Nonprofit software evaluation: 25 essential questions to ask

Selecting the right technology to support your nonprofit mission and team is a big decision.

The key? Asking the right questions.

Whether choosing nonprofit software for the first time or rethinking your current provider, this list is a great place to start.

What types of questions to ask during your nonprofit software evaluation

We’ve organized our suggested questions into two categories to help you get the full picture when choosing a fundraising solution:

• Technical questions explore what the platform can do: its features, functionality, and support.
• Holistic questions help you determine whether the vendor’s values and approach align with your organization, enabling you to find a true partner.

15 technical questions to ask a potential nonprofit technology vendor

1. What types of organizations are most successful using your solution?

What to listen for:

Concrete examples and proof points that show the platform’s impact. Key details include:

• The range and types of organizations currently using the solution
• How each organization has grown its donor base and donation volume
• Total donation volume year over year or on peak fundraising days, like Giving Tuesday
• The average size of organizations that see the most success with the platform

2. Is there a limit to how many campaigns I can create?

What to listen for:

The potential to create an unlimited number of campaigns and campaign types.

Also, pay attention to tools that make campaign management easy as your organization grows, including:

• Branding control with customizable, no-code options
• Ready-to-use, customizable campaign templates
• AI-powered tools that intelligently optimize campaigns based on the goals you set
• Peer-to-peer solutions that empower your community to help build your brand

3. How quickly can I spin up a quality campaign to respond to current events or unexpected needs?

What to listen for:

Tangible examples of campaigns launched quickly.

Ask about organizations that launched campaigns in response to recent world events or other timely emergencies. Some specific examples to ask about would be:

• Campaigns built to respond to timely crises or news events, like Hurricanes Helene and Milton
• Proven successes with rapid response campaigns, like All Hands and Hearts

Campaign templates let you skip the setup and get campaigns live in no time. Backed by data and insights from our 200M-strong community, GoFundMe Pro’s campaign templates are ready for you to personalize and launch.

4. How does your platform fuel donor acquisition?

What to listen for:

Storytelling, branding, and discoverability tools that help donors find, trust, and engage with your cause.

In today’s noisy, fragmented fundraising landscape, your technology needs to help you show up wherever your supporters are. Donors should be able to take action, strengthen your brand, and deepen long-term relationships, all without adding complexity to your workload.

Key tools and capabilities to look for:

• Peer-to-peer fundraising: Give donors more ways to engage on channels they already use and connect with each other
• Built-in social sharing: Make it easy for supporters to amplify your campaigns
• Full fundraising suite: Support multiple campaign types, from direct giving, crowdfunding, and events to recurring programs
• Donation page templates: Launch faster with pages built on insights from deep donor data

5. Which payment options do you offer?

What to listen for:

A clear understanding and investment in the payment options that people prefer, including:

• Credit cards
• Digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, and more)
• PayPal
• Venmo
• ACH

Ask how each payment option performs on mobile. With 45% of online donations made on mobile devices in 2024, the experience matters.

Discuss which ones are most popular and how nonprofits have successfully used them. It’s an added bonus if the platform leverages AI-assisted auto-retry logic to improve acceptance rates for credit card and ACH payments.

6. Does everything operate seamlessly on a mobile device?

What to listen for:

A solution optimized for mobile at every stage of the donation process, including:

• One-click mobile payment options with digital wallets
• Campaign pages that look and function beautifully on any device
• Donation forms that are easy to complete on a phone or tablet
• Embedded checkout from your website for easy giving on any screen
• Simple social media sharing for mobile feeds
• Fundraising event software with a mobile app to check in event attendees
• Nonprofit auction software with mobile bidding

7. How do you use AI and machine learning to fuel more fundraising?

What to listen for:

The responsible use of machine learning and AI to streamline donor experiences and back-end operations—boosting conversions, building trust, increasing revenue, and improving efficiency and decision-making.

