Create a Membership Database In 3 Steps
A Quick & Easy Guide on How to Create a Membership Database
Suppose you are working for a member-driven organization, such as a club, a non-profit, a gym, or a trade association. In that case, having a robust membership database isn’t just important – it is a necessity.
Membership databases store information about members, such as their contact information, membership type(s), billing schedules, renewal dates, and new member sign-ups. More complex systems also let you manage events, payments, and interactions.
Let’s go ahead and learn how we can develop a membership database. Scroll down to access a free template application that stores data about members, memberships and events.
Why Build a Membership Database?
Membership software helps streamline operations, improve member engagement, and support the growth of your business, association, or club. A membership database is crucial for a member-driven organization.
It is also an essential tool for centralized information management: all member data is stored in a single, organized system, that is easy to access and update from the web. This reduces the risk of data redundancy and errors, ensuring accurate and up-to-date information at all times.
Membership software also lets you automate interactions with members, such as report generation, membership renewals, or payment reminders.
Membership databases support your growth and can cost-effectively work for dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of members: they easily accommodate an increasing number of members and new member services.
Last, a membership database helps with security and compliance: unlike a spreadsheet, a database stores data securely and cannot be easily shared or moved. A properly designed membership database offers the advantage of access control and ensures that only authorized personnel can view or modify member data.
What Is a Membership Database?
A membership database stores information about members, such as their personal details, join date, membership type, payments, or events participation.
Depending on your field or industry – a local sports club, regional non-profit organization, trade association, or large-scale national members group – your membership database may include more or less information.
Here are a few examples of membership databases:
1. Membership Databases for Nonprofit Organizations:
At nonprofits or NGOs, membership software typically helps keep track of donor management, volunteer coordination, event management, or membership programs. They are a great tool to stay on top of donations, volunteer schedules, and fundraising events.
2. Gyms and Fitness Centers:
Fitness centers or gyms benefit most from membership software that monitors member attendance, class schedules, registrations, and waitlists, as well as keeps track of billing and payments.
3. Professional Associations:
Professional associations typically maintain a directory of professionals in their membership database and use the database to organize networking events, webinars, and conferences. Membership software can also be used to provide members with access to industry resources, publications, and job boards.
4. Education:
In education, alumni and their engagement with their alma mater is an important function of a membership system. In addition, the organization of campus events, reunions, or homecoming activities can be carried out in a membership system.
5. Libraries and museums:
Libraries and museums benefit most from a membership database that tracks member access to resources, materials, and facilities, as well as renewals and benefits.
By centralizing information and automating processes, a membership database can help organizations focus more on their core missions and less on administrative tasks. It is a versatile tool that can streamline operations, enhance engagement, and provide valuable insights for a wide range of organizations.
Membership Databases in Excel
When it is time to create a custom database, many people start with tools like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
While these spreadsheet-based solutions can be convenient for smaller organizations, they often lead to significant issues as your operations grow. Here are some common problems associated with using spreadsheets:
1. Version Confusion:
Different departments or users might have their own local copy of the spreadsheet, leading to multiple versions like “MemberDatabase_NEW,” “MemberDatabase – v2.1,” “Old Member Database – DO NOT USE,” etc.
2. Lack of Version and Access Control:
Without clear ownership or version control, changes made by different team members can be lost or duplicated, especially if the person responsible for updates leaves the company.
3. Data Inconsistencies:
Comments, highlights, and manual updates can lead to a cluttered and error-prone spreadsheet. For example, marking inactive members in red can easily be overlooked or misinterpreted.
Setting up your membership database in a spreadsheet can ultimately defeat the purpose of having a single, reliable source of truth. Instead of efficient member management, you end up constantly fighting fires, managing and cleaning up multiple spreadsheets.
Free Membership Database Template App
How to Create a Membership Database in 3 Steps
Building a membership database usually requires technical knowledge that someone working at a member-driven organization might not have. For instance, you’d need a substantial understanding of database languages like SQL, not to mention the front-end development for user interaction.
Five is an online database builder specifically designed to make creating a membership database much faster.
