Smartcat for Nonprofits: AI Translation at Global Scale
Many nonprofits serve communities that speak languages other than English, yet producing accurate translated materials is expensive, slow, and often inconsistent. Smartcat changes that equation by combining powerful AI translation across 280+ languages with a marketplace of 500,000+ vetted professional translators, translation memory to reuse approved content, and integrated project management, so your organization can reach every community it serves without the traditional cost or complexity of multilingual communications.
What It Does
Language barriers are one of the most persistent equity challenges in the nonprofit sector. A domestic violence shelter serving immigrant communities may need intake forms in a dozen languages. An international development organization might distribute program guides across 30 countries. A community health clinic may need to provide discharge instructions in the patient's native tongue. In each case, the traditional options, hiring professional translation agencies or relying on informal volunteer translators, are either expensive, slow, or unreliable.
Smartcat is an all-in-one AI translation platform that brings enterprise-level multilingual capabilities to organizations of all sizes. At its core is an AI translation engine capable of handling 280+ languages with accuracy that approaches or matches human translation for many language pairs. Supporting that AI engine is a suite of professional tools: translation memory (a database of previously approved translations that automatically suggests reuse), glossary management (ensuring key terms, program names, and brand language are always rendered correctly), and quality assurance checks that flag inconsistencies before content is published.
What makes Smartcat particularly valuable for nonprofits is the integrated marketplace. When AI translation alone is not sufficient, such as for legally sensitive documents, complex cultural communication, or content where nuance matters deeply, organizations can instantly connect with vetted professional translators, editors, and proofreaders from a global network of 500,000+ language professionals. You can combine AI speed with human expertise in the same workflow, getting AI-translated drafts reviewed by professionals, rather than starting from scratch with expensive agency engagements.
The platform raised $43 million in a Series C funding round in September 2024, bringing total investment to $70 million, signaling strong market confidence in its approach. It currently serves over 1,000 corporate clients, including roughly 20% of the Fortune 500, which means the technology has been battle-tested at scale. For nonprofits, this translates to a mature, reliable platform with deep feature sets and ongoing development investment.
Best For
Organization Size
Smartcat is most cost-effective for small to large nonprofits that have regular, ongoing translation needs. Organizations that translate even a few documents per month will find the translation memory and workflow automation create significant time savings. The platform scales up to enterprise needs, making it suitable for international nonprofits with high-volume localization requirements.
Best Use Cases
- Nonprofits serving immigrant, refugee, or indigenous communities who need client-facing materials in multiple languages
- International development organizations distributing program guides, training materials, and field resources across multiple countries
- Organizations maintaining websites, donor communications, or annual reports in more than one language
- Health, legal aid, or social service nonprofits requiring accurate translation of intake forms, consent documents, and client communications
- Educational nonprofits localizing curricula, training videos, and e-learning content for global or multilingual audiences
- Organizations producing multilingual video content who need subtitling, dubbing, or voice translation at scale
Ideal Roles
Communications Directors managing multilingual content calendars, Program Directors overseeing service delivery to diverse populations, Operations Managers handling document translation workflows, and IT or Technology staff setting up automated translation pipelines will find Smartcat most directly relevant to their day-to-day work.
Key Features for Nonprofits
AI Translation Engine
Neural machine translation across 280+ languages
Smartcat's core AI achieves up to 99% translation accuracy by combining neural machine translation with context-aware language modeling. It selects the optimal translation engine for each language pair automatically, maximizing quality without requiring technical configuration from your team.
- 280+ languages with near-human accuracy for major language pairs
- Learns from your edits to improve future translations
- Supports 50+ file formats including Word, PDF, HTML, and XLIFF
Translation Memory
Reuse approved translations to save time and money
Every translation your team approves is stored in a translation memory database. When the same or similar text appears in future documents, Smartcat automatically suggests the previously approved translation, dramatically cutting repetitive work for ongoing communications like newsletters, grant reports, and program updates.
- Unlimited TM storage across all plan tiers including free
- Fuzzy matching for similar (not identical) text segments
- Cost savings grow over time as TM database grows
Glossary Management
Keep key terms consistent across all translations
Nonprofit content often contains terms that must be translated consistently: program names, service categories, legal terminology, and branded language. Glossaries ensure that whenever these terms appear, the approved translation is used automatically, preventing costly inconsistencies that confuse clients or misrepresent your mission.
- Add terms with approved translations and usage examples
- Automatic glossary suggestions during translation
- QA checks flag any glossary term violations before delivery
Professional Translator Marketplace
Access 500,000+ vetted language professionals
When AI translation alone is not enough for sensitive documents, community communications, or culturally nuanced content, Smartcat connects you directly with professional translators, editors, and proofreaders from its global marketplace. You pay translators directly without agency markups, and Smartcat handles payments across currencies.
