Databases > Choosing A Database

Buying a database for your organisation

By Lawrence Griffiths, Infoworks

Considering buying a database, but not too sure what type you need? An overview of the three main types of database used within the voluntary sector.

Types of database

Databases come in all shapes and sizes and you may find the features you are looking for in one type or in a combination of two or more depending on the range and complexity of your requirements. Databases are commonly used in the voluntary sector for Contact Management, Membership Management and Fundraising.

The functionality of these different kinds of database may overlap or specialise to a greater or lesser extent but these are the three main types - we'll take a look at their key features shortly. There are many other more specialised databases that support the unique aspects of an organisations work including Grants, Collections and Case Management.

Finally there are "online databases". This means any kind of database that can be accessed over the Internet using a web browser.

Contact Management

Contacts are at the heart of any organisation so managing them effectively is a key requirement. A contact management database does just that, by holding a range of data about a contact, such as name, address and what organisation they are associated with.

You should be able to categorise by type of contact e.g. client, partners, volunteer; quickly find a contact through simple searches; create categorised and group lists for mail merging (the inclusion of name and address into a document for direct mail) and email shots, and print address labels.

Advanced features include enabling you to record all contacts with anyone in the database, or integration of the database with your telephone system so that the contact's details are displayed automatically when a phone call is received.

When defining your requirements and selecting your supplier, it's important to consider the nature of your relationships with your contacts. For example do you deal with such things (entities) as organisations, partners, funders or simply with "contacts"?

You also need to consider what information you want to keep on a contact for example address details, gender, ethnicity, type of organisation, etc.

Membership Management

A membership database is designed to help membership-based organisations manage their members efficiently.

The basic information a membership database can record would include: type of member, their billing and payments history, and renewal dates. From this data certain processes can be automated such as, generating billing and renewal letters or emails, as well as enabling the creation of membership directories for use by the organisation and its members.

Other features could include event management, which allows the creation of events, records of their bookings, waiting lists and details for mail shots.

When defining your requirements and selecting a supplier it's important to consider the specific aspects of your membership which make your organisation different. For example is your renewal rolling or is there a mass renewal at year end? Do you wish to use the renewal process to gather very specific information about your membership and store this information with the member details? Do you want to use the membership system to deliver different services to different types of subscriber? Your choice of product will depend on your answers to these and other questions.

Fundraising

A fundraising database is designed to help organisations manage its supporters and target donors effectively, thus helping to build a closer relationship with the organisation.

The basic information a fundraising database will include is: supporter's details, their donation history and their response to giving campaigns.

Reporting functions will enable an organisation to categorise supporters and identify potential donors for use in marketing and fundraising campaigns.

Other more advanced functions may include covenant and gift-aid management and electronic banking via BACS (Bankers Automated Clearing System).

When defining your requirements and selecting a supplier, it's important to consider the scale and depth of your fundraising operation. It's easy to get sucked into very sophisticated systems. These may be vital for larger charities but often, all smaller organisations really need is a reasonable contact management system, with donation recording and administration - you already know where most of your donations come from.

Whilst the fundraising package market is the most mature in software for charities, it is still very mixed - horror stories abound and it's a must to talk to peer organisations who've used the supplier you have in mind.

Integration

Both membership and fundraising databases will need contact details of members and supporters. This functionality can either be provided by a combined contacts and membership product or a combined contacts and fundraising product. It may also be possible to integrate membership or fundraising functionality into your existing database of contacts.

Both membership and fundraising databases record financial details. As a result they are often integrated into an organisation's finance application, which allows automatic transfer of payments details. Given that both applications record financial details, interfacing to an organisations banking application (for direct debit renewals and subscriptions using BACS) can provide additional automation of the payments process.

Before buying ...

Before deciding on what sort of database to buy, it's important for organisations to go through a proper process to define their requirements. Concentrate on requirements not on solutions - say what you want to do in your own words and terms rather than assuming a particular solution. This way you're more likely to end up with something that closely matches your needs.

More Information

For more information on database issues, see the other articles in the database section of the lasa knowledgebase. Lists of suppliers of various database products for the voluntary sector can be found on the following sites:

• ICT Suppliers Directory
• UK Fundraising
• IT for Charities
• Volresource