Databases: One and done
Membership, marketing, volunteer center, donor management — whatever your titles are, whatever areas you target or serve, do your organization a favor today and share your list. Take the time to create one list, housed in one database to maximize your reach and minimize member inconvenience.
I know many of you don’t want to share lists. You want to keep your names because you’re worried the other departments will do things to your list that you would never do. You’ve nurtured that list. You’ve grown it. It’s yours.
Do your members care if they’re part of one list but not another? Probably not. Do they mind if they’re on more than one list? Not from a numbers perspective but if your many lists/databases are not talking to one another and a member changes information on one list and not another, when they receive correspondence with their old information on it they probably will not give thought to the fact that they were on two lists. They’ll just roll their eyes or sigh and think it’s an administrative error on your end.
The more lists, the more potential for error. The more lists, the less effective the communication.
Combine your lists in one central, member database that all areas can access. Choose one that allows you to limit permissions to some admins if you’re worried about different departments using specific features. Use a forward-facing platform that will allow your members to update the information themselves instead of tying up administrators’ time. The investment in time today will yield a time savings tomorrow.
