Crofts rose to head home Michael Flynn's corner on his 100th appearance for Gillingham to hand his side a deserved share of the spoils and cancel out Sam Vokes' first senior goal for Bournemouth.
The Gills came into the game having suffered three defeats on the road and it clearly showed as Bournemouth controlled matters early on.
After 23 minutes James Hayter, playing in an attacking midfield role, forced the first notable chance when he blazed a volley over from the edge of the box.
Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu finally managed to squeeze in a shot for the home side on 31 minutes but it didn't trouble Cherries keeper Neil Moss.
But in the 38th minute their luck ran out when Hayter launched a high, innocuous ball forward that defender Ian Cox failed to deal with, allowing Vokes to round keeper Dean Brill and fire into the net.
It was a different story after half-time as Gillingham penned back the Cherries for almost the entire half in search of an equaliser.
Matt Jarvis wasted two half-chances within a few minutes, firing his first effort narrowly wide before volleying over shortly after.
In the 62nd minute full-back Duncan Jupp combined with Crofts before firing a volley that came crashing back off Moss' crossbar.
The Gills continued to press and both Mark Bentley and Gary Mulligan came close to snatching the equaliser but were let down by poor finishing.
Bournemouth remained a threat on the counter-attack and on 75 minutes Danny Hollands brought a wonderful save out of Brill.
Jarvis forced a save of similar quality out of Moss moments later as the game flowed from one end to the other.
The Cherries thought they had wrapped up the win in the 81st minute as substitute Brett Pitman rose to meet Simon Gillett's centre but the ball struck the base of the post.
After Jarvis and substitute Danny Spiller saw late efforts well saved by Moss, Pitman was once again denied by the post with a curling effort.
And Crofts was on hand to punish that miss with a late strike that halted Gillingham's recent run of three successive defeats.