FAQ
Download Mich and use it. There is no key to request, no account, no credit card and no time limit — the free version never expires.
It is the complete application: every feature, including receipts, reports, spreadsheet import and backups. It is limited only in how much it holds — 10 each of donors, donations, pledges, pledge payments, funds, campaigns, appeals and events, and 5 receipts. A one-time license removes those limits.
Mich tells you, and stops you adding another record of that type. Nothing else changes: you can still read and edit everything you have entered, delete records, run reports, and back up and restore your database. Other record types keep their own allowance — reaching the receipt limit does not stop you adding donors.
That also covers the case where a license lapses, or you move it to another computer, and your database already holds more than the free limits. That is expected and supported: Mich will not ask you to delete anything, and your data is never locked away from you.
Importing a spreadsheet shows you before you confirm how many rows will be imported and how many exceed the limits, so nothing is written that you weren't told about.
Yes. Save your list as CSV — Excel, Google Sheets and most donor systems all export it — and Mich imports donors and donations, including in-kind gifts.
A wizard walks you through it. You match each column in your file to a field in Mich, which guesses the obvious ones and leaves anything ambiguous alone rather than putting it somewhere it may not belong. It then shows you every row it is about to create, color-coded, before anything is written. Mich takes a backup first, and the whole import can be undone.
The parts that usually go wrong on a migration are handled deliberately:
Being straight about the limits, as before: pledges and pledge schedules are not yet importable — donors and gifts are. Refunds recorded as negative amounts are declined rather than imported, since Mich records a refund by adjusting the original gift. And an undo removes the records an import created but keeps the funds and drop-down values it added along the way, because by then you may be using them elsewhere.
Mich also still imports vCard (.vcf) files — the format Outlook,
Apple Contacts, Google Contacts and most phones export — which is often the easier route for an
address book rather than a donor list. Events import from iCalendar
(.ics) the same way.
Getting data out has no such limits: donors export to vCard, events to iCalendar, and every report — plus the audit log — exports to CSV. Your database file is yours on your own disk. Nothing about Mich is designed to make leaving difficult.
Yes. Set up an event with its name, description, address, start and end times and a color, and set it to repeat if it's a regular fixture. Invite donors and track how each one replies, including how many guests they're bringing, up to a guest limit you set per invitation. Mich can build an HTML invitation and email it for you.
On the day, check people in as they arrive, add walk-ins who were never invited, and count
guests you don't need to name. A color-coded calendar shows what's coming by day, week,
month or year, and events import from and export to iCalendar (.ics) so they
sit in your normal calendar app too.
Events link to a campaign and appeal, which is how the gala ties back to your fundraising: gifts recorded against that appeal roll up with the rest of the drive in your reports.
You buy a one-time license, not a subscription — and that is deliberate. Mich was built after the donation software our own small nonprofit relied on switched to one, leaving us to pay monthly or stop using what we had bought (the story). A license is good for the major version you bought; a future major version is a separate purchase.
Concretely: a version 1 license covers every 1.x release — 1.0.0, 1.4.2, 1.9.9 and any other — up to but not including 2.0.0. Your license never expires, so you can keep using the version you bought for as long as you like. If you do install a version it does not cover, Mich says so and applies the free version's record limits until you reinstall a covered version or upgrade; your data is untouched either way.
You activate once with a license key, over the internet, which ties the license to that computer. After that Mich works offline for everyday use, checking in occasionally in the background to confirm the license is still valid — see can I use Mich offline? for exactly how long it runs between those checks.
Two optional features do reach the internet when you turn them on: emailing receipts and invitations through your own provider account, and address verification. Both ship switched off. Everything else — entering records, running reports, generating documents — works with no connection at all.
Your license to use Mich is with Naughty Robot LLC, d/b/a Mich Software. The purchase itself is sold through Link, a Stripe service, acting as the merchant of record — a common arrangement for small software companies, because it means Stripe handles sales tax, VAT and GST wherever you happen to be.
Two practical consequences. Your card statement will read LINK.COM* MICH APP — the
Link prefix followed by our name — so don't be alarmed by an unfamiliar charge. And your receipt and invoice arrive
from Link rather than from us — worth knowing if you're looking for them in a spam folder at
the end of the financial year.
Prices are listed in US dollars excluding tax; anything due is added at checkout, and you may be offered the price in your own currency. Refunds go back through the same route and include the tax you paid — see the refund policy.
Yes. Mich runs entirely on your computer. Your records are stored in a local database that is encrypted at rest with a master password that only you know. Nothing is uploaded to the cloud.
It can't be recovered. The password is never stored anywhere, which is what keeps your data secure — but it also means a lost password makes your database and its backups unreadable. Please keep it somewhere safe.
Mich has one-click backup and restore. Backups are yours to keep wherever you like — an external drive, another folder, anywhere. We recommend backing up regularly.
A synced cloud folder is a good place to put them. Point the backup folder at one your own OneDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox already syncs and you get an off-site copy with no service in the middle — Mich never uploads anything itself. Backups suit this: each is a single AES-encrypted file that only receives its final name after Mich has reopened and checked it, so a sync program can never pick up a half-written one, and your master password is not inside it.
Do not do the same with the live database. Mich holds that file open and writes to it the whole time it is running, so a sync program can copy it mid-write and store a damaged version — usually with no sign until you need it. Keep the working database on the computer's own disk and let the backups be the copy that travels. Mich says as much on the screen where you choose the folder.
Mich is a desktop application. Windows is supported today; macOS and Linux are planned. Check the download page for current availability.
Yes. Activation is the one moment that needs the internet: you enter your license key once, and Mich ties the license to that computer. After that everything — donors, gifts, pledges, receipts, reports and backups — runs on your machine.
Mich confirms the license in the background from time to time. Each successful check gives you another 30 days of offline use, counted from that check rather than from the day you bought it. It is a rolling window, so a computer that connects even occasionally never runs out and never sees a prompt.
If Mich cannot check in for 30 days, it applies the free version's record limits until it can. Nothing is deleted and nothing is locked. Your database stays where it is, every record stays editable, and you can still open, back up and restore it. Connect once and full access returns straight away — there is nothing to buy again and no key to re-enter.
This is not a subscription. You have paid once and the license does not expire. The check confirms that the license is genuine and still on the computer it was activated for — it is not a payment, and there is no renewal. We keep the offline window as long as we sensibly can while still being able to tell a real licence from a copied one.
If you need to run permanently offline — an air-gapped machine, or a site with no connection — email us before you buy, so we can tell you where you stand rather than leaving you to find out.
Yes. On the old machine, open About → License and click Deactivate to free the license, then install Mich on the new machine and activate with the same key. No longer have the old machine? The support page can release it for you.
Stars of Kenya is the small nonprofit we started to support the work of dear friends we met in Kenya over 25 years ago. It is run by volunteers so that 100% of designated funds go directly to the needs they were given for, which means keeping administrative overhead to an absolute minimum. That commitment is why a monthly software bill was never an option — and why Mich exists.
Mich means “gift” in Dholuo, a Nilotic language spoken by the Luo people living near Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania. Read the full story →
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