Effective budgeting is vital for nonprofit organizations, ensuring transparency, compliance, and mission alignment amidst complex financial and accounting demands. Unlike for-profits, most nonprofits face challenges like restricted donations, tracking diverse funding sources, and maintaining precise records under rigorous public inspections.
Nonprofit accounting software streamlines fund accounting, financial health, and reporting requirements while meeting regulatory standards.
In this article, we took the liberty to list the top 10 budgeting software solutions for nonprofits in 2025, showcasing how these tools empower nonprofits to achieve operational excellence and maintain their commitment to transparency and accountability.
Nonprofit accounting has unique budgeting needs compared to for-profit accounting. While for-profits prioritize revenue and profit through sales and investments, nonprofits focus on social services and cost reduction, relying primarily on donations, grants, and occasional service revenue.
Here are key reasons highlighting the importance of budgeting software for nonprofits:
Budgeting software is designed to track income, maintain grant records, and track donations and services. It provides detailed insights into resource allocation, enabling nonprofits to manage funds efficiently across programs and operations.
This functionality ensures transparency and helps organizations meet internal objectives and external reporting requirements precisely.
Budgeting tools automate data entry and integrate with financial systems, consolidating information efficiently. By eliminating repetitive tasks and reducing errors, they save time and resources.
Nonprofits can focus on strategic goals while maintaining accurate financial records without the burden of manual processes or disparate data sources.
Real-time data insights in budgeting software help nonprofits anticipate future financial needs. These tools support strategic planning by identifying trends, projecting expenses, and optimizing fund allocation.
This foresight enables organizations to adapt to changing circumstances while ensuring sustainable operations aligned with their mission.
Transparency is vital for nonprofits to maintain trust. Nonprofit accounting software generates precise financial reports, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and donor expectations while meeting the reporting requirements.
By fostering accounting needs, the best nonprofit accounting software helps organizations build stakeholder confidence and demonstrate effective stewardship of restricted funds of a nonprofit.
Modern budgeting platforms offer scalable accounting software to support team access to financial data, allowing multiple users to collaborate simultaneously.
This must-have feature ensures departments align on financial priorities and improves overall decision-making. Enhanced team collaboration leads to a unified approach to achieving the objectives of large nonprofit organizations.
Budgeting software helps nonprofits monitor spending and maintain financial health. Nonprofit accounting software like Limelight can help organizations identify cost-saving opportunities by tracking real-time budgets and avoiding overspending.
Limelight offers excellent budgeting options for organizations.
You can watch what Braxton Cahiill, Controller at Community Initiatives has to say about using Limelight for their nonprofit budgeting requirements.
Managing finances in nonprofit organizations is uniquely complex, with priorities like transparency, compliance, and accountability taking precedence over profit.
Relying on spreadsheets can be error-prone and time-consuming, making nonprofit budgeting software indispensable.
This table briefly outlines the best nonprofit budgeting software solutions in 2025, showcasing their features and benefits:
|
Budgeting Software |
Customer Support |
Implementation Support |
Compliance & Reporting |
|
Limelight |
Extensive support, including demos, email contacts, and individual support on customer portals |
Provides dedicated pre-built solutions for the nonprofit industry |
Extensive reporting solutions are available |
|
Vena |
Offers extensive customer support, from support sessions to call support Provides standard and premium support plans |
Implementation takes time, as no dedicated solution is available for the nonprofit industry |
Uses Excel on the front end to maintain a user-friendly interface and offer detailed reporting |
|
Workday Adaptive Insights |
Offers many options for customer support and problem resolutions |
Offers dedicated solutions for the nonprofit industry |
Provides detailed options for reporting and analytics |
|
Prophix |
Real-time support is available for problem redressal |
Offers dedicated solutions for the nonprofit industry |
Provides many options for reporting and analytics for all members of the team |
|
Cube |
Basic customer support with a form submission |
Offers customized FP&A solutions for the nonprofit industry |
Unique reporting and analytics solutions |
Let’s delve further into the details of these top nonprofit budgeting software and more.
