DonorPerfect
“Can an employee-owned, bootstrapped nonprofit CRM outlast PE-consolidated competitors by owning both the donor data layer and the payments rail (SafeSave)?”
Founded1987
HQBethel Park, PA (mailing); historically Fort Washington, PA
FoundersDoug Schoenberg, Nathan Relles
Latest roundBootstrapped / employee-owned (no outside funding)
IndustryVertical SaaS / Nonprofit Fundraising
The story
SofterWare launched in 1981 serving camps and childcare, then acquired and centralized DonorPerfect as its nonprofit CRM starting in 2002. The 2009 launch of in-house SafeSave Payments transformed DonorPerfect from pure CRM into an embedded payments platform for nonprofits. In 2021 the company divested camp/childcare to focus exclusively on nonprofit fundraising + payments, and in 2026 acquired Givecloud to modernize its online donation forms and reduce processing costs. Remains employee-owned with no PE/VC backing.
Product timeline
1981
SofterWare founded, initially serving camps and childcare· pivot
1987
First version of DonorPerfect released by Starkland Systems· banking
2001
DonorPerfect Online launches as web-based SaaS· pivot
2002
SofterWare acquires Starkland Systems, becomes sole developer· acquisition
2009
SafeSave Payments transaction processing introduced (in-house payments)· banking
2016
Acquired ReadySetAuction auction management software· acquisition
2021
Sold camp/childcare solutions to focus on nonprofits and payments; Lauren Sheehan named President· pivot
2024
Launched free Fundraiser Bot AI writer· pivot
2026
Acquired Givecloud to expand online giving· acquisition
Acquisitions
The stack
3 layers disclosed in DonorPerfect’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
SafeSave Payments (self-operated)DonorPerfect Payment Services (self-operated)Insta-Charge (self-operated)
KYC
in the full report
Accounting
in the full report
Accounting gap: none
5 more providers across 2 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.