Nonprofit software is the software that charities, NGOs, professional associations and community centres use to raise money, manage their members and account for every rupee. These organisations are not run to make a profit. Their money comes from donations, grants, membership dues and fees, and much of it comes with rules about how it may be spent. So they need software that does things ordinary business software does not.
There are three main kinds of buyer. Nonprofits, such as charities and NGOs, raise money from donors and grants. Associations, such as professional bodies and trade associations, collect yearly dues from their members. Membership organisations, such as community centres and clubs, charge fees for classes and facilities.
Consider one month in the life of a software engineer in Chandigarh. On the 2nd, she gives ₹3,000 to an NGO that runs evening classes for children, and pays by UPI on its website. The NGO's donor management software records the gift. It emails her a receipt under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, which lets her deduct the donation from her taxable income. Inside it, nonprofit fund accounting keeps the money in the NGO's education fund, because she gave it for that purpose.
On the 10th, she renews her yearly membership of a professional engineering society. The society runs on association management software (AMS). The software sends her the renewal reminder, collects her dues and counts the training hours she needs to keep her certification.
On the 15th, she enrols her son in a swimming class at a community centre run by a charitable trust. The centre's membership management software shows the class times, takes the fee and adds him to the class list.
On the 20th, she buys a strip of paracetamol tablets at a pharmacy. Every batch of those tablets was tested against a pharmacopoeia, an official book of standards that says what each medicine must contain and how pure it must be. India's own pharmacopoeia is published by a government body. The one that medicines sold in America must meet is published by a nonprofit organisation. Indian drug makers that export to America follow it, which is why a book of standards appears in this scene.
Nonprofits in India also follow rules that companies do not. An NGO that receives money from abroad must be registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), and must keep that money in a separate bank account. Many NGOs also receive money from companies' CSR budgets. CSR, corporate social responsibility, is the share of its profit that a large Indian company must, by law, spend on social causes. Each of these sources must be reported separately.
Most nonprofits have small staff and no IT team. So much of this software is sold as software as a service (SaaS), rented by subscription and used over the internet. Some nonprofits go further and build software for everyone to use free, as digital public goods.