It is beautiful to read how much tendenci the open source AMS software has evolved since 2013 – when this article was released. Enjoy reading and it is never late to transition to open source with Tendenci! -S.R🐾
Tendenci has come a long way since it was started in 2001. I didn’t have a choice back then so thus began (at the time – we are now open source) a proprietary system. But we work mostly with Associations and Non Profits. They/You (and I can attest first hand after volunteering with several nonprofits over the years) don’t want proprietary – you want OPEN SOURCE!
So what is our roadmap for Tendenci, now completely open source, for donor management?
I have to say we weren’t feeling the urgency on the donor management part until recently. Why? Because Blackbaud (Nasdaq BLKB) acquired Convio and removed the only viable option. And now they are shutting down Common Ground. Not cool. (Side bar: Word is Convio used to advertise “Common Ground, because we’re not Raiser’s Edge.” If that is true or not, it’s still funny and was always a comment that came up at NTEN or Techsoup meetings over the years.)
Tendenci is written in Django and Python and will remain open source. We are adding a basic GPL CRM with modifications for donor management first. More importantly we are integrating Tendenci with the Salesforce Foundation and the NON-Profit Starter pack through their open source connectors and well documented API.
We are prepared and qualified. We have a former employee who now works at Salesforce, we use Salesforce ourselves, and quite frankly they seem to care about the non-profit world. We at Schipul are “all in” as they say as are Tendenci powers the majority of our clients are non-profits.
What can you do now to get ready?
If you want to get ready to fully integrate your Tendenci site, hosted with us or self hosted with the open source community version, a good jumping off point would be contact the TendenciDEV Team for a free consultation! Tendenci’s Fundraising and Donor Management is all you need so you can start accepting online charitable donations now! Everything you need in one system.
I’ll try to keep everyone more up to speed on our roadmap, it’s been a crazy year. But make no mistake, we are building an open system that will reduce the costs of advocacy and non-profit associations and foundations by a factor of 10 compared to Raiser’s Edge. (WE HAVE DONE THIS ALREADY!) All you need is tendenci, and tendenci is also 100% customizable and flexible.
There is hope. (Programmer? – join us on github! http://github.com/tendenci/tendenci ) And in case you can’t tell, I’m excited about this! – Ed Schipul, 2013
December 28, 2025 This wonderful insightful blog post about how to leverage the Django SQLExplorer on your Tendenci site was written back in 2015 when Tendenci v6 was released. What tendenci version is your site on? Yes, you can access the data you need with Tendenci’s SQL Explorer Data Analysis Tool right from your website! Read this blog to learn about it. -S.R.
February 7, 2015 Tendenci 6 ships with the excellent django-sql-explorer from ePantry. This means you can export anything at any time and build any report you want whenever you want. Absolute 100% anytime freedom of access to your data. #JOY #FREEDOM #ROCKS
First a warning. If you choose to use a direct query tool know they are dangerous. You are doing so at your own risk and could possibly corrupt your database beyond repair up to and including requiring a dba to come in and repair it at a cost of thousands of quid. So…. BE CAREFUL.
SQL explorer is a way to directly query your site through the user interface. It is for superusers only and we recommend disabling it by default (see disclaimer above.) But if you are still reading here is the lightning version.
Login to your Tendenci6 site at /accounts/login/
Navigate to /explorer/
Click on playground and test out some queries. For example here are two
“select tablename from pg_tables” – without the quotes to list all 300 tables in your database
“select * from articles_article” – list all articles including expired and inactive etc.
If you like the queries click “new query” and name and describe them and click save.
Click on the SQL explorer icon top left and your back at the dashboard with icons to download the results of your queries.
Visually when you add the URL /explorer/ to the end of your site path you will see something very similar to this.
First note the icon on the right to Download CSV so you can download all of whatever that query is for. If you don’t see any, no worries – that’s what this post is about!
So let’s write a basic sql statement.
