best video conferencing tools for nonprofits

Zoom Workplace

The default pick for most nonprofits, and the tool board members and volunteers are least likely to need help joining. Eligibility for the nonprofit rate is narrower than people expect: verified 501(c)(3)s and public libraries with an operating budget of $10 million or less, applied for through Goodstack rather than TechSoup since May 2025, and only on annual billing. Webinars are a separate paid add-on on top of a meeting plan, so a virtual gala costs more than the per-seat price suggests.

Google Meet

Meet is the video piece of Google Workspace rather than a standalone product, so it makes most sense for a nonprofit already living in Gmail, Docs and Drive. Google for Nonprofits gives eligible organizations a free Workspace edition, with steep discounts on the paid editions if they need recording, larger meetings or more storage. Nothing to install and a link that opens in any browser makes it the easiest option to hand to volunteers and community members. The consumer free tier is a separate thing from the nonprofit offer, and it is the one that cuts group calls off after an hour.

Microsoft Teams

Teams is the meeting layer inside Microsoft 365, so its value depends on whether the organization already works in Outlook, Word and SharePoint. Microsoft's nonprofit program is the most generous of the big three, granting Business Basic free for a substantial number of users and discounting the higher editions. The grant carries conditions worth reading before budgeting around it, including an attestation and a requirement to keep at least 85% of granted licenses actively used. Teams is heavier than a plain meeting tool, which helps staff and gets in the way for one-off calls with people outside the organization.

Webex

Cisco's platform, and the one nonprofits with in-house IT or existing Cisco hardware tend to land on. Its NGO discount is the deepest on this list, but it runs through a TechSoup validation token and excludes several categories of organization, including education, healthcare and insurance nonprofits. The free plan is unusually complete, carrying local recording, unlimited whiteboards, advanced noise cancellation and unlimited messaging rather than stripping them out. Cisco publishes almost nothing about its middle tiers, so anything above the free plan usually means talking to sales.

Zoho Meeting

The cheapest paid seat here by a wide margin, and a sensible fit for a small nonprofit that wants meetings without buying a whole collaboration suite. Zoho's nonprofit program is a one-time wallet credit that covers half of each transaction across Zoho products rather than a permanent discounted rate, so it eventually runs out and the organization pays list price. Recording is not part of the free plan: cloud recording starts on the paid Standard tier. Webinars are a separate Zoho product with their own pricing, so a public event is a second purchase.

RingCentral

Primarily a business phone system whose video product comes bundled, so it fits a nonprofit replacing a phone line and a meeting tool in one move. Its free tier is unusual in allowing unlimited meetings with a per-meeting time cap rather than a monthly quota, which suits organizations that meet often and briefly. The paid tier adds day-long meetings, CRM integrations, and automatic highlight reels and searchable transcripts of calls. No nonprofit program is publicly documented, so an organization would have to ask sales what it can get.

Jitsi Meet

Free and open source, with no account needed to start or join a call, which makes it the practical choice when the people meeting are volunteers or community members rather than staff. An organization can use the hosted meet.jit.si service or run the software on its own server, which is why privacy-conscious groups pick it. There is no nonprofit program because there is nothing to discount. The trade-off is support: no vendor to call when something breaks, and how large a meeting can get depends entirely on how the server is provisioned.