MemberDrive vs. Bloomerang
Bloomerang is one of the best-liked donor databases in the sector. It is also a subscription that starts at $125/month on a two-year contract. Whether that's worth it depends on a question most comparison pages skip.
These are not the same kind of product
Bloomerang is a donor CRM — a database built to hold every constituent record, score engagement, automate outreach, and tell a development director who to call next. Donation forms came later, largely through the acquisitions of Kindful (2021) and Qgiv (2024, now sold as Bloomerang Fundraising).
MemberDrive is a fundraising platform . Campaigns, recurring memberships, pledges, matching gifts, a donor portal. We keep a member record, but we are not a replacement for a full CRM and we won't pretend otherwise.
So the honest framing isn't "which is cheaper." It's: do you need a donor database, or do you need a way to collect money? If you genuinely need the first, Bloomerang is a serious answer and the rest of this page is about what it costs. If you need the second, you may be about to pay $1,500 a year for a database you'll use as a donation form.
Pricing Comparison
| MemberDrive | Bloomerang CRM | + Membership | Giving Platform | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | None | From $125/mo | From ~$150/mo | From $242/mo |
| Billing basis | % of donations received | Number of records stored | Number of records stored | Number of records stored |
| Platform fee | 1% | None (built into processing) | None (built into processing) | None (built into processing) |
| Card processing | Stripe ~2.2% + $0.30 | 3.2% + $0.30 | 3.2% + $0.30 | 3.95% + $0.30 |
| All-in card cost | 3.2% + $0.30 | 3.2% + $0.30 | 3.2% + $0.30 | 3.95% + $0.30 |
| ACH / bank transfer | 1% + Stripe 0.8% (capped $5) | 1.8% + $0.30 | 1.8% + $0.30 | 1.95% + $0.95 |
| Bring your own processor | Your own Stripe account | +1% platform fee | +1% platform fee | +1.95% platform fee |
| Contract term | None — cancel any time | 2 years, then auto-renews | 2 years, then auto-renews | 2 years, then auto-renews |
| Annual cost on $50K (500 gifts) | ~$1,750 | ~$3,250 | ~$3,550 | ~$5,030 |
The part we want to be straight about
On a credit card gift, Bloomerang CRM and MemberDrive cost exactly the same. Bloomerang's native rate through Stripe Express is 3.2% + $0.30. MemberDrive's 1% platform fee sits on top of Stripe's 2.2% nonprofit rate — also 3.2% + $0.30. On $50,000 across 500 gifts, both platforms take about $1,750 out of the donations.
We are not cheaper per transaction. We're cheaper because there is no subscription underneath it. The entire difference between the two columns above is Bloomerang's $1,500/year floor — and that floor is charged whether you raise $50,000 or $500.
The flip side is equally honest: that $1,500 buys a real donor database. If you'd otherwise pay for a CRM separately, Bloomerang's number stops looking like overhead and starts looking like the actual price of the thing you needed.
Two details worth checking before you sign. First, Bloomerang's price is set by how many constituent records you store, not by how much you raise — so a growing mailing list raises your bill even in a flat fundraising year, and pricing above the entry tier is quote-only. Second, if you bring your own payment processor instead of using theirs, Bloomerang adds a platform fee of 1% (CRM) or 1.95% (Fundraising) on top of what your processor charges.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | MemberDrive | Bloomerang |
|---|---|---|
| Online donation forms | ✓ | ✓ |
| Recurring donations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Memberships | ✓ Core product | ◐ Add-on from ~$25/mo |
| Pledge tracking | ✓ Multi-year | ✓ |
| Matching gifts | ✓ Native lead-donor engine | ◐ Employer match via integration |
| Peer-to-peer / leaderboards | ✓ Included | ◐ Fundraising add-on, +1% per gift |
| Donor self-service portal | ✓ | ✓ |
| Member content / posts | ✓ | ✗ |
| Email newsletter | ✓ Double opt-in | ✓ With marketing automation |
| Bitcoin (non-custodial) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Non-custodial funds | ✓ Your own Stripe account | ✗ |
| Full donor CRM | ◐ Basic member records | ✓ Best-in-class |
| Engagement / generosity scoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Data hygiene (NCOA, dedupe) | ✗ | ✓ Nightly, included |
| Direct mail / letters | ✗ | ✓ |
| Volunteer management | ✗ | ◐ Add-on from $119/mo |
| Event ticketing / auctions | ✗ | ✓ Via Bloomerang Fundraising |
| Text-to-give | ✗ | ✓ Via Bloomerang Fundraising |
| No monthly fee | ✓ | ✗ |
| No long-term contract | ✓ | ✗ 2-year initial term |
| No 501(c)(3) required | ✓ | ✓ |
| Family-owned / independent | ✓ | ✗ Private-equity backed |
◐ = partial support
Where Bloomerang wins
It's a genuinely good CRM, and people like it. Bloomerang holds a 4.7/5 average across roughly 1,300 Capterra reviews, and the praise is consistent about the things that are hard to fake: live chat support that answers immediately, an interface non-technical staff can learn without a consultant, and a deep library of free training. That is not marketing gloss. It's the product's real reputation.
