Choosing a Membership Database That Works For You

Age : 45 Joined : 08 Mar 2008 Posts : 1850

One of the most challenging technology problems that any nonprofit organization faces is how to manage its membership database. It's a particular challenge for grassroots groups who are lucky to have a development director, let alone a database administrator! At the same time, having a database system that works well with a minimum of fuss can spell the difference between a sustainable base of membership/major donor income and chronic financial crisis.

This article provides an overview of four options for developing an effective membership database system. We're not going to strongly advocate any one of them; each one has pros and cons, and each one might be an appropriate choice for a particular organization. The four options are:

Commercial off-the-shelf solutions such as Paradigm, Raiser's Edge, and others;
Nonprofit products such as ebase;
Web-based database application services such as e-Tapestry;
"Homebrewed" databases, typically in FileMaker Pro or Microsoft Access
Commercial off-the-shelf solutions: There are a handful of major commercial nonprofit-oriented membership database packages, and several more general "contact management" products targeted at a more general small business market. It's beyond the scope of this article to review them, but some of the more popular ones are Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge, JSI Paradigm, and DonorPerfect. All are relatively expensive to purchase (starting at several thousand dollars), and all are "closed" systems with limited capabilities to customize their structure and function.

We at ONE/Northwest have relatively little experience with any of these large commercial solutions, and they're generally beyond the financial reach of our typical clients. However, we do know of a number of larger organizations (and a few smaller ones) that have done well with these types of packages. The up-front costs of commercial database systems are substantial, and the larger packages often require a dedicated server running Windows NT/2000. In addition, there can be very substantial ongoing service and support costs. On the other hand, paying for commercial-grade software means that you'll get at least a moderate level of technical support, and a proven capacity to deliver product updates and upgrades.

Nonprofit-developed database products: In 1998, Desktop Assistance (now a project of Groundspring.org), a nonprofit technology assistance provider from Helena, MT, released ebase, a membership database solution aimed at grassroots nonprofits. Ebase costs nothing to download and get running, but to use it for anything than simple testing requires that you purchase FileMaker Pro, about $170. To support more than a couple of simultaneous users, you may require FileMaker Pro Server (~$800). FileMaker does have a software donation program.

Because ebase is based in FileMaker Pro, it runs on both Macs and PCs. Ebase was designed by and for grassroots nonprofits, and thus incorporates a great deal of good thinking about the typical business processes and tasks of small nonprofit advocacy groups. In addition, ebase can be customized quite extensively--the entire program can be modified by skilled FileMaker users. Its low cost, high power, and nonprofit-friendliness have made ebase very popular in the Northwest conservation movement.

Ebase does have some downsides, though. Because ebase is developed by a nonprofit, and not by a professional software development firm, its user interface is a bit cluttered, and it can be a bit confusing to novice users. Although ebase includes a very powerful "import" routine, migrating existing data into ebase often requires assistance from a skilled consultant. And unfortunately, the community of skilled ebase consultants is still extremely small. This is primarily because FileMaker has far fewer users than competing products such as Microsoft Access. However, ebase does have an enthusiastic and increasingly knowledgeable peer-user community that is supported by the knowledgeable folks at TechRocks. Finally, because ebase can be so extensively customized, it is relatively difficult for TechRocks to release major version upgrades, and the upgrade process is still untested (ebase is still at version 1.x).

The bottom line is that ebase, despite its low up-front cost, isn't free. Like all database products, there can be a significant need for skilled database consultants to help with startup and customization, and to troubleshoot if things go awry. Ebase is a good choice for organizations with relatively high internal technology skill levels that don't want to spend much cash up-front on a database. Ebase is also a good choice if your organization has the need--and the expertise--to extensively customize your membership database.

Web-based database application services: This is the newest--and perhaps the most intriguing--type of database product, these are database programs that reside entirely on the servers of an "Application Service Provider" (ASP) company. There are several nonprofit-oriented donor/member database services that have started up in the past year. The one with which we're most familiar ise-Tapestry.

You purchase e-Tapestry as a service rather than as a product. There's no software to purchase or install on your machines--all you need is a Web browser and an Internet connection (56 k works fine, although obviously a high-speed connection is better). The cost depends on the number of records in your database, and starts at FREE for databases with 1000 records or less. For groups with 1000-5000 records, the cost is $99/month. There are a number of additional services that can be added as well. While the program can be customized quite a bit, the fundamental workflow can't be modified as extensively as ebase can permit. However, because e-Tapestry is a hosted application, it is upgraded often, and upgrades are automatically and seamlessly rolled out to all users.

e-Tapestry is a very new product, but we've been very impressed by what we've seen. It's particularly attractive to groups with <1000 members, as it's completely free to small groups, and requires absolutely no hardware or software purchase, and no database expertise to administer or maintain. Another significant benefit of ASP-hosted database products are that they can be accessed by multiple users in multiple locations--something that is quite tricky with any other type of database solution.

For groups with more than 1000 members, the cost of e-Tapestry is significant, but that cost has to be weighed against the time and expense of developing your own system or even that of customizing a low up-front cost system such as ebase. If you don't need the total customizability of ebase or a custom solution, and would rather spend some cash than your precious time, then e-Tapestry might be worth investigating.

"Homebrewed" database solutions: Until a few years ago, groups that could not afford expensive commercial software pretty much had to build their own simple databases in-house or with volunteers. While some groups have managed to create solid, effective tools, the overwhelming majority of groups we know that chose this course have wound up with dysfunctional databases and disgruntled staff.

Given the ready availability of good tools such as ebase, e-Tapestry, and the various commercial software products, only groups with very unusual needs and a high level of technical skill (or the money to rent it) should consider this route. We strongly recommend against having a short-term volunteer develop a customized database for you. If you're going to hire a database consultant, be sure to budget for ongoing maintenance, and for enough training to get you to the point where you can make simple changes to your database in the future.