Best Email Automation Tools for Nonprofits

Best for: Small nonprofits sending a newsletter plus a welcome series

MailerLite is the best starting pick for most nonprofits on this list because its pricing page shows what a growing supporter list costs before you sign up. Comfort is $19 a month at 1,000 subscribers, $49 at 5,000 and $89 at 10,000, and the free plan covers up to 250 subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. A volunteer-run newsletter that adds a welcome series and an event reminder fits inside that without a CRM project.

MailerLite states on its pricing page that its data storage center is in the European Union, that it holds an ISO 27001 certificate and that it has GDPR controls. That is useful for a charity with European donors, though it is a vendor statement and not a compliance guarantee, so read the data processing terms yourself. Keep donation records in your donor database and sync only a donor tag, so the welcome series can skip someone who gave last week.

Best for: Nonprofits with a large list but modest sending volume

Brevo prices by monthly email volume, not by list size, which suits a nonprofit with a big, quiet list. Its pricing help article (help.brevo.com, "About Brevo’s pricing plans") says the free plan allows 300 emails a day and storage for up to 100,000 contacts, and that Starter begins at $9 a month for 5,000 emails with no daily sending limit. One monthly newsletter to 5,000 supporters is 5,000 emails, so that is the entry price; a weekly send to the same list is roughly four times the volume and needs a higher tier.

The free plan caps marketing automation at 2,000 contacts, and Standard, from $18 a month, is where Brevo lists automation, A/B testing and advanced reports, so a welcome series for a larger list means Standard. Brevo also sends transactional mail, which lets you keep donation receipts and event confirmations on a different stream from fundraising appeals. Decide which stream carries which unsubscribe rule before the first send.

Best for: Teams that already know Mailchimp and have a small list

Mailchimp stays on the list because many boards, volunteers and agencies already know its editor. Its Free plan is one audience with up to 250 contacts and 500 sends a month (250 a day), so a real supporter list leaves it quickly. On Standard, the pricing page lists $100 a month for 2,501 to 5,000 contacts and $135 for 5,001 to 10,000, with send allowances of 60,000 and 120,000 emails a month.

The same 5,000 supporters cost $100 here against $49 on MailerLite Comfort, so the case for Mailchimp is familiarity and templates rather than price. Keep subscriber interests separate from donor status in the audience, so an appeal is not treated as a universal message. Test one welcome email, one preference update and one suppression rule for recent donors before importing the whole list.

Best for: CRM-connected supporter and partner workflows

HubSpot is most relevant when email automation has to use a wider CRM record: a supporter relationship, a partner conversation, a volunteer status or a service handoff. Its Marketing Hub pricing page lists Starter at $7 per seat a month, Professional at $800 a month and Enterprise at $3,600 a month, with free marketing tools below that.

The automation row is where small nonprofits get caught. The same page shows 1 automated action on the free tier, up to 10 on Starter, and unlimited actions from Professional. A welcome series with a donor branch, an event reminder and a lapsed-supporter check can pass 10 actions, so either price the $800 tier or build those journeys elsewhere. Free tools are not a free end-to-end marketing operation, and CRM field ownership and consent rules need to be written down first.

Best for: Branching lifecycle and engagement journeys

ActiveCampaign is a fit for a nonprofit with a defined lifecycle model: new subscriber, engaged supporter, event registrant, volunteer, donor, and lapsed contact. Branches can be useful when the next message depends on a preference or observed interaction, provided the organization can explain each rule.

ActiveCampaign's pricing page limits Starter to 1 user and 5 actions per automation, so a long branching donor journey runs into that cap; Plus starts at $49 a month at 1,000 contacts. Start with one three-branch journey and require a written entry condition, exit condition, owner and fallback message. If staff cannot review the logic quarterly, the extra flexibility may not be worth the operational cost.

Best for: Creator-led nonprofits and editorial programs

ConvertKit can serve a nonprofit built around a founder, educator, publication, or recurring editorial voice. Tags and sequences can organize a welcome path, a resource series, or a volunteer interest track without forcing every supporter into the same appeal calendar.

ConvertKit is now called Kit; the entry keeps the old name because many nonprofit tutorials still use it. Kit's Free plan covers forms, landing pages, broadcasts and tagging for up to 10,000 subscribers, but Visual Automations and sequences start on Creator, so a welcome sequence for 5,000 supporters is $75 a month. It is less compelling when finance, case management or a formal donor CRM must be the system of record. Pilot one content-led sequence with a clear consent statement and a handoff for people who become donors or ask for support.