And then when you click “New Query” you will find this interface and you can carefully name and describe your query so you know what it does later.
1) ALL Interactive users:
SELECT u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser, p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2, p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex, p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone, p.notes, p.admin_notes FROM auth_user u INNER JOIN profiles_profile p ON u.id=p.user_id WHERE u.is_active=True AND p.status=True AND p.status_detail='active'
Copy Paste Version:
SELECT u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser, p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2, p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex, p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone, p.notes, p.admin_notes FROM auth_user u INNER JOIN profiles_profile p ON u.id=p.user_id WHERE u.is_active=True AND p.status=True AND p.status_detail=’active’
2) ALL memberships:
SELECT u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser,
p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2,
p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex,
p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone,
m.membership_type_id, m.renewal, m.certifications, m.work_experience,
m.referer_url, m.referral_source, m.join_dt, m.expire_dt, m.renew_dt,
m.primary_practice, m.how_long_in_practice, m.application_approved,
m.application_approved_dt, m.areas_of_expertise, m.home_state,
m.year_left_native_country, m.network_sectors, m.networking,
m.government_worker, m.government_agency, m.license_number,
m.license_state, m.status_detail
FROM auth_user u
INNER JOIN profiles_profile p
ON u.id=p.user_id
INNER JOIN memberships_membershipdefault m
ON m.user_id=u.id
WHERE u.is_active=True
AND p.status=True
AND m.status_detail <> 'archive'
Copy Paste Version:
SELECT u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser, p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2, p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex, p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone, m.membership_type_id, m.renewal, m.certifications, m.work_experience, m.referer_url, m.referral_source, m.join_dt, m.expire_dt, m.renew_dt, m.primary_practice, m.how_long_in_practice, m.application_approved, m.application_approved_dt, m.areas_of_expertise, m.home_state, m.year_left_native_country, m.network_sectors, m.networking, m.government_worker, m.government_agency, m.license_number, m.license_state, m.status_detail FROM auth_user u INNER JOIN profiles_profile p ON u.id=p.user_id INNER JOIN memberships_membershipdefault m ON m.user_id=u.id WHERE u.is_active=True AND p.status=True AND m.status_detail <> ‘archive’
4) All users in a specific group (replace <YOUR GROUP ID> with your group id)
SELECT ug.name, u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser, p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2, p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex, p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone FROM auth_user u INNER JOIN profiles_profile p ON u.id=p.user_id INNER JOIN user_groups_groupmembership ugm on u.id=ugm.member_id INNER JOIN user_groups_group ug on ug.id=ugm.group_id WHERE ug.id=<YOUR GROUP ID> AND ugm.status=True AND ugm.status_detail='active'
Copy Paste Version:
SELECT ug.name, u.first_name, u.last_name, u.email, u.username, u.is_staff, u.is_superuser, p.salutation, p.company, p.position_title, p.phone, p.address, p.address2, p.member_number, p.city, p.state, p.zipcode, p.country, p.url, p.sex, p.address_type, p.phone2, p.fax, p.work_phone, p.home_phone, p.mobile_phone FROM auth_user u INNER JOIN profiles_profile p ON u.id=p.user_id INNER JOIN user_groups_groupmembership ugm on u.id=ugm.member_id INNER JOIN user_groups_group ug on ug.id=ugm.group_id WHERE ug.id=<YOUR GROUP ID> AND ugm.status=True AND ugm.status_detail=’active’
Contribute back your brilliance to the rest of us? Have you written some good queries for Tendenci using the amazing django-sql-explorer from ePantry? Post them on the Tendenci Community Site for others to learn and share with!
Please do be careful. Remember the warnings above. Using a live sql tool on a relational database for anything besides SELECT queries is ill-advised. It really is your live data on a live site SO BE CAREFUL!
We believe this level of access to the superusers on Tendenci sites is empowering. We like knowing people can download any of their data when they need it. And perhaps contribute back some suggested new reports to the Tendenci Community as a whole!
