A Few Good Databases for Membership Organizations

I have some good news on the membership management front, which is that as of today, a mature 1.0 release of the open source Organizers Database (ODB) is available for free download at: http://organizersdb.org

This software (for groups with budgets under $2 million) was released as a 1.0 "release candidate" in 2/2006 and since that time it has been field tested by 150 organizations.

As we are a nonprofit project funded by foundations and individual donors, we are committed to providing full disclosure of what ODB can and cannot do. see our Truth in Advertising statement:
http://organizersdb.org/download/tia

The software is currently Windows only, it installs in 20 seconds, and it provides some features that previously were only provided by proprietary vendors.

For example, the software automatically keeps track of date entered, date updated, date joined, expiration date, giving amount -- and it will print donation slips customized to the donor's giving level. You can set up hundreds of "tracking codes" for each donor/member/volunteer. You can set it up to automatically generate thank you letters based on a donation category, and payments can have three levels of categories. The software can differentiate between non-gift payments and donations. It automatically keeps track of whether an address is valid, expired, or incomplete and prompts the user when this needs to be changed. It can handle a second email address and you can integrate it with online email list software. Renewal letter queries can be saved (as simple text files) for easy retrieval and use by novice staff. Basic reporting is included, and can be extended using an Access or Open Office addon.

As of 1/1/07 you can now obtain expanded support for ODB, costing as little as $325 a year for groups with budgets under $50K. The code is very concise and it is often possible to have us add a feature for ODB for $1-2K -- less than the license cost of many closed source options.

However, a startup group with a budget of $500 a year can also use ODB; out of the box the software's more sophisticated features (like pledge tracking) are hidden from view, so that the software will be intuitive to novices.

Here is a full list of features in ODB 1.0.1:
http://organizersdb.org/files/odbfeatures.pdf

-rich cowan, for the ODB Project

Excellent news Rich - other orgs/businesses could certainly learn a lot from your 'Truth in Advertising Statement'... I will be sure to give this release of ODB a run!

Cheers, Don

I didn't see a product called IRM Association listed in this article? How does it compare with "sophisticated" products reviewed?