Mailchimp
Mailchimp is an email and marketing platform for newsletters, audience management, signup forms, landing pages, basic customer journeys, segmentation, and campaign reporting. For nonprofits, it can be useful when the main need is regular supporter communication rather than a full donor CRM.
- Type
- Software
- Monthly cost, 2,500 contacts
- $38.25Essentials, after 15% nonprofit discount ($45 list)
- Nonprofit terms
- Not required for general use
- Last reviewed
- July 15, 2026
What is Mailchimp?
Mailchimp can be a practical email marketing option for nonprofits that need newsletters, supporter updates, signup forms, basic automation, and campaign reporting. Use this page to decide whether Mailchimp is enough for your communication workflow, what costs and limits to verify, and when your organization may need a more CRM-connected platform.
Best For
Best for small to growing nonprofits that need a familiar email marketing tool for newsletters, appeals, event updates, volunteer communication, and simple automated journeys. It fits teams that want approachable campaign tools but should still review contact limits, plan features, and integration needs carefully.
Where it stands out
Mailchimp includes landing pages on every plan, including free, and connects to donor tools such as Kindful.
Good fit if: You want a well-known tool your volunteers may already know, with many integrations.
Watch for: Unsubscribed contacts still count toward your plan; the free plan sends 500 emails a month and keeps Mailchimp branding.
Monthly cost, 2,500 contacts: $38.25 (Essentials, after 15% nonprofit discount ($45 list))
Key Features
- Create newsletters, fundraising appeals, event announcements, volunteer updates, and segmented supporter communications
- Manage audiences using contact fields, tags, segments, signup forms, imports, and unsubscribe controls
- Build basic automated journeys such as welcome emails, onboarding sequences, reminders, and re-engagement messages
- Use landing pages, forms, templates, brand tools, and campaign design features to support outreach without a custom build
- Review campaign performance with opens, clicks, audience activity, reports, and integration data where available
How It Fits
- Learning curve
- Mailchimp is generally approachable for newsletters and basic campaigns, but list hygiene, consent, segmentation, templates, automations, and reporting still require ownership.
- Setup timeShort to moderate
- A simple newsletter setup can be quick, but reliable nonprofit use needs sender authentication, signup forms, audience fields, tags, templates, integrations, and unsubscribe/compliance review.
- Organization sizeSmall to growing nonprofits
- A practical fit for teams that need email marketing and basic journeys without adopting a larger marketing automation platform immediately.
- Technical skillLow to moderate
- Non-technical staff can manage campaigns, but someone should understand contact imports, tagging, consent, integrations, deliverability basics, and reports.
Before You Sign Up
Cost and access
This listing does not confirm a current Mailchimp nonprofit discount. Mailchimp pricing and plan rules can change, and a previously indexed nonprofit help page returned 404 during review. Confirm any nonprofit terms, discounts, or eligibility directly with Mailchimp before subscribing.
Eligibility and availability
General Mailchimp availability does not usually require nonprofit status, but discounts, billing terms, data rules, and feature access may vary. Confirm whether Mailchimp fits your consent process, donor platform, CRM, website forms, data export needs, and country-specific compliance obligations.
Check before you apply
- Whether current Mailchimp contact tiers, email send limits, plan features, and support levels match your budget
- Whether your nonprofit needs only newsletters and simple journeys or a deeper CRM-connected marketing platform
- How donor, volunteer, event, and website contacts will sync without creating duplicate or poorly tagged records
- Whether your team can maintain consent, unsubscribe handling, audience cleanup, sender authentication, and deliverability basics
- Whether required automations, advanced segmentation, reporting, or branding controls are included in the plan you choose