- Hire by specialty: legal, medical, technical, or creative translation
- One agreement covers all translators, one monthly invoice for payments
- Combine AI + human review in a single workflow for best results
AI Video Translation
Subtitles, dubbing, and voice cloning in one workflow
Smartcat's AI Video Translation feature enables nonprofits to make video content accessible across language barriers without the traditional expense of professional dubbing studios. The platform handles subtitling, audio dubbing, and voice cloning in an integrated workflow, reported to reduce manual editing time by 90% compared to traditional methods.
- Subtitling, dubbing, and voice cloning in one integrated tool
- Up to 10x increase in multilingual video output
- Ideal for training videos, donor appeals, and program explainers
Workflow Automation & Integrations
Connect to the tools your team already uses
Smartcat integrates with 32+ platforms and can automate translation workflows so new content moves through translation, review, and publication without manual file handling. For nonprofits managing websites or CMS platforms, this can mean content is translated and published in hours instead of weeks.
- Native connectors: WordPress, Drupal, Contentful, Figma, Zendesk, Salesforce
- Full API for custom integrations and automation pipelines
- Zapier compatibility for connecting 7,000+ additional tools
Real-World Nonprofit Use Case
Consider a refugee resettlement organization operating in a mid-sized city. Its client population speaks 18 different languages, including Arabic, Somali, Pashto, Dari, Burmese, Kinyarwanda, Tigrinya, and Spanish. Every quarter, the organization updates its Welcome Guide (a 40-page document covering housing, employment, healthcare, education, and legal rights) and must distribute it in all 18 languages. With traditional translation agencies, this process takes 6-10 weeks and costs $15,000-$25,000 per update cycle.
Using Smartcat, the organization loads the updated Welcome Guide into the platform and runs AI translation simultaneously across all 18 languages. Because large portions of the guide remain unchanged between quarterly updates, the translation memory automatically fills in previously approved text, leaving only the changed sections for human review. A small team of community liaisons, some of whom speak the target languages, reviews the AI output for cultural accuracy and approves final versions. The translation memory grows with each review cycle, making future updates faster and more accurate.
The result is a process that now takes 1-2 weeks and costs a fraction of the agency alternative, while producing higher consistency because the glossary enforces correct translations of program names, legal terms, and rights language across all languages. The organization also uses Smartcat's video translation feature to localize its short orientation videos for YouTube, making their digital resources accessible to newly arrived clients before they even attend their first appointment.
This scenario scales to many nonprofit contexts: immigrant services organizations, international humanitarian agencies, global health programs, multilingual educational nonprofits, and any organization that takes communication equity seriously. The common thread is that consistent, accurate, timely translation is no longer a luxury reserved for large organizations with agency budgets. It becomes a sustainable operational capability.
Pricing
Smartcat uses a usage-based pricing model centered around "Smartwords," a unit that measures AI translation volume. This model means you pay for what you use rather than a flat monthly seat fee, which can be advantageous for nonprofits with variable translation needs across the year.
Free / Starter
Get started at no cost
Includes initial Smartwords credits
- Initial Smartwords AI translation credits
- Unlimited users, projects, and languages
- Unlimited translation memory storage
- Access to the translator marketplace
- 32+ integrations available
Business
Teams with regular translation needs
Billed annually; custom Smartwords plans available
- All free features plus higher Smartwords volume
- Automated project management
- Managed workspace with admin controls
- Priority customer support
- Customer success onboarding session
Enterprise
High-volume and global organizations
Contact sales for pricing
- Custom Smartwords plan with ROI analysis
- Autopilot automation (fully hands-off translation pipelines)
- Unlimited managed workspaces
- Tailored account management and business intelligence reports
- 15-day fully featured free trial for all plans
Pricing Note
Smartcat pricing is driven by Smartwords volume (the number of words AI-translated per month), not by user count. This benefits nonprofits because adding staff to review and manage translations does not increase cost. Enterprise customers can negotiate volume pricing. Vendr's procurement data indicates actual enterprise contracts range from $8,000 to $120,000 annually, depending on volume. Contact Smartcat's sales team directly to discuss your organization's needs and any available accommodations for nonprofits.
Note: Prices may be outdated or inaccurate.
Nonprofit Discount & Special Offers
Free Tier Available, Contact Sales for Nonprofit Pricing
Smartcat does not publish a formal nonprofit discount program, but the platform offers meaningful free access to get started. New organizations receive Smartwords credits on signup, and the free tier includes unlimited users, projects, languages, and translation memory storage, features that would cost significantly more on competing platforms. The 15-day full-featured free trial gives your team time to test the platform on real content before committing.
