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Nonprofits · head to head

CharityEngine vs Raisely

CharityEngine logo

CharityEngine

Nonprofits

Nonprofit CRM with its own in-house payment processing rather than a third-party gateway

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Raisely logo

Raisely

Nonprofits

Peer to peer and campaign fundraising platform funded by optional donor tips rather than a platform fee

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: CharityEngine payment processing rates are negotiated and never published, so the total cost cannot be compared to a licence-only CRM without getting a quote and modelling your own volume in basis points.; Raisely the tip model performs unevenly, so an organisation with an older or offline recruited donor base sees a lower tip rate and quietly absorbs more of the platform cost than the model assumes.
  • They diverge on capability: CharityEngine covers In-house payment processing, Raisely covers Peer to peer fundraising.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which CharityEngine and Raisely actually diverge.

Attributes where CharityEngine and Raisely differ
AttributeCharityEngineRaisely
Pricing modelquoteFree core platform funded by optional donor tips

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 CharityEngine

  • In-house payment processing
  • Recurring giving recovery
  • Direct mail segmentation
  • Peer-to-peer and events
  • Advocacy and membership
  • Marketing automation

Only in Raisely

  • Peer to peer fundraising
  • Customisable campaign pages
  • Recurring giving
  • Matched giving and appeals
  • Open API and webhooks
  • Automations

What people use each for

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

CharityEngine

  • A nonprofit processing high recurring gift volume that wants card updater and dunning built into the CRM rather than bought separatelynot Raisely
  • Replacing a stack of a CRM, an email tool and a separate donation gateway with one contract and one reconciliationnot Raisely
  • A direct mail heavy organisation that needs offline gift entry and mail file segmentation as first-class features, not add-onsnot Raisely
  • An organisation whose finance team wants a single settlement file that already reconciles to donor recordsnot Raisely

Raisely

  • A charity running a challenge or endurance event where supporters raise money on their own pagesnot CharityEngine
  • A campaign team that wants each appeal to look bespoke without rebuilding infrastructure each timenot CharityEngine
  • An organisation unwilling to give a platform a percentage of a large peer to peer income linenot CharityEngine
  • A digital team with front end skills or an agency partner who will customise the supporter journeynot CharityEngine

Where each one falls short

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

CharityEngine

  • Payment processing rates are negotiated and never published, so the total cost cannot be compared to a licence-only CRM without getting a quote and modelling your own volume in basis points.
  • Because the vendor is both the software provider and the merchant processor, switching CRM also means re-papering merchant services and re-tokenising every recurring donor, which is a far larger project than a normal migration.
  • Subscription pricing is quote-only and reported entry points come from third parties rather than the vendor, so small organisations often discover the floor is well above what they budgeted.
  • The interface is dense and configuration-heavy, and organisations without a dedicated database administrator tend to use a fraction of what they pay for.
  • Implementation and data migration are billed on top of the subscription and are commonly the largest first-year line item, which is easy to miss when comparing monthly figures.

Raisely

  • The tip model performs unevenly, so an organisation with an older or offline recruited donor base sees a lower tip rate and quietly absorbs more of the platform cost than the model assumes.
  • It is a campaign platform, not a CRM, so supporter data must be synced onward and organisations that skip that step lose cross channel giving history.
  • Getting the most out of the customisation requires front end capability, and charities without it run campaigns that look like the default template while paying for a platform built for the opposite.
  • Support hours are anchored to Australian time zones, which leaves European and North American teams waiting overnight during a live campaign.
  • Payment processing is tied to a small set of processors, so organisations with an existing merchant relationship or unusual regional payment needs may not be able to keep it.

Pricing, plan by plan

CharityEngine

On request
  • CharityEngine$undefined/year
    • Donor CRM and gift processing
    • In-house payment processing at a negotiated rate
    • Email, SMS and direct mail tools

Raisely

On request
  • Raisely$undefined/year
    • No platform percentage charged to the organisation on the core plan
    • Donors are prompted to add an optional contribution to the platform at checkout
    • Card processing is charged separately by the payment processor

Which should you pick?

Choose CharityEngine if

  • You need in-house payment processing.
  • You also want recurring giving recovery.
CharityEngine review

Choose Raisely if

  • You need peer to peer fundraising.
  • You also want customisable campaign pages.
Raisely review

Questions people ask

Is CharityEngine or Raisely better?
Neither clearly leads. CharityEngine starts at On request and Raisely at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, CharityEngine or Raisely?
CharityEngine starts at On request and Raisely at On request.
Does CharityEngine or Raisely run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is CharityEngine best used for?
CharityEngine is most often used for a nonprofit processing high recurring gift volume that wants card updater and dunning built into the crm rather than bought separately, replacing a stack of a crm, an email tool and a separate donation gateway with one contract and one reconciliation, a direct mail heavy organisation that needs offline gift entry and mail file segmentation as first-class features, not add-ons, an organisation whose finance team wants a single settlement file that already reconciles to donor records. Of those, a nonprofit processing high recurring gift volume that wants card updater and dunning built into the crm rather than bought separately and replacing a stack of a crm, an email tool and a separate donation gateway with one contract and one reconciliation are not what Raisely is typically brought in for.
What can CharityEngine do that Raisely cannot?
CharityEngine covers In-house payment processing, Recurring giving recovery, Direct mail segmentation, Peer-to-peer and events. Raisely covers Peer to peer fundraising, Customisable campaign pages, Recurring giving, Matched giving and appeals.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

CharityEngine: Does CharityEngine publish pricing?

No. Both the subscription and the payment processing rate are quoted. Third-party sites report a starter tier around 550 US dollars a month, but the vendor does not confirm this.

Raisely: How does Raisely make money if there is no platform fee?

Donors are prompted to add a voluntary contribution to the platform at checkout, and some organisations pay for plans that remove the prompt.

CharityEngine: Is the payment processing optional?

In practice no. The processing is the product. Using an external gateway removes most of what distinguishes CharityEngine from cheaper CRMs.

Raisely: Does the tip prompt reduce donation totals?

It changes the checkout, and results vary by audience. Test it against your own list rather than relying on published averages.

CharityEngine: Is there a nonprofit discount?

Every customer is a nonprofit, so there is no separate discount; pricing is tiered by contact count and gift volume instead.

Raisely: Is it a donor CRM?

No. It runs campaigns and pushes data to a CRM through the API or an integration.

CharityEngine: How long is the contract?

Annual terms are standard, and multi-year commitments are used to buy down the rate.

Raisely: Who is it best for?

Peer to peer and challenge event fundraising where a percentage platform fee on high volume would be the largest single cost.

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