Kit vs. Mailchimp: The Full Breakdown For Nonprofits
Nonprofit leader, I know how tight budgets can be when building your nonprofit. It’s tempting to sign up for all of the free options and platforms. But let me ask you this: are you using them because they’re budget-friendly, or are you using them because they’re actually helping you move your mission forward?
When it comes to your email marketing platform, there’s no room to skimp or stay on clunky platforms longer than you should. I see this all the time with Mailchimp. Nonprofit leaders sign up because they hear there’s a free plan. But when they reach the subscriber limit on Mailchimp? They’re shelling out dough for an email editor that should have been left in the aughts, and analytics that don’t allow you to get granular on donor behavior or subscriber preferences.
That’s why I recommend Kit.
When I started my business, I used Mailchimp’s free version for way longer than I should have, with little value and customization when it came to templates and subscriber tags. Choosing the “right” email marketing platform for your nonprofit can feel overwhelming, so allow me (and Kit’s AWESOME deal) to make it easy for you.
Timely note: Mailchimp is raising prices soon. If you're evaluating Kit as an alternative, new customers get 25% off annual plans through April 30, plus dedicated migration support. Get the details here.
Is Kit right for my Nonprofit?
Email marketing is one of the most effective marketing strategies for nonprofits. You can’t allow just any platform to hold that power for you… You need one that is going to tell you what your subscribers care about, give you access to a network that can grow your list faster, and be operated by a group of truly great humans (I’ve met many team members at their conference in Boise, and they truly want to see people succeed on their platform). Kit’s target audience is creators, but I firmly believe that it is one of the best email marketing platforms for nonprofits, especially if you have a small team.
Kit offers easy integrations, so it’s easy to connect your website or donor CRM to your email list. If there’s an integration unavailable that you’d like to see, the Kit team is always willing to listen. The backend is easy, the analytics and audience segmentation can help you target the right donor or supporter at the right time, and you don’t have to pay a million dollars every time your list grows.
Kit Handles the Switch For You
If you're using Mailchimp and you've been thinking about switching, now is a good time. I want to flag this because a lot of people in this space are on Mailchimp, and I know from experience how long "I should probably switch" can live on the to-do list before something actually moves it.
Mailchimp is raising prices soon. Kit is offering 25% off annual plans for new customers, plus a migration team to help you move over. You're not starting over — they move your setup for you.
For lists under 10K, that's subscribers, tags, and segments. For lists 10K and up, the full Concierge experience covers forms, automations, sequences, and templates too.
What Kit Offers That Mailchimp Doesn’t:
Subscriber-based pricing: Mailchimp charges for every list a subscriber appears on. With Kit, you pay once per unique active subscriber, no matter how many segments they're in. For creators with large, segmented lists, this alone can mean meaningful savings.
Unlimited email sends: Mailchimp limits the number of emails you can send per month. Kit doesn't.
Visual Automations that don't limit your thinking: Build welcome sequences, evergreen funnels, and launch flows with unlimited steps, branches, and conditions — triggered by purchases, tags, form submissions, or tools like Calendly, Typeform, and Shopify. Once it's built, it runs without you.
Creator Network and Recommendations: No other email platform has this. Kit's Recommendations feature lets creators grow their list through partnerships with other creators — passively, without paid ads. One Kit creator grew his subscriber count by 463 from 1,561 recommendation views, with a 0.78% unsubscribe rate on those subscribers.
Built-in commerce with low fees: Sell digital products, paid newsletters, and subscriptions directly through Kit — with just 0.6% + card processing fees. Mailchimp doesn't offer native commerce at comparable terms.
Migration service included with paid plans: Kit's team handles everything. For smaller lists, that means tags, lists, and segments. For larger lists (10K+), that includes forms, automations, sequences, and templates. Your audience doesn't have to figure it out alone. See kit.com/migrations for more.
Offer ends April 30.
→ Get the deets and save 25% switching to Kit here!
If you have questions, please feel free to email me. Even if you opt for the free plan, I want YOU to feel confident in your nonprofit’s email marketing platform!
All opinions are my own. Pricing details are true at the time of posting.