Because Tendenci is part of the Django community and we couldn’t have brought this functionality to you without others in the community “giving first.” We may have added it to Tendenci, but that’s ONLY because of the generosity of building and making it available by others. Explorer is brought to you by the power of collaborative open source software (THANK YOU ePantry!)
Tendenci is the only open source association management software (AMS). You can download the code and have your Python/Django developer build exactly what your organization needs—no vendor lock-in, full data freedom.
Tendenci is a powerful platform created to support the unique needs of nonprofits and associations. It’s fully accessible to the world—an animal of a software, and truly a gift.
Thanks to a global community of developers, Tendenci evolves daily. It may sound cliché, but only together can we protect and strengthen the open source ecosystem.
v15.3.4 [2025-5-7] tendenci open source software on GitHub since 2009.
Need help? The TendenciDEV Team (women-driven), offers flexible, affordable services—from custom development and hosting to full problem solving support.
New Tendenci Version Alert! The latest version of Tendenci, 15.3.1, is now available! 🐾🤓 As an Open Source platform, all of the code is fully visible and accessible to everyone. Developers, please ensure your Tendenci projects are upgraded to take advantage of the latest features, improvements, and security updates.
Tendenci’s updates boost security, streamline reporting, and add valuable features, ensuring a smoother and more efficient experience for all users!
All of the code is located on GitHub. The ChangeLog serves as the repository where you can find all software versions and their corresponding details. Open Source also signifies that it requires a collective effort to make significant changes in the world. The TedenciDEV Team (the creative women-led team behind the software) holds immense respect for everyone contributing to the improvement of Tendenci software. We wouldn’t be here without you.
Advance your Tendenci admin skills by joining our free Event Management and Chapter Memberships training workshops this September and October!
These complimentary workshops are offered to our Tendenci hosted nonprofit organizations, associations, and partners. Encourage your volunteer staff to join and discover new event management features and chapter membership opportunities to engage your members and boost your sales. Don’t miss out!
The Tendenci Platform Training Workshop series with President Nicole Davis has begun! This series offers a fantastic opportunity for you to elevate your tech skills and enables you to effectively engage your members and community. Throughout the training workshops, we are covering basics such as Tendenci features and layouts, as well as advanced topics like recurring memberships and event management. These workshops will equip you with the skills to maximize your platform usage and enhance your overall Tendenci experience. Join us now to make the most of this valuable learning opportunity!
The capability of choice. Because you have direct access to open-source code, you can modify it to your needs. The result: a customized platform unique to your organization, without the price tag of a custom-built solution. From there, it can be modified to integrate with other platforms, including those recommended by the original open-source developers. “Every client is unique, and thus they each have unique needs and desires for their websites,” Davis says. “The choice is in their hands.”
Enjoy and cheers to softwares built on community!
We want to help your organization succeed on the web.
Tendenci is a gift to the world. And during this month of love, we want to share with you six reasons why you should switch your proprietary software and LOVE the open source with Tendenci AMS.
You have a lot of options when choosing an MMS or AMS. But if you need to scale to support hundreds of thousands of members, have recurring individual and corporate level memberships, and need the full features of a seasoned large scale enterprise AMS, it’s possible you might hit some limits with the new kids on the block.
Proprietary vendors are companies first and communities second. Tendenci is a community first, and though there is a small company behind it, with the support of the Open Source community, Tendenci software has grown far bigger than we ever expected. And given it started in 2001, when you switch from a proprietary solution, it’s an upgrade!
Open Source is the voice of the people – a shared language that brings everyone together.
Think Free In Terms of Freedom with Tendenci AMS
Free Software, Free Society – In the selected essays of Richard M. Stallman Second Edition ‘Four Freedoms’ he wrote “A program is ‘free software’ if the program’s users have the four essential freedoms:
The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose.
