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A Few Good Association Management Systems
By Eric Leland, November 2008
An association management system can be a huge help in tracking your members, newsletter subscriptions, special gifts, invitations to events and workshops, discounts on products and services and more. We asked five different nonprofit experts about the systems that have worked for them.
You serve a large group of members. In exchange for their membership, you offer a free subscription to your newsletter, special gifts, invitations to events and workshops, discounts on products and services and more. But managing these varied and complex interactions poses challenges. How do you track all the details from membership levels and renewals to benefits and event schedules?
If money’s no option, you can custom build a database. More likely, you can invest in one of the existing association management tools on the marketplace, each of which offers a mix of features and customizations to fit your price range. Or you can find a happy medium, customizing the features of an existing platform based on your budget and requirements.
We asked a number of nonprofit technology professionals with similar needs about the software that has worked for them, and combined their thoughts to create a list of solid tools that might work for you. Here’s what they said.
Association vs. Membership Management
Software used to track membership tends to fall into one of two categories—standard membership systems, or Association Management Systems (AMS). There’s no black and white distinction between the two kinds of systems, but they tend to diverge in their support for the specific services organizations provide to constituents based on their membership.
For some organizations, membership is a fundraising strategy that helps achieve goals larger than just serving members. For example, consider public radio stations—though they raise money through membership drives, you don’t have to become a member to listen.
In contrast, other organizations have a more direct mandate to serve a group in specific ways. Such organizations offer memberships as a way for their constituents to receive those benefits. For example, a trade association might provide critical services to affordable housing builders, including accreditation, certification, networking at members-only-events, group insurance rates, discounts on building materials and more.
While these distinctions won’t necessarily dictate which type of software application you’ll need, understanding the difference will certainly help you choose the right tool. AMS software often provides a wider range of tools to help you track the various services you offer members – including managing both organizational and individual members, and we’ve stuck to those systems in this article.
Considering Your Needs
Although simple and inexpensive Association Management Systems do exist, most are robust, complicated to learn, and expensive to sustain. Systems can become quite costly – especially for nonprofits on a tight budget – as more features are needed.
To ensure you get the best system for the buck, focus carefully on defining your membership processes in advance of choosing a system. In particular, take time to consider:
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Membership Benefits and Structure.
What services do members get, and what must they do to get them? Match membership pricing to membership levels and to the array of gifts, discounts, access and services they receive.
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Event Management.
If events are a critical part of your organization’s work, describe how events function and where they depend on the membership structure. What are member discounts? Are there multiple days, tracks or workshops? Do you need to manage vendor halls, speakers, sponsors and volunteers? Which member preferences play a role, and how do members register and pay?
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Member Communication.
Describe how you communicate with members, and how members will communicate with each other. Do you need to search a member list by certain profiles to create mailing lists? Do you have organizational chapters, and do they need access to manage their own chapter information? Do you offer newsletters and other publications?
As a side note, many Association Management Systems lack the detailed functionality for fundraising provided by packages specifically designed for that purpose. If you're primarily asking for membership fees or donations from members, they may well meet your needs, but if your fundraising operation extends well beyond your members and into the realm of major donors, pledges, and other more complex areas, you may need to consider using a fundraising system instead of or in addition to your association management system.
Options for Small Associations
The following solutions work best for smaller associations with less-complicated membership and benefit structures. With both lower implementation and annual costs, these systems tend to provide fewer features and options for customization than more expensive systems. Carefully evaluate the combination of features each offers to see how they stack up against your needs.
123 Signup (www.123signup.com)
This lightweight, hosted AMS offers strong event- and conference-management functionality, with workshop/track management, session capacity setting, multiple event pricing, custom fields, attendee questionnaires, automatic event calendars, and more. Membership management functionality supports organizational members with “flowdown” control (allowing member benefits to select individuals within the organization). One of the more affordable systems, pricing is determined by the number of members. It starts at $50 per month for up to 100 members and 500 additional non-member contacts, plus transaction fees per event registration.
Memberclicks (www.memberclicks.com)
Memberclicks offers a hosted solution focused on managing a membership community online. Community features include a contact center for members, rosters, discussions, job board, event calendar and more. Memberclicks also offers a flexible form-building tool that lets associations develop custom signup forms for events, donations, membership dues and more. Basic event management is available, but not suitable for more complex conference scenarios. Memberclicks offers only basic constituent management and segmentation, and no association-specific financial management features. Pricing starts at $90 per month plus a $500 setup fee for up to 300 members and 900 non-member contacts.
Yourmembership.com (www.yourmembership.com)
This hosted service offers a wide range of basic association management features. Focused on member social networking and community management, it offers several tools for Web content management, blogs, community calendars, group and chapter administration and more. Weaknesses include less-robust event-management functionality, limited subscription and no financial management features. Pricing is straightforward, at $995 setup and $5,940 annual license fee for unlimited members, multiple users and all functionality.
Tendenci (www.tendenci.com)
Tendenci focuses on online transactions with members, such as signups, registrations, dues and member rosters – but its support for building a member community is less robust. It has a wide variety of features, including Web content management, jobs board, press release management, photo albums, online discussion rooms, built-in RSS feeds, continuing education module and more, but many of these features are not deep in functionality. Event management may not be well-equipped for more complex conference management, while membership functionality offers only basic support for different membership types (such as individual and corporate). Pricing starts at $2,000 setup for Web template ($3,000 to use your own) plus $200 per month for up to 500 members, $300 per month for 1000 members, or $400 for 2,500 members, with options to expand up from these levels.
