Zeffy vs.
Sponsor A Purpose
Discover why nonprofits choose Sponsor A Purpose
Zeffy alternatives: where nonprofits outgrow the free plan
Zeffy is a genuinely good starting point, and plenty of small nonprofits run on it happily for years. The orgs that move to Sponsor A Purpose are usually the ones bumping into three limits at once: Zeffy's brand sits on their donation pages instead of their own, their CRM tracks donors but not volunteers, fosters, partners or members, and the reporting stops short of what their board is asking for. If you are weighing Zeffy alternatives, the question is rarely price, since both platforms take 0%. It is what the donor record does once the gift has landed.
What SAPu offers
Your brand, not ours
Donation pages carry your organization's identity
One record per person
Donors, volunteers, fosters and partners live in the same CRM
2.2% + $0.30 processing
Stripe rates on every tier, with 0% platform fees
It replaces your whole stack, not just Zeffy
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
Both platforms charge 0% in platform fees and both are funded by an optional donor tip at checkout, so there is nothing between us on headline cost. The difference shows up after the gift lands, in what the donor record can do with it.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| 0% platform fees on donation processing | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
| Donor tip model funds the platform | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
Donor CRM
This is where the two diverge. Zeffy tracks donors and their giving history, with segmentation, custom fields and notes. Sponsor A Purpose adds households and organization linking, tasks and follow-up reminders, and the giving metrics and stewardship prompts that turn a list of gifts into a decision about who to ask next.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| Donor records with full giving history | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
| Segmentation and custom fields | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
| Household and organization linking | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| Notes on contact records | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
| Tasks and follow-up reminders | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| Role-based staff permissions | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
| Giving metrics and donor scoring | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| Stewardship ask recommendations | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| Board-ready reporting | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
Giving and payments
Checkout matches on the essentials: Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH and recurring giving on both sides. We add DAF giving and employer matching gifts inside the widget. Zeffy adds event ticketing with door scanning, which we do not do.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Pay, Google Pay and ACH | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
| Recurring giving | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
| Event ticketing with door scanning | Sponsor A Purpose: no | Zeffy: yes |
| DAF giving built into the widget | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| Corporate matching gifts | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
Communication and automation
Zeffy includes email in the free platform where ours is priced by email contacts, and they send printed direct mail from the dashboard, which we do not. What we add is a library of prebuilt donor journeys rather than sequences you have to build yourself.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| Email campaigns | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
| Printed direct mail | Sponsor A Purpose: no | Zeffy: yes |
| Email included at no extra cost | Sponsor A Purpose: no | Zeffy: yes |
| Prebuilt donor journeys | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
Grants
Zeffy does no grant work at all. Grant discovery runs on IRS 990 funder filings here, with deadline and pipeline tracking and AI-assisted writing, priced as an add-on.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| Grant discovery on IRS 990 data | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| AI grant writing | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
Volunteers
Zeffy tracks donors only. Volunteers, fosters and partners sit on the same record set as donors with us, so the person who walks dogs on Saturday and gives at year end is one record, not two.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| Volunteer and foster records | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| Volunteer management | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
Services and support
Both platforms are nonprofit-only, and Zeffy runs phone and email support on weekdays. The difference is the work around the software: website design and hosting, growth consulting and appointment scheduling, which we sell as paid services.
| Feature | Sponsor A Purpose | Zeffy |
|---|---|---|
| Appointment scheduling | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| Website design and hosting (service) | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| Growth consulting (service) | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: no |
| Nonprofit-only focus | Sponsor A Purpose: yes | Zeffy: yes |
Sponsor A Purpose vs. Zeffy: common questions
The next step when Zeffy starts to pinch
If branding, CRM depth or scale have not become pain points yet, there is no rush. When they do, Sponsor A Purpose picks up where Zeffy leaves off.