Suran
Suran Systems is a privately held, family-owned software company that provides CDM+, a cloud-based management platform for religious and non-profit organizations covering member management, giving, accounting, payroll, and events, plus a bindery services division.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1987
- HeadquartersVersailles, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Suran does
Suran Systems, Inc., founded in 1987 in Versailles, Kentucky by Rev. Randy Clay and Sue Clay (the company name is a portmanteau of the founders' first names), is a privately held, family-owned software company operating under second-generation leadership since March 2019, when Alex Clay became CEO and Randy Clay transitioned to CFO. The company develops and supports CDM+ (Church Data Master Plus), a cloud-based management platform for religious and faith-based organizations that integrates member/donor management, giving, accounting, payroll, events, and facilities into a single system, with a mobile app (CDM+ Mobile) and member-facing online tools (CDM+ Engage) including an Online Giving Portal. Adjacent products include CDM+ Essentials (fundraising and donor management for non-profits, launched in 2022 after the Stewardship Technology client acquisition), DBPayroll (a payroll and HR product built in partnership with DealerBuilt for the automotive dealership vertical since 2013), and the Suran Bindery division, a physical binding, finishing, mailing, and fulfillment operation in Lexington, Kentucky, established in 1993.
Suran makes money primarily through annual subscription-based pricing for CDM+ and CDM+ Essentials, with cloud hosting, automatic backups, and 24/7 security bundled into all plans under a "no contract, no hidden fees" quote-based sales model. A secondary transactional revenue stream comes from the Bindery division's print finishing and mailing services. The go-to-market is multi-modal: direct sales by a small named team (including a Sales Specialist and Customer Success Specialist), community engagement through an annual user conference held since 1997, and a channel partnership with Wisdom Concepts in Lagos, Nigeria, which sells and supports CDM+ throughout West Africa. Customer segments are concentrated in the religious and non-profit verticals, anchored by long-term denominational partnerships with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) since 1987, the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) since 1998, and the United Church of Christ since 2021, plus dozens of individual churches and non-profit organizations acquired through the DonorWorks (2006) and Stewardship (2022) transactions. The firm is debt-free, has no external investors, and operates with a 30+ employee remote workforce distributed across 11 states.
Suran firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Suran
- Legal name
- Suran Systems, Inc.
- Website
- https://suran.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1987
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Suran Systems is a privately held, family-owned software company that provides CDM+, a cloud-based management platform for religious and non-profit organizations covering member management, giving, accounting, payroll, and events, plus a bindery services division.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Suran industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Church Management Software
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Software/Application Support (SaaS, Enterprise Apps) (BPAAACAC)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Data Center Operations & Managed Services (Remote Hands, NOC/SOC) (HDABANAA)
Keywords
Where Suran is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Versailles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Suran business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Software Subscriptions: Annual subscription-based pricing for CDM+ and CDM+ Essentials software. No contract model with no hidden fees.
- Bindery Services: Full-service binding, finishing, mailing and fulfillment services for print jobs of any size. Includes design assistance for mail pieces to meet postal regulations.
- Customer Support: Premier support included with software plans. Support team resolves issues and provides assistance.
- Data Hosting: Cloud data hosting with automatic backups and 24/7 security included with all plans.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | CDM+ Essentials - Fundraising and donor management platform |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Suran product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Suran Systems, Inc. provides cloud-based management software for nonprofit and faith-based organizations through its flagship CDM+ platform, which manages people, giving, accounting, events, payroll, and facilities. The company also offers CDM+ Essentials for fundraising and donor management, DBPayroll for automotive dealerships, and operates Suran Bindery, a full-service binding, finishing, mailing, and fulfillment division.
Product overview
Suran offers a platform-plus-modules architecture built around its core CDM+ product for nonprofit and faith-based organizations. CDM+ serves as the comprehensive management system handling people, giving, accounting, events, payroll, and facilities, while CDM+ Essentials extends the platform specifically for fundraising and donor management. The Suran Bindery division provides ancillary print finishing and mailing services. DBPayroll, developed through a partnership with DealerBuilt, extends capabilities to automotive dealership payroll. DonorWorks was acquired and integrated into the CDM+ platform. All software products share integrated data architecture with CDM+ Mobile app for staff access and CDM+ Engage for member-facing online tools.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- CDM+: Comprehensive management software for nonprofit and faith-based organizations, managing people, giving, accounting, events, payroll, facilities and more.
- CDM+ Essentials
- Suran Bindery
- DBPayroll
Products and services
- CDM+ Comprehensive cloud-based management software for nonprofit and faith-based organizations that manages people, giving, accounting, events, payroll, and facilities. Includes CDM+ Engage for online directory and giving, CDM+ Accounting and Contributions for fund tracking, and CDM+ Mobile app for staff administration.
- CDM+ Essentials Fundraising and donor management software providing essential tools for nonprofit organizations including online giving with direct deposit, event registration with mobile-optimized portal, and custom reporting. Designed to integrate with the CDM+ core platform.
