Built by someone who's been in the room.

Alder started with a frustration.

James Inman spent a decade building safeguarding systems for schools and running neurobetter, a charity supporting neurodivergent communities. As a trustee, he sat in the room where governance decisions were made, safeguarding policies were written, and boards asked 'are we doing this right?' — and watched as the tools available to answer that question fell short.

The fundraising CRMs didn't handle case management. The case management systems didn't handle fundraising. Neither handled governance, compliance, or board reporting. Everyone was juggling spreadsheets, Mailchimp, Doodle, shared drives, and whatever else they could cobble together. It was a patchwork — and things fell through the cracks.

So James built the platform he wished existed. A single system where a small charity could manage its supporters, deliver its services, coordinate its volunteers, run its events, stay compliant, report to its board, and find its next grant — all in one place. Not a fundraising tool with extras bolted on. A platform designed for how charities actually work.

That platform is Alder.

Why "Alder"?

The alder tree is one of the first to colonise bare ground. It enriches the soil, fixing nitrogen from the air so that other trees can grow. It doesn't take the spotlight — it creates the conditions for an entire ecosystem to thrive.

That's what we want Alder to be for small charities. The foundation that makes everything else possible.

Deep roots, greater reach.

The company

Alder CRM is built and operated by Otaina Ltd, a UK company. James is the founder and sole developer — which means every feature in Alder reflects direct conversations with charity leaders, not a product roadmap driven by investors or a sales team.

neurobetter, the charity James founded, is one of Alder's founding partners. The relationship between the charity and the product isn't marketing — it's the reason Alder exists.