The Compete-At Blog

Perform this quick test to see if your current member database solution is up to par.

In 30 seconds or less you should be able to:

1. Find your current "active" membership count.
2. Know how many new members have joined in the last 30 days.
3. Be able to find anyone in your database if they call you on the phone - by last name, first name, custom attribute, etc. (My insurance agent is the king of this. Before I even complete my first sentence he has my account pulled up.)
4. View all recently expired members and send them an Email.
5. View and approve all pending memberships.
6. Send an Email to an expired members or group of members with a link to renew
7. Create an automated Email to send to new members thanking them for support and asking for a reference.
8. Send an Email to all donors who have not yet donated this year.
9. Send an Email to soon to be expired members with an message to renew, make a donation and perhaps even up-sell them to a lifetime membership.
10. Export your members to csv. (Why? Just because you know somebody is going to want it that way.)

All of these things are extremely basic functions. If performing any of these with your current member database leave you flustered, you should seriously start thinking about making a switch to a more nimble solution.

What causes this? Why are so many non-profits, associations and clubs using cumbersome antiquated solutions? See if any of these ring a bell.

1. A large expensive and cumbersome system was "installed" for us 5+ years ago and we're stuck with it. (Newsflash: Those days are over. Cut your losses now and go with a SaaS solution. The cost to maintain those installed solutiosn isn't worth it. Trust us on this one. If you need to hire a fulltime person to manage "membership technologies", you have the wrong solution.)

2. We're using Excel. (Seriously? Do your members and donors, know this? I wouldn't feel safe if my personal information was just sitting in a file on someones laptop.)

3. We were sold something that is so complex, only 1 person knows how to use it. In fact we only use a few features – we're not even sure what all this other crap does. (Probably the result of a dozen or so consultants and a slick sales guy. If it came with a manual, then you're in trouble. If it requires more than 20 minutes of "training", you're in trouble. If the company has full-time technical support staff to support you, you're in trouble. Full-time technical support means full-time problems.)

4. We're using a patchwork of different web technologies my "brother" (insert acquaintence here). You know, we set up a blog, hooked it to Paypal, added a couple of plug-ins, some mashups, found a membership widget, etc. Whoaaa. Slow down cowboy. You need to lasso all of that into one single simple solution. Who's going to keep up with updating all those plug-ins, scripts, and mashups, in the long-term?

If your current membership solution passed the litmus test, then congratulations you're way ahead of the curve. But the truth is, most member-based organizations can't even tell you how many active members they have, or how many active members they have at each level.

Keep your member database solution simple. You have more important things to do I'm sure. Check out a short video on our hosted solution here.

- Tom