Ask about the scale and quality of data powering their AI, as AI is only as effective as the data behind it. The most powerful fundraising AI is trained on large, diverse datasets comprising millions of sessions and billions of dollars in donations. This breadth and depth allow it to accurately optimize ask amounts, personalize outreach, and drive measurable results.

Also, consider transparency and ethical use: The platform should share findings and methodologies to reinforce donor trust and ensure responsible data use.

Examples of intelligence to inquire about include:

• Personalized ask amounts for every donor who lands on your donation forms
• AI designed to optimize your campaigns for the goals you’ve defined, whether that’s recurring gifts, one-time donations, or conversions
• Built-in, data-backed guidance when launching campaigns

8. What’s the typical process and timeline for fully adopting your solution?

What to listen for:

Clear expectations around the time commitment and level of support your team will receive during and after onboarding.

Ask whether dedicated staff will guide you through key areas, such as:

• Customizing campaigns and fundraising workflows
• Migrating donor data
• Providing post-implementation support to continue learning how to maximize the platform
• Ongoing education through trainings, blogs, resources, and industry reports that introduce innovative approaches to using the solution
• Offering opportunities to influence product development and network with like-minded professionals across the social sector at industry events

It’s also critical to understand how long it typically takes organizations to see results on their platform. By choosing GoFundMe Pro, you’re choosing fast results.

We know that learning new software can take time, but that doesn’t mean you should have to wait to see value. That’s why we’ve created a simple, streamlined action plan to help you launch within your first week.

9. How well does the platform handle multiple admins, and how does it support roles across fundraising teams?

What to listen for:

A clear answer to how many users can access the solution at once.

Ask more about the value each team member can gain from working together on the solution regularly. Here are a few features to consider:

• In-depth metrics for development and fundraising roles
• Customer relationship management (CRM) integrations for database owners
• Customized campaign design and branding for marketing and design roles
• Donation management and analytics for direct service roles
• Performance, security, and integrations for information technology roles
• Payment reconciliation and fraud protection for finance roles

Fraud protection is crucial to the entire organization, especially for finance teams. Secure transactions build trust, prevent costly chargebacks, and improve the donor experience, which supports acquisition and retention.

Ask specifically about intelligence tools that can detect and prevent fraudulent payments before they happen, such as GoFundMe Pro’s AI-powered fraud protection.

10. Does your platform currently integrate with other solutions my organization may use?

What to listen for:

Your fundraising platform shouldn’t operate in isolation. The right solution integrates seamlessly with the tools your team already uses and provides an API for your custom needs, ensuring data consistency, accurate reporting, and minimizing manual work-arounds.

Be sure to ask whether a professional services team is available to help configure customizations as needed. This ensures your integrations are set up correctly, scale with your organization, and don’t create extra manual work for your team over time.

We recommend asking specifically about integrations with tools your team uses every day, such as:

• Marketing tools, such as email platforms, to deliver timely, personalized donor communications
• CRM systems, like Salesforce, to keep donor data accurate and up to date
• Analytics and reporting tools, like Google Analytics, to better understand campaign performance
• Giving-related solutions, such as donation matching or Facebook fundraising, to expand reach and impact
• Event tools, including mobile apps and activity tracking, to engage supporters and gamify participation
• Partner agencies and services that support rebrands, custom integrations, or campaign design
• Automation tools, like Zapier, to connect your fundraising platform with thousands of other apps and automate tasks, such as syncing donor data, triggering emails, or updating internal systems without custom development

11. What types of campaigns can I run?

What to listen for:

A clear list of supported campaign types and an explanation of how and why the platform powers each one effectively. Pay attention to whether you can customize campaigns to reflect your brand, which is essential for building trust with donors and fostering lasting relationships.

Also, ask about reporting. A strong platform should provide a 360-degree view of your marketing and fundraising performance, offering insights that guide a successful campaign. Confirm that you can access data at the campaign, supporter, and transaction levels, so you understand what works and where to make improvements.

