Setting up your organization on All In One Nonprofit, from scratch

Back to Getting started: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/get-started/

How to use this page. Work top to bottom and tick each box as you finish it. Your ticks are saved in this browser only: they survive a reload on this computer but will not follow you to another one. Once you are signed in, the platform keeps its own copy of the setup path at https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/setup/, where the steps tick themselves off as the platform sees them done, and that version is saved with your organization.

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What is on this page

A. Have these in hand
B. Your email addresses (read this first)
C. Choose a plan and sign in
1. Create your organization (Identity)
2. Your board on the record (Governance)
3. Your calendar of obligations (Compliance)
4. Turn the money on (Fundraising)
5. Supporters and your first app
6. Reach your people (Communication)
7. Your website, forms and documents
8. Optional, when you are ready
9. Your rhythm once set up
If you get stuck

ABefore you start: have these in hand

You can do everything without them, but each one you have ready removes a trip back later. Nothing on this list is sent anywhere until you type it in.

Your legal name, EIN, mailing address and the date you were formed

The legal name exactly as it appears on your filings. It prints on every document the platform generates. If you do not have an EIN yet, you can still enroll in the Launch Plan and add it later.

Your IRS classification and your state of incorporation

Public charity, private foundation, 501(c)(4), 501(c)(6), 501(c)(7), or not yet tax exempt. This drives your compliance calendar and the words the platform uses.

The month your fiscal year starts

Every deadline in every app is calculated from it.

A letterhead image and a signature image

A PNG or JPG letterhead under 600 KB, and the signature that goes on your letters. If you have no letterhead, the platform can generate one from your organization name (step 4).

Your board list: each member's name, role, term dates and an email address at your organization's domain

Not a personal address unless it is absolutely unavoidable. Invitations, e-signatures and meeting notices go to these addresses; a personal address walks out the door with the person, and a guessed one bounces silently. Section B says how to set the addresses up.

Who holds which position: Treasurer, Secretary, and any chairs

Notices route by position. An empty position means a notice reaches nobody.

Sign-in details for your bank, and for Stripe or PayPal if you already have either

Stripe is the connection that records gifts, tickets and dues in your books automatically; if you do not have a Stripe account you create it during the connection step, and the bank details are what Stripe asks for. PayPal can be added as a donation link beside it, but the platform's own card warns "PayPal gifts do not reach your records", so PayPal gifts are keyed in by hand. Have both logins if you use both.

Sign-in for your email newsletter tool, if you use one

MailerLite, Mailchimp, Brevo, EmailOctopus or Flodesk. Skip this if you do not send newsletters yet; the Newsletters app works without one.

Your donor list as a spreadsheet, if you have one

A CSV export from wherever your donors live today. Donor Management has "Import donors from CSV" and "Import gifts from CSV".

BYour email addresses: decide this before anyone signs in

Sign-in on the platform has no password. You type an email address, we send a one-click link to it, and whoever opens that link is signed in as that address. That makes the email address the account. Whoever controls the owner's email address controls your organization on the platform.

Personal address or organization address?

	A personal address (gmail.com, yahoo.com, or an address at somebody's employer)	An address at your own domain ([email protected])
When the person leaves	The address leaves with them. The seat, the notices and any sign-in links keep going to someone who is gone.	You hand the address to the next person. The seat, the history and the notices stay with the role.
Who owns the record	The individual. If they stop answering, nobody can get in without support.	The organization. An administrator can reset or reassign it.
How it reads to others	Board notices, receipts and invitations arrive from a personal account.	They arrive from the organization, which is what funders, members and customers expect.
Cost	Free.	Free for most 501(c)(3)s through Google Workspace for Nonprofits (below).

The rule we recommend: the owner seat, every board seat, and every position that receives money or application notices uses an address at your own domain. Use a personal address only when it is absolutely unavoidable, and when you do, plan to move it: My Organization has a "Change primary admin" card for exactly this. Its own words: "Move the primary admin of this organization to a different email address, for example from a personal email to your organization's own address. Your billing does not change, and you stay on the organization as an admin. We email a 6-digit code to the new address to confirm."

