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Nonprofits · head to head

Constant Contact vs Fundraise Up

Constant Contact logo

Constant Contact

Nonprofits

Email marketing and event management

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Fundraise Up logo

Fundraise Up

Nonprofits

Donation checkout layer that replaces the giving form on an existing nonprofit website

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Constant Contact has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Constant Contact core plan started at $9.99 per month and Plus plan at $45 per month, both scaling by contact list size rather than a flat rate (Internet Archive capture, 2022); Fundraise Up the fee is a percentage of donations, so cost rises exactly as the product succeeds, and a single large gift routed through the checkout carries the same rate as a twenty pound one unless the agreement caps it.
  • They diverge on capability: Constant Contact covers Email marketing, Fundraise Up covers Embedded donation checkout.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Constant Contact and Fundraise Up actually diverge.

Attributes where Constant Contact and Fundraise Up differ
AttributeConstant ContactFundraise Up
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionPercentage of each donation
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Mobile-responsiveWeb
Founded1995Unknown

Identical on both: 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 Constant Contact

  • Email marketing
  • Event management
  • Contact management
  • Automation
  • Analytics
  • Salesforce
  • Zapier
  • Google Analytics

Only in Fundraise Up

  • Embedded donation checkout
  • Digital wallet payments
  • Recurring gift upgrade prompts
  • Multi currency and multi language
  • Donor covered fees
  • CRM sync

What people use each for

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

Constant Contact

  • Business operationsnot Fundraise Up
  • Productivitynot Fundraise Up
  • Automationnot Fundraise Up

Fundraise Up

  • A charity with a working CRM and website that wants to raise online conversion without replatformingnot Constant Contact
  • An international organisation needing donors to give in local currency and languagenot Constant Contact
  • A campaign pushing one time givers into monthly recurring support at the point of donationnot Constant Contact
  • A digital team that can measure conversion before and after and justify a percentage fee with datanot Constant Contact

Where each one falls short

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

Constant Contact

  • Core plan started at $9.99 per month and Plus plan at $45 per month, both scaling by contact list size rather than a flat rate (Internet Archive capture, 2022)

Fundraise Up

  • The fee is a percentage of donations, so cost rises exactly as the product succeeds, and a single large gift routed through the checkout carries the same rate as a twenty pound one unless the agreement caps it.
  • It is a checkout, not a CRM, so it is always an additional cost on top of a donor database rather than a replacement for one.
  • Donor covered fee opt in rates vary widely by audience, so an organisation with an older or offline leaning donor base absorbs more of the fee than the sales model assumes.
  • Design control is limited to what the embedded component exposes, so brand teams that want full control over the giving experience will hit boundaries.
  • Live recurring gift authorisations are held in the platform, which makes leaving considerably harder than adopting, because migrating active mandates risks lapsing donors.

Pricing, plan by plan

Constant Contact

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Basic email marketing
    • Contacts up to 100
  • Plus$45/month
    • Advanced features
    • Event management
    • Automation

Fundraise Up

On request
  • Fundraise Up$undefined/year
    • Platform fee taken as a percentage of every donation processed
    • Card processing billed separately on top of the platform fee
    • Optional donor covered fee prompt shifts the cost to the giver rather than removing it

Which should you pick?

Choose Constant Contact if

  • You need email marketing.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Mobile-responsive.
  • You also want event management.
Constant Contact review

Choose Fundraise Up if

  • You need embedded donation checkout.
  • You also want digital wallet payments.
Fundraise Up review

Questions people ask

Is Constant Contact or Fundraise Up better?
Neither clearly leads. Constant Contact starts at Free and Fundraise Up at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Constant Contact or Fundraise Up?
Constant Contact has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Constant Contact and On request for Fundraise Up.
Does Constant Contact or Fundraise Up run on more platforms?
Constant Contact runs on Web, Mobile-responsive. Fundraise Up runs on Web.
Can I use Constant Contact for free?
Yes. Constant Contact has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Fundraise Up starts at On request.
What is Constant Contact best used for?
Constant Contact is most often used for business operations, productivity, automation. Of those, business operations and productivity are not what Fundraise Up is typically brought in for.
What can Constant Contact do that Fundraise Up cannot?
Constant Contact covers Email marketing, Event management, Contact management, Automation. Fundraise Up covers Embedded donation checkout, Digital wallet payments, Recurring gift upgrade prompts, Multi currency and multi language.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Fundraise Up: Is Fundraise Up a CRM?

No. It is a donation checkout that syncs into a CRM you already run, so budget for both.

Fundraise Up: How does it charge?

A percentage of each donation, plus separately billed card processing. There is no flat licence that insulates you from volume.

Fundraise Up: Does the donor covered fee option remove the cost?

It shifts it. When donors opt in they pay the platform and processing fee; when they do not, the charity does.

Fundraise Up: What happens to recurring donors if we leave?

Active recurring authorisations sit with the platform and its processor, and migrating them is the part of an exit most organisations underestimate.

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Related pages

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