Almost every small nonprofit board starts in a spreadsheet, and for a while that works fine. The spreadsheet stops working at the point where you need it to remind you of something: an expiring term, an unsigned conflict of interest form, a candidate who has been sitting in the pipeline for four months.
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A tilde (~) means the capability exists but with real caveats. The note explains what they are.
| Capability | Board Manager | Spreadsheets |
|---|---|---|
| Roster and terms | ||
| Store member contact details | Yes | Yes |
| Record term start and end dates | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic alerts before a term expiresA spreadsheet can hold the date, but nothing tells you it's coming. | Yes | No |
| Officer positions with their own term datesPossible in a spreadsheet, but it means a second sheet most boards never maintain. | Yes | Partial |
| Committees and meetings | ||
| Committee rosters | Yes | Yes |
| Meeting scheduling with RSVPs | Yes | No |
| Attendance history per memberTrackable by hand; rarely kept current past a few months. | Yes | Partial |
| Automatic meeting reminders | Yes | No |
| Compliance and onboarding | ||
| Conflict of interest signingSpreadsheets can log who signed, but the signing happens elsewhere. | Yes | No |
| Signature audit trail | Yes | No |
| Onboarding checklists per member | Yes | Partial |
| Recruitment | ||
| Candidate pipeline with stagesA status column works until two people edit it. | Yes | Partial |
| Public recommendation form | Yes | No |
| Skills and diversity matrixBuildable with formulas; breaks whenever the skill list changes. | Yes | Partial |
| Access and cost | ||
| Board members can view their own infoSharing the sheet usually means sharing everyone's data. | Yes | Partial |
| Per-member access without accounts | Yes | No |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
These are different tools for different situations. Here is when each one is the right answer.
Where a vendor does not publish pricing, we say so rather than guessing at a number.
Published pricing. No demo required, no card to start.
Free on a personal Google account; bundled into Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 if your org already pays for it.
Most boards do this in an afternoon. Nothing is deleted on the other side, so you can keep it open while you check the data.
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. A spreadsheet is an excellent record. It is a poor reminder system. The failure mode is not that the data is wrong; it is that nobody looks at it until the week something is already overdue.
Yes, and plenty of coordinators do for the first few months. Export from Board Manager any time you want a flat file for a board packet or a funder report.
Your account drops to the free Starter plan rather than locking. You can export members and the skills matrix to CSV at any time on any plan.
No. Board members never create an account or a password. They get a link that opens their own page, where they can RSVP, sign documents, and update their bio.
For a board of 15 to 25 people, most coordinators are done in under an hour, and the CSV import handles the bulk of it.
Skills and diversity attributes are coordinator-defined, so most custom columns map onto skill definitions. Genuinely one-off fields are the honest weak spot here. A spreadsheet will always be more flexible than a structured tool.
The free plan covers boards up to 25 people and is not a trial. Set up your roster, see whether it fits, and switch back if it doesn't.
Start free, no card neededOnBoard is the most capable board portal we compare against. It has real term tracking, a skills matrix, and diversity reporting. Here's an honest look at where it wins and where it doesn't fit a small nonprofit.
Boardable is nonprofit-focused board software priced per user, from $20.99/user/month. A side-by-side comparison with Board Manager on cost, terms, recruitment, and board member access.
BoardEffect is Diligent's board portal for mission-driven organizations, sold by quote. How it compares to Board Manager on pricing transparency, term tracking, recruitment, and board member access.
Claims about Spreadsheets on this page were verified against the following, last checked September 2, 2026. Pricing and features change, so if you spot something out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.