The Freedom in Open Source Software | Tendenci - The Open Source Association Management Software

Our Mission is to Connect and Organize the World's People. Do Good.

Tendenci AMS software was designed to help you take your association to the far corners of the world. Open-source software enables people in places where resources are limited and technology is scarce.

Host your site and your data on your own server if needed and make real changes in the world! While you can certainly host with us, you don't have to. It's OK to support local open source developers in your own country as well. We've had associations and non-profits send us screenshots of Tendenci running in tens of global languages and even on a RaspberryPi. (hint: email us and we'll surely blog it!)

Think FREE in Terms of FREEDOM

With Tendenci AMS software and other open-source products, you have the freedom to customize your website to your needs, build in new functionality, host the site wherever you want, use the people/developers of your choice and change any of this at any time.

KNOW that a FREE and OPEN SOURCE AMS Software Means Greater Functionality and Usability on a Global Scale

Tendenci AMS, as measured by an independent third-party ranking firm, is one of the top 7 Association Management Software Systems Globally. Tendenci itself is a small company behind a much larger virtual global community of change-makers. People who understand the power of associations. And the importance of freedom from centralized platforms and the tyranny of regimes limiting access for all.

FREEDOM to CHOOSE YOUR Associations Future

Tendenci - The Open Source AMS software has the freedom to be used and hosted wherever you want. Pick the people YOU want to build, customize, manage and host your website, in the country of your choice. In fact, here is a list of alternatives to Tendenci AMS (hint: almost all aren't open).

Be sure to check out your low-cost membership free options because Tendenci fully supports Associations and Non-Profits!

FREEDOM to CUSTOMIZE it to Your Associations Unique Needs

Association Management Software is complex because associations are complex! So, you may want to make some minor changes. Do it! Want to write an entire app specific to your organization that integrates with Tendenci? We love it!

You can fork Tendenci AMS on GitHub at https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci/.

We definitely encourage and appreciate pull requests as well. And if you aren't super technical, some of the best pull requests are actually documentation.

Every site lets you pull down templates as well. You can try that out on the free Demo site.

Language and FREEDOM of Hosting

This is a global world and your association management software needs to be multilingual and accessible to the world. And because your organization or company needs to communicate with different constituencies in the language of their choice, Tendenci itself, allows each user to specify the language of their choice individually.

Translation and localization of your AMS are possible because the community uses the amazing Django Project web framework and thanks to the people at Transifex who support open source.

FREEDOM to DO GOOD

What exactly is open-source? Key Points from Richard Stallman. A program is “free software” if the program’s users have the four essential freedoms...

Open-Source means that anyone can download a full copy of the software for free and customize it to their needs. Most software is purchased (or licensed) and while you can modify it to your preferences, you can’t rewrite the basic functionality of the product.

Yet many developers want and need the freedom to modify a solution for their individual needs. And that requires getting into the actual code. Fork Tendenci to Customize With Your Developer.

And many associations that do host in the tendenci-cloud at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Compute (GCP), or the Alibaba Cloud Hosting in Asia like knowing they can export ALL of their data at any time. That they can switch to self-hosting. They aren't "trapped" - freedom.

Tendenci is a mature and stable software platform originally started in 2001 and went open source in 2013. It is a huge upgrade for most associations or businesses given the robust features https://www.tendenci.com/features/.

Does That Mean a Free Website?

Unless you are a skilled developer, probably not. This doesn't mean you have to use Tendenci as your developer, but you may want to have a developer you trust that can program in Python to help you set it up.

Websites have to live (or be hosted) somewhere to be found on the Internet. And there is a cost for that, whether you own the server internally (some large companies do this) or host your site on someone else’s hardware.

You also need to plan on the initial build of your site, make regular updates to content and address technical issues that arise.

Sort of like building a house. You plan and build your house and love it. Over time, you repaint as needed or change the carpet to keep it updated. And occasionally you run into an unexpected repair, such as replacing the a/c unit or fixing a leak in the roof. And if you want to add a deck to the back of the house, you will need to contract with a developer to build that functionality!

Developers Need Documentation - Here IT IS!

Tendenci is documented by open-source developers at https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci/blob/master/docs/source/index.txt. This documentation is automatically pulled over to https://tendenci.readthedocs.io through the miracles of the interwebs to make life easier for you. On that note, a HUGE THANK YOU to the team and sponsors of https://readthedocs.org/ for their contributions to true OS software.

Why is Tendenci Open Source Instead of Proprietary?

Ah, young grasshopper. It wasn’t always this way. For 11 years, Tendenci was built, maintained, and owned by Schipul. During this period, Schipulites listened to their clients and built out specific functionality to help NPOs increase their fundraising. Owning your software gives you absolute control over your product. Pretty sweet. The majority of the fundraising products out there, from Blackbaud to Wild Apricot, are proprietary.

So Why Did We Decide To Take Tendenci Open Source?

1. It is in line with our core values.

Our mission is “To connect and organize the world’s people. Do good.” Going open-source will allow NPOs anywhere with any budget to further their cause. Read more about our mission.

2. It breeds innovation.

With developers around the world building on the Tendenci platform, there will be more applications and functionality available to everyone on Tendenci. See what Michael J Skok had to say about the Future of Open Source in 2012.

3. It helps our clients.

We want you to love Tendenci! By giving you flexibility on design, customization, and hosting, you can have the website you want!

Want to Learn More About Open Source?

Releasing Tendenci as an open-source platform was a big decision for us. And a step we are glad we took. Now let's go out and do some good!

The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is a nonprofit organization that helps provide education and licenses that keep software truly Free and Open. Tendenci is licensed under their approved GNU General Public License v3.0.

Check out OpenSource.org for more information on the open-source philosophy.