Rare Beauty’s “anonymous insider” spills the tea on their new Substack

I’ve recently been using Substack to find new music to listen to. That’s probably not quite what its founders had in mind, but it has a ton of newsletters written by people who just really love music. It’s less professional music criticism and more “hey, this album was great, give it a listen.”

That’s not the only off-label use for Substack. Today’s master of marketing is also a Substack fan — and she took a big risk with it.

Meet the Master

MacKenzie Kassab

Director of Creative Strategy, Rare Beauty

Claim to fame: Launched Rare Beauty’s “semi-authorized” Substack newsletter

Lesson 1: Get curious about your own product.

Novelty wears off fast when you’re in the trenches.

“Working in the office, [our product] is something” — a new blush, say — “that we‘re around all the time. We go to meetings about how products are made every week,” Kassab tells me. “It doesn’t feel necessarily thrilling from the inside when you're in it for a year and a half.”

But your audience’s first peek at a new product? That’s magical.

When you’re brainstorming new content, think about it from your consumers’ perspective. What do you know that they don’t? If you’re marketing a new product or service, what got you excited about it in the first place?

Even though Kassab might attend weekly meetings about a new product, she’s not necessarily there every step of the way. So for her newsletters, she takes the opportunity “to find out some of the bloopers, or [other] things that happened.”

For one newsletter, Kassab sat down with Rare Beauty’s chief product officer to get the scoop on how the newest blush came to be. One reason they developed a powder blush? Some customers found Rare Beauty’s famed liquid blush too pigmented. Not something you’ll hear most beauty companies admit.

“To share these and see how excited people get [about this information] — that is really rewarding and makes it interesting.”

Lesson 2: Embrace your imperfections.

Like a middle schooler with their first palette, the road to the perfect liquid blush is lined with some highly pigmented mistakes.

It’s tempting to brush those under the rug, but remember: Everybody loves a blooper reel. Whether it’s from your fav TV show or it’s about a new lipstick, sharing mistakes breaks down the artifice between consumer and producer. Sort of a “Celebrities, they’re just like us!” for your marketing strategy.

Plus, it brings a human element to her newsletters.

“We are showing the trials and tribulations of making a product. So I think embracing the idea that even as a big brand, we're not perfect either — we hit bumpy roads and things turn out okay in the end,” Kassab says. “I hope that kind of thing is encouraging.”

Lesson 3: Respect the platform.

Kassab’s idea to launch a Rare Beauty Substack newsletter had a simple origin: She was already a Substack fan.

Designed to publish individual voices, Substack has built a community that reminds me a bit of early social media — back when everybody was having a good time instead of doomscrolling ourselves to sleep every night. It’s a place that tends to value good writing over self-promotion. Introducing a brand voice to that ecosystem was always going to be a risk.

But in some ways, Kassab isn’t a brand voice. That’s underscored by her cheeky Gossip Girl-esque signoffs, the “semi-authorized” anonymous byline, and even by how lean her team is. (“It’s a very scrappy team,” she says. “It’s me.”) Even though she’s representing Rare Beauty, she’s still a solo content creator.

Don’t worry, the lesson here isn’t to reduce all your content to one person. (Unless you are a very small business, please don’t do that; I beg on behalf of writers everywhere.)

If you’re going to take a risk like Kassab and Rare Beauty did, think about the value that users are getting from the platform — and work with that, not against it.

Lingering Questions

This Week’s Question

What is your favorite thing about marketing that can’t be easily measured? —Brenna Loury, CMO, Doist

This Week’s Answer

Kassab: The emotional connection. I love the way marketing can make people feel something. It could be inspiration, motivation, curiosity, nostalgia, or just a moment of joy. For us it comes down to self-acceptance and belonging. That connection drives everything we do, no matter how impossible it is to quantify (although I’m sure AI is trying).

Helping even one person in our community feel seen and comfortable in their skin—I love so much about my work, but that’s really what gives it all meaning.

Next Week’s Lingering Question

Kassab asks: What’s your least favorite part of your job, and how do you motivate yourself to get through it?

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/rare-beautys-anonymous-insider-spills-the-tea-on-their-new-substack

I’ve recently been using Substack to find new music to listen to. That’s probably not quite what its founders had in mind, but it has a ton of newsletters written by people who just really love music. It’s less professional music criticism and more “hey, this album was great, give it a listen.”

That’s not the only off-label use for Substack. Today’s master of marketing is also a Substack fan — and she took a big risk with it.

Meet the Master

MacKenzie Kassab

Director of Creative Strategy, Rare Beauty

Claim to fame: Launched Rare Beauty’s “semi-authorized” Substack newsletter

Lesson 1: Get curious about your own product.

Novelty wears off fast when you’re in the trenches.

“Working in the office, [our product] is something” — a new blush, say — “that we‘re around all the time. We go to meetings about how products are made every week,” Kassab tells me. “It doesn’t feel necessarily thrilling from the inside when you're in it for a year and a half.”

But your audience’s first peek at a new product? That’s magical.

When you’re brainstorming new content, think about it from your consumers’ perspective. What do you know that they don’t? If you’re marketing a new product or service, what got you excited about it in the first place?

Even though Kassab might attend weekly meetings about a new product, she’s not necessarily there every step of the way. So for her newsletters, she takes the opportunity “to find out some of the bloopers, or [other] things that happened.”

For one newsletter, Kassab sat down with Rare Beauty’s chief product officer to get the scoop on how the newest blush came to be. One reason they developed a powder blush? Some customers found Rare Beauty’s famed liquid blush too pigmented. Not something you’ll hear most beauty companies admit.

“To share these and see how excited people get [about this information] — that is really rewarding and makes it interesting.”

Lesson 2: Embrace your imperfections.

Like a middle schooler with their first palette, the road to the perfect liquid blush is lined with some highly pigmented mistakes.

It’s tempting to brush those under the rug, but remember: Everybody loves a blooper reel. Whether it’s from your fav TV show or it’s about a new lipstick, sharing mistakes breaks down the artifice between consumer and producer. Sort of a “Celebrities, they’re just like us!” for your marketing strategy.

Plus, it brings a human element to her newsletters.

“We are showing the trials and tribulations of making a product. So I think embracing the idea that even as a big brand, we're not perfect either — we hit bumpy roads and things turn out okay in the end,” Kassab says. “I hope that kind of thing is encouraging.”

Lesson 3: Respect the platform.

Kassab’s idea to launch a Rare Beauty Substack newsletter had a simple origin: She was already a Substack fan.

Designed to publish individual voices, Substack has built a community that reminds me a bit of early social media — back when everybody was having a good time instead of doomscrolling ourselves to sleep every night. It’s a place that tends to value good writing over self-promotion. Introducing a brand voice to that ecosystem was always going to be a risk.

But in some ways, Kassab isn’t a brand voice. That’s underscored by her cheeky Gossip Girl-esque signoffs, the “semi-authorized” anonymous byline, and even by how lean her team is. (“It’s a very scrappy team,” she says. “It’s me.”) Even though she’s representing Rare Beauty, she’s still a solo content creator.

Don’t worry, the lesson here isn’t to reduce all your content to one person. (Unless you are a very small business, please don’t do that; I beg on behalf of writers everywhere.)

If you’re going to take a risk like Kassab and Rare Beauty did, think about the value that users are getting from the platform — and work with that, not against it.

Lingering Questions

This Week’s Question

What is your favorite thing about marketing that can’t be easily measured? —Brenna Loury, CMO, Doist

This Week’s Answer

Kassab: The emotional connection. I love the way marketing can make people feel something. It could be inspiration, motivation, curiosity, nostalgia, or just a moment of joy. For us it comes down to self-acceptance and belonging. That connection drives everything we do, no matter how impossible it is to quantify (although I’m sure AI is trying).

Helping even one person in our community feel seen and comfortable in their skin—I love so much about my work, but that’s really what gives it all meaning.

Next Week’s Lingering Question

Kassab asks: What’s your least favorite part of your job, and how do you motivate yourself to get through it?

via Perfecte news Non connection

5 best CRMs for nonprofits in 2025

Nonprofits face distinct challenges when it comes to managing relationships and driving engagement. Unlike for-profit businesses, nonprofits must balance limited budgets with the need to maintain strong donor relationships, manage volunteers, run programming, and track impact, often across dispersed teams. These unique demands require tools that go beyond traditional customer management.