Option 1 (recommended): Google Workspace on your own domain

Google Workspace for Nonprofits is Google's free edition for eligible organizations: "Professional email addresses at your nonprofit's domain", with 100 TB of storage shared across all users and a limit of 2,000 users. Eligibility in the United States: the organization must be "registered with the IRS as exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3)"; Google verifies you through its validation partner, Goodstack. Government entities, hospitals and schools are not eligible, and a fiscally sponsored group without its own 501(c)(3) is "currently not eligible". Discounted paid editions exist if you need more (Business Standard $3.50 a user a month on a one-year commitment, as Google's page states it on October 5, 2026).

Apply at https://www.google.com/nonprofits/. Have your EIN and your IRS determination letter ready. Approval takes a few days (unverified; Google does not publish a time).
You need a domain you control. If you do not own one, the Website & Join Page app registers one .org in your organization's name at no charge on AIONP Essentials and AIONP Complete (https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/website-join-page/, section 1 of that app, "Your own .org, registered in your organization's name"). Email on that domain needs its mail records added at the domain's DNS; ask [email protected] and we will set them with you, or use the app's "Move my domain to my own Cloudflare account" and add them yourself.
In the Google Admin console (https://admin.google.com/) create one user for each person who will sign in to the platform, and the role addresses below.

Users, aliases and groups: which to use for whom

A user is a real mailbox a person signs in to. Give one to everyone who will sign in to the platform, because the platform signs people in by their own address and records who did what. Two people must never share one sign-in address.
An alias is an extra address on an existing user's mailbox, at no extra cost. Use it for a role: treasurer@ as an alias on the current treasurer's mailbox. When the office changes hands, move the alias to the new person in the Admin console and nothing else changes. On the platform, invite the person at the role address (My Organization, "Invite members") so the seat follows the office, not the person.
A group (board@, info@) delivers one message to several mailboxes. Use it for notices many people should see. Do not use a group address as a platform sign-in: the sign-in link would reach everybody in the group, and any of them could open it.

If somebody wants their mail in the inbox they already read

Forwarding keeps the role address and lets the person read it where they already are. In the new Gmail account, following Gmail's own help page: open Gmail, click Settings, then "See all settings"; open the "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" tab; select "Add a forwarding address"; enter the destination address; click "Next", then "Proceed", then "OK"; open the verification link Gmail sends to the destination account; back in Settings, refresh, return to "Forwarding and POP/IMAP", select "Forward a copy of incoming mail to", choose "Keep Gmail's copy in the Inbox", and click "Save Changes". The steps are at https://support.google.com/mail/answer/10957. Two cautions: a forwarded sign-in link still works for whoever reads the destination inbox, so forward only to an inbox that person alone reads; and replies sent from the personal inbox go out from the personal address unless Gmail's "Send mail as" is set up for the role address.

Option 2: a plain Gmail account for the organization

If a domain and Workspace are more than you want today, create one free Gmail account in the organization's name (for example [email protected]) for each role that signs in, at https://accounts.google.com/signup, and keep the sign-in details in the organization's records, not in one person's head. It is still better than a volunteer's personal address, because you can hand it over, but it has no administrator who can reset it if the password is lost, so turn on recovery options and record them. Move to your own domain when you can; the "Change primary admin" card makes that a ten-minute job.

"Sign in with Google" or "Email me a sign-in link"?

Both appear on https://app.allinonenonprofit.com/signin and both sign in the same address. "Sign in with Google" is one click if you are already signed in to that Google account in the browser, and it skips the trip to the inbox; it is the better choice for a Workspace or Gmail address. "Email me a sign-in link" works with any address at all, including one that is not Google; the link "works once and expires in 15 minutes". Either way, the address is what matters, so sign in with the role address, not a personal one.

Allow our mail. Sign-in links and notices come from [email protected], and support replies from [email protected]. Add both to the safe senders or contacts of every mailbox that will sign in, before the first sign-in, so the first link does not land in spam.

