The 6 Best Business Credit Cards for Nonprofits [August 2023]

Many nonprofit operators have a sole interest in giving back to society — these individuals aren’t obsessed with profits or growth. Instead, they recognize the importance of incrementally making the world a better place, improving the social fabric of society, and pursuing their personal passions.

Nonprofit organizations are still considered businesses under the law, and because of the increased scrutiny that these businesses have, it’s essential to separate your nonprofit’s expenses from your personal expenses.

The easiest way to separate these expenses is with a business credit card. In this guide, we’ll show you our favorite business credit cards for nonprofit organizations.

What To Look for in a Business Credit Card for Nonprofit Organizations

In general, nonprofit organizations have a lot of traditional business expenses, such as office supplies, rent, and overhead.

They also tend to run lean on expenses, so getting a business credit card that reflects the nonprofit is essential. Even though nonprofits can avoid huge annual fees, what they don’t have to compromise on is earning rewards.

In this guide, we’ll show you our favorite business credit cards for nonprofit organizations, with a focus on low annual fees, high rewards for office spending, and more.

The 6 Best Business Cards for Nonprofits

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1. Ink Business Unlimited^® Credit Card

One of our favorite business credit cards for nonprofits is the Ink Business Unlimited card. This credit card allows you to earn simple rewards with the option to earn transferable rewards.

This credit card starts with no annual fee and offers an amazing welcome bonus. And throughout all of this, you will get 1.5% cash-back on all your purchases without any caps. You don’t need to pay attention to any fancy bonus categories or any earning ceilings.

Just focus on running your business and rack up your points! You can add unlimited employee cards with no extra fees.

This card offers another keystone benefit: 0% introductory APR on purchases for 12 months. This could help you manage any rolling balances that you don’t pay off immediately without amassing huge interest fees, but of course, you’ll need to ensure that all of your balance is paid off when this 0% period ends to avoid paying high interest rates.

Many business credit cards don’t offer protection and coverage for your purchases, but the Ink Business Unlimited card has zero liability protection, purchase protection, and extended warranty coverage.

Lastly, you can get primary rental car coverage and other travel insurance benefits when traveling for business.

Why We Like Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

We love earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points because of how valuable they are.

With the Ink Business Unlimited card alone, you won’t earn Ultimate Rewards points, but if you pair this card with an Ultimate Rewards card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card your 1.5% cash-back can be converted to 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points per $1.

You can redeem your rewards for cash-back, travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, Amazon, gift cards, and more.

But the real benefit of having Ultimate Rewards points is the ability to transfer your points to Chase transfer partners for luxury travel and book incredible travel experiences.

2. Ink Business Cash^® Credit Card

The Ink Business Cash card is the sister credit card of the Ink Business Unlimited card. It shares a lot of the same benefits and features, but there are a few key differences.

The card has the same purchase protections, like zero liability protection, an introductory APR benefit, no annual fee, and no-additional-fee employee cards.

You’ll also enjoy the primary rental car collision damage waiver and travel coverage perks.

Now, let’s compare the 2 cards in the context of nonprofit organizations. Whereas the Ink Business Unlimited card earns a flat 1.5% cash-back, the Ink Business Cash card earns up to 5% cash-back in certain bonus categories.

Specifically, you can earn:

• 5% cash-back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year
• 2% cash-back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year
• 1% cash-back on all other purchases

Your 5%, 2%, and 1% cash-back is convertible to 5x, 2x, and 1x Ultimate Rewards points per dollar if you have an Ultimate Rewards card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

For nonprofit organizations that spend a lot of money on office supplies or the other categories in this list, it could make sense to hold this card.

One thing you’ll also want to note is that the bonus categories have a $25,000 cap per cardmember year; after you pass this cap, you’ll earn 1% cash-back.

Bottom Line: We generally would recommend the Ink Business Cash card over the Ink Business Unlimited card for small-scale nonprofit organizations that primarily spend money at office supply stores and on internet, cable, and phone services. 

