Sumac
Nonprofit accounting and donor management platform.
About Sumac
Sumac combines fund accounting and donor CRM in a single platform built for nonprofits. Day-to-day, that means tracking restricted and unrestricted funds separately, logging donor giving histories, processing donations through PayPal or Stripe, and generating the grant reports funders require. Staff handle acknowledgment letters automatically rather than exporting data between systems. It fits small to mid-size nonprofits — community foundations, social service agencies, arts organizations — that currently run QuickBooks alongside a separate fundraising database and spend time reconciling the two. If your organization tracks multiple grants with distinct reporting periods and expense categories, the built-in grant management module replaces a lot of manual spreadsheet work. The platform struggles to compete with enterprise tools like Blackbaud or Sage Intacct Nonprofit for organizations with complex audit requirements or large development teams. There is no free trial tier, so you commit at $35/month before testing it against your actual data. Organizations already running a stable two-system setup with QuickBooks and something like DonorPerfect will face real migration friction and may not recover the time cost quickly.
Best for
Nonprofit organizations needing combined accounting and donor management
Key Features
- Fund accounting for nonprofit compliance
- Donor relationship management with giving history
- Grant tracking and reporting
- Donation processing and acknowledgment automation
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Fund accounting separates restricted, unrestricted, and temporarily restricted funds without manual journal entry workarounds
- Donor CRM stores complete giving history, communication logs, and pledge tracking in the same database as your financials
- Grant tracking ties specific expenses to individual grants and generates funder-ready reports without exporting to Excel
- Donation acknowledgment letters generate automatically after each gift, including custom language per fund or campaign
- Native integration with QuickBooks lets organizations sync financials without abandoning existing audit trails
- Stripe and PayPal connections handle online donation processing and post receipts directly to donor records
- MailChimp and Zapier integrations extend communication workflows without requiring a dedicated IT resource
Cons
- No free tier or time-limited trial — you pay before evaluating the platform against your own data
- Organizations already using QuickBooks plus DonorPerfect or Bloomerang face significant data migration work with uncertain ROI
- Reporting depth is lighter than Blackbaud Raiser's Edge or Sage Intacct Nonprofit for organizations with complex audit or board reporting needs
- Smaller user community than category leaders means fewer third-party accountants and consultants who know the platform
- Feature overlap with your existing stack is likely — if you only need fund accounting, you are paying for CRM tools you will not use
- Pricing scales with contacts and users, so costs rise faster than the base rate suggests as your donor database grows
Ledger Brief Take
Built specifically for nonprofits that want fund accounting and donor CRM in one platform instead of juggling QuickBooks with separate fundraising software. The grant management component sets it apart from generic nonprofit accounting tools, though established organizations may find their existing two-system setup hard to abandon.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions accountants ask about Sumac.
What does Sumac cost and what does the entry price include?
Sumac starts at $35 per month. That entry tier covers basic donor management and fund accounting for small organizations. Pricing increases based on the number of contact records and modules added, such as grant management or online donations. There is no free plan. Get a quote directly from Sumac for your specific contact volume before committing.
Does Sumac replace QuickBooks or integrate with it?
Sumac integrates with QuickBooks rather than replacing it. The sync pushes financial transactions from Sumac into QuickBooks so your accountant or auditor can work in a familiar environment. Organizations that want to consolidate onto one platform can use Sumac's fund accounting as their primary ledger, but most small nonprofits keep QuickBooks for external reporting.
How does Sumac compare to Blackbaud or Sage Intacct Nonprofit?
Sumac targets small to mid-size nonprofits under roughly 10,000 donor records. Blackbaud Raiser's Edge and Sage Intacct Nonprofit serve larger organizations with multi-entity structures, complex audits, and dedicated finance staff. Sumac costs significantly less and requires less implementation time, but it does not match the reporting depth or third-party accountant familiarity of those platforms.
Can Sumac handle grant management and funder reporting?
Yes. Sumac tracks grants by funder, ties specific expense line items to each grant, and generates reports formatted for submission. It handles multiple open grants with different budget periods simultaneously. This is the feature that most clearly separates it from generic nonprofit accounting tools that treat grants as ordinary income categories.
Is Sumac a good fit for a small nonprofit with no dedicated accountant?
It works for organizations where a single staff member handles both development and bookkeeping, which is common in nonprofits under $1M in annual revenue. The combined CRM and fund accounting reduces the number of systems to learn. However, if you eventually hire a professional accountant, they are less likely to know Sumac than QuickBooks, which may create a support gap.
How secure is donor and financial data in Sumac?
Sumac is a cloud-hosted platform with standard encryption for data in transit and at rest. Payment processing runs through Stripe or PayPal rather than Sumac storing card data directly. For organizations subject to state charitable solicitation rules or specific funder data requirements, review Sumac's data processing agreement before importing donor records.