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Nonprofits · head to head

Cause IQ vs Keela

Cause IQ logo

Cause IQ

Nonprofits

Integrated fundraising and CRM platform

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Keela logo

Keela

Nonprofits

Nonprofit CRM and fundraising platform with Canadian tax receipting built in

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Cause IQ pricing is not published; Keela pricing scales with contact count, so a charity that keeps twenty years of lapsed donors pays every month for records it never contacts, and the only fix is deleting history it may need for reporting.
  • They diverge on capability: Cause IQ covers Donor management, Keela covers Donor records and segmentation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cause IQ and Keela actually diverge.

Attributes where Cause IQ and Keela differ
AttributeCause IQKeela
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer month by contact count
Founded2013Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Nonprofits).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Cause IQ

  • Donor management
  • Event management
  • Online giving
  • Volunteer tracking
  • Stripe
  • PayPal
  • Salesforce
  • Google Analytics

Only in Keela

  • Donor records and segmentation
  • CRA and IRS receipting
  • Donation forms and pages
  • Email and automation
  • Grant and pledge tracking
  • Reporting dashboards

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Cause IQ

  • Prospect research across nonprofit organisationsnot Keela
  • Benchmarking a nonprofit client against peersnot Keela
  • Building target lists for firms serving the sectornot Keela
  • Enriching existing records with nonprofit financial datanot Keela

Keela

  • A Canadian registered charity that must issue CRA compliant receipts without building templates itselfnot Cause IQ
  • A development team of two to five people replacing spreadsheets and a mailing toolnot Cause IQ
  • An organisation already running Aplos fund accounting that wants gifts to post through automaticallynot Cause IQ
  • A bilingual charity sending French and English donor communications from one contact listnot Cause IQ

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Cause IQ

  • Pricing is not published
  • Sold to firms selling into the nonprofit sector rather than to nonprofits running their own operations

Keela

  • Pricing scales with contact count, so a charity that keeps twenty years of lapsed donors pays every month for records it never contacts, and the only fix is deleting history it may need for reporting.
  • The email marketing tools are adequate for donor appeals but weaker than a dedicated platform, so organisations with heavy newsletter programmes end up paying for a second tool and syncing lists.
  • Custom reporting is limited to the fields and filters Keela exposes, so questions the product did not anticipate require exporting to a spreadsheet.
  • The integration list is short next to Salesforce or Blackbaud, so a charity running an unusual event, membership or advocacy tool will be moving data by CSV.
  • Since the 2023 Aplos acquisition the roadmap serves a combined accounting and fundraising suite, so investment favours the accounting join rather than standalone CRM depth.

Pricing, plan by plan

Cause IQ

On request
  • Standard$95/month
    • Donor management
    • Event management
  • Advanced$200/month
    • Prospect research
    • Fundraising reports
    • Advanced analytics

Keela

On request
  • Keela$undefined/month
    • Published tiers priced by number of contacts held, not by user seat
    • Higher tiers unlock automation, custom fields and additional reporting
    • Card processing is charged separately by the payment processor

Which should you pick?

Choose Cause IQ if

  • You need donor management.
  • You also want event management.
Cause IQ review

Choose Keela if

  • You need donor records and segmentation.
  • You also want cra and irs receipting.
Keela review

Questions people ask

Is Cause IQ or Keela better?
Neither clearly leads. Cause IQ starts at On request and Keela at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cause IQ or Keela?
Cause IQ starts at On request and Keela at On request.
Does Cause IQ or Keela run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Cause IQ best used for?
Cause IQ is most often used for prospect research across nonprofit organisations, benchmarking a nonprofit client against peers, building target lists for firms serving the sector, enriching existing records with nonprofit financial data. Of those, prospect research across nonprofit organisations and benchmarking a nonprofit client against peers are not what Keela is typically brought in for.
What can Cause IQ do that Keela cannot?
Cause IQ covers Donor management, Event management, Online giving, Volunteer tracking. Keela covers Donor records and segmentation, CRA and IRS receipting, Donation forms and pages, Email and automation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Cause IQ: Does Cause IQ offer a free plan?

Yes. Cause IQ offers a free plan with basic nonprofit searches using 8 filters and limited profile access. Core and Pro plans are paid subscriptions.

Source
Keela: Does Keela issue CRA compliant tax receipts?

Yes, receipt numbering, required wording and batch issuance are built in, which is the main reason Canadian charities choose it over US products.

Cause IQ: What is included in Cause IQ's pricing?

Core Plan costs $349/month (or $199/month for 501(c)(3) nonprofits) with access to 400+ filters. Pro Plan costs $5,988/year with three user licenses and unlimited exports. Annual discounts available.

Source
Keela: Who owns Keela?

Aplos Software, a US fund accounting vendor, acquired it in 2023. Keela is still sold as its own product but shares a roadmap with Aplos.

Cause IQ: Does Cause IQ integrate with Salesforce?

Yes. Cause IQ provides direct Salesforce integration to create, update, and enrich Leads, Contacts, and Accounts with nonprofit data. Bulk operations and field mapping are supported.

Source
Keela: Is pricing per user?

No, it is by contact count. Adding staff does not raise the bill, growing the mailing list does.

Cause IQ: Does Cause IQ have an API?

Yes. Cause IQ provides a REST API that returns JSON responses. The API allows programmatic searches for nonprofits, EIN lookups, and access to over 400 organization fields.

Source
Keela: Can it replace a fund accounting system?

No. It records income and pledges but does not do fund accounting, so you still need Aplos, QuickBooks or an equivalent.

Cause IQ: How much nonprofit data does Cause IQ contain?

Cause IQ aggregates data from over a dozen sources covering 1.73 million organizations, 9.86 million people (board members and key personnel), and 52,143 vendor profiles.

Source
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