- Suran Bindery Full-service binding, finishing, mailing, and fulfillment division serving organizations of any size. Provides trade binding and bulk mailing services with capabilities including directories, brochures, booklets, direct mail appeals, product storage, assembly, and distribution.
- DBPayroll Payroll software for automotive dealerships that provides payroll calculations, reporting, and HR services for dealerships of any size, enabling organizations to complete federal and state tax reports directly from the payroll software.
Quantifiable outcome
- Annual user conferences held since 1997 with attendees from across the United States
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Suran
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Suran technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature7 records
Suran partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.
- Stewardship TechnologyminorSuran acquired the Stewardship client base when Stewardship Technology began phasing out its online donation and event registration software to focus on back-end payment processing. Released CDM+ Essentials to provide ongoing solutions for these direct clients.
- United Church of ChristcoreSuran developed and released a new platform for Search and Call with the United Church of Christ (UCC). Following a successful launch, Suran was awarded additional contracts with the UCC to provide denominational data management (Data Hub), annual yearbook reporting, a Group Tax Exemption portal, and more.
- DonorWorkscoreSuran acquired the software, staff, and user base for DonorWorks, a robust software package serving the non-profit industry. DonorWorks became a full Suran application, sharing and extending the platform and functionality of CDM+.
- Wisdom ConceptscoreStrategic partnership with Wisdom Concepts, an IT Services company in Lagos, Nigeria. Founder Oyelola Adeoluwa connects church and district offices with CDM+ and continues to sell and support CDM+ for organizations throughout West Africa.
- Church of God (Cleveland, TN)coreSuran developed management software for the Kentucky Church of God State Office, which spread to all COG State Offices. Suran continues to serve as partner in denominational data management at local and judicatory levels.
- Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)coreOne of Suran's first projects was assisting the Christian Church in Kentucky with computerizing their record-keeping. This began a decades-long partnership providing solutions for Search and Call, denominational minister tracking, and more at national, judicatory, and local levels.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Suran competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Pushpay: Market-leading church engagement and giving platform serving thousands of US churches. Directly competes with CDM+ in the faith-based management software vertical with overlapping functionality in giving, member management, and online engagement.
- Ministry Brands (FellowshipOne): Suite of software products for churches and faith-based organizations including FellowshipOne, SecureGive, and ChurchTrac. Closely comparable to CDM+ across member management, giving, and accounting functionality.
- Planning Center: Church management software suite covering people, giving, events, check-ins, and groups. Comparable vertical focus on faith-based organizations with similar all-in-one platform approach as CDM+.
- Breeze ChMS: Simple church management software serving small to mid-sized churches with people, giving, events, and communication tools. Direct competitor in the same vertical SaaS niche as CDM+.
- ACS Technologies: Long-established provider of church and religious organization management software including Realm and ACS. Highly comparable legacy vertical SaaS competitor with similar denomination-tailored offerings to CDM+.
- Bloomerang: Donor management and fundraising CRM platform purpose-built for nonprofit organizations. Directly competes with CDM+ Essentials in the nonprofit fundraising and donor management segment.
- Aplos: Cloud-based accounting, donor management, and fundraising software specifically designed for nonprofits and faith-based organizations. Overlaps with CDM+ and CDM+ Essentials in nonprofit accounting and donor tracking.
- Tithe.ly: Church giving and engagement platform covering mobile giving, text-to-give, event registration, and church apps. Direct competitor in faith-based online giving and engagement adjacent to CDM+ Engage.
- DonorPerfect: Established nonprofit donor management and fundraising CRM serving thousands of nonprofits. Comparable to CDM+ Essentials for fundraising, donor tracking, and event registration functionality.
- Shelby Systems (AgileChurch): Church management software provider serving faith-based organizations with membership, giving, accounting, and events modules. Long-standing vertical competitor with comparable feature set to CDM+.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Suran social profiles
Digital presenceSuran financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Suran leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
Suran subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Suran funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Suran M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Suran
What does Suran do?
Suran Systems, Inc. provides cloud-based management software for nonprofit and faith-based organizations through its flagship CDM+ platform, which manages people, giving, accounting, events, payroll, and facilities. The company also offers CDM+ Essentials for fundraising and donor management, DBPayroll for automotive dealerships, and operates Suran Bindery, a full-service binding, finishing, mailing, and fulfillment division.
Is Suran a public or private company?
Suran is a private company. It is classified as family owned and is currently operating.
When was Suran founded?
Suran was founded in 1987. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Suran based?
Suran is headquartered in Versailles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Suran make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Software Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are bindery Services, customer Support and data Hosting.
Who are Suran's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Pushpay, Ministry Brands (FellowshipOne), Planning Center, Breeze ChMS, ACS Technologies, Bloomerang, Aplos, Tithe.ly, DonorPerfect and Shelby Systems (AgileChurch).
Does Suran have an API?
No public API is recorded for Suran.
What industry is Suran in?
Suran's product category is Church Management Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAAACAC, Software/Application Support (SaaS, Enterprise Apps), with a secondary code of HDABANAA, Data Center Operations & Managed Services (Remote Hands, NOC/SOC). Its NAICS code is 54151 and its SIC code is 7372.