constant contact + membership management == ??

February 12, 2013 7:39 PM

Hey there, I'm on the board for an org that uses Constant Contact for our mailing lists. Our homegrown membership management system is busted and we're looking for a replacement. We'd love to find something that integrates with Constant Contact so that people who purchase a membership of various types will get added to a mailing list. When the membership expires, they get removed. An integrated payment solution would also be beneficial. Any advice? Thanks.
posted by reddot to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

There are a lot of CRMs out there that will likely do what you want, but it is hard to recommend one without knowing more about your org and what your needs are. Also, unless you are particularly committed to Constant Contact, it is probably easier to integrate your mailing list and memberships into one CRM and not make life more difficult by trying to integrate two different systems.

So, are you looking for a hosted solution or something you host yourself? Are you willing to pay and how much? How many members / mailing list contacts do you have? What is the technical proficiency level of the people who will be using and/or administering this system? What other features are you looking for?
posted by ssg at 7:55 PM on February 12, 2013

A client of mine Sensory Tools has an add-on to their website CMS that can add a purchaser to a CC mailing list automatically if opted-in. The CMS also has a membership module. Please message me if you would like more info.
posted by omnidrew at 7:12 AM on February 13, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks for the responses so far!

We'd prefer a hosted solution.

I'd like to find a solution that works with Constant Contact b/c they are a sponsor of ours, but if it's not possible we'd be happy with moving to something else. I'm also looking at MailChimp, which may be able to meet our requirements.

Our website is on Wordpress, self-hosted. I've looked at the Magic Members plugin, as well as GravityForms and FormStack, but these have all been unsuitable.

We currently pay about $35 / month. I could perhaps justify up to $50 / month. I'm pretty technically proficient but the member chair and newsletter editor are not.

Things that we'd like:
* The ability to have an annual membership level
* The ability to have a lifetime membership level
* Sending emails to each type of member separately or together
* Ability to integrate a payment gateway, such as Amazon Payments or PayPal
* Ability to have people purchase memberships on our site
* Have people whose memberships have lapsed be removed from the appropriate mailing list
posted by reddot at 11:18 AM on February 14, 2013

If you are willing to spend $35-$50/month, you have lots of options. Nationbuilder has a lot more features than you need, but assuming you have less than 2500 contacts, it fits within your budget. It will also do your website. People seem to like Wild Apricot, but the pricing is significantly worse than Nationbuilder. Others to check out: Salsa Labs, SugarCRM.

CiviCRM is the other big option that gives you a lot of flexibility, but that's something you can pay someone else to host (like Civihosting), but you have to administer yourself and can end up taking a fair bit of time.
posted by ssg at 5:40 PM on February 14, 2013

Response by poster: Thanks! I was familiar with Wild Apricot but not the others. I'll check them out!
posted by reddot at 8:05 AM on February 17, 2013