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Progressive Technology Project Introduces PowerBase.

PowerBase is online software specifically designed for groups engaged in community organizing. It has been developed in collaboration with key organizing groups, so PowerBase tracks what organizers want – and need – to track. Groups can access it in the office and on the road. PowerBase makes it easy to share information both within organizations and with organizational partners and allies – everyone  can use the same system.

Questions? Get answers by visiting our FAQ section.

Why PowerBase?

The simple reality is that there has not been a good, uniform, sophisticated database for community organizers. The result is the situation we’re in now:

  • organizing groups waste time and effort because they have to live with multiple  databases that have been cobbled together and do not capture fully the information groups want to track
  • nearly every organization uses a database unique to them, so there’s no easy way to exchange information, or receive technical support
  • commercial solutions are expensive and target the ‘nonprofit’ model – community organizers have very different needs

As more groups are tracking increasingly complex information, building memberships of hundreds to tens of thousands of people, engaging in voter participation efforts, and inputting data in multiple languages, the organizing community urgently needs a well-designed, well-supported, uniform database system.

Interested in the development process? Go to our Updates page.

What can PowerBase do?

PowerBase is a web-based platform and is accessible by multiple people in multiple sites at the same time. PowerBase will:

  • Manage organizing campaigns in the same way organizers do their work
  • Track member involvement and leadership development over time
  • Track relationships with allies, volunteers, donors, media, etc.
  • Track donations
  • Link contacts with voter files
  • Track voter contacts
  • Track event signups and attendance
  • Put sign up pages on organizational websites
  • Create reports
  • Create lists for e-mail and mailing labels
  • Accept information in multiple languages; provide a multi-lingual interface

Want to know more?  Check out our Features section.

What’s the history of the PowerBase Project?

For over ten years PTP has focused on building the capacity of community organizing groups to use technology more effectively, efficiently, and strategically.  For PTP’s entire history, the groups we work with have expressed deep dissatisfaction with their database options.

PTP responded to pressure from groups by taking on a comprehensive scan of database platforms in the fall of 2008. We found that CiviCRM – an open source platform – already had 75% of the essential database requirements for basebuilding organizations.

PTP received a grant from the Ford Foundation allowing us to work directly with representative organizations to develop a version of CiviCRM that meets the needs of organizing groups. We’ve completed the first version of PowerBase through a close and collaborative process with Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Environmental Health Coalition, Voices Of Community Activists & Leaders (VOCAL NY), and SCOPE.

We’re happy to say that after a year of work,  we have 25 organizations using the database.

Wonder who’s involved with creating the database? Visit our About section.