LocalVoice (www.localvoice.com)
The LocalVoice system was developed for the Web earlier than most, and has developed a strong integration of member tools to the association’s website, including strong support for Web 2.0 tools like social networking. Another strength is member segmentation and e-marketing, with tools for sending targeted emails to members based on preferences, and tracking the response to those email campaigns. Though a hosted solution, LocalVoice is more expensive than others in its class.
Options for Mid-Sized Associations
In general, solutions with mid-range pricing offer deeper functionality and greater ability to configure the application to meet individual associations’ needs. Many of these solutions integrate key accounting functions for associations, offer more robust subscription- and event-signup management, and support divisions of members into chapters or other groups. General constituent management is typically strong, with more fields to track information and more flexible ways to filter and segment the information according to your own criteria.
Note that these are all hosted solutions, which offer some advantages for smaller organizations—such as lower startup costs and shorter implementation times—over installed software packages. In reviewing these systems, be sure to identify where additional configuration or customization may be necessary to meet your needs.
Internet4Associations’ Office Manager Lite (www.internet4associations.com)
Office Manager Lite offers strong features for a good price– including Web site content management, an online form builder, conference management, accounts receivable and batch processing, and a query-building tool for filtering and segmenting constituent information. Strong chapter management functionality allows chapter officials to access and manage their own data. Pricing for the “Lite” package is $1,800 annually plus $95 per month for Web site hosting, for unlimited members. More advanced pricing option includes additional features, such as online store, survey builder, discussion forums and more.
JL Systems’ MyNoah (http://jlsystems.com)
JL Systems provides a large and refined set of features particularly strong in back-end membership relationship management and Web site integration, With the launch of MyNoah in January 2008, JL Systems shifted its focus from their traditional installed version to a hosted service with all the same features. The system offers granular control over member groups, including the ability to let each group manage their own pages online. MyNoah starts at $4,995 for setup, $995 for an annual license, and $100 per month for Web hosting.
Avectra’s NetForum Team (www.avectra.com)
Avectra has long offered an enterprise-level solution, and more recently has focused on their hosted products. NetForum Team is a stripped-down version of their other offerings, but still packed with features and is frequently updated with new functionality. It offers some Web site integration which has been improved recently to allow for custom page creation, but its focus is more on back-end member relationship management. With no customization and limited configuration options, be sure this works well for your needs out of the box. At $125 per user per month (if you contract annually), the solution can quickly get pricey quickly for multiple-user organizations.
More Customizable Solutions
These products mix core functionality with custom consulting services to more closely match individual associations’ needs. They tend to require a longer planning-and-implementation times, and costs can vary widely depending on specific requirements. Associations who put the time in with vendors can craft a custom solution that rivals less-configurable hosted solutions.
Affiniscape (www.affiniscape.com)
Affiniscape offers a focused back-end association management solution called Members 360, along with a Web/community management solution called Members 24x7. Both are hosted and custom-implemented by Affiniscape consultants to align with client requirements. This model makes pricing variable based on individual organization needs. Expect a minimum of $9,500 per year plus $7,000 for consulting, with costs rising for advanced needs.
Euclid Technologies’ ClearVantage (www.euclidtechnology.com)
The ClearVantage approach is more of a custom engagement. The system has strong member relationship management functionality, including support for project and association process management. As an example, its exhibit hall support includes floor plan design tools, helpful for larger-conference engagements. Custom pricing depends on the features and services required, but expect costs in the same range as the other solutions in this class or higher.
Higher-End Solutions
These solutions target larger professional or trade associations who have the technical staff in place to adopt and sustain enterprise software. They offer complex association features, customized toolsets and stronger vendor support partnerships. Pricing for the software alone ranges from $15,000 to more than $100,000 in annual costs, and implementation generally ranges from $30,000 up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Example solutions in this space include Computility, iMIS, Oasis Computing Association Server, TCS Software Prevail and Integrated Software Solutions. Designed as comprehensive association management systems for big organizations, these systems require internal training and support, and can therefore be unwieldy for organizations lacking strong departmental resources. Vendors provide custom pricing and implementation services depending on specific service and feature requirements.
Selecting the Right System
Many of these packages offer very different feature sets. When considering them, first make sure you’ve properly identified your needs by documenting membership rules, benefits structure, events and online community needs.
Features that seem similar in vendors’ product and services descriptions often compare differently in real-world applications. Explore them thoroughly and put them through realistic scenarios in order to eliminate surprises.
Beyond the basic features, Associated Management Systems can grow quite expensive. Consider hiring a skilled database consultant with experience implementing AMS applications to help make sense of all the information. That can help you focus on the task at hand—finding the system with the right features and the right price for your organization, your members and your needs.
For More Information
A Few Good Databases for Membership Organizations
An older Idealware article (from March 2006), focused on the member data management side of the equation.
American Society of Association Executives
A resource for all areas of association management, including articles covering Associated Management Systems.
AMC Institute
A resource for finding “Association Management Companies” that provide outsourced services for managing associations’ information.
EDM Blog
Additional resources covering AMS applications and database management.
Thanks to TechSoup for their financial support of this article, as well as to the nonprofit technology professionals who provided recommendations, advice, and other help:
Copyright 2008 CompuMentor. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License
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