Email addresses decided and created for the owner and every person who will sign in

CChoose a plan and sign in

The pricing page says it plainly: "There is no trial clock and nothing to cancel. See the whole platform first, three ways, and subscribe only when you are sure."

Look first, if you want to

"Explore the free live demo" at https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/demo/: "No sign-up, no email, no credit card. Just click around."
"Book a free walkthrough" at https://app.allinonenonprofit.com/book: a short call mapped to how your organization runs.
"Get a personalized demo account": ask from the pricing page and we build a private demo account from your organization's real structure.

Pick your plan

Plan	Who it is for	Price	Where to start
Launch Plan	Formed in the last twelve months, or still waiting on your IRS determination. One owner and one admin, up to 250 contacts. One Launch Plan per EIN.	$0 for six months, then $49 a month or $499 a year. No card now.	https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/launch/, the "Start your Launch Plan" button
AIONP Essentials	All-volunteer and volunteer-led organizations: clubs, congregations, booster groups, parent-teacher organizations, associations, young charities. One owner, three admins, one consultant seat, up to 500 contacts.	$499 a year or $49 a month	https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/pricing/, "Subscribe with Stripe" or the PayPal button under AIONP Essentials
AIONP Complete	Organizations with staff, grants, filings or casework. One owner, unlimited admins, one consultant seat, unlimited contacts, priority support and a live onboarding session.	$1,999 a year or $199 a month	https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/pricing/, "Subscribe with Stripe" or the PayPal button under AIONP Complete

Annual plans carry a 30-day guarantee (https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/refunds.html). Everything upgrades in place: same sign-in, same organization, every record intact. Have a promo code? Use Stripe; PayPal cannot take one.

Go to https://app.allinonenonprofit.com/signin. The page says "Enter your email and we'll send you a one-click sign-in link. No password needed, and it works with any email." Type the address, press "Email me a sign-in link", open the email and click the link; it "works once and expires in 15 minutes". Or press "Sign in with Google" for a Workspace or Gmail address. "New here? Signing in creates your account automatically."

Launch Plan: enrollment happens after sign-in, on the Launch page. Fill in "Organization name", "EIN" (leave blank if you do not have one yet), "Date formed", "IRS classification" and "State of incorporation", read the rules, tick "I have read and understand the Launch Plan rules." and press "Accept the Launch Plan". That creates your organization, so skip step 1 below.

1Create your organization Identity

Create your organization

Where: My Organization: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/. Under "Create an organization", type the "Organization name" and press "Create team". (If somebody already created it and gave you a 6-character code, use "Join an organization" instead.)
Done when: Your organization has a name and you are its owner.
Why now: Everything else hangs off this record.

Open My Organization

Tell us about your organization

Where: My Apps, then "Answer 6 questions": https://app.allinonenonprofit.com/setup-intake
Done when: The six answers are saved and My Apps reorders itself around them.
Why now: It puts the apps you will use first, so the launchpad is not a wall of tiles.

Answer 6 questions

Fill in your organization profile

Where: My Organization, then the "Profile & branding" card: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/#profile-branding. The fields are "Organization name", "Legal name (if different)", "EIN", "Phone", "Website", "Address", "City", "State / Province", "ZIP / Postal code", "Country", "Fiscal year starts", "Mission statement", "Signer name" and "Signer title". Press "Save organization profile".
Done when: Legal name, EIN, state and address are saved.
Why now: Every generated document reads from here; a blank here is a blank on every letter.

Open Profile & branding

Add your letterhead and signature

Where: The same "Profile & branding" card, then "Letterhead image" and "Signatures". A PNG or JPG letterhead under 600 KB. No letterhead yet? Press "Generate a letterhead from my organization name", then "Save organization profile" (a generated letterhead is not saved until you do).
Done when: The card shows your letterhead preview.
Why now: Set once, used by every app; without it every document looks generic.

