Kindful for Nonprofits: The 2025 Guide to This Bloomerang CRM / Cosmic

For years, social impact organizations looking for user-friendly donor management software would find their way to Kindful. It built a reputation as an accessible and highly integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, especially for smaller nonprofits. If you’re searching for information on Kindful today, you’ve likely discovered a key change: Kindful is now part of Bloomerang.

This shift is more than just a name change; it reflects a consolidation in the nonprofit technology space and presents an opportunity for organizations to think strategically about their most critical piece of digital infrastructure. A CRM is far more than a digital rolodex. It is the engine of supporter engagement—the central hub that allows you to move from short-term, transactional fundraising to building the kind of deep, long-term relationships that create a magnetic brand.

At Cosmic, we’ve seen that one of the biggest hurdles preventing nonprofits from scaling their impact is a fragmented digital ecosystem. When your supporter data is siloed and your platforms don’t talk to each other, building those crucial relationships becomes nearly impossible. So, let’s explore the legacy of Kindful, what its successor Bloomerang offers, and how to choose the right CRM to power your mission.

The Kindful Legacy: Simple, Friendly, and Connected

Before its acquisition, Kindful carved out a distinct niche. It was designed to demystify donor management for organizations that didn't have a dedicated IT department or the resources to implement a complex, enterprise-level system.

Kindful was known for its clean, intuitive interface and its focus on making data actionable. Key features included donor lifecycle analytics, which helped nonprofits understand the entire supporter journey, and powerful list segmentation that allowed for more personalized communication. Perhaps its biggest strength was its vast library of third-party integrations, which enabled organizations to build a "best-of-breed" tech stack without the typical data-syncing headaches.

The New Reality: Kindful’s Features Live on in Bloomerang

Today, the spirit and functionality of Kindful have been folded into Bloomerang, a platform that shares a similar philosophy but with its own distinct focus: donor retention. This is a critical alignment for any nonprofit looking to build sustainable revenue. Chasing new donors is expensive and exhausting; nurturing the supporters you already have is the key to long-term prosperity. Recurring donors, for instance, have an average lifetime value that stretches for years, providing a stable foundation for growth.

Bloomerang is built around this principle, using data to help you understand and deepen supporter relationships.

Bloomerang: An Overview

Bloomerang is a donor-centric CRM designed to help small and mid-sized nonprofits increase their fundraising results by focusing on supporter loyalty. It moves beyond just tracking donations to provide insights into why and how your community engages with your work.

Pros of Using Bloomerang

Intense Focus on Donor Retention: Bloomerang’s standout feature is its "Generosity Score," which analyzes donor behavior to identify who is most engaged and likely to give again. The entire platform, from its dashboard to its reporting, is geared toward helping you build lasting loyalty and prevent supporter churn.
Intuitive and User-Friendly: Carrying on the legacy of Kindful, Bloomerang is celebrated for its ease of use. The interface is clean and accessible for staff and volunteers who may not be tech experts, lowering the barrier to adoption and ensuring your team can actually leverage its full power.
Robust and Actionable Reporting: The platform makes it easy to visualize key metrics. You can quickly see your donor retention rate, track campaign performance, and generate reports that give you a clear picture of your fundraising health, allowing you to make data-driven decisions.
Strong Integration Ecosystem: Bloomerang integrates with a wide range of essential nonprofit tools for email marketing, accounting, and online fundraising, allowing you to create a more unified digital system.

Potential Cons and Considerations

May Be Too Focused for Some: Bloomerang’s strength is its deep focus on donor management and retention. Organizations with extremely complex needs in other areas—like intricate program management or grant discovery—may find they still need specialized tools.
Less Customization Than Enterprise Systems: Compared to a behemoth like Salesforce NPSP, Bloomerang offers less room for deep, code-level customization. It’s designed to work exceptionally well out of the box, which is a pro for most, but could be a limitation for large, complex organizations with highly unique process requirements.