Donor intelligence we don't attempt. Generosity scoring, engagement timelines, dynamic donor groups, and automated outreach sequences are the core of what a development director buys a CRM for. MemberDrive shows you who gave and when. Bloomerang tells you who is drifting and who is ready for a bigger ask.
Data hygiene that quietly saves money. Free nightly NCOA address updates, deceased suppression, and duplicate detection are included at every tier. If you mail anything, this is worth real money and we have no equivalent.
The full fundraising surface. Through Bloomerang Fundraising (the former Qgiv), you get event ticketing, gala-grade auctions with mobile bidding, text-to-give, and fundraiser mobile apps. We have none of those and no plans to bolt them on.
One vendor for the whole stack. CRM, fundraising, volunteers, and membership under one login with one support line has real operational value — especially for a small team where nobody's job is "integrations."
Where MemberDrive wins
You pay when money comes in. Bloomerang's $1,500/year floor is due whether or not you run a campaign. MemberDrive's 1% is zero until a donation clears. For a volunteer-run club, a school building fund, or a church that fundraises in bursts, that difference is the whole decision.
Your bill tracks fundraising, not filing. Bloomerang prices on records stored. Grow your list by 2,000 lapsed contacts and your bill goes up even if giving is flat — which creates a quiet incentive to delete records, exactly the opposite of what a donor database should encourage. Our bill only moves when your revenue moves.
No two-year commitment. Bloomerang's standard agreement runs two years, then auto-renews annually unless you give written notice 45 days out, with renewal pricing at their discretion. MemberDrive is month to month with nothing to cancel.
Native matching gifts. Bloomerang's matching-gift story is employer-match lookup through partner integrations. Ours is a lead-donor multiplier: a major donor sets a match and a cap, donors watch the multiplier work in real time, and the lead donor is invoiced automatically when the window closes. That's the mechanic capital campaigns actually run on.
Memberships are the product, not an add-on. Bloomerang added membership management as a module on top of the CRM. Recurring membership giving is what MemberDrive was built around — tiers, renewals, member-only posts, and a donor portal are the default, not a line item.
Your money never touches us. Donations land in your own Stripe account. We never hold your funds, and if you leave, your payment relationship is already yours. Bitcoin works the same way — on-chain, straight to your wallet, non-custodial.
Independent and family-owned. Bloomerang is majority-owned by JMI Equity and Warburg Pincus, and has absorbed Kindful, InitLive, and Qgiv along the way. That's a legitimate way to build a company — it funded most of the features listed above — and it also means your pricing is set by someone with an exit to plan for. Ours isn't.
Before you sign a two-year contract
Bloomerang's standard agreement is a two-year initial term billed annually, renewing in one-year increments unless either side gives written notice at least 45 days before the term ends. Fees can be reset at each renewal, and there's no published cap. Customers have reported renewal increases in the 7–12% range, and Bloomerang's BBB complaint file includes disputes over auto-renewals that were billed after a customer asked to cancel.
None of that makes Bloomerang a bad platform — auto-renew disputes exist at every subscription vendor, and 1,300 reviewers didn't give it 4.7 stars by accident. But it does mean the decision is bigger than the first year's invoice. Ask for the renewal terms in writing, ask what happens to your pricing when your record count crosses the next tier, and get the notice window on your calendar before you sign.
MemberDrive doesn't have a renewal conversation, because it doesn't have a contract. If we stop being worth 1%, you stop paying us.
Who should choose
Who should choose Bloomerang
- →Organizations with a paid development staffer whose job is moves management and donor cultivation
- →Organizations that already budget for a donor CRM and want fundraising folded into it
- →Organizations that mail — where NCOA updates, dedupe, and letter generation earn their keep
- →Organizations running galas, auctions, or text campaigns that need the full Bloomerang Fundraising suite
- →Teams that would rather have one vendor and one support line than a stack they assemble themselves
Who should choose MemberDrive
- →Organizations that need to collect money, not manage a database — where $1,500/year of CRM would go unused
- →Volunteer-run clubs, schools, and churches with no development staff and no budget for a subscription
- →Organizations whose giving is seasonal or campaign-driven, where a flat annual fee is dead weight in quiet months
- →Capital campaigns built on lead-donor matching and multi-year pledges
- →Membership organizations where recurring tiers and member-only content are the point
- →Anyone unwilling to sign a two-year software contract to start fundraising
Same card rate. No $1,500 floor.
A credit card gift costs the same on both platforms. The difference is that MemberDrive doesn't charge you anything before the first one arrives — and there's no contract to sign.
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