Tools · for nonprofits
Too many nonprofit tools: how to stop drowning
By the Ember team · August 24, 2026 · Updated September 24, 2026
Stop adding apps and cut down to the fewest places your information lives. List every tool you use in a week, find where you type the same thing twice, then cut, keep or combine.
Grants in a spreadsheet. Volunteers in your inbox. Donor notes in someone's head. You're not disorganized. Your tools never talked to each other.
Why tool sprawl happens
It's not a mistake. It's how small orgs grow. Someone adds a free tool for one problem, then another, then another. Each was reasonable. Together they become a part-time job. You re-type the same info in five places and chase what lives where. Every new volunteer has to learn the maze.
A quick tool audit
List every tool you touch in a week
Spreadsheets, inbox folders, that one app you pay $12/month for. All of it.
Mark what each one actually does
One line per tool. You'll spot the overlaps: three places holding "contacts," two holding "tasks."
Find the re-typing
Anywhere you enter the same fact twice is a seam. Seams are where things slip.
Cut, keep, or combine
Cancel what you don't use. Keep what does one job well. Combine the overlaps.
Fewer tools beats fancier tools
The goal isn't the most powerful tool. It's the fewest places your information lives. Three tools that share information are easier to run than ten that don't. Every seam you remove is one less place for things to slip.
When "one place" is the answer
Your audit may turn up the classic small-nonprofit sprawl: grants, volunteers, donors, and programs, each in its own silo. That's the problem an all-in-one nonprofit tool is built to solve. Here's the test: would connecting these actually save you re-typing, or are you fine as you are? If "grants in a spreadsheet, volunteers in your inbox" sounded like your week, it's probably worth a look.
Meet Ember
Programs, grants, volunteers, and donors in one connected place, made for nonprofits like yours, so your whole team works from the same page. Free if your budget is under $50K a year. Unlimited users on every tier.