Membership database

February 9, 2011 7:50 AM

Looking for a membership database for a small nonprofit.

Not tracking lots of sales or transactions for each record, so Raiser's Edge and Salesforce really aren't worth the expense for us. Need to be able to keep track of the basic information as well as have some customizable fields that we can use for detailed information about our members. Bonus points if it's a hosted service, since most staff work remotely, but the ones I've found have been prohibitively expensive, so that might not be a real option. Anyone had any experience with CiviCRM or CiviHosting?

posted by Framer to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

Have you looked at what's for offer on TechSoup.org? If you are a nonprofit, an actual 501c3, they have TONS of offerings - so Raiser's Edge might be within reach if you think that's the best tool (our nonprofit does not have members, so I'm unsure, but we get Adobe products for pennies, so I always look there before anywhere else for software).
posted by Medieval Maven at 7:54 AM on February 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Zoho CRM is free for 3 users, or $12/mo each for the professional version.
posted by COD at 8:20 AM on February 9, 2011

Techsoup.org doesn't work Blackbaud (Raiser's Edge) (or maybe it's the other way around?) for discounts like Adobe does, and a lot of Blackbaud's clientele are 501c's the way it is.
posted by jmd82 at 9:08 AM on February 9, 2011

Oops, meant to preview. Here's a techsoup article relating to your question that might help.
posted by jmd82 at 9:10 AM on February 9, 2011

Depending on how many records you're looking to track, SalesForce for nonprofits is free. But you may love CiviCRM as it has open-source aficionados across the world who can help you troubleshoot and give you advice.

You may get a lot out of this comparison tool from TechSoup: Donor Management Software Comparison Chart
posted by juniperesque at 9:11 AM on February 9, 2011

My organization (an art museum transitioning from "small" to "midsize" nonprofit) is currently switching from a FileMaker Frankenstein Creation to a hosted solution through Orange Leap. It's a hosted service and is extremely customizable.

We also considered DonorPerfect as a final candidate.

We also looked into Sage and Raiser's Edge, but they didn't impress.
posted by Uncle Ira at 9:56 AM on February 9, 2011

Salesforce is free for non-profits. I have a few clients that use it and are very happy. Me mail me if you want to know more.
posted by Fuzzy Dog at 10:17 AM on February 9, 2011

I like donortools.com
posted by cp7 at 10:40 AM on February 9, 2011

The last museum where I worked we had just transitioned to this one, which is from a local company. I liked it quite a bit; it seemed to stack up well against the national ones, was very customizable and cheap. You have to export everything to Excel though to work with the data, which can be kind of a pain. The museum before that was using Sage and frankly I wasn't that impressed. I would also agree that Raiser's Edge is way overkill for a small organization.
posted by mygothlaundry at 11:00 AM on February 9, 2011

I adore CiviCRM. I've never used it at CiviHosting, but have always managed it on my own sites. Every release seems to have something where I think, "they must be reading my mind!" I've found their forums to be really helpful when I need a hand. We use get a ton of use out of CiviEvent, so if you have any questions about that part in particular, I can probably go on at length.
posted by advicepig at 11:04 AM on February 9, 2011