About Software4Nonprofits

What We Do at Software4Nonprofits

Software4Nonprofits develops technology to help the charitable sector. From its Canadian home base, it produces software used throughout Canada, the U.S.A. and the rest of the world. Its primary products are ACCOUNTS and DONATION.

Who is Dan Cooperstock?

Software4Nonprofits was founded by Dan Cooperstock, a software developer with an M.Sc. in Computer Science and over 35 years of programming and business experience.

Dan is also a Quaker, and has been both Treasurer and Clerk (chair) of his Quaker Meeting's Finance Committee, and Clerk of the Canada-wide Quaker organization's Finance Committee. Based both on this experience, and his experience writing and supporting DONATION since 1994, Dan has a solid understanding of the financial requirements of a small charitable organization.

For more information about Dan, including recommendations from DONATION users and former colleagues, check his LinkedIn profile:

Who is Yida Zhang?

Yida was hired by Dan as a full-time developer in September 2017. He has been an IT professional since 1995, and has worked in many different technical positions: IT support person, system administrator, network administrator, database administrator, software developer, and software project manager. Yida participates in all aspects of Software4Nonprofits' work, including technical support, but mostly in the ongoing development of our software.

Who is Ali Safari?

Ali joined Software4Nonprofits in October 2021, primarily to answer administrative and tech support emails and phone calls. Ali has worked in I.T. support for over 15 years with prominent software and hardware companies like Microsoft Canada and Sony Canada. Ali's experience ranges from I.T support to software bug reproduction, system and database administration, and hardware and software diagnostics.

Who is Penni Burrell?

Penni Burrell is a Quaker with a long standing involvement with a variety of community non-profit organizations, as board and staff member. She appreciates programs such as Software4Nonprofits that offers more easily accessible financial management to such groups. She is helping Software4Nonprofits with follow-up phone calls about payments.

A Brief History of the DONATION Software

DONATION was Software4Nonprofits' main product, until ACCOUNTS was introduced in 2012.

• Dan Cooperstock wrote the original DOS version of DONATION in 1994 in response to difficulty finding software that met the needs of his Quaker Meeting.
• In 1998, Dan rewrote DONATION as a Windows program, and in 1999 began giving it away for free.
• Software4Nonprofits launched another extensive rewrite of DONATION in 2007 to capitalize on newer technology, and to add many user-requested features, and changed the program to be commercial.

Introducing the ACCOUNTS Software Program

Dan Cooperstock wrote ACCOUNTS in 2012, after surveying his DONATION users about the possibility of doing so and receiving over 800 replies. It is meant to fill a need for churches, charities and non-profits to have an affordable, easy to use bookkeeping program that handles fund accounting easily and entirely automatically, unlike the major general purpose programs like QuickBooks, Quicken and Simply Accounting / Sage 50 Canadian Edition.