Best Email Marketing Software for Nonprofits, by List Size

The best email marketing software for a nonprofit depends mostly on list size. Under a few thousand contacts, Zeffy and Givebutter send email free, and Brevo’s free plan stores 100,000 contacts at 300 emails a day. For a paid tool, MailerLite offers 30% off with no prepayment, about $412 a year at 5,000 subscribers. Constant Contact’s 30% requires prepaying 12 months. Mailchimp’s discount is only 15%, and it bills for unsubscribed contacts.

Most comparisons list the percentage and stop. The percentage is not what you end up paying, because these tools differ on what counts as a contact, whether the discount needs prepayment, and what the plan at that price can do. We read each vendor’s pricing, nonprofit and help pages on 2 November 2026 and worked out the annual cost at five list sizes. For how to run the program itself, deliverability and what to send, see our nonprofit email marketing guide.

The tools at a glance

What it costs a year, by list size

Our calculation from published prices, in US dollars, on the plan with enough automation for a charity. MailerLite is 30% off the monthly price, because it applies one discount at a time. Brevo prices by emails sent, so we assumed four sends a month to the full list, and that its 20% covers those email credits, which it does not state. Campaign Monitor is 15% off its monthly price. Sending less costs less on Brevo, and Givebutter Plus has overage charges.

Three warnings on the figures. We read these pages from a connection outside the United States, and pricing can vary by region. * Campaign Monitor says “Prices vary by region”, so confirm its numbers. ActiveCampaign’s table showed its Starter plan priced above Plus at 25,000 contacts, so we would check that tier too. For Mailchimp, the US dollar prices we were shown appeared to be regional rather than the US list, so we have left them out rather than print a figure that may be wrong; move the contact slider on its pricing page and take 15% off. For Constant Contact, we could read US dollar prices only at the starting tier ($35 for Standard, in its FAQ) and at 2,501 to 5,000 contacts ($110 for Standard, from a staff reply on its community site). Check its pricing page for your size.

Who bills you for people who left your list

Every list accumulates people who unsubscribed. On some platforms they keep costing you money, which matters more to a charity than most buyers, because donor files tend to be kept for years.

If you are on Mailchimp, the fix is housekeeping: archived contacts do not count toward your total or your price. Archive unsubscribed and long-dormant contacts rather than paying for them, but keep the record of who unsubscribed in your CRM so nobody is re-imported by accident. Before you archive lapsed donors, read how to win back lapsed donors.

The tools

Zeffy

Zeffy’s email is free: “Your contact list is unlimited”, and you can email “5,000 people a day, or 30,000 once you’ve connected your own sending domain.” It sits on top of its free donor CRM, so lists can be built from donations and campaigns. Automation is limited to a welcome series. It is funded by optional tips from your donors at checkout. Best for small charities already taking donations through Zeffy.

Givebutter

Givebutter’s core plan includes “unlimited users, contacts, email blasts”. Givebutter Plus, needed for automated workflows and fundraising blocks in email, is priced by contacts: $79 a month on annual billing up to 1,000, $179 up to 5,000, and custom above 10,000. Best when your fundraising already runs through Givebutter; see nonprofit fundraising software.

MailerLite

MailerLite says “nonprofit organizations receive a 30% discount on MailerLite’s paid plans”, on proof of status such as your IRS letter, and “We can only apply one discount at a time”, so it replaces the 10% yearly saving. It bills on active subscribers: “Subscribers who have unsubscribed or bounced don’t count”, though an address active at any point in the cycle does. Comfort includes 50 automations and Power unlimited. It also offers free Power plans for two years to selected learning and arts nonprofits. We read Stripe and 100+ integrations but no named donor CRM. Best for most small charities that want a paid email tool without prepaying.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact is explicit: “A nonprofit organization can get a 20% discount off our regular pricing when prepaying for six months, or a 30% discount when prepaying for 12 months. There is no discount when you pay monthly.” Do not buy first: it warns “don’t purchase a prepay plan before we’ve confirmed your nonprofit pricing”. US charities must send a Letter of Determination, and “Your Tax Pay ID paperwork does not count.” The nonprofit page names integrations with DonorPerfect, Blackbaud, Neon CRM and Qgiv, the clearest donor links of the mainstream tools. There is no free plan. Standard allows 3 automation templates and 10 segments; Lite 1 of each. Best for a charity that can prepay a year and uses one of those donor systems.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp “offers a 15% discount to verified nonprofit organizations and charities”. US charities add an EIN to the account and may be asked for a 501(c)(3) letter, by contact form, before purchase: “We can’t provide retroactive discounts or refunds on past purchases.” The free plan is 250 contacts and 500 sends a month with a daily limit of 250, without automation flows on its comparison table. Essentials allows flows of up to 4 steps and Standard up to 200 flows. Its terms for new customers also advertise an introductory offer, and we could not find whether that combines with the 15%. Ask before you rely on it. Best if your list is small and well kept, or you depend on an integration only Mailchimp has; its pricing is the most exposed to a large, old list.