That’s where nonprofit-tailored CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems come into play. Designed to centralize data, streamline outreach, and automate administrative tasks, CRMs help nonprofit organizations better retain donors, personalize communications, and ultimately amplify their mission. According to a 2024 Nonprofit Digital Investments Report from NTEN, 14% of nonprofits spend their technology budget on software and licenses; the same report revealed that 40% of nonprofits include technology investments in their organization’s strategic plan.

In this article, I’ll break down the best CRMs specifically suited for nonprofits. You’ll find a side-by-side comparison table, a deep dive into key features (like donor management, grant tracking, and integrations), and a step-by-step guide for evaluating and implementing the right CRM for your organization.

Notably, HubSpot is one of the platforms trusted by real nonprofit organizations to drive engagement and scale their impact — and I’ll show you how.

Table of Contents

• What is a CRM for nonprofits?
• CRM Comparison Table
• Best CRM Software for Nonprofit Businesses
• Benefits of CRM Software for Nonprofits
• 5 Important Features for a Nonprofit CRM
• How to Choose a CRM for Nonprofits (Step-by-Step)
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Meet HubSpot, the Top CRM Choice for Nonprofit Companies

What is a CRM for nonprofits?

A CRM for nonprofits is software that helps organizations manage and nurture relationships with donors, volunteers, members, and other key stakeholders. It centralizes contact information, tracks engagement history, and supports fundraising, outreach, and reporting efforts—all tailored to the mission-driven goals of nonprofit work.

Best CRMs for Nonprofit Organizations at a Glance

CRM	Best For	Key Features	Pricing	Free Trial
HubSpot	Nonprofits seeking an all-in-one platform with a strong free tier	Donor management Email marketing Donation tracking Volunteer coordination Automated workflows Reporting dashboard Integration with payment processors	Free Tools: $0/month Starter: $9/month Professional: $720/month Enterprise: $2,000/month	Yes, 14 days
Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud	Large nonprofits needing enterprise-level customization	Comprehensive donor lifecycle management Grant tracking Program management AI-powered insights Extensive third-party integrations	10 free licenses through Power of Us program; Additional licenses from $60/user/month (Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise tier)	Yes, 30 days
Bloomerang	Small to mid-sized nonprofits focused on donor retention	Donor retention analytics Giving history tracking Automated receipting Engagement timeline Wealth screening integration	Qgiv by Bloomerang: $40/month Bloomerang CRM: $125/month Bloomerang Volunteer: $119/month	No, demo scheduling required
Keela	Small nonprofits wanting AI-powered insights and automated communications	Smart Ask AI for donation predictions Automated donor journeys Integrated email marketing Impact reporting Donor segmentation	1000 contacts: $134/month 2,500 to 5,000 contacts: $274/month 5,001 to 7,500 contacts: $329 7,501 to 10,000 contacts: $379/month	No, demo scheduling required
Little Green Light	Budget-conscious small nonprofits	Constituent management Customizable forms Volunteer tracking Email integration Basic reporting	2,500 contacts: $45/month 5,000 contacts: $60/month 10,000 contacts: $75/month 20,000 contacts: $90/month	Yes, demo registration required

Best CRM Software for Nonprofit Businesses

With so many CRM platforms on the market, it can be challenging for nonprofits to find a solution that fits their mission and budget. The best CRM software for nonprofit businesses offers tools for donor management, volunteer coordination, event tracking, and campaign reporting — all while being user-friendly and cost-effective.

Below, I’ve rounded up top CRM options tailored to the unique needs of nonprofits to help you make an informed choice. Take a look:

1. HubSpot

Source

Best for: Growing nonprofits seeking an all-in-one platform to unify donor management, marketing, and fundraising without breaking the budget. Using HubSpot’s onboarding infrastructure, Swipe Out Hunger scaled from 150 to 450 campus partners in 6 months.

Key HubSpot Features

• Unified contact database: HubSpot’s CRM tracks every donor interaction in one centralized location, from first website visit tracked by HubSpot’s analytics to major gifts recorded in HubSpot’s deal pipelines, eliminating the data silos that often plague nonprofit organizations.
• Automated email workflows: HubSpot’s workflow builder lets nonprofits set up donor welcome series, lapsed donor re-engagement campaigns, and event follow-ups that trigger automatically based on specific actions within HubSpot, saving hours of manual outreach time.
• Native payment integration: HubSpot connects directly with Stripe or PayPal to process donations within the HubSpot ecosystem, automatically updating donor records in HubSpot’s CRM and triggering thank-you emails through HubSpot's email tools without manual data entry.

HubSpot Pricing (Operations Hub)

• Free Tools: $0/month
• Starter: $9/month
• Professional: $720/month
• Enterprise: $2,000/month

2. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud

Source

Best for: Large nonprofits and foundations managing complex programs, multiple funding sources, and enterprise-level reporting requirements.

Key Salesforce Features

• Grant management module: Track multi-year grants with automated milestone reminders and compliance reporting.
• Program impact tracking: Connect beneficiaries to programs and outcomes in real-time.
• AppExchange integrations: Access nonprofit-specific apps for peer-to-peer fundraising or form submission platforms for complex application forms, all syncing seamlessly with your core database.

Salesforce Pricing

• Power of Us Program: 10 free licenses
• Additional Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise licenses: $60/user/month
• Nonprofit Cloud (Unlimited Edition): $100/user/month
• Nonprofit Cloud Agentforce 1: $325/user/month

3. Bloomerang

Source

Best for: Small to mid-sized nonprofits focused on improving donor retention rates and understanding giving patterns.

Key Bloomerang Features

• Retention dashboard: Visual analytics showing donor retention rates by segment.
• Engagement timeline: See every interaction with a donor chronologically, from event attendance to email opens.
• Wealth screening integration: Built-in connection to DonorSearch automatically identifies major gift prospects.

Bloomerang Pricing

• Qgiv by Bloomerang: $40/month
• Bloomerang CRM: $125/month
• Bloomerang Volunteer: $119/month

4. Keela

Source

Best for: Established nonprofits running diverse fundraising campaigns from events to peer-to-peer while maintaining clean financial records.

Key DonorPerfect Features

• Smart Ask AI: Predicts optimal donation amounts for each donor based on giving history and capacity.
• Automated donor journeys: Design multi-step communication flows that adapt to donor behavior.
• Built-in email marketing: Create, send, and track email campaigns without leaving the CRM, with automatic list segmentation based on giving patterns.

Keela Pricing

• 1,000 contacts: $134/month
• 1,001 to 2,500 contacts: $209/month
• 5,001 to 7,500 contacts: $329/month
• 7,500 to 10,000 contacts: $379/month

5. Little Green Light

Source

Best for: Grassroots organizations and small nonprofits needing professional donor management without complexity or high costs.

Key Little Green Light Features

• Simplified gift entry: Batch gift entry and automated soft credits to make recording donations from fundraising events quick.
• Constituent workflows: Create custom pipelines for volunteer recruitment, board nominations, or major gift cultivation.
• Email integration via Mailchimp: Sync constituent data with Mailchimp for sophisticated email campaigns while maintaining gift history in LGL.

Little Green Light Pricing

• 2,500 contacts: $45/month
• 5,000 contacts: $60/month
• 10,000 contacts: $75/month
• 20,000 contacts: $90/month

Benefits of CRM Software for Nonprofits

Eliminate Donor Data Silos for Complete Relationship Visibility

Nonprofits often track donor information across disconnected spreadsheets, email platforms, and paper files, making it impossible to see a donor’s full engagement history. However, HubSpot’s unified CRM platform solves this by centralizing every interaction, from the first website visit to a significant gift, event attendance, and volunteer hours, in one searchable database.

HubSpot’s contact timeline feature means any staff member can instantly access a donor's complete history before making a call, writing a grant report, or planning the next ask. Unlike fragmented systems from competing CRMs, HubSpot automatically connects website activity, email engagement, donation history, and event participation into comprehensive donor profiles that update as changes happen.

Automate Repetitive Tasks to Focus on Mission-Critical Work

Development teams waste countless hours on manual tasks like sending donation receipts, updating spreadsheets after events, and creating thank-you letters. HubSpot’s workflow automation eliminates these time-consuming processes by triggering actions based on donor behavior — donation receipts send instantly through HubSpot’s email tools, donor records update automatically when someone registers for an event via HubSpot Forms, and personalized thank-you sequences launch based on gift size.

With HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, nonprofits can build complex automation sequences that previously required manual intervention.

Improve Donor Retention Through Data-Driven Insights

Most nonprofits struggle to identify which supporters are at risk of lapsing before it’s too late to re-engage them. HubSpot’s custom dashboards and contact scoring capabilities provide retention analytics that flag at-risk donors automatically based on engagement patterns and giving history.

HubSpot’s reporting tools allow staff to create saved views showing who hasn’t given in 13 months, whose email engagement is declining, or which monthly donors have failed payments. Combined with HubSpot's list segmentation, these insights trigger automated re-engagement campaigns through HubSpot Workflows, enabling proactive outreach that saves relationships before donors fully disengage.

Scale Fundraising Efforts Without Adding Staff

Small nonprofit teams need to manage increasingly complex fundraising campaigns — from peer-to-peer to events to major gifts — without the budget to hire additional staff. HubSpot enables small teams to run sophisticated multi-channel campaigns through its all-in-one platform, where one person can:

• Manage a peer-to-peer campaign for hundreds of fundraisers using HubSpot’s campaign tools
• Send segmented email appeals to thousands through HubSpot’s drag-and-drop email builder
• Track event RSVPs via HubSpot Forms

HubSpot’s templates and cloning features mean successful campaigns can be replicated instantly, while its automation handles follow-ups, reminders, and donor journeys that previously required an entire department. The platform’s free tier supporting up to 1 million contacts means even resource-constrained nonprofits can access enterprise-level capabilities through HubSpot.

Ensure Financial Accuracy and Compliance Across Teams

When development and finance teams use different systems, gift totals rarely match, making board reports unreliable and audit preparation nightmarish. HubSpot’s Operations Hub and native integrations with accounting software like QuickBooks ensure gift data flows seamlessly between fundraising and financial systems, eliminating discrepancies.

HubSpot’s custom reporting builder means that the development campaign totals always match the finance books because both pull from the same source of truth. Additionally, grant reports in HubSpot pull accurate data automatically using filtered views, and year-end tax receipts are generated error-free through HubSpot’s document automation, protecting donor trust and organizational compliance while saving weeks of manual reconciliation during audit season.

5 Important Features for a Nonprofit CRM

1. Donor retention analytics and engagement scoring: Track retention rates by segment, identify lapsing donors, and monitor engagement trends over time. HubSpot’s custom dashboards and contact scoring features help nonprofits address the critical challenge of keeping donors engaged year after year. At the same time, its activity timeline shows every touchpoint — from email opens to donation history — to inform personalized outreach strategies.
2. Multi-channel fundraising integration: Seamlessly manage donations across websites, peer-to-peer campaigns, events, and text-to-give from one platform. HubSpot’s Forms tool captures donations from any channel. At the same time, its Workflows automatically route gifts to the correct campaign and update donor records in real-time, ensuring every gift from galas, Facebook fundraisers, or direct mail flows into unified contact records without manual entry.
3. Automated gift processing and acknowledgment: Instantly process donations, send tax receipts, and trigger personalized thank-you messages based on gift size or campaign. HubSpot’s native Stripe and PayPal integrations and its Marketing Hub automation exemplify how nonprofits can acknowledge donors within minutes, not days, using personalized email sequences that adapt based on donation amount and donor history.
4. Grant and program management modules: Track multi-year grants, program outcomes, and beneficiary data to demonstrate impact to funders. Plus, HubSpot’s custom objects and properties allow organizations to build grant tracking systems. At the same time, its reporting tools automate compliance dashboards and connect program activities directly to funding sources — all without leaving the HubSpot ecosystem.
5. Financial system integration and reporting: Sync donation data with QuickBooks, generate IRS-compliant reports, and ensure the development and finance teams work from identical numbers. HubSpot’s Operations Hub and native integrations eliminate duplicate entry and reconciliation headaches that plague nonprofits during audit season, while its custom report builder maintains accurate financial records for board reporting.

How to Choose a CRM for Nonprofits (Step-by-Step)

Step 1: Map your workflows.

Firstly, start by documenting your organization’s key processes, such as:

• How donations move from first contact to thank-you letter
• How volunteers get recruited and scheduled
• How events flow from planning to post-event follow-up

Then, include every team member who touches donor data, from development to programs to finance. This exercise reveals where manual handoffs slow you down and where automation could multiply your impact.

Step 2: Identify must-have features.

Secondly, based on your workflow mapping, create a prioritized feature list. Most nonprofits need donor management and gift processing as basics, but your specific needs might include:

• Grant tracking for government-funded programs
• Volunteer management for service organizations
• Event tools for gala-heavy fundraisers

Once you’ve done this, distinguish between “must-haves” for day one and “nice-to-haves” you can add later.

Step 3: Compare ease of use and team fit.

Thirdly, request demos focusing on daily tasks your team performs most often, such as:

• Entering donations
• Pulling reports
• Sending acknowledgments

Pay attention to how many clicks each task requires and whether volunteers could learn the system quickly. However, also consider your team’s technical comfort level.

For example, Salesforce may offer powerful customization, but it requires hands-on training; conversely, Little Green Light provides simplicity for volunteer-run organizations but likely isn’t suited for enterprise-level nonprofits.

Step 4: Check cost at scale.

Next, calculate the total cost of ownership beyond monthly fees. Be sure to factor in the following:

• Number of user licenses needed
• Contact database growth (3 to 5 years is, typically, a good measurement timeline)
• Training and implementation costs
• Integration expenses for connecting existing tools

Remember that switching CRMs is disruptive — choose a platform you can afford as you grow, not just today.

Step 5: Choose a flexible platform — Like HubSpot.

Lastly, select a CRM that grows with your organization’s evolving needs. HubSpot exemplifies this flexibility: Back in 2020, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a leading non-profit, turned to HubSpot’s CMS to organize its biggest global campaign of the year, Earth Hour.

WWF sought to optimize its content strategy and, through segmenting its user base, increased audience engagement with Earth Hour-specific initiatives. By utilizing HubSpot’s Content Hub and Marketing Hub, World Wildlife Fund could centralize its website data and use that data to inform targeted email and social media strategies, ultimately leading to a 9,493% increase in newsletter signups.

WWF’s success with HubSpot’s tools proves that an investment in HubSpot isn’t just a tech stack investment. It’s an intentional step toward results-driven, personalized marketing that resonates with your supporters and drives long-term impact.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best CRM for nonprofits?

The best CRM for nonprofits depends on your organization’s size and needs. HubSpot offers the most potent combination of features and value with its robust free tier, which supports up to 1 million contacts. Its all-in-one platform provides the most flexibility for growing nonprofits.

What features should I look for in a CRM for nonprofits?

Essential nonprofit CRM features include:

• Donor management with giving history tracking
• Automated gift acknowledgments and tax receipts
• Multi-channel fundraising tools (online, events, peer-to-peer)
• Integration with accounting software
• Retention analytics to identify at-risk donors

HubSpot is well-equipped to manage all these areas while providing volunteer management, grant tracking, and built-in email marketing capabilities that many other CRMs charge extra for.

Is HubSpot good for nonprofits?

Yes, HubSpot is excellent for nonprofits, particularly growing organizations.

Its free tier provides comprehensive donor management, email marketing, and basic automation for up to 1 million contacts — unmatched in the industry. Additionally, the platform integrates payment processing, automates donor journeys, and scales affordably as you grow.

BTW: Many nonprofits start free and upgrade only when they need advanced features like workflow automation or custom reporting.

How much does a CRM for nonprofits cost?

Nonprofit CRM costs range from free to $600+ monthly. HubSpot offers the most generous free tier in the industry; its free tier supports unlimited users with up to 1 million contacts.

How long does it take to implement a nonprofit CRM?

Implementation timelines vary by system complexity and data volume. Thanks to its intuitive interface and free onboarding support, HubSpot typically goes live in 1-2 weeks, faster than most competitors. HubSpot’s quick-start programs and extensive knowledge base help nonprofits launch basic functionality within days.

Can multiple team members use a nonprofit CRM simultaneously?

