Tools
The company we keep
We’re a small shop, and we like it that way. What makes that work is a short list of tools we’d put in front of our own grandmother. Nobody pays us to be on this page. If something’s here, it’s because we use it and it’s earned the spot.
Tools we recommend
Donors and email
Little Green Light
Our first pick for a small nonprofit’s donor database. It’s built for organizations your size, it’s priced like it, and your volunteers can learn it without a training budget.
Mailchimp
For email that actually reaches people. Donor updates, event reminders, the newsletter you keep meaning to send. We set up the lists and segments so the right people hear from you, and nobody gets the same email three times.
Websites
WordPress
Self-hosted, so your website belongs to you, not to a platform that can raise the price or close the doors. It’s what most of the web runs on, which means you’ll never be stuck looking for someone who knows it.
Kadence
Our starting point for every custom site. We build your own child theme on top of it, so the site looks like you and not like a template, and it still stays fast and easy to update.
WPForms
Registration, volunteer sign-ups, speaker applications, donation intake. Forms that feed your database and your email list instead of someone’s inbox.
Hostinger
We’re happy to host your site ourselves. If you’d rather hold the keys, Hostinger is where we send folks who want to manage their own hosting. It’s affordable and reliable, and we’ll set it up so you’re not starting from a blank control panel.
Running the office
Microsoft Excel
Our first choice for real data work: pivot tables, Power Query and formulas that hold up when the file gets big. Microsoft offers nonprofit pricing on Microsoft 365. When a spreadsheet has to be shared with a board or a room full of volunteers, Google Sheets is easier, and we’ll tell you which one fits the job.
Google Workspace
Email, Sheets, Docs and Drive, and a lot of nonprofits already have it for free through Google for Nonprofits. We’d rather build on what you already own than sell you something new. Your data stays on your own Drive, and we can put a simple, password-protected tool on top of it so a volunteer clicks a button instead of scrolling through a spreadsheet.
Bitwarden
A password vault for your whole team. When the volunteer who set up the PayPal account moves to Oregon, the login shouldn’t move with them. (If your passwords currently live in a spreadsheet, we understand. We run a museum about that.)
Tools we work in
Bloomerang
If you’re already on Bloomerang, you don’t need to move to work with us. We’ll clean up what’s in there and help you get more out of it.
Tableau
Not something we’d ask you to buy, but a favorite of ours. When a board report or a grant application needs one chart that makes the case on its own, we build it in Tableau, and you get the finished visual without needing a license.
Not sure what fits?
Tell us what you’re using now and what’s not working. Sometimes the answer is a new tool. More often it’s getting the one you already have to behave.