Limelight stands out as a powerful budgeting software tailored to address the complexities of nonprofit financial management.
Hear it from our clients!
Its real-time data integration and advanced analytics provide nonprofits with the tools to manage restricted funds, streamline donor reporting, and ensure compliance. In addition, it enhances nonprofit financial planning accuracy and efficiency.
In January 2024, Limelight launched its new analytical engine. This cutting-edge enhancement allows teams to create models to improve financial position, forecasts, budgeting capabilities, and financial reporting requirements.
Communication Service for the Deaf, a nonprofit organization in Austin, Texas, used Limelight for efficient financial management, replacing cumbersome Excel workflows. The platform’s real-time data integration, advanced analytics, and Excel-like interface enabled streamlined donor reporting, restricted fund tracking, and compliance.
Limelight empowered CSD with confidence, collaboration, and strategic decision-making for a more significant impact.
Take a quick product tour now to learn how Limelight can help you.
Limelight’s pricing begins at $1,450 monthly on a subscription basis, accommodating as few as five users and scaling seamlessly with additional licenses as your organization expands.
Discounts are offered for bulk purchases and nonprofit organizations.
Ready-to-use FP&A packages are available at a fixed, one-time fee.
The pricing covers unrestricted accounting features and data usage, ensuring scalability and cost-effectiveness for organizations of all sizes.
Vena is a budgeting solution that combines familiarity with Excel’s interface and robust financial planning tools. It simplifies the budgeting process by offering intuitive workflows, enabling nonprofits to create detailed budgets tailored to their unique requirements.
Vena also supports forecasting by showing how changes to key drivers impact financial performance.
Also read: Looking for a Vena Alternative? Here are our top picks
Vena offers two pricing plans:
Vena offers special pricing for not for profit organizations, which can be discussed with an expert.
TrustRadius: 8.6/10 (351 reviews)
G2: 4.6/5 (315 reviews)
Workday Adaptive Insights is a budgeting and planning solution to streamline nonprofit financial processes. It integrates advanced financial planning features like real-time forecasting, scenario modeling, and collaboration tools, making it suitable for organizations managing complex budgets.
This software is useful for nonprofits already utilizing other Workday tools as it integrates seamlessly within the ecosystem.
Workday Adaptive Insights offers the following plans:
A 30-day free trial is also offered, which includes a guided walkthrough of core planning capabilities, and a step-by-step guide for planning, reporting, and dashboards.
Prophix is a budgeting platform designed for nonprofits. It streamlines financial processes, offering planning, forecasting, and reporting tools. Nonprofit teams can simplify financial management, manage budgets accurately, and make informed decisions to support their mission.
Prophix does not disclose its pricing model publicly but provides a call-to-ask pricing model.
Cube relies heavily on spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets for budgeting. By automating data consolidation and offering multi-scenario analysis, Cube empowers nonprofit finance teams to efficiently manage budgets, simulate different financial conditions, and improve decision-making while maintaining the familiarity of traditional spreadsheet tools.
Also Read: Looking for Cube alternatives? Here are our top picks
Starts at $2,000 per month
Planful is a cloud-based financial management platform tailored to nonprofit organizations. It simplifies budgeting, reporting, and planning, helping nonprofits reduce reliance on manual processes and improve efficiency.
While Planful supports effective decision-making, it may only partially meet the needs of larger nonprofits, requiring advanced financial consolidation and detailed reporting capabilities.
Planful does not publicly offer its nonprofit budgeting software’s pricing model.
Jedox is a flexible financial planning and performance management platform tailored to help nonprofit organizations streamline their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting processes. With its Excel-like interface, no-code AI capabilities, and seamless data integration, Jedox empowers nonprofit finance teams to optimize their financial operations and make data-driven decisions to support their mission.