Choose your organization type

Where: My Organization, then the "Organization type" card: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/#organization-type. Answer "What kind of organization are you?" and "How does the IRS classify you?", then press "Save organization type and language".
Done when: The type and tax class are set.
Why now: It changes the vocabulary and the compliance calendar across the whole platform. A church sees offering where the platform says donation; a booster club sees sponsorship.

2Your board on the record Governance

Seat your board

Where: Board Management, then Members: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/board-management/. Every current board member with a role, term dates and a working email address.
Done when: Every current board member is listed with a role and a real email address.
Why now: Invitations, e-signatures and meeting notices go to these addresses; a guessed one bounces silently.

Use each board member's address at your organization's domain, not a personal one, unless it is absolutely unavoidable. A board seat outlives the person in it. When a director rotates off, a role address (secretary@, or a named address you own) is handed to the next director and every notice, signature request and sign-in keeps working; a personal address keeps receiving your board's business after the person has left, and you cannot stop it. Section B explains how to create the addresses and how a director who prefers one inbox can forward.

Open Board Management

Invite your team and board

Where: My Organization, then the "Invite members" card: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/#setup-invite. Add staff, board members or volunteers; each gets a seat and the modules they need. They join when they accept.
Done when: Each person has a seat and the modules they need.
Why now: The people who help you run it cannot help until they can sign in.

Seat limits by plan: Launch Plan one owner and one admin; AIONP Essentials one owner, three admins and one consultant seat; AIONP Complete one owner, unlimited admins and one consultant seat. The "Member access" card is where an accountant can be given the finances and nothing else. Invite each person at the address decided in section B.

Say who does what

Where: My Organization, then the "Who does what" card: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/#orgRolesCard. Who is Treasurer, Membership Chair and so on.
Done when: Treasurer and Secretary are filled, plus any chairs you have.
Why now: Notices route by position; an empty position means a notice reaches nobody. If the Treasurer position is empty, donation and dues notices go to the account owner instead.

3Your calendar of obligations Compliance

Adopt your core policies

Where: HR Management, then "Core Policies": https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/employment-hr/. Conflict of interest and document retention first; the generators write them on your letterhead and the saved copy lands in the Document Library.
Done when: At least one policy is saved in the Document Library.
Why now: Funders and the Form 990 both ask whether you have them.

Open HR Management

Check your filing calendar

Where: Compliance Tracker: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/compliance-tracker/. Your state and filing status come from the organization type you set in step 5; confirm the items it lists match your organization and give each one an owner.
Done when: Nothing is past due and the next filing has an owner.
Why now: Your first Form 990 and your state charitable registration go on a calendar before you have ever missed one.

Open Compliance Tracker

4Turn the money on Fundraising

Connect online donations (Stripe, and PayPal if you use it)

Where: My Organization, then the "Online donations" card: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/. Press "Connect Stripe" and follow Stripe's own screens (you will need the bank details from part A). Back on the card, set "Email new-donation alerts to", add your "PayPal donation link (optional)" if you take PayPal, and press "Save donation settings".
Done when: The card shows "Connected" and "Your donation link".
Why now: Gifts, tickets and dues arrive in your own Stripe account and record themselves. The platform never holds your funds and charges no fee.

Why Stripe is the one to connect even if you love PayPal. Stripe is the connection the platform listens to: a gift through your donation link lands in Donor Management, in Financial Management and in the thank-you queue by itself. PayPal is offered as a link on the same card, and the card's own words are "PayPal gifts do not reach your records": a PayPal gift has to be keyed in by hand. Keep PayPal for the donors who insist on it; make Stripe the default. The how-to with screenshots is at https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/help/accepting-payments/.

Set your fiscal year and start a budget

Where: Financial Management, then Settings for the fiscal year, then Budget: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/finances/
Done when: The fiscal year is set and at least one budget line exists.
Why now: Every deadline in every app is calculated from the fiscal year, and automatic entries need a budget to measure against. Without budget lines every automatic entry shows as uncategorized.

Open Financial Management

Set up membership levels and dues (only if you have members)

Where: Membership, then "Levels & Dues": https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/membership/
Done when: Levels and dues are set and the join page is live.
Why now: Only for organizations with members; skip it otherwise.

