Track Donors in Google Sheets Without Expensive CRM Software

Stop Wasting $500/Month: Build Your Nonprofit’s Donor CRM in Google Sheets for Free

Your team spends 12 hours a week copying donation data, sending receipts, and fixing mistakes. Last quarter, 1 in 5 donors weren’t thanked—and two major donors vanished. You don’t need Salesforce. You need 50 lines of code that runs the second a donation comes in.

Why Manual Tracking Is Costing You Donors

• 600+ hours/year lost to copy-pasting form responses, drafting emails, attaching receipts by hand.
• Silent errors pile up: Wrong names, missing tax receipts, duplicate entries. One EIN typo triggers IRS flags.
• No smart segmentation: Can’t find lapsed monthly donors or major gift prospects—data is stuck in flat rows.
• Delayed gratitude kills generosity: 40% of nonprofits take over 48 hours to thank donors. Those who get instant replies give 40% more next time.

A mid-size arts nonprofit paid $600/month for Bloomerang. Two people used it. They switched to Google Sheets in a weekend. Now the whole team uses it. Donors get receipts in seconds.

The Fix: A Self-Running Donor System for $0

Turn Google Sheets into a full donor CRM. Google Form collects donations. Apps Script—free automation in every Google account—triggers on submission. It generates a PDF receipt, emails the donor, logs the interaction, and updates donor segments. No per-user fees. No training.

Runs within free limits: 100-1,500 emails/day (depends on account) and 6 minutes runtime per execution Source. Handles 1,000+ daily donations for most nonprofits.

Core Code: Auto-Generate PDFs & Send Emails

// Pseudo code for the application 
FUNCTION sendDonorReceipt(submissionEvent)
  GET Sheets: 'Donations', 'CommsLog'
  IF any missing THEN SKIP
  
  EXTRACT [Name, Email, Amount, Date, ID, Status] from submission row
  
  IF Status is 'Sent' THEN RETURN (Idempotency Check)
  
  TRY
    LOAD Receipt HTML Template
    INJECT [Name, Amount, Date, ID] into Template
    
    GENERATE PDF from Template
      NAME: "Receipt_{ID}.pdf"
      
    SEND Email to Donor
      SUBJECT: "Thank you, {Name}"
      BODY: "Receipt attached..."
      ATTACHMENT: Generated PDF
      
    LOG interaction to 'CommsLog'
      DATA: [Name, Email, 'Thank-you', Date, 'Sent', ID]
      
    UPDATE 'Donations' row Status to 'Sent'
    
  CATCH Error
    LOG Error to 'CommsLog'
    NOTIFY Admin via Email
END FUNCTION

OAuth scopes required: https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive

How It Works: From Donation to Receipt in <60 Seconds

Setup in Under 2 Hours

1. Create donation form: Google Form (Name, Email, Amount, Payment Method, Recurring?). Link to "Donations" sheet.

2. Set up tabs:

   • Donations: Form responses + Status column (F)
   • CommsLog: Contact tracking (Name, Email, Type, Date, Status, ID)
   • ReceiptTemplate.html: HTML file in Apps Script editor with branding and EIN

3. Deploy script: Open Apps Script (Extensions > Apps Script). Paste code. Create ReceiptTemplate.html with CSS-styled receipt.

4. Authorize triggers: Add trigger: sendDonorReceipt → On form submit. Approve Gmail, Sheets, Drive.

5. Add segmentation: Use QUERY():

   =QUERY(Donations!A:F, "WHERE C >= 1000 AND F = 'Sent'", 1) // Major donors

6. Test with $1 donation: Submit test. Verify email, PDF, logs. Check executions (View > Executions).

7. Monitor weekly: Scan CommsLog for errors. Stay under Gmail quotas—upgrade to Workspace or batch if over 1,000/day.

Build vs. Buy: The Real Numbers

Most nonprofits never hit the free limits.

Build it yourself (code above)
Or book a call, running by Friday. 30-day warranty.