How Alder compares.
Every charity is different, and the right CRM depends on what you need. We believe in transparency — here’s how Alder stacks up against the alternatives.
Spreadsheets
Roughly 30% of UK charities have no formal CRM. They’re managing on Google Sheets, shared documents, shared drives. You’re not alone — but you’re also at risk.
What spreadsheets can’t do
Data protection. A shared spreadsheet has no access controls, no audit trail, no consent management. Everyone can see everything. Anyone can delete anything. You can’t prove who changed what, when, or why. GDPR compliance becomes guesswork.
Safeguarding. A spreadsheet shared across your team is a safeguarding risk. Sensitive information about vulnerable people is visible to anyone with the link. You can’t restrict access to certain records. You can’t track who accessed what.
Board reporting. A finance trustee needs to see annual giving. A safeguarding trustee needs to see case counts and outcomes. An operations trustee needs to see volunteer hours. Pulling this data from multiple spreadsheets takes days. Your data is fractured.
Automation. No automatic thank-you letters. No DBS renewal reminders. No donation receipts. No Gift Aid tracking. Every action requires manual work — and manual work scales linearly with your charity’s growth. At some point, someone is spending 40 hours a week on spreadsheet maintenance.
Single view. The same person is in four rows with four different name spellings. You send two donation receipts by accident. You don’t know that Jane Smith (row 42) is the same person as J. Smith (row 156). Your data quality spirals.
| Alder Free | Spreadsheets | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | £0 (forever) | £0 (but hidden time cost) |
| Access controls | Yes (role-based) | No (all or nothing) |
| Audit trail | Yes (all actions logged) | No |
| Consent tracking | Yes (GDPR-ready) | No |
| Safeguarding workflows | Yes (restricted access) | No |
| Automation | Yes (emails, reminders, Gift Aid) | No |
| Board reporting | Yes (pre-built dashboards) | Manual extraction |
| Duplicate detection | Yes (prevents data quality issues) | No |
| Data quality assurance | Yes (validation rules) | No |
What if it was free?
Alder is free — 500 contacts, 3 users, every feature, forever. No credit card, no trial period, no upsell email. Alder Free is built for micro-charities trying a CRM for the first time. It guides you with governance checklists, safeguarding workflows, compliance reminders, and Gift Aid tracking. Everything a charity needs.
If you’ve been meaning to move off spreadsheets but haven’t found the right moment — this is it. No cost barrier. No “we’ll wait until next budget cycle.” Start today.