I'm using MS Access now, which works admirably for our simple purposes: keeping track of 140 or so members, creating the odd phone list, and printing mailing labels quarterly and sending a personalized (merged) letter once a year. It's a standalone database, not connected to a website at this point.

Is CiviCRM suitable for this sort of activity? What would be the advantages?

It looks to me as if this app is meant to be used in conjunction with a website, which I suppose might be useful in our future.




While I'm as big a proponent of CiviCRM as anyone - it's worth considering why you're looking to switch if your current tool is working for you.

CiviCRM opens up many possibilities that aren't available with Access - from mass e-mailing to allowing members to sign up/renew online to offering members-only content on your site and more. However, it won't make you an expert in membership management or plan your renewal campaign.

If you're looking to make your organization more effective by growing membership or making better use of your member data, you'll need a strategy to do so. That might include upgrading your database. However, organizations who adopt fancier tools without a strategy often have buyer's remorse, even for a free tool.


Yes I reckon CiviCRM would be very suitable for this kind of activity.


You don't need to expose the database to anyone outside your organisation if you don't want to - you will need to 'encase' it in a website - some providers like civihosting provide that pre-installed I think

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