12+ Best School Fundraising Platforms to Help Match Gifts
School fundraising platforms can drastically simplify and amplify the fundraising process for all types of schools—from kindergarten classes to Ivy League universities. But with so many software providers to choose from, how can you be sure you’re making the right decision?
As you explore various fundraising platforms in search of the perfect solution for your school, be sure to keep the following critical functions in mind: gift collection and processing, communication abilities, donor management, reporting and goal tracking, and more.
Let’s jump in with this alphabetized list of our favorite school-specific solutions!
Almabase
Standout School Fundraising Features
Almabase is a comprehensive alumni management software designed for high schools, colleges, and universities to enhance their relationships with students upon leaving the school.
Since alumni are often the biggest financial supporters of educational institutions, Almabase provides schools with the fundraising tools they need for success. Here are a few of their key features:
- Annual fund management that drives increased alumni participation
- Crowdfunding software to leverage the power of social fundraising and social proof
- Fundraising event management to ensure engaging and profitable events both in-person and online
They also offer advancement services that can provide schools with a complete fundraising database and increasingly efficient processes through turnkey integrations.
Matching Gift Functionality
Almabase allows clients to leverage matching gifts through a native integration with the industry-leading matching gift automation software, 360MatchPro. With 360MatchPro by Double the Donation, fundraisers can easily embed a searchable company database into their online donation confirmation screens!
AlumnIQ
Standout School Fundraising Features
AlumnIQ is a fantastic platform for engaging with alumni in a variety of ways, from volunteering to giving to networking. As far as their fundraising tools go, AlumnIQ offers:
- Easy online donation and volunteer sign-up forms to provide a simplified user experience
- Improved donor communication through powerful segmented email marketing
- Detailed reporting and intelligent, data-driven fundraising recommendations
If you’re looking to raise money for a college or university, AlumnIQ might be the perfect fit! This fundraising platform exclusively caters to higher ed institutions, meaning the solution will be carefully crafted to meet the needs of schools like yours.
Matching Gift Functionality
AlumnIQ incorporates matching gift fundraising by working with Double the Donation. This way, they can provide donors with access to a searchable company database as well as employer-specific program guidelines and next steps on the donation form and confirmation page, respectively.
Anthology
Standout School Fundraising Features
Anthology, previously known as iModules, is an innovative higher ed technology solution with tools for enrollment, student success, alumni management, and, of course, fundraising. With Anthology Encompass, a comprehensive constituent engagement tool, users can:
- Manage a range of fundraising initiatives including giving days, multi-year fundraisers, and crowdfunding campaigns
- Personalize supporter outreach with an all-in-one online engagement tool
- Track and leverage engagement analytics to drive future fundraising efforts in the right direction
This provider also offers Anthology Raise, which is a next-generation advancement CRM that can help automate workflows to save time and raise money for your school while enhancing the supporter experience.
Matching Gift Functionality
Anthology recognizes the power of matching gifts and has partnered with Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro to automate the process from beginning to end. During the donation process, donors will be prompted to enter their employer’s information. Upon submitting their gift, they’ll be provided with matching gift eligibility guidelines for the company they selected in the previous step.
Blackbaud
Standout School Fundraising Features
Blackbaud is one of the biggest names in the nonprofit sector, providing charities, schools, foundations, religious organizations, and more with powerful fundraising tools for success. Here are a few of the most noteworthy features from Blackbaud:
- Data-driven donor insights including demographics, behaviors, lifestyles, and more
- Enhanced and intuitive reporting processes to accurately showcase your school’s fundraising progress
- Peer-to-peer fundraising tools that make giving as easy as possible
Depending on your fundraising needs, Blackbaud offers a number of innovative solutions for K-12 schools and higher ed institutions alike.
Matching Gift Functionality
If you’re interested in corporate matching gifts, Blackbaud makes the process easy thanks to their partnership with Double the Donation. 360MatchPro by Double the Donation can integrate directly into Blackbaud’s CRM and online giving forms, allowing schools and other fundraising groups to collect these bonus donations without complicating the process for fundraisers or donors.
Booster
Standout School Fundraising Features
Booster is a school fundraising software that specializes in pledge-style fundraising events at a wide range of K-12 institutions. Here’s what this unique fundraising platform can offer to schools like yours:
- Fun runs and dance fit event finales that are exciting to participate in and support
- An online fundraising site to collect pledged gifts after the conclusion of the event
- Expert campaign consultants and on-campus support teams to assist in your school’s fundraising efforts
Plus, Booster knows that the fundraising event landscape is changing. That’s why they offer a combination of virtual, on-campus, and hybrid fundraising experiences to meet those evolving needs.
Matching Gift Functionality
Booster helps its clients make the most of matching gifts thanks to a thoughtful partnership with Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro. This integration automates the matching gift process from beginning to end, allowing school fundraisers to double gifts without having to invest the time and resources to do so themselves!
Community Funded
Standout School Fundraising Features
Community Funded is a fantastic fundraising platform that works with education, healthcare, and nonprofit organizations to create powerful campaigns in mere minutes. Here are a few of their most prominent features:
- Easy gift processing thanks to seamless integrations with multiple payment processors
- Gamified fundraising campaigns using friendly competition, challenges, progress trackers, and more
- Peer-to-peer functionality that equips students and other supporters to take on a fundraising role for your school
Thanks to these features and more, the Community Funded platform has collected more than $250 million for hundreds of organizations like K-12 schools and higher ed institutions.
Matching Gift Functionality
Raise more with Community Funded by prioritizing matching gifts. With Community Funded’s matching gift partnership with Double the Donation, fundraisers can easily integrate a comprehensive matching gift search plugin within the donation process and confirmation screen.
