[Discuss] Building a non-profit membership list?

[eric.chadbourne at gmail.com (Eric Chadbourne)]

On 04/20/2014 05:33 PM, Bill Ricker wrote:
> Another member of this list, Eric, has open-sourced a CRM he wrote
> for a non-profit, and recently announced an update here. 
> http://nonprofit-crm.org/2014/03/26/mneme-version-1-0-2-released/ I
> recently did a code review and it looks good on the inside. Unclear
> if it has required features for Rich's group.
> 
> bill

Hi All,

Thanks for the plug Bill.  If the nonprofit wants to use my application
I would be willing to help set it up for free since they are small.
Email me anytime off list.

> As I see it, I need something that maintains a complete list of details
> for each person, and event registration with payment processing
> capability for memberships and event-signups but in a properly-secured way.

Considering list size and the client not being technically sophisticated
maybe it would be best to keep the solution really simple.  Where to
keep your lists, how to contact constituents, and collecting funds are
all interrelated and I would have to know more about your situation but
here are a few points off the top of my head.

1.  Where to keep the list?

If you don't need to store interaction info gmail contacts may be
sufficient.  Services like mail chimp and constant contact can store
more constituent info.  If you want more versatility free choices like
the application I'm hacking on and civicrm work.  Nonfree solutions like
the salesforce nonprofit start pack are compelling.  Hosted service, web
server, or local application?  Depends on what the like.

2.  How to contact folks?

A small list could easily use gmail.  They have generous daily sending
limits.  https://support.google.com/a/answer/166852?hl=en  Larger lists
should consider a service like mailchimp or constant contact.  Creating
pretty HTML emails are easy.  The metrics are useful.  Importing and
exporting lists is easy in most CRMs.

3.  Register for events and collect funds.

PayPal or similar can easily be embedded into your existing site to
collect payments.  You can put a limit on the amount of items sold and
collect buyer info.  This could cover your needs for payment and
registration.  Eventbrite can be useful but may not be needed in your case.

Any CRM should be able to easily import and export interactions.

Sounds like a fun project.  You have lots of options!

Happy hacking,

Eric