4 Best CRM for fundraising and investor relations

Whether you're building a smart investor database, running a fundraising campaign, keeping track of grants and investments – you need a CRM that can keep up with you and scale as you grow. 

In this blog, we unpack features you should look out for that will help you streamline your workflow and create transparency across your multiple projects and do a thorough comparison of the best CRMs that have a specific focus on investor relations. 

Let's get into it.

Why a CRM is Important for Fundraising and Investor Relations?

Fundraising is not a “big meeting” problem. It’s a relationship management problem.

A round moves through dozens of parallel conversations, with shifting stakeholders, partial context, and constant follow-ups. Without a CRM, the process relies on memory, messy spreadsheets, and scattered inbox threads. That’s when momentum dies: a warm intro gets lost, an update goes out late, or the same investor gets two different versions of the story.

A CRM turns fundraising into an execution system. It centralizes context, creates a single source of truth, and makes follow-up predictable. Instead of “checking where things stand,” the team sees exactly who is engaged, what was discussed, what matters to each investor, and what needs to happen next.

The biggest win is consistency. Investor relations rewards teams that run a clean process: tight cadence, clear narrative, and zero missed steps. A CRM protects that discipline by making the workflow repeatable and shared across the team, not stored in one person’s head.

A CRM keeps the round operationally clean by managing:

✔️ Investor and fund profiles, relationship mapping, and warm intro paths

✔️ Conversation history across channels (email, notes, meetings) with clear next steps

✔️ Pipeline stages and priorities so effort goes to the highest-probability outcomes

After the round closes, the same system becomes the backbone of investor relations. Updates, asks, and follow-ups stop being ad hoc. Relationships compound because every touchpoint is tracked, timed, and aligned with what each investor cares about.

3 tips for implementing a CRM

At this stage, it's all about getting familiar with your new CRM as quick as possible. We suggest ticking off these three things in your first few weeks with your new CRM.

1. Import data into your new CRM

Transitioning to a new CRM involves migrating your existing data. Start by exporting your current data as a CSV file. This will ensure a smooth transition and help maintain continuity in your customer interactions. And you won't have to add contact information manually which can be rather time consuming.

2. Create your first pipeline

Setting up your first sales pipeline is a critical step in using your new CRM effectively. For startups looking to fundraise, this pipeline could include stages that reflect your process, such as lead generation, initial contact, proposal sent, negotiation, and closed deal. Customizing these stages to fit your specific business needs will help you track progress and manage customer relationships more efficiently.

👉🏼 Try folk now to build your fundraising pipeline with custom stages and track every investor follow-up.

3. Onboard your team

To make the most of the benefits of your new CRM, it's essential to onboard your team effectively. Provide training sessions to ensure everyone understands how to use the CRM and its features. Encourage team members to explore the tool and ask questions. A well-trained team will be more likely to adopt the CRM and use it to its full potential, leading to improved productivity and better customer management.

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4 Best CRMs for Your Fundraising and Investor Relations

1. folk

folk is an all-in-one CRM that can help you build a smart investor database, run fundraising campaigns, and support you in keeping track of investments and grants. 

Key features

• Custom pipeline views
  folk supports multiple project databases so that you can build shared contact lists across your investing, fundraising, sales and recruiting efforts. 
• AI support
  'Magic Field' helps take the heavy lifting, saving you time when sending ultra-personalized messages to multiple recipients. 
• Contact enrichment
  It helps you fill in missing contact information in moments, so you no longer have to check manually. 
• folkX
  folk's Chrome extension, allows you to import search lists and individual profiles into folk without having to leave the page.

Pros

• Track engagement
  Easily track last interactions with investors and create reminders so you know exactly when to follow up. 
• Team collaboration
  Adding teammates and creating notes on the same contact is easy. This transparency means everyone is on the same page with last interactions and conversations. 
• Contact sync
  Gather contacts from multiple platforms including LinkedIn, Gmail, Outlook and more into one place.
• Automation
  You can automate the creation of new pipelines, contact categorization, workflows and reminders that will send you a notification whenever it is time to follow up with an investor.
• User experience
  folk is loved for its Notion-like features and intuitive design. It's one of the easiest CRMs to use on the market. Unlike other CRMs, you can get started with folk from day one without having to block out days for training.

• You can try folk for free with a 14 day free trial. After that, a monthly or annual subscription plan is as follows.
  • Standard: $20 per user, per month
  • Premium: $40 per user, per month
  • Custom: Starts from $60 per user, per month

Cons

• Email sequencing is not available yet, but it's on folk's radar. 