Yes, CRMs are designed for team collaboration. HubSpot offers unlimited users even on its free plan, while most competitors charge per user.

The platform provides granular role permissions — development directors see everything while volunteers might only access event check-in. Unlike spreadsheet-based systems, HubSpot’s real-time updates ensure everyone works from current data with cloud-based access from any device, anywhere.

Meet HubSpot, the Top CRM Choice for Nonprofit Companies

HubSpot stands out as the premier CRM solution for nonprofits by offering enterprise-level capabilities at a price point that works for charitable organizations. Unlike traditional nonprofit software that charges based on donor count or requires expensive implementations, HubSpot provides a robust free tier supporting up to 1 million contacts, making it accessible to organizations of any size.

Key HubSpot Features for Nonprofits

• Free Forever foundation: Start with comprehensive donor management, email marketing, and form builders at no cost, then scale features as your budget allows without migrating platforms.
• Integrated fundraising workflows: Process donations through native Stripe/PayPal integrations while automatically triggering personalized thank-you sequences based on gift amount and donor history.
• 360-degree constituent view: Track every touchpoint from first website visit through significant gift in one timeline, ensuring any staff member can converse with supporters.

Proven Real-World Impact with HubSpot

HubSpot transformed British Red Cross Training’s ability to serve over 100,000 UK businesses with critical first aid and mental health training by replacing their technically complex systems with an integrated, user-friendly platform. Moreover, over two years, the nonprofit achieved a remarkable 66% revenue increase by shifting from costly paid advertising and cold calling to HubSpot’s inbound marketing strategy that automatically generates warm leads.

All-in-all, HubSpot’s true power lies in its flexibility — start free, pay only for what you need, and never outgrow your system. With built-in tools for volunteer management, event coordination, and impact reporting, HubSpot eliminates the need for multiple disconnected tools that drain your budget and staff time.

Ready to see how HubSpot can transform your nonprofit’s donor relationships? Get started with HubSpot’s free nonprofit tools today.

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/best-crm-for-nonprofits

Nonprofits face distinct challenges when it comes to managing relationships and driving engagement. Unlike for-profit businesses, nonprofits must balance limited budgets with the need to maintain strong donor relationships, manage volunteers, run programming, and track impact, often across dispersed teams. These unique demands require tools that go beyond traditional customer management.

That’s where nonprofit-tailored CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems come into play. Designed to centralize data, streamline outreach, and automate administrative tasks, CRMs help nonprofit organizations better retain donors, personalize communications, and ultimately amplify their mission. According to a 2024 Nonprofit Digital Investments Report from NTEN, 14% of nonprofits spend their technology budget on software and licenses; the same report revealed that 40% of nonprofits include technology investments in their organization’s strategic plan.

In this article, I’ll break down the best CRMs specifically suited for nonprofits. You’ll find a side-by-side comparison table, a deep dive into key features (like donor management, grant tracking, and integrations), and a step-by-step guide for evaluating and implementing the right CRM for your organization.

Notably, HubSpot is one of the platforms trusted by real nonprofit organizations to drive engagement and scale their impact — and I’ll show you how.

Table of Contents

• What is a CRM for nonprofits?
• CRM Comparison Table
• Best CRM Software for Nonprofit Businesses
• Benefits of CRM Software for Nonprofits
• 5 Important Features for a Nonprofit CRM
• How to Choose a CRM for Nonprofits (Step-by-Step)
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Meet HubSpot, the Top CRM Choice for Nonprofit Companies

What is a CRM for nonprofits?

A CRM for nonprofits is software that helps organizations manage and nurture relationships with donors, volunteers, members, and other key stakeholders. It centralizes contact information, tracks engagement history, and supports fundraising, outreach, and reporting efforts—all tailored to the mission-driven goals of nonprofit work.

Best CRMs for Nonprofit Organizations at a Glance

CRM	Best For	Key Features	Pricing	Free Trial
HubSpot	Nonprofits seeking an all-in-one platform with a strong free tier	Donor management Email marketing Donation tracking Volunteer coordination Automated workflows Reporting dashboard Integration with payment processors	Free Tools: $0/month Starter: $9/month Professional: $720/month Enterprise: $2,000/month	Yes, 14 days
Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud	Large nonprofits needing enterprise-level customization	Comprehensive donor lifecycle management Grant tracking Program management AI-powered insights Extensive third-party integrations	10 free licenses through Power of Us program; Additional licenses from $60/user/month (Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise tier)	Yes, 30 days
Bloomerang	Small to mid-sized nonprofits focused on donor retention	Donor retention analytics Giving history tracking Automated receipting Engagement timeline Wealth screening integration	Qgiv by Bloomerang: $40/month Bloomerang CRM: $125/month Bloomerang Volunteer: $119/month	No, demo scheduling required
Keela	Small nonprofits wanting AI-powered insights and automated communications	Smart Ask AI for donation predictions Automated donor journeys Integrated email marketing Impact reporting Donor segmentation	1000 contacts: $134/month 2,500 to 5,000 contacts: $274/month 5,001 to 7,500 contacts: $329 7,501 to 10,000 contacts: $379/month	No, demo scheduling required
Little Green Light	Budget-conscious small nonprofits	Constituent management Customizable forms Volunteer tracking Email integration Basic reporting	2,500 contacts: $45/month 5,000 contacts: $60/month 10,000 contacts: $75/month 20,000 contacts: $90/month	Yes, demo registration required

Best CRM Software for Nonprofit Businesses

With so many CRM platforms on the market, it can be challenging for nonprofits to find a solution that fits their mission and budget. The best CRM software for nonprofit businesses offers tools for donor management, volunteer coordination, event tracking, and campaign reporting — all while being user-friendly and cost-effective.

Below, I’ve rounded up top CRM options tailored to the unique needs of nonprofits to help you make an informed choice. Take a look:

1. HubSpot

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Best for: Growing nonprofits seeking an all-in-one platform to unify donor management, marketing, and fundraising without breaking the budget. Using HubSpot’s onboarding infrastructure, Swipe Out Hunger scaled from 150 to 450 campus partners in 6 months.

Key HubSpot Features

• Unified contact database: HubSpot’s CRM tracks every donor interaction in one centralized location, from first website visit tracked by HubSpot’s analytics to major gifts recorded in HubSpot’s deal pipelines, eliminating the data silos that often plague nonprofit organizations.
• Automated email workflows: HubSpot’s workflow builder lets nonprofits set up donor welcome series, lapsed donor re-engagement campaigns, and event follow-ups that trigger automatically based on specific actions within HubSpot, saving hours of manual outreach time.
• Native payment integration: HubSpot connects directly with Stripe or PayPal to process donations within the HubSpot ecosystem, automatically updating donor records in HubSpot’s CRM and triggering thank-you emails through HubSpot's email tools without manual data entry.

HubSpot Pricing (Operations Hub)

• Free Tools: $0/month
• Starter: $9/month
• Professional: $720/month
• Enterprise: $2,000/month

2. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud

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Best for: Large nonprofits and foundations managing complex programs, multiple funding sources, and enterprise-level reporting requirements.

Key Salesforce Features

• Grant management module: Track multi-year grants with automated milestone reminders and compliance reporting.
• Program impact tracking: Connect beneficiaries to programs and outcomes in real-time.
• AppExchange integrations: Access nonprofit-specific apps for peer-to-peer fundraising or form submission platforms for complex application forms, all syncing seamlessly with your core database.

Salesforce Pricing

• Power of Us Program: 10 free licenses
• Additional Nonprofit Cloud Enterprise licenses: $60/user/month
• Nonprofit Cloud (Unlimited Edition): $100/user/month
• Nonprofit Cloud Agentforce 1: $325/user/month

3. Bloomerang

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Best for: Small to mid-sized nonprofits focused on improving donor retention rates and understanding giving patterns.

Key Bloomerang Features

• Retention dashboard: Visual analytics showing donor retention rates by segment.
• Engagement timeline: See every interaction with a donor chronologically, from event attendance to email opens.
• Wealth screening integration: Built-in connection to DonorSearch automatically identifies major gift prospects.

Bloomerang Pricing

• Qgiv by Bloomerang: $40/month
• Bloomerang CRM: $125/month
• Bloomerang Volunteer: $119/month

4. Keela

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Best for: Established nonprofits running diverse fundraising campaigns from events to peer-to-peer while maintaining clean financial records.

