Little Green Light vs.
Sponsor A Purpose
Discover why nonprofits choose Sponsor A Purpose
A Little Green Light alternative with the same processing and no monthly fee
Little Green Light is a genuinely affordable, well-liked donor CRM built around donor management and reporting. But it isn't a fundraising operating system: donation processing, a website, and growth support all have to come from somewhere else. Sponsor A Purpose bundles it all into one free platform. Little Green Light alternatives rarely beat it on processing, because it passes through Stripe exactly as we do. The difference is the monthly fee underneath.
What SAPu offers
Donations built in
No separate processor to connect or reconcile
A full organizational website
Included at no extra cost
Managed Google Ad Grants & consulting
Included at no extra cost
It replaces your whole stack, not just Little Green Light
A CRM here, a donation form there, email somewhere else. Sponsor A Purpose brings all of it into one connected platform.
Cost and what you get free
Little Green Light starts at $45 a month and scales by record count. Neither platform takes a cut of donations, both publish their processing rates, and neither caps staff users. The difference is the monthly fee: theirs starts at $45, ours starts at nothing.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Little Green Light |
|---|---|---|
| Free core CRM | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
| No monthly subscription on the free tier | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
| 0% platform fees on donation processing | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Published processing rates | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Unlimited staff users | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
Donor CRM
Little Green Light is a good CRM at a fair price, and it matches ours on records, segmentation, custom fields, custom reports, notes, major gift and stewardship tracking and donor scoring. Document storage on records and alumni class-year management are theirs, and both are genuinely useful if you need them.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Little Green Light |
|---|---|---|
| Donor records with full giving history | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Segmentation and custom fields | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Custom reports | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Notes on contact records | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Document storage on records | Sponsor A Purpose: no | Little Green Light: yes |
| Alumni class-year management | Sponsor A Purpose: no | Little Green Light: yes |
| Tasks and activities | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Major gift and stewardship tracking | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Giving metrics and donor scoring | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
Giving and payments
Little Green Light does not process donations itself; it connects out to Stripe, PayPal or another processor, which is why the rate matches ours. DAF giving and employer matching gifts inside the widget are ours.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Little Green Light |
|---|---|---|
| DAF giving built into the widget | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
| Corporate matching gifts | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
Communication and automation
Little Green Light does mail-merge letters, labels and envelopes, which matters for a direct mail programme and which we do not offer. Native email campaigns and prebuilt donor journeys are ours.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Little Green Light |
|---|---|---|
| Mail-merge letters, labels and envelopes | Sponsor A Purpose: no | Little Green Light: yes |
| Native email campaigns | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
| Prebuilt donor journeys | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
Grants
Both platforms manage grants. Grant discovery on IRS 990 funder filings and AI-assisted writing are ours, priced as an add-on.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Little Green Light |
|---|---|---|
| Grant management | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Grant discovery on IRS 990 data | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
| AI grant writing | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
Volunteers
Both platforms track volunteers and fosters and manage them. This category is level.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Little Green Light |
|---|---|---|
| Volunteer and foster records | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
| Volunteer management | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
Services and support
Both are nonprofit-only. What we add is the work around the software: website design and hosting, growth consulting and appointment scheduling, sold as paid services.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Little Green Light |
|---|---|---|
| Appointment scheduling | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
| Website design and hosting (service) | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
| Growth consulting (service) | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: no |
| Nonprofit-only focus | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Little Green Light: yes |
Sponsor A Purpose vs. Little Green Light: common questions
A CRM is a start. Sponsor A Purpose is the whole platform.
Little Green Light is a good CRM at a fair price, and passes through the same Stripe rate we do. The difference is the monthly fee: theirs starts at $45, ours starts at nothing.