reminders, thank-you emails, and volunteer signups become a few-minute task when you don’t start from scratch. With relevant, easy-to-customize templates, you’ll spend less time on email design without compromising quality.
• Cost-effectiveness and special discounts: Most nonprofit organizations run on tight budgets. While nonprofit discounts are tempting, this shouldn’t be the only factor in your decision. It’s better to choose a tool based on the features you actually need, rather than paying for extras you’ll never use.
• Segmentation: Proper audience segmentation lets you group subscribers based on shared characteristics to send them relevant emails. You should be able to segment by donor level, volunteer versus donor status, event attendees, and lapsed supporters. Also, if you target people in different regions, maybe it’s best to segment by location as well to invite them to participate in nearby initiatives and communities. 
• Automation: Look for a nonprofit email marketing service with workflow templates for welcome series, donation thank-you messages, event reminders, and re-engagement emails.  Make sure it offers a visual, user-friendly automation builder, so your team can focus on the mission without any friction.
• List-building tools: Your nonprofit email software should help give your cause more visibility. To grow your supporter base, look for tools with options like sign-up forms, landing pages, and ads. Ideally, you’ll also get dedicated builders to create and customize designs.
• Seamless integration: Every audience interaction matters when building relationships with volunteers, donors, and community members. That’s why it’s important to keep data flowing between your email platform, CRM or donor database, and event management tools.
• Comprehensive reporting: Opens and click-through rates, link tracking, and A/B testing should be easy to read in your reporting dashboard. This way, you can see what’s working and make adjustments without needing a data analyst.
• Customer support: When you send important campaigns, for example to raise funds for a cause, you’ll need to get help quickly if something comes up. Look for a platform with responsive support through channels like email, phone, and chat. Clear, detailed help documentation can also make a difference when your team is short on time or expertise. 

Choosing the best email platform is about balancing priorities

Nonprofit email marketing is about relationships rather than transactions, and you need a platform that understands this. Features like automation and AI capabilities should save time without frustrating people who already have a lot on their plates and important missions to accomplish.

If you prioritize intuitive all-in-one solutions, Brevo and Constant Contact are probably the best options. For nonprofits looking for a strong CRM, HubSpot has what it takes to monitor and manage customer data in a single dashboard. Affordability is Moosend’s strong point, while ActiveCampaign is an automation-heavy platform that covers many use cases.

The “best” platform is subjective and depends on your size, strategy, and structure, so it’s best to do your research before choosing. If you’re ready to get started, you can sign up for Constant Contact’s free trial to create your first campaign and check the platform’s effectiveness.

FAQs

Let’s answer some common questions about email software for nonprofits.

1. What is the most user-friendly email solution for nonprofits?

If you’re looking for a tool that’s easy to onboard, MailerLite, Constant Contact, Moosend, and Brevo are great fits. Although some of them offer multi-channel nonprofit marketing features, users can still find their way around quickly and access the resources they need to start reaching their audiences.

2. Can you do email marketing as a nonprofit for free?

You can find email marketing tools with free-forever plans among our top choices. However, most of them limit your access to features, contact storage, or email sends. It’s usually better to sign up for a free trial to test each platform before committing. In the long-term, what matters most is having a flexible tool that can grow alongside your organization so you don’t need to switch tools midway.

3. Do nonprofit email marketing platforms offer AI features?

Yes, most email marketing platforms for nonprofits have built-in AI capabilities to help users create campaigns and target audiences faster and more effectively. Their use ranges from content creation for emails, social media posts, and landing pages to subscriber segmentation and send time optimization.