Kajabi for Nonprofits: A Comprehensive Guide to Empowering Your Mission

For so many years my biggest gripe as an organisation leader was needing SO MANY tools to run my business.

Each one was expensive, often hard to learn to use and they rarely integrated well. I had to sign up for Zapier (yup, another tool to pay for) and build dozens of integrations to get my systems to talk to one another. 

I had a tool for:

… my website & blog

…  Building landing pages

… sending emails

… tagging and organising my contacts

… podcast hosting

… making sales & collecting revenue

… running events and virtual masterclasses

… and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head!

It worked okay, until it didn’t, and the whole precarious house of cards crashed down.

When I found an all-in-one tool that brought everything in to one place, I have to confess it was love at first sight. I have never looked back.

Today, I wanted to share that secret weapon with you– it’s Kajabi. And I think it can save nonprofits and small businesses just as much money and stress as it did for me.

So why am I low-key obsessed with Kajabi?

Let’s face it, in today's fast-paced digital world an organisations website isn't just a virtual brochure — it's their lifeline. It's the central hub where supporters connect with your mission, learn about your impact, and make crucial donations or purchases.

A modern, user-friendly website isn't a luxury; it's a necessity.

Yet I’m constantly talking to nonprofits who are flat out embarrassed by the state of their website.

… and just as many others who are managing complex agency developments spending tens of thousands of dollars to develop a new website.

An effective website needs to do more than look good—it needs to work hard for your organisation. This means seamlessly integrating essential functions like email marketing, sales and donations and database management. Juggling multiple platforms for these tasks can be a logistical nightmare, draining valuable time and resources.

That's where Kajabi comes in. This all-in-one platform empowers nonprofits to consolidate their online presence, without breaking the bank or requiring a team of tech experts.

What is Kajabi? Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that turns a website into a digital business and let’s you build, market, and sell online programs, manage memberships, and market your organisation. For nonprofits, this translates to a powerful toolkit for fundraising, education, and community building.

Below are my top reasons I love Kajabi; and think you might as well.  

#1. All-in-One Platform

Eliminate the need for multiple disjointed tools by centralising your website, blog, email marketing, sales, podcast, membership, courses, analytics, and more in one place. This streamlined approach saves so much time, makes it easier to train your staff, saves money and headaches.

#2. Affordable Modern Website Solution

We all know that websites are only good for around 3 years, before they need to be replaced. When you’re forking out tens of thousands of dollars each time, having a great website has become a massive cost imposition. 

That’s why I think Kajabi is an awesome alternative, because you can kiss goodbye the hefty upfront website development costs. Kajabi's monthly subscription model allows nonprofits to spread out expenses and access a professional website without breaking the bank.

It is more of a DIY-style build, but there are tonnes of templates you can use to get you going and it is VERY easy to use. It’s a bit like Lego. You add things to your page one piece at a time and can easily move them around, and add new ones in just a few minutes.

#3 Diverse Revenue Streams

I love how Kajabi empowers nonprofits and small businesses to explore various revenue models, including one-time and recurring donations, paid memberships, online courses, and digital product sales, to create a more sustainable funding strategy.

I also love that with everything in one place, you can easily see how many people in your database are supporting you financially. You can send out one email and see exactly how much revenue it brought in, and from who!

#4 Exceptional Customer Support:

My personal favourite thing about Kajabi has to be the customer support. It has 24-hour live chat, and while a bot does start the conversation, it is easy to move to a real person. I’ve never waited more than a few minutes to get help and I love that the team either teaches me exactly what I need to do or goes and does it for me.

That means even if you’re not very technical, you can just jump on and ask someone how to do the thing you’re stuck on. They’ll walk you through it or send you directly to a how to video or step-by-step instructions. Honestly, this saves me a huge amount of time.

It is a huge step up from my previous tools that were based on the other side of the world from me. If I had a question, I had to wait at least 24 hours for a response, only to then have to ask another question, and wait again.

