Brevo for Nonprofits: 100,000 Contacts Free, and the Rules That Protect the List

Brevo can serve a nonprofit well, mainly through two things no rival we have measured matches: a free plan that stores up to 100,000 contacts, and email-based pricing that keeps large supporter lists cheap when they are emailed a few times a month. The cautions are the free plan's 300-a-day sending limit, the strict suspension thresholds that imported donor lists tend to cross, and the rule that idle free accounts can be deleted.

The short answer

For a small charity, Brevo Free stores the whole supporter list and sends 300 emails a day at no cost ^[6]. For a larger organisation, Standard at the right email tier is often cheaper than contact-priced alternatives: a 30,000-supporter list mailed monthly needs the 30,000-email tier, $79 a month on Standard ^[3].

We found no published nonprofit discount in the vendor pages we read. Ask Brevo directly if your organisation qualifies for one.

## Why the free plan suits charities

Charities often keep large lists and email them rarely: a newsletter a month, an appeal a quarter. The free plan stores up to 100,000 contacts ^[6], so a supporter database of several thousand fits without paying.

The catch is speed. At 300 emails a day, a 3,000-supporter newsletter takes ten days to reach everyone, and "if you send a campaign to more than 300 recipients, only 300 contacts will receive it on the scheduled day" ^[6], with the rest resent by hand. For a monthly newsletter, that can be acceptable. For an emergency appeal, it is not.

Keep the free account alive

The rule most likely to hurt a volunteer-run organisation: free accounts can be deleted if nobody logs in. The cancellation page tells free users they must "log into Brevo every four months to prevent the automatic deletion of your Free account" ^[10]. The terms describe six months, with an email warning ^[14].

A charity that uses Brevo only around an annual event, with the login held by a volunteer who has moved on, can lose its whole supporter list. Make the account owner a shared organisational address, and put a quarterly login in the calendar.

## What it costs a charity

Brevo charges by emails sent, with contact caps on the first three tiers ^[5]. Monthly prices on Standard from the vendor's catalogue ^[3]:

Supporters	Sending	Tier	Standard
1,200	monthly	10,000 emails	$35
2,500	monthly	15,000 emails	$49
10,000	monthly	20,000 emails	$69
30,000	monthly	30,000 emails	$79

Standard is the usual choice, because it includes automation for unlimited contacts, which welcome and thank-you sequences need, and removes the Brevo branding ^[5]. Starter is cheaper but keeps the branding unless you add the $12 logo removal, and limits automation.

The appeal-season problem

A year-end appeal can do two things to a Brevo account.

It can move the plan. On the first three tiers, crossing the contact cap upgrades the plan automatically ^[8]. A charity at 2,400 supporters on the 15,000 tier that gains 300 donors in December moves to the 20,000 tier.

It can trigger a suspension. Donor lists imported from event sign-in sheets, old databases or partner organisations often contain dead addresses and people who never agreed to email. Brevo's published triggers include a hard bounce rate above 2%, unsubscribes above 1% and complaints above 0.2% ^[13]. A suspension during an appeal is the worst possible timing, and a second suspension cannot be reactivated.

## Consent and imported donor lists

Before importing, separate supporters who opted in to email from those who simply gave once or attended once. Import the first group. Invite the second through a form or a single permission email sent from your own mailbox.

Verify the list before the first send, and send the first campaign to your most recent supporters. Watch bounces and unsubscribes after each send. These habits matter more on Brevo than on most platforms, because its thresholds are published and enforced.

Multi-channel for charities

Brevo also sends SMS and, on Professional, WhatsApp ^[5]. For a charity that runs events, a text reminder the day before can lift attendance more than another email. Brevo lets you do that from the same contact list, with consent tracked per channel.

Landing pages are limited: one on Standard, ten on Professional ^[5]. A charity that needs many campaign pages may want a separate website tool.

Volunteers and seats

Starter has one seat, Standard up to three with an add-on, Professional ten ^[5]. Extra seats on Standard cost $12 a month each on Starter and Standard in the catalogue ^[3].

A small charity where a director, a fundraiser and a volunteer each need access fits Standard. Larger teams may share access, which weakens the audit trail, or move to Professional, which is a large step in price.

Sensitive data

Brevo's terms exclude sensitive data: the services have "not been designed to collect, process or manage sensitive data" within the meaning of the GDPR's special categories ^[14]. Charities working in health, religion or similar areas should not store such information in Brevo fields, and should keep it in a system designed for it.

A worked example: a 5,000-supporter charity's year

A charity keeps 5,000 supporters and sends a monthly newsletter, four appeals and event reminders.

Plan. 5,000 contacts need the 20,000-email tier. Monthly sending of about 6,000 to 10,000 fits it. Standard: $69 a month ^[3].

