Here are some basic steps to follow if you want to set up a database. Depending on how complex your database is, and how much you decide to do yourself, you will do more or less of each of these individual parts.

Planning: Compile a list of what information you want to keep track of, such as addresses, English and math skill levels, or most recent donations. Detail how you want information presented and/or printed (government reporting forms, calculations, totals tracking, etc).

Assessment: Determine if a database program already exists that can do what you want it to do, before you decide to enlist a person to program a new database. You can save yourself a lot of time and money if you can find an existing program that can be used as is or minimally modified, as opposed to starting from scratch.

Decision: If nothing is already available, or you decide you want a tailored database to fit your needs, then a programmer will have to design your database from scratch, most probably using one of the more popular programs as a base.

Modeling: Have the database specialist test proposed layouts and presentations with test data. This is where the limitations of a particular program or the complications of your reporting needs will arise. Time can greatly be saved if changes to the database design or decisions on different database programs are implemented at this stage.

Programming: Either you can use a predesigned package, which means you can skip this stage, or you leave it up to a database specialist to program the database for you. Substantial databases can take anywhere from 40-100+ hours to develop, depending on the size and complexity. Most serious databases programmed from scratch will start you in the $2000 range.

Testing: Once the programmer has finished, or if you are using an existing program, you need to test the database with an initial data set, troubleshoot problems, and revise any data and presentation needs.

Documentation: Be sure to get documentation on your new database, and training on how to use it, because now it's left up to you to finish the data entry and use it.