Key DonorPerfect Features

• Smart Ask AI: Predicts optimal donation amounts for each donor based on giving history and capacity.
• Automated donor journeys: Design multi-step communication flows that adapt to donor behavior.
• Built-in email marketing: Create, send, and track email campaigns without leaving the CRM, with automatic list segmentation based on giving patterns.

Keela Pricing

• 1,000 contacts: $134/month
• 1,001 to 2,500 contacts: $209/month
• 5,001 to 7,500 contacts: $329/month
• 7,500 to 10,000 contacts: $379/month

5. Little Green Light

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Best for: Grassroots organizations and small nonprofits needing professional donor management without complexity or high costs.

Key Little Green Light Features

• Simplified gift entry: Batch gift entry and automated soft credits to make recording donations from fundraising events quick.
• Constituent workflows: Create custom pipelines for volunteer recruitment, board nominations, or major gift cultivation.
• Email integration via Mailchimp: Sync constituent data with Mailchimp for sophisticated email campaigns while maintaining gift history in LGL.

Little Green Light Pricing

• 2,500 contacts: $45/month
• 5,000 contacts: $60/month
• 10,000 contacts: $75/month
• 20,000 contacts: $90/month

Benefits of CRM Software for Nonprofits

Eliminate Donor Data Silos for Complete Relationship Visibility

Nonprofits often track donor information across disconnected spreadsheets, email platforms, and paper files, making it impossible to see a donor’s full engagement history. However, HubSpot’s unified CRM platform solves this by centralizing every interaction, from the first website visit to a significant gift, event attendance, and volunteer hours, in one searchable database.

HubSpot’s contact timeline feature means any staff member can instantly access a donor's complete history before making a call, writing a grant report, or planning the next ask. Unlike fragmented systems from competing CRMs, HubSpot automatically connects website activity, email engagement, donation history, and event participation into comprehensive donor profiles that update as changes happen.

Automate Repetitive Tasks to Focus on Mission-Critical Work

Development teams waste countless hours on manual tasks like sending donation receipts, updating spreadsheets after events, and creating thank-you letters. HubSpot’s workflow automation eliminates these time-consuming processes by triggering actions based on donor behavior — donation receipts send instantly through HubSpot’s email tools, donor records update automatically when someone registers for an event via HubSpot Forms, and personalized thank-you sequences launch based on gift size.

With HubSpot’s Marketing Hub, nonprofits can build complex automation sequences that previously required manual intervention.

Improve Donor Retention Through Data-Driven Insights

Most nonprofits struggle to identify which supporters are at risk of lapsing before it’s too late to re-engage them. HubSpot’s custom dashboards and contact scoring capabilities provide retention analytics that flag at-risk donors automatically based on engagement patterns and giving history.

HubSpot’s reporting tools allow staff to create saved views showing who hasn’t given in 13 months, whose email engagement is declining, or which monthly donors have failed payments. Combined with HubSpot's list segmentation, these insights trigger automated re-engagement campaigns through HubSpot Workflows, enabling proactive outreach that saves relationships before donors fully disengage.

Scale Fundraising Efforts Without Adding Staff

Small nonprofit teams need to manage increasingly complex fundraising campaigns — from peer-to-peer to events to major gifts — without the budget to hire additional staff. HubSpot enables small teams to run sophisticated multi-channel campaigns through its all-in-one platform, where one person can:

• Manage a peer-to-peer campaign for hundreds of fundraisers using HubSpot’s campaign tools
• Send segmented email appeals to thousands through HubSpot’s drag-and-drop email builder
• Track event RSVPs via HubSpot Forms

HubSpot’s templates and cloning features mean successful campaigns can be replicated instantly, while its automation handles follow-ups, reminders, and donor journeys that previously required an entire department. The platform’s free tier supporting up to 1 million contacts means even resource-constrained nonprofits can access enterprise-level capabilities through HubSpot.

Ensure Financial Accuracy and Compliance Across Teams

When development and finance teams use different systems, gift totals rarely match, making board reports unreliable and audit preparation nightmarish. HubSpot’s Operations Hub and native integrations with accounting software like QuickBooks ensure gift data flows seamlessly between fundraising and financial systems, eliminating discrepancies.

HubSpot’s custom reporting builder means that the development campaign totals always match the finance books because both pull from the same source of truth. Additionally, grant reports in HubSpot pull accurate data automatically using filtered views, and year-end tax receipts are generated error-free through HubSpot’s document automation, protecting donor trust and organizational compliance while saving weeks of manual reconciliation during audit season.

5 Important Features for a Nonprofit CRM

1. Donor retention analytics and engagement scoring: Track retention rates by segment, identify lapsing donors, and monitor engagement trends over time. HubSpot’s custom dashboards and contact scoring features help nonprofits address the critical challenge of keeping donors engaged year after year. At the same time, its activity timeline shows every touchpoint — from email opens to donation history — to inform personalized outreach strategies.
2. Multi-channel fundraising integration: Seamlessly manage donations across websites, peer-to-peer campaigns, events, and text-to-give from one platform. HubSpot’s Forms tool captures donations from any channel. At the same time, its Workflows automatically route gifts to the correct campaign and update donor records in real-time, ensuring every gift from galas, Facebook fundraisers, or direct mail flows into unified contact records without manual entry.
3. Automated gift processing and acknowledgment: Instantly process donations, send tax receipts, and trigger personalized thank-you messages based on gift size or campaign. HubSpot’s native Stripe and PayPal integrations and its Marketing Hub automation exemplify how nonprofits can acknowledge donors within minutes, not days, using personalized email sequences that adapt based on donation amount and donor history.
4. Grant and program management modules: Track multi-year grants, program outcomes, and beneficiary data to demonstrate impact to funders. Plus, HubSpot’s custom objects and properties allow organizations to build grant tracking systems. At the same time, its reporting tools automate compliance dashboards and connect program activities directly to funding sources — all without leaving the HubSpot ecosystem.
5. Financial system integration and reporting: Sync donation data with QuickBooks, generate IRS-compliant reports, and ensure the development and finance teams work from identical numbers. HubSpot’s Operations Hub and native integrations eliminate duplicate entry and reconciliation headaches that plague nonprofits during audit season, while its custom report builder maintains accurate financial records for board reporting.

How to Choose a CRM for Nonprofits (Step-by-Step)

Step 1: Map your workflows.

Firstly, start by documenting your organization’s key processes, such as:

• How donations move from first contact to thank-you letter
• How volunteers get recruited and scheduled
• How events flow from planning to post-event follow-up

Then, include every team member who touches donor data, from development to programs to finance. This exercise reveals where manual handoffs slow you down and where automation could multiply your impact.

Step 2: Identify must-have features.

Secondly, based on your workflow mapping, create a prioritized feature list. Most nonprofits need donor management and gift processing as basics, but your specific needs might include:

• Grant tracking for government-funded programs
• Volunteer management for service organizations
• Event tools for gala-heavy fundraisers

Once you’ve done this, distinguish between “must-haves” for day one and “nice-to-haves” you can add later.

Step 3: Compare ease of use and team fit.

Thirdly, request demos focusing on daily tasks your team performs most often, such as:

• Entering donations
• Pulling reports
• Sending acknowledgments

Pay attention to how many clicks each task requires and whether volunteers could learn the system quickly. However, also consider your team’s technical comfort level.

For example, Salesforce may offer powerful customization, but it requires hands-on training; conversely, Little Green Light provides simplicity for volunteer-run organizations but likely isn’t suited for enterprise-level nonprofits.

Step 4: Check cost at scale.

Next, calculate the total cost of ownership beyond monthly fees. Be sure to factor in the following:

• Number of user licenses needed
• Contact database growth (3 to 5 years is, typically, a good measurement timeline)
• Training and implementation costs
• Integration expenses for connecting existing tools

Remember that switching CRMs is disruptive — choose a platform you can afford as you grow, not just today.

Step 5: Choose a flexible platform — Like HubSpot.

Lastly, select a CRM that grows with your organization’s evolving needs. HubSpot exemplifies this flexibility: Back in 2020, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a leading non-profit, turned to HubSpot’s CMS to organize its biggest global campaign of the year, Earth Hour.