Jedox does not provide publicly available pricing models but offers three pricing tiers:
Datarails is a financial planning and analysis (FP&A) platform designed to automate financial reporting and planning. Integrating seamlessly with Microsoft Excel allows finance teams to use their familiar spreadsheets while benefiting from the platform’s automation capabilities.
This enables them to spend less time gathering data and more time analyzing it to drive strategic decision-making. With features like reporting automation, data consolidation, and advanced analytics, Datarails empowers finance teams to answer critical business questions such as increasing revenue and reducing costs.
Datarails does not provide specific pricing information on its website. Pricing is available upon request and is likely tailored based on the size of the business and the level of service required.
Anaplan is a powerful cloud-based platform designed for business planning and performance management. It enables organizations to execute financial, operational, and sales plans by integrating and analyzing data in real-time.
Known for its in-memory calculation engine, Anaplan is favored by companies looking to streamline their decision-making processes, improve collaboration, and enhance their forecasting abilities. The software supports various use cases across finance, sales, supply chain, and human resources, with the flexibility to scale from small teams to large enterprises.
Anaplan offers customized pricing based on the business's specific needs, including the number of users, modules, and data volume. The platform does not list a fixed price publicly but generally works on a subscription model. The cost can be high, especially for larger organizations that need extensive functionalities and data storage.
Also read: Anaplan Vs Limelight
Jirav is a budgeting tool that caters to nonprofits of all sizes, offering comprehensive financial planning, real-time forecasting, and scenario modeling. Its flexibility and ease of use makes it useful for organizations looking to improve operational efficiency while simplifying their budgeting and financial processes.
Jirav offers two plans:
|
Plans |
3 scenarios |
|
Departments |
5 departments |
|
Users |
5 administrators |
|
Forecast Duration |
3 years |
|
Integrations |
Basic |
|
$20,000+ |
|
Plans |
Starting at 5 |
|
Departments |
Up to 50 |
|
Users |
Up to 35 administrators |
|
Forecast Duration |
Starting at 5 years |
|
Integrations |
Advanced |
|
Customized quote |
While using budgeting software offers many benefits to nonprofits, it is essential to opt for the right nonprofit budgeting software in order to extract the most out of the chosen software. Here are some key factors nonprofits should research before purchasing nonprofit budgeting software for the FP&A requirements:
A nonprofit should build a robust list of features it needs in its budgeting software, depending upon its services and sources of fund acquisition. In general, your list would contain the following features when choosing the best nonprofit accounting software:
For example, Limelight’s ready-to-use FP&A software templates for nonprofit organizations offer features like reporting, budgeting, financial analysis, etc., tailored to nonprofit organizations' requirements.
Cost-effectiveness and reductions are key financial goals in any nonprofit’s operations. Therefore, nonprofits should try the software before dedicating their funds to any particular software or opt for a free plan of the software.
A nonprofit must clarify the pricing of the budgeting software they purchase because of their limited resources. (Subscription is typically annual and many offer nonprofit discounts)There is the software pricing and onboarding / implementation price)
So, the individual handling the purchase on behalf of the nonprofit must clarify the specific costs based on their needs.
It will benefit the nonprofit to choose a software provider that offers essential training to ensure smooth adoption.
Look for software providers that provide helpful resources such as tutorials, webinars, documentation, or an accessible knowledge base to support the nonprofit team.
Limelight is a premier budgeting software for nonprofits, offering extensive financial modeling capabilities. With real-time data integration, customizable financial models, and an intuitive and user-friendly interface, it provides a powerful, seamless solution tailored to nonprofit organizations' unique and diverse needs.
Its advanced ERP integration ensures accurate, efficient financial forecasting, while collaborative features and custom templates empower teams of all scales to work effectively.
Get a personalized demo of Limelight's FP&A software. Book a demo today and revolutionize your budget planning process.