5Your supporters and your first app Supporters

Add your first records

Where: Donor Management: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/donor-management/. Use "Import donors from CSV" and "Import gifts from CSV" if you have a spreadsheet; otherwise add one donor, log one gift and let the AI draft the thank-you.
Done when: Your real donor list is in and any sample records are cleared.
Why now: Your dashboard updates as you go, and unacknowledged gifts keep appearing in your digest until somebody says thank you.

Open Donor Management

Open your first app and try it

Where: My Apps, then any tile: https://app.allinonenonprofit.com/. Every app has a "Take the tour" button and a full User Guide, and the sidebar puts Dashboard and AI Automations at the top.
Done when: An app has saved something for your organization.
Why now: The apps are where the work lives; the setup is only the door.

Open My Apps

6Reach your people Communication

Connect your email tool (skip if you will use the Newsletters app on its own)

Where: My Organization, then the "Email" card: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/#email-connection. MailerLite, Mailchimp, Brevo, EmailOctopus or Flodesk.
Done when: The card shows the connected tool.
Why now: Donors and volunteers sync to your list, and campaigns send from your own account.

Send your first newsletter

Where: Two doors, pick one. Simple: the Newsletters app, https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/newsletters/, which keeps its own list and needs no outside tool. Through your own email tool: the "Email Campaign" page in Marketing, https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/marketing/, which sends through the MailerLite, Mailchimp or Brevo account you connected in the step above.
Done when: The first newsletter has gone out and the people who should have it are on the list.
Why now: What a supporter sees before they give or join is set here, and a list nobody has written to goes cold.

The simple door, step by step (Newsletters app)

Open the app and go to "Members". Use "Add a member" (name and email), or "Paste a list" ("Accepts one entry per line or comma-separated"), or "Import website newsletter signups" to pull in everyone who used the Newsletter block on your website.
Go to "Compose". Under "AI writing help" type a few bullets into "What should this newsletter cover?" and press "Draft it for me"; the AI writes the newsletter from exactly what you give it, with [brackets] for anything it does not know. Or write it yourself under "Your newsletter": "Subject line" and "Message". The "Live preview" updates as you type.
Check "Recipients" ("Sending to N members on your list") and press "Send newsletter".
"History" keeps every newsletter you have sent.

Through your own email tool (Marketing, "Email Campaign")

Connect the tool first (the step above). The platform's own description: your email tool "owns the sending, the list, unsubscribe handling, deliverability, and CAN-SPAM compliance."
Compose: subject, preview text, an optional header banner, and repeatable sections each with a heading, body and optional image, with a live Preview. Or "Bring your own HTML". "Draft with AI" turns a few topics into a drafted subject and sections.
Choose the audience under "Send to", or "Build a group from your records" to sync your members, donors and volunteers into a list in your email tool in one click.
"Create a draft, Send now, or Schedule". Drafts and scheduling are available with MailerLite; Mailchimp and Brevo send instantly.

MailerLite's Free and Growing Business plans do not allow sending content built outside MailerLite through the API; on those plans use "Download HTML" or "Copy HTML" and paste it into MailerLite to send. The Advanced plan sends directly. Verified 501(c)(3) organizations get 30 percent off MailerLite paid plans.

A cadence that works: one newsletter a month, same week every month, three short items and one ask. The Marketing app's content calendar holds the dates.

7Your website, your forms and your documents Presence

Publish your website and claim your .org

Where: Website & Join Page: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/website-join-page/. Build the pages, add the Newsletter and donation blocks, publish. Then section 1 of the app, "Your own .org, registered in your organization's name": on AIONP Essentials and AIONP Complete "we also register one .org in your organization's name at no charge, or you can point a domain you already own."
Done when: The site is live at your own address and the donation and join links on it work.
Why now: It is the address you print everywhere, and the domain is also what your email addresses in section B hang on.