#5 Sale Pricing this Week

The other reason I’m sharing my obsessive love for Kajabi today, is that for this next week they have 20% off all the plans, so it’s even more accessible if you’re keen to give it a go.

You can find the details on the sale prices here.

#6 Simplified Website Building

Kajabi's intuitive website builder eliminates the need for technical expertise. Nonprofits can easily create professional, visually appealing websites that showcase their mission, impact, and donation options.

#7 Online Course Creation

I have talked before about the opportunity nonprofits have to create online courses. So many of you are sitting on a gold mine of knowledge that you can easily repurpose into online training.  

These courses can be used to raise awareness about your cause, train volunteers, or generate revenue through paid programs, classes or full courses.

 #8 Membership Communities:

Foster a sense of belonging and connection among your supporters by building exclusive membership communities. This feature is inbuilt within Kajabi and has a heap of cool options.

You can offer your members premium content, access to events, and opportunities to connect with others like them.

#9 Email Marketing and Automation:

Nurture relationships with your audience through targeted email campaigns. Kajabi's automation tools allow you to send personalised messages, donation reminders, and event invitations, driving engagement and action.

#10 Fundraising and Donations:

Kajabi offers seamless integration with payment gateways, enabling you to accept donations directly on your website. It has an inbuilt PayPal option so you can integrate a donation button directly into your website. 

You can also create fundraising campaigns, sell merchandise, and offer paid memberships to generate sustainable income. 

If you do have an existing donation platform, while I love the all-in-one-option, Kajabi can also integrate with popular donation platforms like Donately, Donorbox, and Stripe, making it easy for supporters to contribute to your cause.

#11 Analytics and Insights

I am super nerdy about numbers, because I believe they’re the unsung hero of marketing. While Kajabi could still benefit from more information, there are lots of valuable insights into your audience's behaviour and preferences through Kajabi's analytics dashboard.

Track website traffic, email open rates, course completion rates, and donation trends to optimise your strategies. The best part for me? You don’t lose data in translation between tools. You can easily click on a record and see exactly what that person has done.

#12 Easy Website Updates:

Empower your team to make website changes in minutes, without relying on external web developers. This ensures your website remains current, relevant, and engaging.

It is a personal bugbear of mine that so many web development agencies today charge every time they make a website edit – even if it’s just to swap text or an image. That is causing more websites to get out of date and lose value for the organisation.

I love being able to add something new to your website in a few minutes and take it down just as fast. It is a new level of flexibility that was never available to us before.

Kajabi's intuitive interface and abundance of templates make it easy for anyone to create visually appealing web pages and online content. 

I’ve waxed pretty lyrical about Kajabi’s strengths. What about the weaknesses or things to watch out for? 

Here are some of the things you should consider:

• The platform is designed for ‘creators’ who sell online courses. While it can be used for much more than that, there are a few integrations that may need small work arounds if you’re not offering a digital course.
• Consider your funding patterns. While I think Kajabi will be so much cheaper in the long run, it does require a monthly fee, so you need to have the ability to cover it every single month in perpetuity.
• If you do have a lot of products you want to sell on Kajabi or a big number of contacts, you may have to upgrade to a higher plan, which starts to add to the cost. Personally, I am on the highest standard plan and still think it’s worth every dollar, but something to consider.
• Although Kajabi is user-friendly, there is still a learning curve involved mastering all the different functions and features. While there is plenty of online training available, it will take you some time to master using it.
• It is largely DIY, which means you will be essentially building it yourself. If you’re easily overwhelmed with design or using digital tools, this may be daunting.
• There are limits to your web design. While you can create whatever you want and update it as often as you like, it is user friendly which means a lot of pre-made modules. That means it won’t have the same flexibility as something that is custom-built for your needs.
• If you only need a simple website, you may find all the features and options available overwhelming.

 Got more Kajabi questions? Don't hesitate to hit me up on email at [email protected]