Salesforce Nonprofit Alternative
Looking for a Salesforce Nonprofit alternative? Communal provides purpose-built nonprofit features without the CRM complexity—ready to use out of the box.
Key Differences of Salesforce Nonprofit vs Communal
Purpose-Built, Not Customized
Skip months of customization. Communal is built specifically for nonprofits with features that work out of the box.
No Training Required
An intuitive interface your team can use immediately—no Salesforce admin needed, no training courses required.
Built for Community Orgs
Features designed for community associations and recreation centers, not adapted from enterprise sales software.
Salesforce Nonprofit Pros & Cons
Salesforce Nonprofit Strengths
- Highly customizable platform
- Powerful reporting and dashboards
- Large app ecosystem
- Strong donor and constituent management
- Nonprofit Success Pack available
Salesforce Nonprofit Limitations
- Requires significant customization
- Needs dedicated admin or consultant
- Steep learning curve
- No native facility booking
- No built-in volunteer scheduling
Why Communal
Works out of the box
No consultants, no customization, no months of setup. Communal is purpose-built for nonprofits and ready to use immediately.
- Pre-built nonprofit features
- Intuitive interface
- Fast implementation
- No admin needed
- Immediate value
Designed for your needs
While Salesforce requires extensive customization for nonprofit use, Communal is built specifically for community associations, recreation centers, and nonprofits.
- Purpose-built features
- Volunteer-friendly design
- Facility management included
- Program registration built-in
- All-in-one platform
Detailed Feature Comparison
| Feature | Communal | Salesforce Nonprofit |
|---|---|---|
| Memberships | ||
| Membership types | ? | |
| Digital membership cards | ||
| Auto-renewals | ? | |
| Member portal | ? | |
| Donations & CRM | ||
| Donor CRM | ||
| Online donations | ||
| Tax receipting | ? | |
| Fundraising | ||
| Facilities | ||
| Facility booking | ||
| Rental agreements | ||
| Deposit tracking | ||
| Volunteers | ||
| Volunteer scheduling | ||
| Hour tracking | ? | |
| Volunteer discounts | ||
| Events | ||
| Event registration | ? | |
| Program sessions | ||
| Member pricing | ? | |
| Other Features | ||
| Works out of the box | ||
| No admin required | ||
| Unlimited admin accounts | ||
See How Communal Works for Your Organization
Get a personalized walkthrough of the features that matter most to you. We'll answer your questions and help you understand if Communal is the right fit.
Most demos are scheduled within 24 hours
Powering 500+ community organizations
We love hearing from our customers and are proud to have helped 500+ organizations drive more impact and grow their communities.
We are finally able to communicate with our members, run booking software and a program payment platform all in one application. The cost to our Community is very reasonable and the team is fantastic to work with.
My experience with the software and the team has been overwhelmingly positive. We switched from another provider and the difference was night-and-day!
Revenue from membership sales and renewals increased, and we save a significant amount of staff time and paperwork. The customer service is outstanding and the team at Communal continues to add helpful features.
Frequently asked questions
Salesforce requires extensive customization, third-party apps, and often a dedicated admin to function as nonprofit software. Communal is built specifically for nonprofits with features that work immediately—no consultants, no configuration projects, no ongoing customization costs. You get a solution designed for your needs, not adapted from enterprise sales software.
No! Communal is designed for nonprofit staff and volunteers, not technical administrators. Our intuitive interface means anyone can manage memberships, donations, events, and facilities without specialized training. There's no SOQL queries, no workflow rules to configure, and no AppExchange apps to evaluate.
Communal includes facility booking, volunteer scheduling with hour tracking, membership management with digital cards, and program registration—all native features. With Salesforce, these would require separate apps, integrations, and additional costs.
While Salesforce offers nonprofit discounts, the true cost includes implementation consultants, ongoing admin support, third-party apps, and training. Communal's transparent pricing includes all features with no per-user fees for admins. Most organizations find Communal significantly more affordable when factoring in all costs. See our pricing page for details.
Yes! These are native Communal features that Salesforce lacks entirely. Our facility management includes online booking calendars, rental agreements, deposit collection, and member pricing. Volunteer management offers shift scheduling, hour tracking, and even volunteer discounts for events—all without third-party integrations.
Salesforce implementations typically take months and require consultants. Communal gets you live in 2-4 weeks with full migration support. Since our features work out of the box, there's no configuration phase—just import your data, train your team, and start using the platform.
Your data is stored in a secure database that is not accessible to anyone. Users' credit card information is not stored on our platform. We utilize Stripe to process payments, learn more about how they store their data here.
You can! Our team is happy to help migrate data from an excel spreadsheet or an existing platform you utilize today. Contact us for more questions.
Communal directly deposits into your bank account. We do not hold any funds on our platform.
Yes, Communal is fully PCI-DSS compliant as we partner with Stripe as our payment processor. Stripe has been audited by an independent PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) and is certified as a PCI Level 1 Service Provider. Communal does not have access to see or store any credit card data as all transactions are sent directly to Stripe.