Then a couple days ago I found a service called Wild Apricot, having accidentally come across it while doing other research for the org. It looks like they launched just last summer, so the number of features is impressive: easy page-creation and site-management tools; member database management; email module to contact members who've opted-in; donation-acceptance capability; and an event-registration system. It's geared specifically toward helping orgs handle some core aspects of their business.
I immediately opened up a free account and am currently deep into determining whether it will work for us (hannahssocks.org is running on the platform right now). It's important that I choose a solution that other, non-technical team members can easily use — otherwise, I'll be responsible for all site maintenance and more likely than not I'll become a hindrance as my attention is soaked up by other areas of the business.
Wild Apricot passes the ease-of-use test, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the business model: pricing is based on the number of members contained your database, and it rises quickly.
Now, we've got some respectable momentum going on the Socks project, so we'll probably break through the 50-member 'free' level quickly. With as few as 250 members in your DB, you're suddenly paying $50 per month. Ouch — especially if the efforts to build a customer file outpace fund-raising efforts early on (which is likely for us).
The second problem, which tumbles from the pricing issue, is that higher levels don't add any significant features to the platform. With essentially the same feature set at both the free level and the unlimited level ($200/month), it feels a little like being punished for growth.
For $200/month, the service will need to be significantly more robust. I would need to see a mashup of (just off the top of my head): 37 Signals' BaseCamp (project-management system for the leadership team); a Google-like calendar system (with a leaders-only view for business meetings and project milestones, and a public view for events); a respectable discussion forum for members; an easily deployable blog platform; and a wider variety of page-types (right now, there is one type of flat-file page and I'd like to serve different kinds of news and articles out of a simple content-management system). A module set like that would help me manage the business and give me more ways to create public-facing content. I don't think I'm asking for too much at that level of cost.
It may turn out that Wild Apricot is still the right choice; I need to research competitive products, and I need to measure the cost savings of a traditional setup (cheap host, FTP, html pages, hand-coding, kludged email manager of some sort, etc.) vs. the convenience (and limits) of WA's platform.
Other opinions of Wild Apricot:
- Des Traynor posted a video usability-review that includes WA
- Mitch Keeler agrees price is an issue
1 comment:
Hey Keith,
Just came across your post.
Thanks for the feedback and kudos :-)
Interesting that you found $200/month for unlimited number of contacts to be expensive - I just had a call with a woman from San Francisco who was asking me "$200 for our 3000 members, that's it? How come it is so cheap? You guys are one third of the price for 3 other options we are looking at!".
Here is how I look at it myself - and I have volunteered for a few non-profits myself. Community plan is $50/month for $500 contacs (which includes webste hosting which by itself typically costs $10-$20/month for a decent provider). Now, I know from feedback from our customers that features like renewal automation, event reminders, online registration etc. save them at least several hours a week even for smallest clubs or non-profits. So, conservatively, say it saves 10 hours of manual overhead (copy-paste, fax/email etc.) for $50 - this translates into $5/hour. I think it is a pretty good deal.
And regarding your growth comment: we have considered a sliding scale (like cubexpress.com does - 40 cents/record) - but it is actually more expensive and much more difficult to administer. The way I look at it, as the organization grows, it definitely demands much more organizational work from people running so we think we provide great value. We can not do fixed price because organizations with more members/records do place bigger strain on our system so a fixed price viable for larger orgs would actually punish small orgs.
Finally, Wild Apricot is growing by leaps and bounds - new features are added every few weeks based on feedback from our customers. Many of the more sophisticated features are added to higher-level plans. We recently released event registration form customization - available from $25 plans and up. Shortly we will release CSS customization - being a pretty sophisticated feature it will be avalable in $50 plans and up.
Anyways, thanks for your review and best of luck with Hanna's socks!
Post a Comment