Best for: Event, webinar, and nurture programs

GetResponse is worth considering when event registration and post-event nurture are central to the program. A nonprofit could use a registration path, attendance-based follow-up, and a resource sequence, but should keep event facts and donor claims sourced from the operational system.

On GetResponse's pricing page, Starter at $19 a month includes welcome series but only 1 automation workflow, and unlimited workflows begin on Marketer at $59. The Creator plan at $69 adds webinars, so a charity that hosts its own talks can keep registration and follow-up in one place. A sensible first event has two outcomes, attended and did not attend, and a stop rule after the final follow-up. Review accessibility, consent and data deletion before making it a repeatable event engine.

Best for: Behavioral journeys for fundraising or membership commerce

Drip is most relevant to nonprofits with a meaningful membership, shop, ticketing, or recurring-supporter behavior model. Its event-based approach can help distinguish browsing, registration, purchase, and repeat engagement, but those events must be defined consistently before messages are built.

A commerce workflow is not the same as a charitable donor journey. Drip's pricing page says cost follows the number of active people and the emails you send each month, starting at $39 for the first 2,500 people. MailerLite's $49 Comfort tier already covers up to 5,000 subscribers, so the extra spend only pays off if shop or ticket events really drive your messages. Pilot one behavioral branch that offers a useful service or education message, and never make an appeal depend on an ambiguous event.

Best for: Commerce-led nonprofits and supporter stores

Klaviyo can make sense for a nonprofit that operates a store, paid membership, ticketing program, or other commerce-like supporter experience. It is better evaluated on whether its event data improves service and retention than on generic claims about fundraising performance.

Klaviyo bills by profile, and its pricing page lists email at $30 a month for 1,000 profiles, $100 for 5,000 and $150 for 10,000, which is about double MailerLite at the 5,000 mark. Keep donation records and marketing profiles apart, then test a post-purchase or post-registration education flow with a documented suppression rule for people who should not receive another ask.

Best for: Product and service journeys with event data

Customer.io is a strong candidate when a nonprofit has a digital service, member portal, app, or structured event stream. It can coordinate email with product behavior, but the organization must first decide which events are meaningful, durable, and safe to use for communication.

Customer.io bills on profiles: Essentials is $100 a month for 5k profiles and $145 for 10k, and its docs say a profile that exists at any point in a billing month counts even if you delete it later. Start with a small event dictionary and a single service journey, not a full donor migration. Record event ownership, retention, consent and the conditions that remove someone from the journey.

Best for: Small organizations needing CRM and follow-up together

Keap is worth a look for a small organization that manages sponsorships, memberships, consultations, or other relationship-heavy work alongside email. Its usefulness depends on whether the team wants one operational workspace and can keep relationship notes, consent, and campaign audiences properly distinguished.

Keap's pricing page shows one all-features platform price, $299 a month at 1,500 contacts with two users, rising to $449 at 5,000 and $539 at 10,000, plus $39 a month for each extra user. It also says implementation services are required and does not list their price, so the real first-year cost has to come from a quote, and annual contracts carry a $299 early termination fee. That is several times the cost of MailerLite for a newsletter-only charity. Pilot one partner or membership follow-up with manual approval before any automated ask.

Best for: Nonprofit shops, memberships, and ticketing

Omnisend is a niche choice for a nonprofit with a real catalog, store, ticketing flow, or membership checkout. It can support post-purchase education and service reminders, but a nonprofit should avoid copying retail urgency patterns into sensitive fundraising communication.

Omnisend's pricing page lists Free at 250 contacts and 500 emails a month, and says you are billed for subscribers and non-subscribers who received automated messages, while unsubscribed contacts are not billed. A pilot should use one completed transaction or registration as the trigger, one helpful follow-up, and one exclusion for refunds, cancellations or support cases. Judge the tool on operational clarity, not on retail benchmark claims.

Best for: Developer-led transactional and programmatic email

SendGrid is appropriate when engineers need reliable programmatic delivery for confirmations, receipts, reminders, or service notifications. It should not automatically become the place where fundraising audiences are improvised; transactional delivery and marketing consent need different owners and controls.

SendGrid sells two products under one name. The Email API page lists a free trial of 100 emails a day for 60 days, with Essentials from $19.95 and Pro from $89.95 a month, while Marketing Campaigns is priced separately with a free plan for up to 2,000 contacts and 6,000 emails a month. Pilot one low-risk transactional template, test authentication and unsubscribe behavior where it applies, and document which system owns preferences. Judge deliverability from your own sends rather than promising an inbox outcome.