Top Alternatives to Bloomerang for Your Nonprofit CRM

Your choice of CRM should be driven by your organization's unique strategy, size, and goals. While Bloomerang is an excellent successor to the Kindful experience for many, other platforms serve different needs.

For the All-in-One Seeker: Givebutter

Givebutter is an all-in-one platform that bundles CRM, email marketing, donation forms, events, and auctions into a single, cohesive system.

Pros: Its biggest draw is its pricing model—it's free to use, supported by optional tips from donors. This makes it incredibly accessible for new and small nonprofits operating with a scarcity mindset. Its user-friendly and mobile-optimized interface makes giving easy.
Cons: As an all-in-one, its individual features may not have the depth of a specialized, best-of-breed tool. For example, its CRM and email automation capabilities are not as advanced as a dedicated platform like Bloomerang or ActiveCampaign.

For Maximum Power and Customization: Salesforce NPSP

The Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) is the industry standard for large or complex organizations that need a completely customizable solution.

Pros: Its power and flexibility are unmatched. It can be configured to manage virtually any process, from fundraising and program management to case management and analytics. Eligible nonprofits can receive 10 free licenses, making the software itself free.
Cons: This power comes at a cost. Implementation is complex, time-consuming, and often requires expensive consulting services to get right. The learning curve is steep, and without proper training and support, it can overwhelm and exhaust your team, leading to a failed investment.

For a Comprehensive, Nonprofit-Specific Suite: Neon CRM

Neon CRM is a well-rounded platform designed from the ground up for nonprofits. It offers a broad suite of tools to manage donors, members, events, volunteers, and grants.

Pros: It provides a holistic view of your organization's activities in one place. Its deep feature set is specifically tailored to nonprofit workflows, and it integrates seamlessly with its own website builder, Neon Websites, for a truly unified ecosystem.
Cons: The sheer breadth of features can be overwhelming for very small organizations with simple needs. While powerful, its grant management features focus on tracking rather than research and discovery.

How to Choose the Right CRM for Your Mission

Selecting a CRM is a foundational decision. The right platform can transform your operations from fragmented to integrated, helping your brand become magnetic to supporters. The wrong one can lead to team burnout, wasted resources, and a huge opportunity cost.

Here's how to make a strategic choice:

Lead with Strategy, Not Features. Before you look at a single demo, clarify what you need your CRM to achieve. Is your primary goal to increase donor retention? Streamline grant applications? Better manage volunteers? Your strategic goals should be the filter through which you evaluate every option.
Think in Ecosystems, Not Silos. A CRM should serve as the heart of your digital presence, breaking down the walls between fundraising, marketing, and programs. Ensure your chosen platform integrates with the other tools you rely on—your email platform, your website, your accounting software—to create a single source of truth about your supporters.
Prioritize Your People. The most powerful software in the world is useless if your team can't or won't use it. Be realistic about your staff's technical comfort and capacity. Choose a tool that will empower them with intuitive design and accessible support, not exhaust them with a steep learning curve.
Embrace a Prosperity Mindset. We have to stop accepting that a lack of resources is just "part of the job." Investing in the right technology is not an overhead expense; it's a critical investment in the scalable infrastructure you need to build sustainable revenue and achieve your mission. A great CRM pays for itself many times over by enabling you to build stronger, more valuable supporter relationships.

Ultimately, whether you choose the modern evolution of Kindful in Bloomerang or another alternative, the goal is the same: to build a powerful engine that allows you to better understand your community, nail your impact story, and mobilize supporters to action.

Ready to Build an Integrated and Magnetic Brand?

Choosing the right technology is just one piece of the puzzle. At Cosmic, we partner with social impact organizations to build the integrated brand, digital, and activation strategies required for sustainable growth.

Book a free strategy call with Cosmic to discuss how we can help you achieve your mission.

Our Social Impact Growth Model provides your organization with an entire team of strategists, designers, developers, and marketers dedicated to transforming your brand from invisible to unforgettable.

Kindful for Nonprofits: The 2025 Guide to This Bloomerang CRM