Creating a membership database with Five won’t be entirely effortless (but we have a free template available), but it will be significantly easier than spending 60+ hours learning various coding frameworks and languages.
With Five, you can
1. Set up your database in minutes, and
2. Create a user-friendly, login-protected web interface for your database.
3. You can also easily import your existing data from Excel, Google Sheets, or CSV files, allowing you to get started quickly.
Five also offers the flexibility to create custom business logic with code, generate membership PDF reports, and visualize your data through custom charts and dashboards.
Additionally, you can set up email notifications for your members, ensuring your communication is seamless, standardized, and automated.
Get free access to Five here and start building a membership database.
Step 1: List Out Member Attributes
Start by compiling a complete list of all attributes relevant to your members. Think about what matters to your members and your organization: members’ personal particulars, addresses, join dates, membership plans, etc. Your membership database should be a “single source of truth”, so ensure it’s as comprehensive as possible.
Here are some must-have attributes that are typically included in a membership system:
- Member ID,
- First Name,
- Last Name,
- Email,
- Phone,
- Address,
- Join Date,
- Membership Type(s),
- Status (Active, Inactive, Suspended)
- Event registrations
Step 2: Define Other Important Information
Apart from storing information about your members and who they are, your membership database is supposed to track how your members interact with your business.
Define what these interactions are, and how to describe them.
For example, do your members meet at events? If so, define what an event means to your organization and what you need to know about it, such as the event title, category, date, place, etc.
On the other hand, if you are running a class-based members business, such as a gym, list everything you need about a class: the type of class, instructor, location, hour, etc.
Remember: the more information you gather, the better your analytics will be. For example, if in the future, you’d like to run an analysis of which member is likely to join which event or class, it is important to store this information in the first place.
When in doubt, it is usually better to store more data, so be as detailed as possible.
Step 3: Creating Your Membership Database
Your list of member attributes and other important information is ready? Great, let’s move all of this into a proper database.
To do so, sign up for Five, an online database builder that comes with a simple point-and-click interface for creating relational databases.
Follow our video tutorial to build your database tables, forms, and reports:
Membership Database: Free Sample Application
Here’s a free membership database template application, created in just 15 minutes.
Membership Database Schema
Here’s the database schema for our application.
The membership database schema consists of several interconnected tables:
- At its heart is the Member table, storing information about members;
- The MembershipType table holds information about the different membership types, their cost and duration;
- The Payment table is used to keep track of members’ payments of membership fee;
- Event and MemberEvent lets us keep track of events
- Last, Interaction is a table designed to store information about our individual interactions with each member, such as email, calls or WhatsApp messages.
Each table holds specific information, such as member details, payment records, event participation, and interactions, ensuring a comprehensive and organized structure. The relationships between these tables facilitate efficient data management, enabling seamless tracking of memberships, payments, and member activities.
Membership Database: Key Features
A Customizable Membership Database
We started by defining the fields (attributes) we wanted to store in our database using Five’s Table Wizard, a user-friendly, point-and-click database design tool. Add as many fields as you wish to your membership database. The database is fully customizable.
Simple-to-Use Forms
We then created the form that our users can interact with, again using just a few clicks. For example, we added a drop-down for the membership types to ensure members can be associated with different plans, which helps maintain data cleanliness and consistency.
Searchable and Online
Our membership database is searchable and hosted online. It can be accessed by anyone (with login credentials), anywhere at any time.
Login Protected and Secure
Securing data is paramount for organizations of all sizes: Five comes with a pre-built authentication feature that adds a login screen to your application. Only registered users with valid credentials can view or edit data. You can also add multi-factor authentication for extra security.
Add a Simple Members Dashboard
You can also add a dashboard that provides insights into members and your organization’s growth to your application. This gives you a bird’s eye view of membership base growth.
Get Started with Five Today
To build your membership database with Five, sign up for free access and start the process. If you need assistance, visit our forum to get help from our application development experts as you add more features to your database application.
By following the steps mentioned above, you can create robust and scalable membership software tailored to your needs, all while using the tools provided inside Five.