WWF sought to optimize its content strategy and, through segmenting its user base, increased audience engagement with Earth Hour-specific initiatives. By utilizing HubSpot’s Content Hub and Marketing Hub, World Wildlife Fund could centralize its website data and use that data to inform targeted email and social media strategies, ultimately leading to a 9,493% increase in newsletter signups.

WWF’s success with HubSpot’s tools proves that an investment in HubSpot isn’t just a tech stack investment. It’s an intentional step toward results-driven, personalized marketing that resonates with your supporters and drives long-term impact.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best CRM for nonprofits?

The best CRM for nonprofits depends on your organization’s size and needs. HubSpot offers the most potent combination of features and value with its robust free tier, which supports up to 1 million contacts. Its all-in-one platform provides the most flexibility for growing nonprofits.

What features should I look for in a CRM for nonprofits?

Essential nonprofit CRM features include:

• Donor management with giving history tracking
• Automated gift acknowledgments and tax receipts
• Multi-channel fundraising tools (online, events, peer-to-peer)
• Integration with accounting software
• Retention analytics to identify at-risk donors

HubSpot is well-equipped to manage all these areas while providing volunteer management, grant tracking, and built-in email marketing capabilities that many other CRMs charge extra for.

Is HubSpot good for nonprofits?

Yes, HubSpot is excellent for nonprofits, particularly growing organizations.

Its free tier provides comprehensive donor management, email marketing, and basic automation for up to 1 million contacts — unmatched in the industry. Additionally, the platform integrates payment processing, automates donor journeys, and scales affordably as you grow.

BTW: Many nonprofits start free and upgrade only when they need advanced features like workflow automation or custom reporting.

How much does a CRM for nonprofits cost?

Nonprofit CRM costs range from free to $600+ monthly. HubSpot offers the most generous free tier in the industry; its free tier supports unlimited users with up to 1 million contacts.

How long does it take to implement a nonprofit CRM?

Implementation timelines vary by system complexity and data volume. Thanks to its intuitive interface and free onboarding support, HubSpot typically goes live in 1-2 weeks, faster than most competitors. HubSpot’s quick-start programs and extensive knowledge base help nonprofits launch basic functionality within days.

Can multiple team members use a nonprofit CRM simultaneously?

Yes, CRMs are designed for team collaboration. HubSpot offers unlimited users even on its free plan, while most competitors charge per user.

The platform provides granular role permissions — development directors see everything while volunteers might only access event check-in. Unlike spreadsheet-based systems, HubSpot’s real-time updates ensure everyone works from current data with cloud-based access from any device, anywhere.

Meet HubSpot, the Top CRM Choice for Nonprofit Companies

HubSpot stands out as the premier CRM solution for nonprofits by offering enterprise-level capabilities at a price point that works for charitable organizations. Unlike traditional nonprofit software that charges based on donor count or requires expensive implementations, HubSpot provides a robust free tier supporting up to 1 million contacts, making it accessible to organizations of any size.

Key HubSpot Features for Nonprofits

• Free Forever foundation: Start with comprehensive donor management, email marketing, and form builders at no cost, then scale features as your budget allows without migrating platforms.
• Integrated fundraising workflows: Process donations through native Stripe/PayPal integrations while automatically triggering personalized thank-you sequences based on gift amount and donor history.
• 360-degree constituent view: Track every touchpoint from first website visit through significant gift in one timeline, ensuring any staff member can converse with supporters.

Proven Real-World Impact with HubSpot

HubSpot transformed British Red Cross Training’s ability to serve over 100,000 UK businesses with critical first aid and mental health training by replacing their technically complex systems with an integrated, user-friendly platform. Moreover, over two years, the nonprofit achieved a remarkable 66% revenue increase by shifting from costly paid advertising and cold calling to HubSpot’s inbound marketing strategy that automatically generates warm leads.

All-in-all, HubSpot’s true power lies in its flexibility — start free, pay only for what you need, and never outgrow your system. With built-in tools for volunteer management, event coordination, and impact reporting, HubSpot eliminates the need for multiple disconnected tools that drain your budget and staff time.

Ready to see how HubSpot can transform your nonprofit’s donor relationships? Get started with HubSpot’s free nonprofit tools today.

via Perfecte news Non connection

40+ buyer persona questions I ask to unlock better marketing results

I once launched a campaign that I thought was airtight. We had crisp messaging, strong visuals, and clear calls to action. But when results started coming in, everything underperformed — clicks, leads, pipeline. We’d missed the mark.

A few weeks later, I ran a round of buyer interviews with customers in that same segment. Turns out, we’d been speaking to the wrong pain points entirely. Their goals, decision process, and even language were different from what we’d assumed. Once we rewrote the campaign based on their actual input, performance jumped.

That experience changed how I approach marketing. Now, before building out messaging, launching a campaign, or creating new offers, I talk to real buyers. I don’t wait until after something goes wrong.

In this post, I’ll walk through the exact questions I ask during persona interviews and surveys, because the better your questions, the better your strategy.

Table of Contents

• Why conduct buyer persona interviews?
• 3 Key Benefits I’ve Seen from Real Buyer Persona Conversations
• Buyer Persona Questions I Ask in Interviews
• How I Turn Interviews Into Actionable Persona Templates
• What I’ve Learned from Buyer Persona Interviews

Why conduct buyer persona interviews?

Most marketers know who they’re targeting on paper. You’ve got a few demographic bullets, maybe some CRM data, and general behaviors from analytics tools. But that isn’t enough to build messaging that works.

Buyer interviews help fill in the blanks.

They give you direct insight into how people think, what motivates them, what frustrates them, and how they decide what to buy. And in my experience, that context is what turns a good strategy into a great one.

I’ve worked on campaigns where we assumed the product was being used for one purpose, only to find out in interviews that customers were solving a completely different problem.

I’ve sat in sales calls where the buyer’s top concern never even came up in our nurture content. These are the gaps you can fix when you ask better questions.

Persona interviews don’t replace your behavioral data or analytics — they make that data more actionable. Tools like GA4, HubSpot, and heat maps show you what people are doing. Interviews help you understand why.

They’re also a faster path to clarity. A single 30-minute conversation with the right person can reveal more than weeks of spreadsheet analysis. You can test messaging, uncover blockers, and prioritize based on real-world language, not marketing guesswork.

If your campaigns feel flat or disconnected, chances are you’re missing your buyer's voice. These interviews are how I bring it back into the process.

3 Key Benefits I’ve Seen from Real Buyer Persona Conversations

Over the years, buyer interviews have become one of the most valuable parts of my marketing process. They don’t take long, but the impact compounds. Here’s what’s changed for me since I started talking to real people before building campaigns.

I captured more high-quality leads.

I used to build lead magnets based on what I thought prospects wanted. Sometimes, they worked, but the conversion rate was always unpredictable.

Then I started asking buyers what resources helped them the most. Their answers surprised me — many weren’t looking for broad guides or “ultimate checklists.”

Buyers told me they valued quick-start templates, decision-making frameworks, and how-to content they could bring to meetings.

Once I aligned our offers with that feedback, our lead gen forms pulled more qualified submissions. In one campaign, switching the asset type and headline based on interview feedback lifted the conversion rate by 40%. Those leads also moved faster through the funnel and closed at higher rates.

I personalized the customer experience.

With clearer persona data, I could confidently tailor lifecycle content and flows. I used interview quotes and patterns to shape onboarding emails, nurture flows, and even in-app prompts.

I learned which pain points to address in the first email, understood what language resonated best on live chat, and built email sequences around the goals buyers actually mentioned in their interviews, not what I assumed they cared about.

It gave our sales team more relevant context and clarity. We rewrote email handoffs and discovery questions to match the buyer’s mindset. That made the experience more consistent across channels, which builds trust and speeds up decision-making.

I improved my bottom line.

Better leads and more relevant content didn’t just feel good — they showed up in the numbers. After applying persona insights across three campaigns, we saw our cost-per-lead drop by 28%. Our CAC came down, too, because sales spent less time on poor-fit leads.

We also saw a lift in retention. When marketing and customer success addressed the same core goals and challenges, new customers felt more supported and stayed longer.

None of that happened overnight. But each interview added something we could use: sharper messaging, clearer positioning, or a more aligned offer. And over time, those small improvements stacked up.