Brevo

Brevo gives a “20% discount” to registered nonprofits, by coupon from support, on “any monthly or yearly paid plan”. Its pricing is mainly by email volume rather than contacts, which suits a charity with a large list it emails rarely, such as a few appeals a year. The free plan sends 300 emails a day. Below 20,000 emails a month the volume tier also caps contacts: 5,000 emails for 500 contacts, 15,000 for 2,500. Best for large lists and low sending.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign says “As a non-profit organization, you can get 20% off”, applied once it has proof of status and by email to sales or support. It has the deepest automation here, with multi-step automation on all plans, but new accounts pay for everyone on the list whatever their status, and its plans start at 1,000 contacts. Best for a charity with staff to build real donor journeys; see donor retention for what those should do.

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor says “If your company is a nonprofit, we offer a 15% discount. Please contact our sales team”. Its billing article excludes unsubscribed and bounced contacts but counts an address once per list, so a donor on three lists is three subscribers. Merge your lists before you buy. We could not tell whether the 15% combines with its 10% annual saving.

GetResponse and EmailOctopus

GetResponse has the largest headline: “50% off for nonprofit organizations”, up to 100,000 contacts, closed to political organizations. Read the conditions: you must place its logo on your website within four weeks, it cannot be combined with annual discounts, and it is valid for 24 months. We did not read its list prices. EmailOctopus says “all nonprofits using EmailOctopus get a 20% lifetime discount”, with a free plan of 2,500 subscribers and 10,000 emails. We read only its starting price, $9 a month billed yearly, not its other tiers.

Kit, beehiiv, Flodesk and Keela

Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited broadcasts, but automations start on its paid Creator plan, and it publishes no nonprofit terms; its billing help only says existing nonprofit discounts carry over, so ask. beehiiv is built for newsletters, free up to 2,500 subscribers, and we found no nonprofit offer. Flodesk says it “does not offer additional nonprofit-specific discounts” and prices well designed email flatly. Keela includes unlimited email in its nonprofit CRM from $164 a month on annual billing, so compare it as a CRM, in donor management software, not as an email tool.

How to choose

• Under about 2,500 contacts, tight budget: the free email in your donation platform (Zeffy, Givebutter), or Brevo or EmailOctopus free.
• 2,500 to 10,000 contacts, emailing weekly: MailerLite, because the discount needs no prepayment and unsubscribed contacts are not billed.
• A large list you email a few times a year: Brevo, since it prices by emails sent.
• Donor system is DonorPerfect, Blackbaud, Neon or Qgiv: Constant Contact, if you can prepay a year.
• Staff to build automated donor journeys: ActiveCampaign.
• Already on a donor CRM that includes email: use that first. A second list in a second tool is how donors get emailed after they have unsubscribed.

Things to check before you pay

• Apply for the discount first. Mailchimp and Constant Contact both warn that it cannot be added after a purchase, or must be confirmed before one.
• Clean the list before you import it. Importing dormant contacts raises your tier on day one and hurts deliverability; the email marketing guide covers this.
• Connect your own sending domain. Most tools expect it; Google Workspace for Nonprofits is a low-cost way to have one on your own domain.
• Check the send limit, not only contacts. Mailchimp’s Standard allows 12 times your contact tier a month and Essentials 10 times. A year-end appeal with four reminders, as on GivingTuesday, can use more than you expect.
• Keep unsubscribes in one place. If you also text donors, see text fundraising; consent rules differ between channels.

Once you have a tool, the writing matters more than the platform. Start from our donation letter templates and thank-you letters, and plan the year with the nonprofit marketing plan template. Nonprofit marketing covers where email fits among other channels. How to verify any nonprofit offer is in our software discounts guide.

How this list was made

We read each vendor’s pricing, nonprofit and help pages on 2 November 2026 from a connection outside the United States. Where a vendor’s page showed regional prices, we left them out or flagged them rather than convert them. Where a discount is unpublished, we say so. Constant Contact’s rule on unsubscribed contacts comes from a staff reply on its community site, not a policy page. We did not test deliverability or send a campaign through any of these tools, so this compares cost and terms, not results. No vendor paid to be included and we take no referral fees.