2. Irwin

Irwin is an investment management software with some CRM capabilities.

Key features

• Manage investor relations activity
  Keep track of investor interactions including emails and events in Gmail and Outlook.
• Investor relations activity reporting
  On outreach efforts, meetings and event outcomes.

Pros

• Manage investor conferences and roadshows
  Using Irwin's project management tools that allow you to prepare itineraries and tear sheets. 
• Report template library
  To help report on your investor relations program.

Cons

• Irwin's Investor CRM platform is not a traditional CRM. It can help you track last interactions, but you won't get the mainstream features you'd expect to find in a CRM. 

3. Backstop Solutions

Backstop Solutions is a CRM and investment management software. Its investor relations CRM makes up one-sixth of their products. 

Key features

• Portfolio management, monitor portfolio activity and performance across multi-asset investments.
• Tailored reporting, get industry benchmarks and analytics.
• Pipeline tracking, manage investment timeline to optimize the portfolio.

Pros

• Specialized focus
  Designed specifically for investor relations, providing a targeted and relevant toolset including portfolio holdings, and performance history.
• Data-driven insights
  Customizable reports offer deep insights into investor behavior, helping with strategic decision-making.
• Efficient document handling
  Efficient management of investment documents, enhancing productivity and investor service.

Cons

• Lacks traditional CRM features
  Key features such as contact sync, contact profiles and email marketing are missing. Every feature is geared towards data insight and portfolio management.
• Cost
  As an industry-specific tool, you may need to buy a separate CRM to nurture relationships.

4. Juniper Square

Juniper Square is a CRM and investment management software designed predominantly for real estate. Its investor CRM makes up one-fifth of their services.

Key features

• Integrated systems and workflows, including team activity tracking, emails and contact management.
• Investor portal, provides a dedicated investor portal for easy access to investment information, documents, and reports.
• Automated reporting, generates automated, customizable reports for investors, providing transparency and regular updates on investment performance.

Pros

• Specialization in real estate
  Tailored specifically for the real estate investment sector, to give insights to real estate investment managers.
• Fund administration
  Supports the entire investment lifecycle with fund accounting, treasury and investor services.
• CRM capabilities
  Supports contact management, lead management and custom fields. 

Cons

• Too industry-specific
  While beneficial for real estate, it might not be as suitable for other industries.
• Cost
  As a specialized solution, Juniper Square may come at a higher cost compared to general CRM systems.
• Limited CRM capabilities
  Juniper Square's CRM only accounts for one-fifth of their product. So its features provide a clunky user experience that is not as intuitive as full CRM products.

Conclusion

When choosing the best CRM for fundraising and investor relations teams, it's clear that each solution—folk, Irwin, and Backstop Solutions has its strengths. Irwin excels in capital markets and investor relations with powerful tools for targeting and stakeholder engagement, while Backstop Solutions is tailored for institutional investors, offering robust investment management and reporting capabilities. However, folk stands out for its flexibility, simplicity, and adaptability. It offers teams the ability to fully customize their workflows, automate tasks, and collaborate seamlessly without the complexity that can overwhelm other CRMs. Whether you're managing donor relationships or cultivating investor connections, folk's user-centric design ensures that you can tailor the system to fit your exact needs. For teams seeking a powerful yet easy-to-use CRM that can grow alongside them, folk is an excellent choice that strikes the perfect balance between functionality and usability.

Try folk today, free. 

Need a helping hand? Use our free tool to find your perfect CRM match.

FAQ

What is an investor relations CRM?

An investor relations CRM centralizes investor and LP data, tracks emails and meetings, manages deal pipelines, automates follow-ups, and supports reporting. It helps teams run raises, send updates, and keep accurate, compliant records.

What features should a fundraising CRM include?

Look for team collaboration, custom pipelines, automation, contact enrichment, email outreach, reminders, analytics, and easy imports from Gmail/Outlook/LinkedIn. A clean UX and fast onboarding reduce ramp time.

How do you choose the right CRM for investor relations?

Define use cases and must-have features, set budget, compare vendors, read reviews, test with a demo or trial, and assess support and ease of use. Choose a tool that scales with multiple pipelines and users, such as folk.

How much does a fundraising CRM cost?

Prices vary by features and seats. General CRMs start around $15–$40 per user/month; specialized IR suites can be higher. folk offers Standard $20, Premium $40, and Custom from $60 per user/month, with a 14‑day trial.