Hubspot for Small Nonprofits: Is it Right for Your Organization? [2025]

Small nonprofits often struggle to manage donor relationships while juggling many tasks with limited resources. This can lead to disorganization, missed opportunities, and burnout.

Without the right tools, donor data lives in scattered spreadsheets, making it hard to stay on top of outreach and engagement.

HubSpot for Nonprofits offers a solution: a centralized, easy-to-use CRM that streamlines communication, automates tasks, and helps small teams build stronger donor relationships—so they can focus on what matters most: their mission. 

In this article, we’ll dive into HubSpot for small nonprofits to help you decide if their CRM functionality is right for you.

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Table of Contents

• Is HubSpot the right tool for your nonprofit?

• Is HubSpot Right for Small Nonprofits? Here’s What to Consider
  

• Which HubSpot features actually help nonprofits save time and raise more?
  

• Is HubSpot affordable for nonprofits—or a budget strain?
  

• Can your nonprofit qualify for HubSpot’s discounted pricing?
  

• What can you actually build with HubSpot (without a marketing team)?
  

• How to integrate Hubspot with Zeffy
  

• How to avoid common mistakes and get the most out of HubSpot
  

• Where HubSpot falls short for nonprofits (and what to watch out for)
  

• HubSpot for Nonprofits FAQs

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Is HubSpot the right tool for your nonprofit?

HubSpot is a great tool for large nonprofit organizations. Here are some HubSpot for nonprofits benefits:

• Centralized donor data: Keep all donor info and interactions in one place to improve relationship-building.
  

• Smarter segmentation: Group donors by behavior or location to send targeted, effective messages.
  

• Time-saving automation: Automate outreach like follow-ups and reminders to stay engaged without extra work.
  

• Performance tracking: Use built-in analytics to see what’s working and adjust your strategy accordingly.

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Is HubSpot Right for Small Nonprofits? Here’s What to Consider

HubSpot is a powerful platform built with marketing teams in mind. Its robust CRM, automation tools, and advanced reporting make it a favorite for mid-sized and large organizations looking to scale their outreach. But for smaller nonprofits, especially those without a dedicated marketing or IT team, HubSpot can feel like too much—and too expensive.

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Here’s what to consider:

• Complexity: HubSpot offers deep functionality, but getting set up often requires onboarding, training, or even consultants. If your team is lean, managing and maintaining HubSpot may take time away from mission-critical work.
  

• Cost: While HubSpot provides a nonprofit discount, key features like automation, advanced reporting, and custom integrations often live behind paywalls. That can strain a small nonprofit’s budget over time.
  

• Fit for purpose: HubSpot shines in complex marketing environments. But if your goals center around donor tracking, event management, and day-to-day outreach, its tools might be more than you need.
  

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If you’re a small nonprofit looking for an easier, budget-friendly alternative, Zeffy might be a better fit. Zeffy offers a true all-in-one platform—CRM, donor management, events, reporting, and fundraising tools—with no fees, no subscriptions, and no technical setup required.

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How one small nonprofit raised $47K for free with Zeffy’s donor management tools

Community Music School of Santa Cruz, with a $60,000 annual budget, needed a free, simple solution after their donor management system eliminated its free version. They found Zeffy, an all-in-one platform that offered donor management, event ticketing, and camp registration with no fees.

Over 17 months, they saved over $2,000 in fees that would have gone to other platforms like PayPal or Square. Zeffy’s simplicity, customization, and responsive customer service made it the perfect fit for this small nonprofit, providing everything they needed without the complexity or cost of larger platforms like HubSpot. Learn more about how they did it →

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Which HubSpot features actually help nonprofits save time and raise more?

CMS Hub for captivating websites

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HubSpot's CMS tool allows you to build customized websites, including a drag-and-drop interface and built-in SEO tools for a streamlined user experience and better rankings. 

