Our Story
Where it came from, the problem it answers, and what the name means.
Mich has grown out of a long-lasting relationship with dear friends we met in Kenya over 25 years ago. We started a small nonprofit to support their work, desiring that 100% of designated funds would go directly to the specified needs. For this to work, we had to keep administrative overhead to an absolute minimum. This has been a truly rewarding experience, and you can find more information about Stars of Kenya at the link below.
As a small nonprofit, we operate with an all-volunteer staff and look for software solutions that are affordable and meet our needs. Some time ago we tracked our donations with a program we had bought outright — paid for once and, we assumed, ours to use for as long as we needed it. Then, with only a single pop-up window, the company informed all users that it was switching to a subscription model and that the previously paid-for application would no longer work after a certain date. We had no option but to switch to the subscription, whose monthly cost was more than the original desktop software's “one-time” price.
This switch is what inspired us to create Mich. You pay once, and the license is yours. It never expires, and it will never become a subscription. When a new major version comes out, the version you own keeps working; upgrading is your choice, never the price of keeping what you already have.
The word mich means “gift” in Dholuo, a Nilotic language spoken by the Luo people living near Lake Victoria in Kenya and Tanzania. It captures what the app is about: managing both the gift and the giver with equal care. That's the tagline, too — Simple Management Of Both Gift & Giver.