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Industry · Education & Public
ERP for non-profits that answer to donors and funders
Non-profits juggle donors, grants with conditions, restricted funds, programmes, volunteers and events, usually across a donor database, accounting software and spreadsheets. Every funder report becomes a reconciliation exercise.
- M01CRM
- M02Accounting
- M03Analytic accounting
- M04Events
- M05Email marketing
- M06Projects
Context
ERP in non-profit
An ERP with analytic accounting tracks every income and expense by fund, grant and programme from the start, so reports for boards and funders come from the books rather than spreadsheets.
Free Odoo setup
Free open-source non-profit ERP, set up for free
We install and set up Odoo Community, the free open-source edition of Odoo, at no cost. There is no licence fee for the software and no charge for the setup.
01
Free open-source software
Odoo Community is licensed under LGPLv3: no licence fee, no user limit and no expiry.
02
Free setup
We install Odoo Community on your server and set up the core apps your business needs.
03
Hosting is yours
Hosting is not included. You run Odoo on your own server or cloud account and pay your hosting provider directly. We can recommend options.
04
Paid work is quoted first
Data migration, customisation, integrations and training go beyond setup. We quote them up front, so nothing is billed without your agreement.
01Operational challenges
What usually breaks before the ERP project starts
01
Restricted fund tracking
Spending not tagged to the grant or fund it belongs to.
02
Fragmented donor data
Donations, events and communications in separate tools.
03
Funder reporting effort
Each report rebuilt by hand from exports.
04
Small finance teams
Limited staff time for manual reconciliation.
02Core flows
How the ERP should handle each part of the business
- Sales flow
- Donations, memberships, recurring giving, event tickets and merchandise.
- Procurement
- Programme purchases charged to grants and funds with approval limits.
- Inventory
- Donated goods and programme supplies where relevant.
- Warehouse
- Distribution of goods for relief or programme organisations.
- Accounting
- Analytic accounting by fund, grant and programme; budgets vs actuals; donation receipts.
- CRM
- Donor and member records, campaigns, communication history and volunteer management.
03Industry workflows
Workflows specific to non-profit
01
Donation to receipt
Online and offline donations recorded with automatic acknowledgement and receipts.
02
Grant lifecycle
Applications, budgets, reporting deadlines and spending tracked per grant.
03
Programme costing
Staff time and expenses allocated to programmes.
04
Volunteer management
Recruitment, scheduling and hours tracked by programme.
04 — Reporting
Reports that should come out of the system, not a spreadsheet
- Income and expenditure by fund and grant
- Budget vs actual by programme
- Donor retention and average gift
- Campaign and event results
- Grant spending against conditions
- Overhead allocation
05 — Compliance
Compliance considerations
Charity accounting and reporting rules vary by country (for example SORP in the UK, Form 990 reporting in the US, FCRA for foreign contributions in India), alongside donation receipting and data protection for donor data.
Regulatory requirements vary by jurisdiction. We configure the system to support your obligations; confirm specific rules with your auditor or compliance advisor.
06 — Integrations
Systems the ERP needs to talk to
Online donation platforms, payment providers, email marketing, accounting exports for auditors and grant management portals are common integrations.
07AI opportunities
Where AI is genuinely useful here
Practical uses that sit on top of clean ERP data. None of them replace getting the core transactions right first.
01
Donor segmentation
Suggest segments for appeals based on giving history.
02
Report drafting
Draft narrative sections of funder reports from data.
03
Receipt capture
Extract expense data from receipts for allocation.
08ERP modules
Modules a typical deployment includes
- M01CRM
- M02Accounting
- M03Analytic accounting
- M04Events
- M05Email marketing
- M06Projects
- M07Website
09Roadmap
Implementation roadmap
- 01
Fund structure
Define funds, grants and programme dimensions.
- 02
Donor data
Clean and migrate donor and donation history.
- 03
Finance
Accounting with fund tracking and budgets.
- 04
Engagement
Campaigns, events and volunteers.
10Common mistakes
Mistakes we see repeatedly
01
Funds added after the fact
Tagging spending later never fully reconciles.
02
Migrating dirty donor data
Duplicates damage relationships and gift-aid or tax claims.
03
Over-customising for one funder
Design reports from a common structure instead.
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Can an ERP do fund accounting?
Yes, through analytic accounting dimensions for funds, grants and programmes, combined with budgets.
Are there non-profit discounts?
Some vendors offer non-profit pricing; check current terms with each vendor. Open-source options like Odoo Community and ERPNext have no licence fees.
Can we take online donations?
Yes, through the website and payment providers, with automatic receipts.
Is there a free ERP for non-profit?
Yes. Odoo Community is free, open-source ERP that covers sales, purchasing, inventory, invoicing and more for non-profit businesses. ERP Builders sets it up for free; you pay only for your own hosting and any extra work you choose to add.
Is hosting included in the free Odoo setup?
No. The setup is free, but hosting is not included. You run Odoo on your own server or cloud account and pay the hosting provider directly. We can recommend hosting that suits your size.
Next step
Spending days on funder reports?
We will show how fund and grant tracking works from day one.