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Here are some of the features available on HubSpot's content management system:

• Editable themes and templates

• Pre-built SEO tools

• Easy drag-and-drop editor, even for non-technical staff

• Charity-specific customizable landing pages

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Marketing Hub

HubSpot's Marketing Hub offers features for nonprofits to manage donor outreach and fundraising campaigns. These features include: 

• A landing page builder to create custom and tailored themes for your campaigns

• Email marketing and social media management functionalities 

• Data and analytics to track website visitors' behavior

• Customizable email templates in line with your branding

• Drip campaigns and automated workflow emails triggered by donors' actions

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Sales Hub

Sales Hub provides insights, automation, and other tools to maximize donor management efforts

The tools auto-populate contact profiles every time you interact with the donor. You can automatically get information for further communications. 

Create personalized messages, secure your donations, and maintain better donor relationships. The Deal feature lets you track the progress of your goals and identify trends. 

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Here are some other key features it offers: 

• Flexible CRM system to engage donors

• Donor cultivation pipelines to approach, engage, and nurture donor relationships

• In-line donation forms (via Marketplace integrations, like Zapier) to help donors contribute without redirecting to a different page

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Is HubSpot affordable for nonprofits—or a budget strain?

Hubspot offers a few pricing options nonprofits should consider.

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HubSpot Free Plan: The free plan includes three modules—marketing, sales, and CMS—offering a range of nonprofit-friendly features such as:

• Nonprofit-friendly onboarding

• Up to one million contacts

• Website SEO

• Website traffic analysis

• 1-to-1 emails with HubSpot branding

• Up to 10 custom properties

• List segmentation for 10 active and 1,000 static lists

• Email scheduling

• Stripe payment processing

• Mobile inbox and HubSpot mobile app

• Standard web analytics dashboard (3 dashboards with 10 reports/dashboard)

• And more
  

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HubSpot Paid Plan: The paid plan, discounted for nonprofits, offers additional advanced features beyond the free plan. While the specifics may vary depending on the level chosen, these typically include:

• Increased custom properties and segmentation options

• Enhanced reporting and analytics

• Advanced automation workflows

• A higher level of support and training options

• Custom branding without HubSpot's footer

• More comprehensive CRM features

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HubSpot offers nonprofits a 40% discount on tools for engaging donors, tracking reports, and scaling marketing.

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Does your nonprofit qualify for HubSpot’s discounted pricing?

HubSpot for nonprofits has the following requirements to qualify for the 40% discount. Your organization must:

• Be present and registered as a nonprofit in North America, Australia, or New Zealand 

• Be a new HubSpot customer

• Sign up for an annual term contract

• Provide valid proof of your nonprofit status

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You can't apply the nonprofit program pricing to existing products/subscriptions or combine it with other discounts.

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What can you actually build with HubSpot (without a marketing team)?

With HubSpot, nonprofits can create various resources and assets to support their missions. This includes:

• Creating engaging email campaigns

• Building user-friendly websites

• Managing donor databases

• Analyzing marketing performance, and more

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Ad management

HubSpot's centralized platform helps create, manage, and analyze ads from several platforms, including Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. 

Using its precise segmentation feature, you can run hyper-targeted ad campaigns and set and track your budget to make the most out of limited resources. 

The pre-built ad campaign templates also help you save time when creating effective ads. 

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Volunteer management

HubSpot streamlines volunteer management by automatically adding volunteers to workflows based on custom criteria. 

Automate follow-up communications to ensure volunteers receive timely thank-you messages and updates on events and opportunities. You can also use HubSpot's automated workflows to collect feedback and improve the volunteer experience.

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Social media management

Manage your social media campaigns with HubSpot by adding all your profiles to your account. Create, schedule, and track posts for your nonprofit's social media channels from a single platform.

HubSpot also gives you the option to publish content across channels and batch-schedule posts in advance. This allows you to spread awareness about your nonprofit's program through social media.