Custom Donations
Standout School Fundraising Features
Custom Donations is a school fundraising platform that allows fundraisers to get started with just a Stripe account and an SSL certificate. Then, they can begin raising money effectively by incorporating custom giving forms into existing school websites. Consider the following powerful features:
- Easy drag-and-drop interface that makes launching a fundraising campaign simple and code-free
- In-person transaction processing through swipe cards, chip cards, tap-to-pay, and mobile wallets
- Automated gift receipting and thank-you messaging to ensure donors are followed up within a timely manner
Plus, Custom Donations offers an effortless way for donors to cover any transaction, payment, or platform fees (which over 80% of donors opt to do!). This way, your school will receive 100% of these donations to put towards your fundraising needs.
Matching Gift Functionality
By partnering with 360MatchPro by Double the Donation, Custom Donations is able to provide its customers with access to the industry-leading matching gift automation software! Once activated, your donation forms and confirmation screens can incorporate Double the Donation’s streamlined matching gift plugin and search field.
Ellucian
Standout School Fundraising Features
Ellucian is a “campus technology solution” that specializes in providing higher-ed institutions with the tools they need for fundraising and advancement, alumni relations, and other day-to-day operations. Let’s take a look at what Ellucian can offer:
- Personalized and engaging donor experiences for college and university supporters
- Holistic views at fundraising effectiveness and constituent engagement strategies
- Donor lifecycle management complete with intuitive data sharing, easy-to-read dashboards, and configurable reports
As a cloud-based solution, Ellucian allows its clients to manage every aspect of their fundraising and data management with ease while using collected insights to improve campaigning efforts.
Matching Gift Functionality
Ellucian is a great choice if you’re looking to incorporate matching gifts into your overall fundraising strategy. With help from Double the Donation and a native integration with their matching gift automation tool, 360MatchPro, Ellucian customers can easily embed a matching gift search field and company plugin into their donation processes.
GiveCampus
Standout School Fundraising Features
GiveCampus is a comprehensive school fundraising platform that works with K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. Check out a few of their most critical features:
- Social fundraising platform with gamification and peer-to-peer sharing abilities
- Prospect research technology to assist with identifying, cultivating, and stewarding major donors
- Pre-filled giving forms that can better target alumni and other donor groups
Depending on your school’s needs, GiveCampus offers solutions for Giving Days, volunteer programs, alumni relations, crowdfunding, and more.
Matching Gift Functionality
GiveCampus can be a huge help for boosting corporate matching gifts thanks to their partnership with top matching gift software provider, Double the Donation. With Double the Donation’s flagship automation tool, 360MatchPro, GiveCampus users are able to incorporate matching gift fundraising with ease.
Salesforce
Standout School Fundraising Features
Salesforce is one of the most popular CRM solutions for businesses, nonprofits, and schools alike. They even offer a specially-built Education Cloud option for K-12 schools and higher ed institutions. Here are a few key features that Salesforce offers:
- Marketing and communications tools for reaching students, families, and donors in the most effective ways possible
- Grants management to help identify opportunities, simplify applications, track funding, and report back to grantors
- Detailed fundraising data management to track progress toward goals, measure ROI, and inform future strategies
Plus, Salesforce offers thousands of add-ons through technology integrations available on their AppExchange marketplace for things like finance, fundraising, marketing, analytics, and more.
Matching Gift Functionality
Match gifts with Salesforce using their native integration with Double the Donation’s automation software, 360MatchPro (which is available on the Salesforce AppExchange!). As the industry-leading provider of matching gift software, 360MatchPro ensures your donor data is going to good use, scanning givers for match-eligibility indicators and streamlining outreach processes.
UC Innovation
Standout School Fundraising Features
UC Innovation is an all-in-one solution for school fundraising and constituent relationship management built on popular nonprofit CRM, Salesforce. Their platform, ascend, can help higher ed and nonprofit clients boost their fundraising with the following features:
- Effective supporter management with a complete look at the donor lifecycle from start to finish
- Relationship tracking that explores various relationships between constituents, organizations, and households
- Gift processing for outright and directed gifts, long-term pledges, and recurring donations
The UC Innovation team also prides itself on its ability to continually refine their product, ensuring the platform is always up to par with industry standards and going above and beyond customer expectations.
Matching Gift Functionality
UC Innovation incorporates matching gift functionality in their school fundraising platform through an integration with Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro. Donation data simply flows from the UC Innovation platform into 360MatchPro, where match-eligible donors are identified and followed up with automatically.
Wilson-Bennett Technology
Standout School Fundraising Features
Wilson-Bennett Technology, Inc. is a school fundraising platform that specializes in cost-effective and profitable digital engagement and phonathon management services. WBT’s unique offerings stand out from the crowd with the following key features:
- Year-round or short-term onsite calling programs run by a WBT manager and leveraging students as callers
- Offsite calling programs staffed by professional WBT callers
- Innovative calling software, Donor Connect, to communicate with donors via phone calls, two-way texting, video messaging, voicemail dropping, and emailing
WBT can also offer schools a variety of additional services including enrollment management, survey-collecting, and annual fund consulting to get their campaigns set up for success.
Matching Gift Functionality
Don’t miss out on available corporate matches when you leverage Wilson-Bennett’s integration with Double the Donation. As callers speak with donors, they’ll simply ask for employer information which is scanned against the Double the Donation database. If the donor is eligible for a match, relevant guidelines will be relayed over the phone as well as in a follow-up email.
Visit Wilson-Bennett Technology
What’s Next?
Choose your platform and start fundraising! Once you’ve selected the right school fundraising software for your needs, you’re ready to begin raising money for your education needs. Good luck!
Discover more than 145 fantastic fundraising ideas for any school or institution from Double the Donation at https://doublethedonation.com/tips/fundraising-ideas/.
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