The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
Thefreedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others. By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
Tendenci Software Means Greater Functionality and Usability on a Global Scale – Tendenci is a very large project with robust functionality. But it’s still a great low-cost AMS solution for small Associations too! You can easily disable modules you don’t need and keep it simple. Functionality will be there as YOUR small association needs to expand in the future! Freedom is actually pretty cool. Pay less with Tendenci and get greater functionality.
Tendenci Is Community First – Open-source is in line with our core values at Tendenci. Our mission is to Connect and Organize the World’s People. Do good. We are change makers who understand the power of associations, which is why we built a software to help NPOs anywhere with any budget to further their cause both nationally and internationally.
Freedom to Choose With Tendenci AMS – Looking to make real changes in the world? Host your site and your data on your own server if needed. We dig that! Tendenci, however, is not just for hosting websites. Tendenci is an investment that results in a financial gain to our clients. And while you can certainly host with us, you don’t have to. It’s okay to support local open source developers in your own country and community as well. Or even get started with our Tendenci AMI and grow!
Freedom to Customize Tendenci To YOUR Associations Needs – You have innumerable ways to customize Tendenci. Association Management Software is complex because associations are complex! So if you are looking to make some minor changes, do it! Looking to write an entire app specific to your organization that integrates with Tendenci? We love it!
Tendenci scales to support large national and international organizations with multiple chapters, who may also benefit from a custom server configuration.
Need even further customization for your organization’s unique needs? You can fork Tendenci AMS on GitHub at https://github.com/tendenci/tendenci/. Every Tendenci site lets you pull down and customize existing templates as well. You can try that out on our free Demo site.
Tendenci Is Accessible To The World – Languages, languages, languages! Translation and localization of your AMS is possible because the community uses the amazing Django Project web framework and thanks to the people at Transifex who support open source. The world is anxious for growth and because your organization needs to communicate with different constituents in the language of their choice, Tendenci allows each individual user to specify the language of their choice.
Lastly, our CEO Ed Schipul has attended enough board meetings to understand your organization is likely made up of volunteers and the rules for nonprofits are different. Tendenci – The Open Source AMS software is a relationship marketing application that fully meets the needs of large organizations. Have any doubts and concerns? Contact us today. We are here to serve you. Join us?
We want to say THANK YOU to all of the developers out there who are contributing, translating, updating and maintaining a very complex piece of software. Tendenci AMS software is inclusive of other languages and cultures, and run by a team that believes in security and privacy. We love and very much dearly appreciate you all. Let’s continue to do good today, and tomorrow even more, together.
With only 3% of GDP online, Stripe’s goal of the program is to increase internet commerce by helping NGOs and companies start, run, and scale their businesses.
Richard Stallman asked himself a simple question. What does society need?
“What does society need? It needs information that is truly available to its citizens — for example, programs that people can read, fix, adapt, and improve, not just operate. But what software owners typically deliver is a black box that we can’t study or change.
Society also needs freedom. When a program has an owner, the users lose freedom to control part of their own lives.
And, above all, society needs to encourage the spirit of voluntary cooperation in its citizens. When software owners tell us that helping our neighbors in a natural way is “piracy”, they pollute our society’s civic spirit.
This is why we say that free software is a matter of freedom, not price.”
Serious question: What differentiates Tendenci from all other AMS?
Well, what other MAJOR AMS can you self deploy on the servers of your choice? In the data center of your choice? In the country of your choice? With the encryption and firewall restrictions of YOUR CHOICE. That’s just the beauty of open source.
We take security very serious. Tendenci is the strongest and most secure web-based software platform for NPO’s globally. We also understand there are no “perfect” or “completely secure” systems. But we do more than just try. Transparency is the key to Open Source AMS – no in-betweens. So there’s that.
Languages? Ok! You can translate your AMS into the language of your choice. Although, you might find someone has already done this for you – 70+ languages of them.
OUR MISSION IS TO CONNECT AND ORGANIZE THE WORLD’S PEOPLE. DO GOOD.