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You Need a Database

Managing Data for Small to Mid-Size Nonprofits

Whom do you need to contact? Members? Donors? Prospects? Vendors? Parents? Board members? Committees? Volunteers?

How do you reach them? Land mail? E-mail? Phone? Home or work? Winter home? Have they moved? What about the rest of the family? Multiple people at the same address?

Who’s given you money? When? How much? For what purpose? In whose honor or memory? What did they get in return?

How do you store this information? Index cards? Rolodexes? Label programs? Spreadsheets? Word-processing documents? Sticky notes? Some combination of the above?

If you’ve ever had to deal with these questions, you need a database. A database is a whole lot of information rigorously organized to make it as useful as possible to you. Properly designed, it lets you enter any given bit of information once and once only, so there’s no head-scratching as to “Which of these is correct?”. You can find subsets, do sorts, create totals and subtotals, and print out (or export) any collection of these data, in any order, and in any format, you desire.

A program that lets you manage your database is called— a database manager. One of the best for individuals and small organizations is FileMaker Pro. It’s 100% cross-platform compatible. You can design a database on a Mac and use it on a PC, or vice versa. Participants in this workshop will learn some of the basics of data management; and come away with a usable database to track your contacts, volunteers, donations, and more. The file will be made available in runtime formats (no access to FileMaker necessary) and regular FileMaker format (requires FileMaker, but is open and customizable).

Richard S. Russell has been developing FMP databases for non-profit organizations in the Madison area for over a decade. He’ll discuss advantages and pitfalls, do some brief demos, answer questions, and make available a free CD that contains a simple but fairly powerful database program that you can put to work as soon as you get back to your office.

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Presenters

• Richard S. Russell, FileMaker Database Developer,

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Location

Goodman Community Center
149 Waubesa St., Room: Boltz B
Madison, WI 53704

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