Buyer Persona Questions I Ask in Interviews

Once I’ve scheduled a persona interview, I keep the conversation relaxed and open-ended, but I always come in with a clear set of questions. These questions consistently give me useful insights that I can turn into better content, stronger messaging, and a more effective customer journey.

How I Run Interviews

I keep conversations to 30-45 minutes, typically over Zoom. I record them (with permission) and use tools like Fireflies or Grain to capture highlights. If I ask a lot, I’ll send a thank you gift or gift card. I show up with 5-10 key questions, but let the conversation unfold naturally.

My go-to first step is to speak with customers who’ve seen strong success. I also talk to churned customers, closed-lost leads, or high-fit prospects who didn’t convert. They offer unique insight into what’s missing or unclear.

When starting a new project, I usually aim for five to ten interviews, but even three solid conversations can surface patterns. The key is quality — look for repeated language, consistent goals, and shared challenges. Once those start showing up, you’re getting what you need.

Questions About Their Personal Background

These questions help build rapport and give me context on the person behind the role. I usually start here to ease into the conversation and pick up details that can later shape tone or storytelling.

• Can you tell me a little about your background? How did you end up in your current role?
• What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
• Are there any communities, personal interests, or side projects that matter to you professionally?
• How do you usually prefer to communicate — email, Slack, video, phone?

Questions About Their Company

Understanding the company context helps me match our messaging to buyers' environments. I want to know how their business runs, who they serve, and what constraints or opportunities might shape their decisions.

• How would you describe what your company does to someone outside your industry?
• What’s your team structure like?
• Who are your typical customers or clients?
• Are any major industry trends or pressures impacting your team right now?

Questions About Their Role

This section is where I dig into day-to-day responsibilities, challenges, and internal priorities. I’ve found that these questions often surface disconnects between how buyers talk about their work and how we typically market to them.

• What are you responsible for in your current role?
• What does success look like for you right now?
• What metrics or goals are you accountable for?
• What tools or platforms do you use regularly?
• What’s one thing you wish leadership better understood about your job?
• What’s been especially challenging for your team this quarter?

If someone gives a surface-level answer, I’ll gently follow up with: “Can you walk me through a recent example?” or “What made that especially challenging?” A little curiosity usually opens the door to richer insights.

Now that I have context on their background and responsibilities, I shift into understanding what they're aiming to achieve.

Questions About Buyer Goals

Understanding a buyer’s goals helps me position our product or service as a direct solution, not a nice-to-have. These questions uncover what success looks like from their perspective, so I can connect the dots between what we offer and what they actually care about achieving.

• What are your team’s biggest priorities this quarter?
• What goals are you personally measured against?
• Which business outcomes are you focused on right now?
• How do you track progress toward your goals?
• What would make this year a success for you?

Once I know what they’re working toward, I ask how they gather information, learn new skills, and explore new tools. This helps shape content formats and distribution channels.

Questions About How Buyers Learn

These questions give me insight into where and how buyers gather information, so I know where to show up — and how to show up — with content that resonates. The answers here often shape content format, channels, and partnerships.

• Where do you usually go to learn about [industry/topic]?
• Which newsletters, blogs, or creators do you follow regularly?
• Are there any events, podcasts, or communities you rely on to stay informed?
• Do you talk to peers or colleagues before making decisions?
• What’s the last piece of content that helped you make a decision?

Questions About Their Shopping Preferences

This part helps me map out the buying journey from their point of view—what moves them forward, what causes friction, and who’s involved. These answers are gold when aligning marketing with sales.

• What makes you trust a vendor or solution?
• How do you typically navigate a buying decision?
• Who else is usually involved in making the decision?
• How do you compare different options or vendors?
• What red flags make you walk away from a potential solution?

Once I understand how they buy, I shift the conversation to what drives those decisions: values, trust, and brand alignment.

Questions About Values

Buyers' values shape brand perception and long-term loyalty. These questions help me write messaging that aligns with what matters to them, beyond just product features.

• What values matter most to you in a business relationship?
• What does a trustworthy brand look like to you?
• Are any social, environmental, or ethical factors influencing your decisions?
• How important is transparency from vendors or partners?
• What kind of company culture do you like to work with?

Questions About Pains and Challenges

This is where the best messaging comes from. Buyers are more motivated to fix pain than pursue gains, so these questions help surface the friction they’re feeling right now and what they’ve already tried to solve it.

• What’s the most frustrating part of your job right now?
• Where do you feel like you’re wasting time or resources?
• What’s a problem you’ve tried to solve but haven’t cracked yet?
• What slows you down during a typical workday?
• What’s one tool or process you wish worked better?

To round out the picture, I ask about the broader environment they’re working in — things like tools, systems, and organizational shifts that shape their daily work.

Questions About Their Environment

I use these questions to understand what’s happening around the buyer that might influence their decisions — team changes, tech stack limitations, budget cycles, or industry trends.

• What tools or platforms do you use daily?
• Are there any big shifts happening in your company or industry?
• Is your team growing, staying flat, or changing direction?
• How do you typically learn about or adopt new tools internally?
• What’s your current process for evaluating new solutions?

How I Turn Interviews Into Actionable Persona Templates

When I collect buyer insights from interviews or surveys, I organize those insights into a clean, usable profile my entire team can work from — whether it’s for content, product, or sales.

If you’re looking for a fast, intuitive way to do this, try HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool. It walks you through each step and outputs a customizable persona you can share across your org.

You can also download free Buyer Persona Templates to get started, as well.

Source

How I typically build personas:

• Group key insights by role, goals, and challenges.
• Pull direct quotes that reflect how buyers actually speak.
• Highlight blockers, motivators, and decision influencers.
• Build 1-2 profiles that represent the most valuable segments.
• Update personas at least twice a year, or whenever we launch something new.

I revisit these profiles regularly to keep our messaging sharp and aligned.

What I’ve Learned from Buyer Persona Interviews

I’ve done a lot of buyer interviews over the years — across industries, products, and funnel stages. And I can say with confidence: they’re always worth it.

Persona interviews are my shortcut to campaigns that convert.

They help me write with clarity, not guesswork.

They give sales a stronger starting point and make handoffs smoother.

They create alignment across teams without endless meetings.

And you don’t need dozens. Just a few real conversations can shift your entire strategy.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

from Marketing https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-questions

I once launched a campaign that I thought was airtight. We had crisp messaging, strong visuals, and clear calls to action. But when results started coming in, everything underperformed — clicks, leads, pipeline. We’d missed the mark.

A few weeks later, I ran a round of buyer interviews with customers in that same segment. Turns out, we’d been speaking to the wrong pain points entirely. Their goals, decision process, and even language were different from what we’d assumed. Once we rewrote the campaign based on their actual input, performance jumped.

That experience changed how I approach marketing. Now, before building out messaging, launching a campaign, or creating new offers, I talk to real buyers. I don’t wait until after something goes wrong.

In this post, I’ll walk through the exact questions I ask during persona interviews and surveys, because the better your questions, the better your strategy.

Table of Contents

• Why conduct buyer persona interviews?
• 3 Key Benefits I’ve Seen from Real Buyer Persona Conversations
• Buyer Persona Questions I Ask in Interviews
• How I Turn Interviews Into Actionable Persona Templates
• What I’ve Learned from Buyer Persona Interviews

Why conduct buyer persona interviews?

Most marketers know who they’re targeting on paper. You’ve got a few demographic bullets, maybe some CRM data, and general behaviors from analytics tools. But that isn’t enough to build messaging that works.

Buyer interviews help fill in the blanks.

They give you direct insight into how people think, what motivates them, what frustrates them, and how they decide what to buy. And in my experience, that context is what turns a good strategy into a great one.

I’ve worked on campaigns where we assumed the product was being used for one purpose, only to find out in interviews that customers were solving a completely different problem.

I’ve sat in sales calls where the buyer’s top concern never even came up in our nurture content. These are the gaps you can fix when you ask better questions.

Persona interviews don’t replace your behavioral data or analytics — they make that data more actionable. Tools like GA4, HubSpot, and heat maps show you what people are doing. Interviews help you understand why.

They’re also a faster path to clarity. A single 30-minute conversation with the right person can reveal more than weeks of spreadsheet analysis. You can test messaging, uncover blockers, and prioritize based on real-world language, not marketing guesswork.

