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Membership
Software
Membership software can have many functions that
will assist an organization in any number of ways. Basic programs
start with online registration, payment of membership dues,
renewals, and profile maintenance.
Additionally, membership software can automate your communications
with your membership, with the addition of functionality to send
email broadcasts for special events, etc., send reminders for
renewals, and automatic renewal payment processing on a calendar,
e.g., monthly, annually, etc.
Some of the better membership software will have the ability to
expand upon the basic options that you have, such as to add modules
for member services. Some of the functions that would be included
under this category would be, for example, to have the ability to
conduct surveys and votes among the membership base, and to collect
data on the demographics of your organization.
This level of membership software would then give you the data you
need to determine what would be most attractive to your membership
in terms of benefits of belonging to your organization. For
instance, do most of them have children? If so, perhaps you may want
to offer a scholarship program; is your membership middle-aged or
elderly? Perhaps some group rate medical benefit plans would be
useful to them. Any number of potential benefits could be imagined.
Additionally, membership software might offer the ability to collect
and account for donations to the organization, keep a record of
sponsors, or perhaps to have a database for subscriptions to the
organization's magazine or newsletter.
In a large organization, you would want membership software to have
the ability for use by multiple users with different degrees of
access, permissions, etc. This would include access by the
membership itself, as well as program administrators and executives
who would obviously have enhanced privileges to access confidential
information.
Advertising for your organization for fund raising, or to increase
your membership could also be a function of your membership
software, including promotional banners, sales copy, offline and
internet marketing tools. Internet marketing tools would include,
for instance, search engine submission, autoresponder, press release
and article submitter functions. Offline marketing tools may include
the ability to generate mailing labels and perform 'mail merge'
functions to personalize your sales copy, and to generate flyers.
In so far as there is nothing 'constant except change', you should
choose a membership software package that would allow you to add
your own additional functions, relevant to your organization,
without spending additional money to upgrade the program. This could
be as simple as a menu option to 'add your own' module, or could
include integration with other software that may have been used to
perform various functions such as accounting, etc.
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