We do have a grant application in to get a database and implement it. 

One were are looking closely at is thedatabank.com .  They've added a volunteer module that looks good.  Thedatabank would allow us to track volunteer hours, participants in all our programs (including attendance at open shop and attendance at multi day classes--e.g. Earn-a-Bike).  It would allow on-line registration for events, online donations (that are much lower cost compared to Razoo or Network for Good), allow us to track "contacts" with potential larger donors, an email newsletter and eventually, mobile phone messaging and social media.  It looks like everything dealing with people can be in one database. That is important because you want to move participants to volunteers to financial donors.  It will also allow us to do surveys to ask past participants if they are biking more because of our programs and program evaluations. 

The thing it looks like it will not track is physical things-- like work on bicycles, what used bikes are in stock, what work needs to be done on them.  This isn't a big need for us now--physical sorting into different parts of the storage areas and paper tags are working now. 

Thedatabank is local to Minneapolis (but is national in their client base) and looks like the lowest cost per month and for their part of the implementation. A lot things are included in their base fees (e.g. implementation and ongoing training) that others charge for.  But, in putting together the budget, most of the implementation cost is internal staff time to clean up and merge a large variety of spreadsheets, for training, and for changing processes to make the best use of a database.  

If we get the grant, will keep everyone posted on our decisions and experience. 

..............
Sheldon Mains
SPOKES Bike Walk Connect program of Cycles for Change
Minneapolis, MN 612/618-7149
Three ways to donate to SPOKES:
1. Volunteer.  2. Donate repairable used bikes. 3. Financial donations always welcome. Check www.SpokesConnect.org for details.

On Sat, Feb 14, 2015 at 5:11 PM, Andrew Shooner <ashooner@gmail.com> wrote:
I would also advise against having someone (a college class project, an intern, or an individual or firm you contract with) build a custom database just for you. Many times they are never finished (our experience) or the person leaves that state and there is no one to deal with problems (there are always problems with databases). 

This is the hardest part: on one hand it seems like our needs don't fit with pre-existing solutions, on the other hand everything Sheldon describes is spot-on. I think the best situation is something that can have broader community support, and not be too idiosyncratic. That's hard to put together though. I think Freehub is the closest to that, but I think even that is in 'maintenance mode' at this point.




 

sheldon

We're still looking. 

..............
Sheldon Mains
SPOKES Bike Walk Connect program of Cycles for Change
Minneapolis, MN 612/618-7149
Three ways to donate to SPOKES:
1. Volunteer.  2. Donate repairable used bikes. 3. Financial donations always welcome. Check www.SpokesConnect.org for details.

On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 11:12 AM, Archer Sully <archer.sully@gmail.com> wrote:
One caution about Salesforce. While it is free, it's not easy to setup. We use it at Community Cycles, and while it has made many things possible that were not in our old system (Volgistics), it wasn't an easy journey to get it rolled out. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 13, 2015, at 10:06 AM, Ryne Emory <ryne@thebikedepot.org> wrote:

Salesforce- they donate their software via grants to Non Profits. 

On Fri, Feb 13, 2015 at 10:05 AM, Sam Haraldson <sam@bozemanbikekitchen.org> wrote:
...organize our infrastructure by putting everything we can into a database (volunteer information, inventory, bike donations, events, individual donations, memberships, etc). We've been looking into CiviCRM, and getting an external host for that, but before we commit to anything I am hoping to hear any feedback/comments anyone might have on what systems you are using?? Thank you!

Lauren,

What is your current system?  Are you tracking on paper, in a spreadsheet, something else, possibly not at all?  We have operated out of a simple shared spreadsheet (Google Docs) since 2009 and have found it to work acceptably and are only now 5+ years later thinking about getting more serious about that side of our operations.  I am a firm believer of getting a system dialed in using as simple a method as possible and then figuring out how to map that onto a true software solution rather than finding a software first and trying to make it work for your needs.  Best of luck in sorting out your needs.

Cheers,
Sam
Bozeman, MT

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Ryne Emory
Program Manager
The Bike Depot
2825 Fairfax St.
Denver, CO 80207
Office: 303-393-1963 x205
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