For nonprofits that need more than the free tier provides, contacting Smartcat's sales team directly is worth the effort. Enterprise software vendors often extend favorable terms to mission-driven organizations outside of their published pricing, and Smartcat's usage-based model may be structured in ways that work well for nonprofits with seasonal or project-based translation needs.
- Free tier with Smartwords credits upon signup
- 15-day full-featured free trial (no credit card required)
- Unlimited free users across all plan tiers (no per-seat charges)
- Contact sales to inquire about custom nonprofit arrangements
Learning Curve
Beginner
Getting started with basic translation
Uploading files and getting AI translations takes minutes. The basic upload-translate-download workflow is straightforward and accessible to non-technical staff. Most team members can process simple documents without training.
Intermediate
Setting up translation memory and glossaries
Configuring translation memories, glossaries, and review workflows requires a few hours of learning. Setting up these features is well worth the time investment as they dramatically improve efficiency and consistency for ongoing translation work.
Advanced
Automation pipelines and API integrations
Connecting Smartcat to your website CMS, building automated translation workflows, or integrating via API requires technical skills. Nonprofits with IT staff or technology consultants can unlock significant automation benefits at this level.
Overall, Smartcat sits at an intermediate difficulty level for most nonprofit users. The basic translation functionality is genuinely easy to use, but extracting the platform's full value, particularly translation memory, glossary management, and workflow automation, requires intentional setup and some organizational process change. Organizations that invest time in this setup will see compounding returns over time as their translation memory grows and repetitive work decreases. For teams without technical staff, Smartcat's customer success team can assist with onboarding on paid plans.
Integration & Compatibility
Native Integrations
- WordPress and Drupal for website content localization
- Contentful and other headless CMS platforms
- Figma for design file translation
- Zendesk and Salesforce for support and CRM workflows
- Google Docs and Google Sheets
- GitHub for software and documentation localization
File Formats & Data Portability
- 50+ file formats: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, HTML, JSON, XLIFF, and more
- Translation memory exportable as XLIFF or TMX format
- Glossaries exportable as CSV or XLSX
- Full REST API for custom integration development
- Zapier integration for no-code automation with 7,000+ apps
- Web and cloud platform (no local software installation required)
Smartcat's data portability is strong. Translation memories and glossaries can be exported in standard industry formats, meaning your organization is not locked into Smartcat's platform if you ever switch tools. Your approved translation assets, built up over years of work, remain yours and can be imported into other CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) tools if needed.
Pros & Cons
Strengths
- Extremely broad language coverage (280+) including less commonly supported languages critical for refugee and immigrant service organizations
- Unlimited users across all pricing tiers is a significant advantage for nonprofits with many staff involved in review workflows
- Translation memory provides compounding value over time, making each translation cycle faster and more cost-effective than the last
- Integrated professional translator marketplace eliminates the need to manage separate agency relationships for human review
- AI Video Translation is a rare differentiator, enabling multilingual video content without expensive dubbing studio costs
- Strong data portability in industry-standard formats protects your translation asset investments
Limitations
- No publicly disclosed nonprofit discount program; organizations without an established relationship may pay commercial rates
- The Smartwords pricing model can be confusing initially; predicting monthly costs requires understanding your typical translation volume
- Quality assurance features (flagging false positives in QA checks) have been noted by users as an area for improvement
- Customer support response times can be slow for free-tier users; priority support is reserved for paid plans
- Advanced automation and API integrations require technical knowledge that many small nonprofits may not have in-house
- Primarily enterprise-focused in its go-to-market approach; smaller nonprofits may find onboarding resources less tailored to their scale
Alternatives to Consider
Lokalise
Better for developer-driven localization and website/app translation
Lokalise is particularly strong for nonprofits with technical teams managing website or mobile app translation. It offers 60+ integrations, a free plan with 2 target languages, and open source projects get it for free. The platform is more developer-centric than Smartcat but offers a free plan that may be sufficient for smaller organizations' ongoing website translation needs. Use Lokalise if your primary translation need is software or website localization managed by technical staff.
Phrase
Strong choice for large-volume global nonprofit operations
Phrase (formerly Memsource) is trusted by Translators Without Borders and Cochrane for high-volume multilingual work. With 500+ languages and 2 billion words processed monthly, it scales to the most demanding international nonprofit operations. Phrase starts at $135/month after a 14-day free trial. It is a particularly strong option for organizations prioritizing translation of research reports, policy documents, and technical materials where translator expertise is paramount.