3. The Blue Business^® Plus Credit Card from American Express

Our next credit card is the Amex Blue Business Plus card, and we love this card because it allows you to maximize your rewards! We think that you’ll love this card because you can earn 2x Membership Rewards points on everyday business purchases, up to $50,000 per calendar year. After that, you’ll earn 1x.

This card is one of the best choices you have, especially if you’re a smaller nonprofit. If you maxed out the cap, you would earn 100,000 points per year, worth around $2,200 according to our valuations.

In addition, you would enjoy the ability to add employee cards at no additional cost, access to Amex Offers, and of course, access to the amazing Membership Rewards program (rates and fees).

Why We Like Earning Amex Membership Rewards Points

We love earning Amex points because they’re the most valuable types of points out there, worth around 2.2 cents per point.

Amex points are easy to redeem, but the best way (by far) to get outsized value from your points is to use the American Express transfer partners for business and first class flights.

That’s where we derive a large portion of the value of our points from. Other options include booking travel through Amex Travel, statement credits, gift cards, and more.

4. Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card

The Ink Business Preferred card is yet another outstanding business credit card you can use for your nonprofit business.

This card boasts a huge welcome bonus and the ability to earn 3x Ultimate Rewards points per $1 spent on select business categories (up to $150,000 per cardmember year):

• Internet, cable, and phone services
• Shipping expenses
• Travel
• Ads purchased with search engines or social media sites

This card earns Ultimate Rewards points directly, so you don’t need to have another card, as you would with the Ink Business Unlimited card, to use transfer partners.

In addition to awesome 3x points earning potential, you’ll get some fantastic cell phone insurance. With this coverage, you can get up to $1,500 in value from up to 3 claims every 12-month period with a maximum of $600 per claim and a $100 deductible per claim.

It doesn’t end there because you’ll also get purchase protection, extended warranty protection, trip cancellation and interruption insurance, and primary rental car insurance.

Of course, you can add employee cards for no additional fee, as well.

5. The American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card

If you’re looking for a no-frills system that allows you to invest all of your rewards back into your nonprofit, the Amex Blue Business Cash card is a great way to rack up cash-back quickly.

The Amex Blue Business Cash card earns 2% cash-back on all eligible purchases (up to $50,000 per calendar year), then 1% after that. The cash-back is automatically credited on your statement, so you don’t need to worry about redeeming your rewards.

Also, this card offers a 0% introductory APR on purchases (as shown in the table above), which is a neat way to avoid interest on purchases made.

Additional features include no annual fee for the primary and any employee cards and access to Amex Offers (see rates and fees).

6. Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business

The very last credit card we’ll be discussing is an underrated card option. Capital One isn’t as well-known as Chase and American Express when it comes to rewards, but the Capital One Spark Miles Select card is a great choice.

This card earns an uncapped 1.5x miles on every purchase you make, plus a welcome bonus that can add a nice chunk of miles to your balance. This card has no annual fee and also earns 5x miles on hotels and rental car bookings through Capital One Travel.

Other perks include zero fraud liability, no foreign transaction fees, no-fee employee cards, extended warranty and protection, and more.

Why We Like Earning Capital One Miles

We like Capital One miles because there are numerous airline and hotel transfer partners! Capital One miles can be redeemed for incredible experiences, like Lufthansa first class.

These miles are worth around 1.8 cents each, according to our valuations.

Final Thoughts

Running a nonprofit organization is extremely tough and rewarding at the same time. That’s why you should make your business management seamless with the right business credit card.

The major banks consider nonprofits as legitimate businesses, so you likely qualify for a business credit card as a nonprofit organization.

Our favorite business credit cards for nonprofits are focused on Chase and Amex because they offer incredible benefits with a proven loyalty program.

We hope you’ve found this guide useful to help you pick the best business credit card for your nonprofit organization.

The information regarding the Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.

For rates and fees of The Blue Business^® Plus Credit Card from American Express, click here.
For rates and fees of The American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card, click here.