Here are a few campaign types to ask about specifically:

• Website donations
• Targeted appeals to certain demographics
• Giving-day campaigns
• Crowdfunding campaigns
• Peer-to-peer fundraising
• Fundraising events and ticketing
• Virtual and hybrid events
• Recurring giving

12. What tools are available to start and/or grow our recurring giving program?

What to listen for:

Investment in donor insights and trends around recurring giving, so your nonprofit stays ahead and maximizes revenue from this key channel.

Check whether the provider offers organizations hands-on support when creating and managing recurring gift programs. The following aspects are great talking points:

• AI-optimized ask amounts that fuel stronger recurring conversion rates, like Intelligent Ask Amounts that increase recurring conversion rates by more than 5%, on average
• Recurring donor migration processes
• $0 recurring extraction fees
• Churn prevention tools, like built-in reporting and donation management
• Recurring donation frequencies and end dates
• Built-in tools to optimize and retain recurring donations
• Donor data management and intelligence to identify potential recurring donors

13. How does your platform help activate donors and boost giving?

What to listen for:

Ways for people to engage with or tell your story in their words, through the channels and moments that feel most authentic to them.

More specifically, you might ask about:

• Branded crowdfunding campaigns that help you tell your story and activate around a timely need
• Peer-to-peer fundraising motions that enable your community to build your brand
• Activity feeds that demonstrate social proof, inspiring others to participate
• Progress bars that motivate donors to help you reach your goals faster
• Sponsor matches that drive bigger gifts and amplify donor impact
• Ability to make multiple gifts in one streamlined checkout experience with a tool like Giving Cart
• AI-powered ask amounts that predict what a donor is likely to give and tailor the ask to them

14. How do you support in-person and virtual events?

What to listen for:

A robust fundraising event software that considers the needs of in-person, online, and hybrid event attendees, as well as the needs of your team, while scaling your events. Here are some aspects to consider:

• Day-of-event support
• Streamlined registration
• Sponsors and expo management
• Auctions and mobile bidding
• Self-checkout for auction items
• Native and third-party live-streaming, stages, and breakout rooms
• Fundraising opportunities (like fixed-priced item sales and in-event giving)
• Fundraising thermometers and digital displays
• Event messaging and reminders
• Virtual tables and rooms, speed networking, chats, polls, and Q&A sessions

15. Are there self-serve tools that empower donors to manage their gifts?

What to listen for:

A branded donor dashboard that empowers supporters to take charge of how they give and engage, without needing extra support.

A self-serve experience can reduce administrative effort for nonprofits by giving donors the power to:

Manage recurring donations by pausing, reactivating, or canceling their plans
Manage their fundraising pages and spread the word to their community
Update payment methods at any time
Access donation receipts and details

10 additional holistic questions to ask a fundraising vendor

Your mission, values, and intuition will be the best guides for the following questions. Consider adding these to your evaluation once you’ve narrowed down potential fundraising software providers.

1. What are your company’s short and long-term visions?
2. What’s ahead on your company’s roadmap?
3. How have you established yourself as a leader in the social sector, while innovating for the future of fundraising?
4. How do you invest in your customers to ensure they’re successful?
5. What’s your process for testing and implementing improvements to your platform, such as ongoing conversion optimization?
6. What, beyond the products, makes your company stand out in the market?
7. Which core customer metrics guide your decisions as a fundraising software provider?
8. What do you envision the future of giving to be, and how are you working to support organizations like mine in preparing for it?
9. How do you select your leadership, and what values do your leaders hold when making decisions that impact customers?
10. How does your organization implement customer feedback?

We’re here to help

The right questions help you focus on what matters in a fundraising software discussion. While pricing and plans are key, knowing the value you’ll receive helps you make smarter decisions.

Curious how GoFundMe Pro could work for your nonprofit? Request a demo to see the platform in action and explore how it can support your fundraising efforts.

Copy editor: Ayanna Julien