Smartling
Enterprise platform for fully managed, high-accuracy translation
Smartling offers a more fully managed translation service with 4,000+ professional linguists, 99% workflow automation, and its LanguageAI quality assurance system. Starting at $500/month, it is more expensive than Smartcat but provides a higher level of service for organizations that prefer a managed approach rather than managing their own translation workflows. Best for organizations with large, consistent translation volumes and a preference for delegating the translation process to experts.
Getting Started
Sign Up and Explore the Free Tier
Create a free Smartcat account at smartcat.com. You'll receive initial Smartwords credits to try AI translation on real documents from your organization. Upload a document your team actually needs translated, such as a program flyer or intake form, and evaluate the output quality for your most important language pairs. The 15-day full-featured trial gives you access to Business plan features so you can assess the complete value of translation memory and glossary management before committing.
Build Your Glossary First
Before translating your first real document, take 30-60 minutes to build your organization's glossary. Identify your key program names, service categories, legal terms, and any words that must always be translated consistently. Add each term with its approved translation in your priority target languages. This upfront investment pays dividends across every future translation project and prevents the inconsistency that erodes trust in multilingual communications.
Establish a Review Workflow
Identify community members, bilingual staff, or trusted volunteers who speak your priority target languages and can review AI translation output. Set up Smartcat so AI-translated documents flow to these reviewers automatically before publication. Every correction a reviewer makes improves the translation memory, creating a virtuous cycle where each translation cycle requires less human review than the last. Even reviewing just 20-30% of AI output for culturally sensitive materials dramatically improves quality over pure machine translation.
Connect Your Most Important Content Source
Once your team is comfortable with the core workflow, connect Smartcat to the platform that generates most of your content. If your website runs on WordPress, use the native integration to automatically route new pages and posts for translation. If your team works primarily in Google Docs, connect Smartcat to Google Workspace. This automation removes the manual friction of downloading, uploading, and reformatting files, making translation a natural part of your content creation process rather than a separate, time-consuming task.
Need Help Implementing Smartcat?
Setting up translation workflows, glossaries, and integrations takes time and expertise. One Hundred Nights helps nonprofits deploy AI translation tools that genuinely improve communication equity without overwhelming your team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Smartcat offer a nonprofit discount?
Smartcat does not publish a formal nonprofit discount program, but the platform offers meaningful free access and a 15-day full-featured trial. The free tier includes unlimited users, projects, languages, and translation memory storage. Contact Smartcat's sales team directly to discuss your organization's needs, as favorable terms may be available outside of published pricing for mission-driven organizations.
How accurate is Smartcat's AI translation?
Smartcat claims up to 99% translation accuracy from AI alone. It combines neural machine translation with translation memory (reusing previously approved translations) and glossary enforcement (ensuring key terms are always rendered correctly). For culturally sensitive or legally critical content, the integrated marketplace of 500,000+ professional translators enables human review within the same platform.
What languages does Smartcat support?
Smartcat supports 280+ languages, including major world languages and many less commonly supported languages that matter for nonprofits serving specific communities. The platform also handles 50+ file formats including Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, JSON, and XLIFF so you can translate virtually any content without manual reformatting.
Can Smartcat handle video translation?
Yes. Smartcat's AI Video Translation feature handles subtitling, dubbing, and voice cloning in a single integrated workflow. Early adopters report 90% reductions in manual editing time and tenfold increases in multilingual video output. This is particularly valuable for nonprofits producing training videos, program explainers, or donor appeals that need to reach multilingual audiences.
How does Smartcat compare to DeepL or Google Translate?
DeepL and Google Translate are excellent for quick, informal, one-off translations, but they lack project management, translation memory, glossary enforcement, and human review workflows. Smartcat is better suited for organizations that translate content regularly and need consistency across many documents over time. For occasional, informal needs, simpler tools may suffice. For systematic, high-volume, or quality-critical translation, Smartcat delivers significantly better consistency and efficiency.
What integrations does Smartcat support?
Smartcat integrates natively with WordPress, Drupal, Contentful, Figma, Google Docs, Google Sheets, GitHub, Zendesk, and Salesforce. For platforms without native connectors, Smartcat offers a full API and Zapier compatibility, enabling connections to thousands of additional tools. This means nonprofits can often automate translation workflows so new content moves through translation, review, and publication without manual file handling.
Is it safe to use Smartcat with sensitive beneficiary information?
Smartcat maintains enterprise-grade security and does not use your content to train AI models. For highly sensitive materials involving beneficiary health information, legal status, or personally identifiable data, review your organization's data sharing policies and consider anonymizing or redacting personal identifiers before submitting content for translation. Consult legal counsel if your organization operates under HIPAA or similar regulations.