Donor Management Software
Donations come in by e-transfer, card, and cheque, and every receipt is typed by hand in January. Communal takes the gift online, receipts it the same minute, and keeps the donor's history on one record.
- A donation page for every campaign, with a goal on it
- An official tax receipt emailed with every gift, in Canada or the US
- Donors can cover the processing fee at checkout
- Every gift on one donor record, next to their membership and volunteering
Powering 500+ community organizations
Card in, receipt out, no retyping
Receipting season should not take a week
- Gifts arrive by cheque, e-transfer, and card, and someone matches them by hand
- Receipts are built one at a time from a template in January
- Nobody can say what a campaign raised without adding up a spreadsheet
Every gift is receipted and on the record the minute it lands
- Donors give from your campaign page by card
- The receipt goes out by email as the payment clears
- The campaign total is on the screen, not in a formula
One checkbox at checkout
Online Donation Forms Donors Finish
- Suggested amounts, or any amount the donor types in
- Donors cover the processing fee with one checkbox
- Card payments through Stripe, paid out to your bank
- A comment box, so a dedication arrives with the gift
More on donation forms that convert.
The moment the gift lands
Tax Receipts Sent the Moment a Donation Lands
- CRA receipts for Canadian charities, IRS receipts for US 501(c)(3)s
- Your registration number, logo, and signature on every receipt
- Resend or download any receipt from the donation record
- Cash and cheque gifts recorded and receipted too
More on automatic tax receipts, and on the receipting guide.
Every gift, tagged and receipted
Every Gift on One Donor Record
- Giving history sitting next to membership and volunteer hours
- Tags for the campaign or the fund a gift belongs to
- Personal and corporate gifts told apart
- Filter by campaign or tag, with a running total
Donors who also volunteer are covered on the donor and volunteer management page.
Tracking Donations for the Treasurer and the Board
The question at every board meeting is what the appeal has raised so far. In Communal that is a filter on the donations list, which keeps a running total for whatever campaign or tag you pick. Card gifts also sit in the transactions export the treasurer already reconciles against the bank.
- A running total for any campaign or tag on the donations list
- Cheque gifts recorded with the cheque number and date received
- Donations counted, gross and net, in the daily report
- Card gifts in the transactions export, gross and net
The fundraising reporting guide covers which numbers belong in the board pack.
Donation Pages for Campaigns and Appeals
A roof appeal and a garden build are two different asks, and they should not share one donate button. Give each campaign its own page with its own goal, and every gift made there is linked to it without anyone sorting the list afterwards.
- A page per campaign with its own goal bar
- One link to share by email and on social
- Gifts linked to the campaign automatically
- Tax receipts on or off for each campaign, and the page closed when the appeal ends
Raising for a plot build or a season of programming? See community garden software and nonprofit membership software.
Donor Management Software vs Spreadsheets and Generic CRMs
A spreadsheet records the gift. It does not send the receipt or keep the appeal total current.
| Feature | Spreadsheets and CRMs | Communal |
|---|---|---|
| Tax receipts | Built by hand in January | Emailed with every gift |
| Donor comments | Lost in an email thread | On the gift record |
| Processing fees | Come out of the gift | Donors can cover them |
| Donor history | Rows in a workbook | One record per donor |
| Campaign totals | A formula somebody maintains | On screen as gifts land |
| Membership link | A second list to reconcile | The same person record |
| Volunteer link | Not connected | Hours on the same record |
| Cheque and cash gifts | Typed in later, receipted by hand | Recorded and receipted |
Comparing named platforms instead? Read the DonorPerfect alternative, the Bloomerang alternative, the Donorbox alternative, the Zeffy alternative, or the Neon CRM alternative.
The head to head on Communal vs Zeffy goes through what a free donation tool covers and what it leaves on your desk.
Who Raises Money on Communal
Small organizations where the person receipting the gift is also the person running the program it paid for.
Community associations
Rink roofs, playground builds, and the annual appeal, run by a board that also collects membership dues from the same people.
Nonprofits and charities
Registered charities that need every gift receipted, without a fundraising database and a finance system to reconcile.
Community gardens and cultural centres
Project appeals with a visible goal, where donors are often the same people who take a plot or buy a class ticket.
Sports clubs and arts councils
Equipment funds, bursaries, and season sponsorships tracked next to the memberships and programs the money pays for.
What Donor Management Software Costs
Communal is $75 per month flat for up to 250 members, and that base plan includes donors, volunteers, member records, and point of sale. There is no separate module to buy.
Card-processing application fee set in your agreement, often 2%; no monthly minimums.
No contracts, prorated billing, cancel any module any time.
Connected to your entire operation
Donors shares one database with every other module. No duplicate entry, no data silos
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.
See Communal in Action
How community organizations run memberships, programs, and fundraising in one place.
Donor and Fundraising Guides
Practical guides for taking donations online, receipting them, and reporting on what came in.
How to Choose Donor Management Software
What to look for, and the mistakes we see organizations make.
Read Guide →Tax ReceiptsAutomatic Tax Receipts
What goes on a CRA or IRS receipt, how to set it up, and what automatic should mean.
Read Guide →Online GivingDonation Forms That Work
Fee coverage, phone layouts, and the fields that make donors give up.
Read Guide →ReportingFundraising Reports
The five numbers worth reporting, and who needs to see which.
Read Guide →Donor Management Software FAQ
It takes donations, receipts them, and keeps track of who gave what. A donation management system replaces the donate button, the receipt template, and the spreadsheet with one place: donors give on a campaign page, the tax receipt goes out by email, and the gift lands on the donor's record next to anything else they do with your organization.
The receipt is generated when the payment clears and emailed to the donor straight away. It carries your registration number or EIN, your logo, and your signature, and it stays on the donation record so you can resend or download it later. You can switch receipts off for a campaign that should not issue them, such as a raffle.
Yes. The page suggests a few amounts and takes whatever the donor types in. Each gift is paid by card through Stripe, receipted on the spot, and lands on the donor's record with its campaign and any comment they left.
Donors can choose to cover the card processing fee with one checkbox at checkout. The fee is added to their charge, so your organization receives the full amount they meant to give instead of losing a few percent of every gift.
Each campaign gets its own page with a goal bar, a summary, and its own link to share. Gifts made through that page are linked to the campaign, so the total is on the screen rather than in a formula. When the appeal is over, you close the page. There is more on donation forms.
Every donor has one record showing their contact details, every gift, every receipt issued, and the tags those gifts carried. Gifts are marked personal or corporate, and a corporate gift puts the business name on the receipt. To see what an appeal raised, filter the donations list by campaign or tag.
Yes, for straightforward gifts. Canadian registered charities get an official donation receipt with the receipt number, your registration number, the donor's name and address, the amount, the date, and a signature. US 501(c)(3) organizations get a receipt with your EIN and the statement that no goods or services were provided. There is no field for an advantage, such as the dinner in a gala ticket, so split gifts like that still need a manual receipt. There is more on the tax receipt software page. For the full Canadian picture, see membership software for Canadian organizations.
They are the same record. If someone gives in March and volunteers at the fall fair, both sit on one profile alongside their membership, so you can see the whole relationship before you ask again. The donor and volunteer management page covers how that works.
Communal is $75 per month flat for up to 250 members, and that base plan includes donors, volunteers, member records, and point of sale. There is no separate module to buy for fundraising. Card-processing application fee set in your agreement, often 2%; no monthly minimums. No contracts, prorated billing, cancel any module any time. Full detail is on the pricing page.