If your campaigns feel flat or disconnected, chances are you’re missing your buyer's voice. These interviews are how I bring it back into the process.

3 Key Benefits I’ve Seen from Real Buyer Persona Conversations

Over the years, buyer interviews have become one of the most valuable parts of my marketing process. They don’t take long, but the impact compounds. Here’s what’s changed for me since I started talking to real people before building campaigns.

I captured more high-quality leads.

I used to build lead magnets based on what I thought prospects wanted. Sometimes, they worked, but the conversion rate was always unpredictable.

Then I started asking buyers what resources helped them the most. Their answers surprised me — many weren’t looking for broad guides or “ultimate checklists.”

Buyers told me they valued quick-start templates, decision-making frameworks, and how-to content they could bring to meetings.

Once I aligned our offers with that feedback, our lead gen forms pulled more qualified submissions. In one campaign, switching the asset type and headline based on interview feedback lifted the conversion rate by 40%. Those leads also moved faster through the funnel and closed at higher rates.

I personalized the customer experience.

With clearer persona data, I could confidently tailor lifecycle content and flows. I used interview quotes and patterns to shape onboarding emails, nurture flows, and even in-app prompts.

I learned which pain points to address in the first email, understood what language resonated best on live chat, and built email sequences around the goals buyers actually mentioned in their interviews, not what I assumed they cared about.

It gave our sales team more relevant context and clarity. We rewrote email handoffs and discovery questions to match the buyer’s mindset. That made the experience more consistent across channels, which builds trust and speeds up decision-making.

I improved my bottom line.

Better leads and more relevant content didn’t just feel good — they showed up in the numbers. After applying persona insights across three campaigns, we saw our cost-per-lead drop by 28%. Our CAC came down, too, because sales spent less time on poor-fit leads.

We also saw a lift in retention. When marketing and customer success addressed the same core goals and challenges, new customers felt more supported and stayed longer.

None of that happened overnight. But each interview added something we could use: sharper messaging, clearer positioning, or a more aligned offer. And over time, those small improvements stacked up.

Buyer Persona Questions I Ask in Interviews

Once I’ve scheduled a persona interview, I keep the conversation relaxed and open-ended, but I always come in with a clear set of questions. These questions consistently give me useful insights that I can turn into better content, stronger messaging, and a more effective customer journey.

How I Run Interviews

I keep conversations to 30-45 minutes, typically over Zoom. I record them (with permission) and use tools like Fireflies or Grain to capture highlights. If I ask a lot, I’ll send a thank you gift or gift card. I show up with 5-10 key questions, but let the conversation unfold naturally.

My go-to first step is to speak with customers who’ve seen strong success. I also talk to churned customers, closed-lost leads, or high-fit prospects who didn’t convert. They offer unique insight into what’s missing or unclear.

When starting a new project, I usually aim for five to ten interviews, but even three solid conversations can surface patterns. The key is quality — look for repeated language, consistent goals, and shared challenges. Once those start showing up, you’re getting what you need.

Questions About Their Personal Background

These questions help build rapport and give me context on the person behind the role. I usually start here to ease into the conversation and pick up details that can later shape tone or storytelling.

• Can you tell me a little about your background? How did you end up in your current role?
• What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
• Are there any communities, personal interests, or side projects that matter to you professionally?
• How do you usually prefer to communicate — email, Slack, video, phone?

Questions About Their Company

Understanding the company context helps me match our messaging to buyers' environments. I want to know how their business runs, who they serve, and what constraints or opportunities might shape their decisions.

• How would you describe what your company does to someone outside your industry?
• What’s your team structure like?
• Who are your typical customers or clients?
• Are any major industry trends or pressures impacting your team right now?

Questions About Their Role

This section is where I dig into day-to-day responsibilities, challenges, and internal priorities. I’ve found that these questions often surface disconnects between how buyers talk about their work and how we typically market to them.

• What are you responsible for in your current role?
• What does success look like for you right now?
• What metrics or goals are you accountable for?
• What tools or platforms do you use regularly?
• What’s one thing you wish leadership better understood about your job?
• What’s been especially challenging for your team this quarter?

If someone gives a surface-level answer, I’ll gently follow up with: “Can you walk me through a recent example?” or “What made that especially challenging?” A little curiosity usually opens the door to richer insights.

Now that I have context on their background and responsibilities, I shift into understanding what they're aiming to achieve.

Questions About Buyer Goals

Understanding a buyer’s goals helps me position our product or service as a direct solution, not a nice-to-have. These questions uncover what success looks like from their perspective, so I can connect the dots between what we offer and what they actually care about achieving.

• What are your team’s biggest priorities this quarter?
• What goals are you personally measured against?
• Which business outcomes are you focused on right now?
• How do you track progress toward your goals?
• What would make this year a success for you?

Once I know what they’re working toward, I ask how they gather information, learn new skills, and explore new tools. This helps shape content formats and distribution channels.

Questions About How Buyers Learn

These questions give me insight into where and how buyers gather information, so I know where to show up — and how to show up — with content that resonates. The answers here often shape content format, channels, and partnerships.

• Where do you usually go to learn about [industry/topic]?
• Which newsletters, blogs, or creators do you follow regularly?
• Are there any events, podcasts, or communities you rely on to stay informed?
• Do you talk to peers or colleagues before making decisions?
• What’s the last piece of content that helped you make a decision?

Questions About Their Shopping Preferences

This part helps me map out the buying journey from their point of view—what moves them forward, what causes friction, and who’s involved. These answers are gold when aligning marketing with sales.

• What makes you trust a vendor or solution?
• How do you typically navigate a buying decision?
• Who else is usually involved in making the decision?
• How do you compare different options or vendors?
• What red flags make you walk away from a potential solution?

Once I understand how they buy, I shift the conversation to what drives those decisions: values, trust, and brand alignment.

Questions About Values

Buyers' values shape brand perception and long-term loyalty. These questions help me write messaging that aligns with what matters to them, beyond just product features.

• What values matter most to you in a business relationship?
• What does a trustworthy brand look like to you?
• Are any social, environmental, or ethical factors influencing your decisions?
• How important is transparency from vendors or partners?
• What kind of company culture do you like to work with?

Questions About Pains and Challenges

This is where the best messaging comes from. Buyers are more motivated to fix pain than pursue gains, so these questions help surface the friction they’re feeling right now and what they’ve already tried to solve it.

• What’s the most frustrating part of your job right now?
• Where do you feel like you’re wasting time or resources?
• What’s a problem you’ve tried to solve but haven’t cracked yet?
• What slows you down during a typical workday?
• What’s one tool or process you wish worked better?

To round out the picture, I ask about the broader environment they’re working in — things like tools, systems, and organizational shifts that shape their daily work.

Questions About Their Environment

I use these questions to understand what’s happening around the buyer that might influence their decisions — team changes, tech stack limitations, budget cycles, or industry trends.

• What tools or platforms do you use daily?
• Are there any big shifts happening in your company or industry?
• Is your team growing, staying flat, or changing direction?
• How do you typically learn about or adopt new tools internally?
• What’s your current process for evaluating new solutions?

How I Turn Interviews Into Actionable Persona Templates

When I collect buyer insights from interviews or surveys, I organize those insights into a clean, usable profile my entire team can work from — whether it’s for content, product, or sales.

If you’re looking for a fast, intuitive way to do this, try HubSpot’s Make My Persona tool. It walks you through each step and outputs a customizable persona you can share across your org.

You can also download free Buyer Persona Templates to get started, as well.

Source

How I typically build personas:

• Group key insights by role, goals, and challenges.
• Pull direct quotes that reflect how buyers actually speak.
• Highlight blockers, motivators, and decision influencers.
• Build 1-2 profiles that represent the most valuable segments.
• Update personas at least twice a year, or whenever we launch something new.

I revisit these profiles regularly to keep our messaging sharp and aligned.

What I’ve Learned from Buyer Persona Interviews

I’ve done a lot of buyer interviews over the years — across industries, products, and funnel stages. And I can say with confidence: they’re always worth it.

Persona interviews are my shortcut to campaigns that convert.

They help me write with clarity, not guesswork.

They give sales a stronger starting point and make handoffs smoother.

They create alignment across teams without endless meetings.

And you don’t need dozens. Just a few real conversations can shift your entire strategy.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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