Organizers Database (ODB) was great in its day, but now seems (to me, at 
least) old-fashioned in light of more attractive interfaces available.  
Using it always feels like a throwback to DOS days to me. There are 
newer programs that seem to offer better integration with other 
institutional functions. While the price is right (you pay only if you 
want support), ODB seems to me to have more "legacy users" rather than 
new users.  In fact, I'm helping a client convert from ODB right now.

I'm not seeing a lot of museums using Salesforce (at least here in the 
Northeast) but I think the flexibility of that platform offers some 
interesting opportunities for integrated data management. For 
nonprofits, the first ten licenses are free from the Saleforce 
Foundation (http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/)  and each additional 
seat is something like $364.  So the price is right, but as some 
Salesforce experts say, "Salesforce is free--like a puppy is free!"  
There is definitely a steep learning curve to set up and customize the 
way you want.  But there are active user groups and using Open Source 
appeals more than proprietary software that could be yanked from the 
market if sold to another company (a la the Blackbaud acquisition of 
Convio, for example.)

I think the most important question in decisions like these (besides the 
obvious budget one) is what kind of permanent in-house support/training 
your current staffing level allows.  If you have a dedicated person (or 
half a person) in-house, it is a lot easier to choose platforms like 
Salesforce that may require a lot of tinkering but can ultimately yield 
impressive results in the form of integrated data and coordinated 
communications.

Susan Ruderman
Fundraising Consultant



On 3/9/2013 6:04 PM, Bradley Martin wrote:
>
> We have past perfect at the Fort Smith Trolley Museum but we use a 
> free open source program "Organizers Database " for membership. It 
> does everything we want and easy to make changes to. It was designed 
> for grass roots political groups but is easy to make changes to. 
> http://www.organizersdb.org/
>
> *From:*Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
> *On Behalf Of *melinda mccrary
> *Sent:* Saturday, March 09, 2013 3:21 PM
> *To:* [log in to unmask]
> *Subject:* [MUSEUM-L] Past Perfect for Tracking Membership
>
> Dear Listers:
>
> I work for a small history museum and we are considering the purchase 
> of PastPerfect software to merge our collections inventory and 
> membership information.
>
> Does anyone have any praise or complaints about using PastPerfect for 
> tracking membership? Is there other software with the same capability 
> that I should look into before purchasing PastPerfect?
>
> Any advice is much appreciated. Feel free to contact me off list.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Melinda McCrary
>
> Richmond Museum of History
>
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-- 
Susan C. Ruderman, Ed.M.
[log in to unmask]
Boston, MA area


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