In 2002, after realizing that no database solutions were available to serve the smallest nonprofits, Organizers' Collaborative (OC) began providing a free, downloadable version of the membership software we developed for our own use. We named this software program the Organizers Database (ODB).

At first, ODB offered just basic features, but was extremely intuitive. This enabled enable even tiny, technologically challenged community groups to computerize key tasks like managing donor lists, generating mass emails, processing donations and thank you notes, and tracking their volunteers.

Starting with a small core of a few dozen users, like the T Riders Union in Boston, the Helpnet project in Maine, the Cambridge Eviction Free Zone, and the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, the use of ODB spread quickly to hundreds of users, mostly through word of mouth. The number of downloads steadily increased and exceeded 2,500 in the 4th quarter of 2005.

OC gradually added over 200 new features and 100 usability enhancements in response to feedback, so that the software could be easily adapted to a wide variety of nonprofit uses. About one-third of the improvements were released in 2006 as part of version 1.0.

Ease of set-up, rapid customizability, and availability of source code have made ODB a breakthrough program for US-based nonprofits.