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Launching a landing page

Create landing pages for your campaigns and upcoming events using HubSpot's Marketing Hub and CMS. 

Choose from pre-made themes or create custom designs without needing technical skills. 

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Email marketing

HubSpot offers email marketing tools that are integrated into its free CRM software. These tools allow users to create effective email campaigns, manage contacts, and use live chat features. 

With reliable email marketing tools, optimize each supporter's experience. Using traffic and conversion analytics, you can improve your campaigns and get a better ROI.

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How to avoid common mistakes and get the most out of HubSpot for nonprofits

Mistake #1: Lack of personalized communications with the core audiences

Leverage HubSpot's personalization and automation features to segment your audience and send targeted messages. Use filters like donation history, interests, and demographics to create tailored content and landing pages that resonate with your supporters.

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Mistake #2: Clunky donation forms

Streamline donations with HubSpot's custom forms. This donor management system uses smart fields and conditional logic to simplify the process. It can pre-fill information for returning donors, making giving easier. By reducing steps and personalizing the experience, you can improve donor satisfaction and potentially increase donations.

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Mistake #3: No impact measurements or improvement 

Your HubSpot account offers several tools to analyze key metrics. Check the “Reports” tab and see what features you can use to improve donor relationships and engagement. 

Analytics measure impact and track donation trends, volunteer engagements, and campaign performances. See if your fundraisers are lacking in any of these areas and identify what you can do to improve them.

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Where HubSpot falls short for nonprofits (and what to watch out for)

• 1. Limited report customization:
  Users can only work with pre-set measurements, limiting the ability to create customized reports tailored to specific nonprofit needs ‍

• 2. Learning curve:
  Some users find HubSpot's extensive features overwhelming initially, requiring time and resources for staff training. ‍

• 3. Cost considerations:
  Although there's a free plan and nonprofit discount, some smaller organizations may find the paid plans expensive, especially with onboarding fees. ‍

• 4. Overkill for smaller nonprofits:
  Smaller organizations might not need all the features HubSpot offers, potentially leading to under-utilization of the platform

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These limitations are worth considering when evaluating if HubSpot is the right fit for your nonprofit's specific needs and resources. If you're looking for a cost-effective alternative to HubSpot, Zeffy is a 100% free CRM software for nonprofits.

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Zeffy vs. HubSpot: Why Small Nonprofits are Switching to a Purpose-Built CRM

HubSpot is a versatile sales, marketing, service, operations, and website-building platform. By using HubSpot's features and integrations, nonprofits can create personalized experiences for their supporters. 

HubSpot equips nonprofits with the tools required to maximize impact, from automating repetitive tasks to gaining valuable insights through analytics. Pairing HubSpot with a dedicated fundraising platform can streamline your nonprofit's functions and help you raise more.

While HubSpot offers powerful CRM capabilities, it's not the only solution for nonprofits. If you're already using HubSpot, you can seamlessly integrate it with Zeffy, a 100% free fundraising platform, to enhance your donor management.

If you're looking for a cost-effective alternative, Zeffy also offers comprehensive donor management tools at no cost.

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How to integrate HubSpot with Zeffy 

If you're already using HubSpot, Zeffy integrates seamlessly to enhance your fundraising efforts. But if you’re not on HubSpot yet, Zeffy is everything you need for both CRM and fundraising — and it’s 100% free. 

Whether you’re looking to add advanced CRM features or simplify your fundraising, Zeffy is the perfect solution.

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Take these simple steps to integrate Zeffy using Zapier:

• 1. Get your Zeffy's Zapier invite link

• 2. Login / sign up to Zapier

• 3. On Zapier, create a new Zap that triggers when a new donation is made on Zeffy

• 4. Set the action to create or update a contact in HubSpot 

• 5. Map the relevant fields from Zeffy (e.g., donor name, email, donation amount) to HubSpot contact properties.

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FAQs on HubSpot for nonprofit organizations

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