Open Website & Join Page

Build your first form

Where: Forms: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/forms/. A volunteer application, an event sign-up, a contact form; each has a public link you can put anywhere, and responses land in your records.
Done when: One form is live and a test response has arrived.
Why now: Forms replace the email chains that lose things.

Look at the Document Library and the Calendar

Where: Document Library: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/document-library/. Calendar: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/calendar/.
Done when: You know where generated documents land and where meetings and deadlines appear.
Why now: Every policy, letter and report the apps generate is filed in the Document Library on your letterhead, and every date in every app shows on the Calendar; knowing both doors saves the hunt later.

8Optional, when you are ready

See what happens when money or an application arrives

Where: My Organization, then the "What happens when" card: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/#orgFlowsCard
Done when: You can say who is emailed at each step.
Why now: So nothing that happens automatically surprises you.

Earn a Candid Seal of Transparency

Where: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/candid-seal/
Done when: Your Candid profile shows a seal.
Why now: Funders look there before they look at you, and your apps produce much of what the higher seals ask for.

Add the people who run things day to day

Where: HR Management for staff: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/employment-hr/. Volunteer Management for roles, shifts and screening: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/volunteer-management/.
Done when: Every person on payroll and every active volunteer appears with a role.

Give your accountant or consultant a seat that sees only what they need

Where: My Organization, "Member access" and "Invite members": https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/. The card's own question: "How do I let my accountant work on the finances and nothing else?"
Done when: The outside helper can sign in and sees only the apps you ticked.
Why now: A consultant seat is included on AIONP Essentials and AIONP Complete.

Bring your old records over

Where: Data migration (we move your records in from another system) is part of a paid plan; ask at [email protected]. On the Launch Plan it becomes available the day you subscribe.
Done when: Your history is in and the old system can be retired.

Know the two doors you hope never to need

Where: My Organization: "Export your data" (your records are yours, any time) and "Change primary admin" (move the owner seat to a new address with a 6-digit code). https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/team/
Done when: You have found both cards.
Why now: Knowing where the export lives on day one is part of owning your records, and the admin move is how a personal address becomes an organization address without losing anything.

9Your rhythm once you are set up

None of these is tracked by a tick box. They are the habits that keep the organization out of trouble, in the platform's own words.

How often	What	Where	Done when
Weekly	Clear what needs your attention	My Apps, then Needs your attention: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/notifications/	The count reads zero or every item has a date.
Each meeting	Record the board meeting	Board Management, then Meetings: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/board-management/	Minutes are saved and approved.
Monthly	Reconcile the books	Financial Management, then Reconciliation: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/finances/	The closing balance matches the bank statement.
Monthly	Send the newsletter	Newsletters, or Marketing, "Email Campaign"	It went out the same week it always does.
Monthly	Keep your roster current	HR Management, then Employees; Volunteer Management, then Directory	Every person on payroll and every active volunteer appears with a role.
Quarterly	Check your filing deadlines	Compliance Tracker, then Overview: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/compliance-tracker/	Nothing is past due and the next filing has an owner.
Quarterly	Log the year's outcomes	Impact and Outcomes, then Measures: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/impact-and-outcomes/	Each measure has a current number.
Yearly	Review who holds every seat and every role address	My Organization, "Your organization" and "Who does what"	No seat belongs to someone who has left, and every role address points at the current holder.

?If you get stuck

The Ask box. On the Support page, https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/support/, type the question in your own words; it answers from the guides and points to the right app.
A free 30-minute setup call. https://app.allinonenonprofit.com/book: signed in, organization set up, first app running.
Launch Support for Launch Plan founders who want somebody alongside them: two Zoom screen share sessions for $99, additional sessions $59 each. https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/launch-support/. Never required.
The long-form guide to every phase: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/nonprofit-setup/, and the printable walkthrough checklist: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/nonprofit-walkthrough/.
What every app and feature does: the Complete Guide, https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/guide/. What to do first by role: https://www.allinonenonprofit.com/workflows/.
Every app has a "Take the tour" button and a full User Guide in its sidebar.
Email or call. [email protected], 561-203-6142.