Before the first send. The charity verifies the list and removes 300 dead addresses and 400 one-off event attendees who never opted in. It invites the attendees by personal email instead.

December. The appeal adds 400 donors. The tier holds up to 500,000 contacts, so no upgrade.

Result. About $828 a year for email, SMS-ready contacts and automation, with the list kept clean enough to stay well inside the suspension thresholds.

How it compares for nonprofits

Brevo's free plan stores more contacts than any rival we have measured: 100,000, against 250 on MailerLite and Mailchimp ^[6]. For a large list mailed monthly, its email pricing is also among the cheapest.

MailerLite publishes a 30% nonprofit discount and has stronger support reviews. Constant Contact offers phone support on every tier and event payments. Brevo offers breadth, storage and price for large lists.

Free or paid: the decision for a small charity

A charity with 800 supporters sends a monthly newsletter and two appeals a year.

On the free plan. 800 supporters fit easily. Each mailing takes three days at 300 a day ^[6], and every email carries the Brevo sticker. The newsletter does not need same-day delivery; an appeal with a deadline does. Cost: nothing.

On Starter. 800 contacts need the 10,000-email tier, $17 a month ^[3]. Every mailing goes out in one day. The branding stays unless the charity adds logo removal at $12.

On Standard. The same tier is $35 a month, with the branding removed, automation for every supporter and A/B testing for appeal subject lines.

The decision. Many small charities stay on Free and accept slow sends, then move to Standard in the months before a major appeal. Monthly billing makes that possible, because Brevo's monthly plans can be cancelled at the end of a period, and they can also be paused for up to three months ^[11].

Running appeals well on Brevo

An appeal is short, targeted and time-bound, which suits Brevo's tools.

Segment. Send the main appeal to active supporters, and a gentler version to lapsed donors. Sending less to people unlikely to respond keeps unsubscribes and complaints down.

Test. On Standard, A/B test two subject lines on a fifth of the list each, then send the winner.

Time. Send-time optimisation on Standard spreads delivery across each supporter's best hour, which suits a newsletter but not a deadline appeal. For a deadline, send at a fixed time.

Follow up. A thank-you automation for donors, and a single reminder to non-openers, not three.

Watch. After each send, check bounces, unsubscribes and complaints against the published thresholds ^[13].

Data protection for supporters

Supporters trust a charity with their details, and email platforms are part of that trust.

Brevo's terms list its sub-processors, their locations and the legal mechanisms for transfers outside the European Union, and state ISO 27001:2022 certification ^[14]. They also exclude sensitive data categories from the service. A charity whose cause itself reveals sensitive information, such as health or religious belief, should consider whether a supporter's presence on the list is itself sensitive, and take advice.

Closing an account deletes the data permanently ^[12]. Export supporter records before any closure, and keep the export somewhere secure.

A checklist for charities

1. Make an organisational address the account owner.
2. Log in at least every three months if you stay on Free ^[10].
3. Separate opted-in supporters from one-off donors and attendees before importing.
4. Verify the list before the first send.
5. Choose the tier by contact count first ^[5].
6. Use monthly billing, so you can scale up for appeal season and back down after.
7. Keep sensitive information out of Brevo fields.
8. Ask Brevo directly about any nonprofit pricing; we found none published.

Events and volunteers

Many charities run events, and Brevo covers the communication side: invitations, reminders by email or SMS, and a thank-you sequence afterwards. Standard includes one landing page ^[5], enough for a single event registration page with a signup form. A charity running many events a year will want a separate event tool connected through an integration, with registrants added to a dedicated list.

For volunteers, keep a separate list from donors. Volunteers receive operational messages, rotas and briefings, which are not marketing, and mixing them with appeals raises unsubscribes from people the charity relies on most. Brevo's unlimited segmentation on Starter and above makes the separation easy ^[2].

Thanking donors automatically

A thank-you sent within minutes of a gift is one of the most effective emails a charity sends, and it is easy to automate. On Standard, automation runs for unlimited contacts ^[5]: a gift recorded through a form or an integration adds the donor to a list, which triggers a thank-you, and a second email a few weeks later reports what the money did.

On the free plan, automation accepts at most 2,000 contacts ^[6], and the 300-a-day limit can delay a thank-you on a busy appeal day. That is a good reason to move to Standard for the appeal season, then reconsider afterwards.

## The verdict

For a charity with a large supporter list and a modest sending rhythm, Brevo is one of the most cost-effective platforms we have measured, and its free plan can carry a small organisation indefinitely. Clean imported donor lists before the first send, keep the account alive with regular logins, and plan appeal season with the suspension thresholds in mind.