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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2020
    Posts
    3

    Database for Jamaican nonprofit

    Greetings from Jamaica. I’ve volunteered to build a database for a nonprofit to provide a place to store info about their members, local citizens, volunteers, donors, NGO partners, supporting government agencies, annual health fairs, dental clinics, beach cleanups, summer reading camps, community training projects, family feeding programs and craft store management. I know how to perform basic database functions like assign primary keys, set relationships between tables and can design forms, queries and reports. What throws me is the basic design of the database. One person could be a member, donor AND a volunteer. Some volunteers work some events, not others. Any suggestions on how to put this together would be a blessing to our community here in Jamaica. Thank you.

  2. #2
    CJ_London is offline VIP
    Windows 10 Access 2010 32bit
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Posts
    11,397
    based on the information provided I would suggest you need to start with 3 tables

    people - PK, name, address, phone
    roles - PK, roletype (local/volunteer/etc)
    peopleRoles - PK, peopleFK, roleFK

    So you can now assign multiple roles to a person

    with regards events (depends if these are specific events (shopping trip on XX date) or type of events (shopping etc) you might have 2 more tables. Also depends if you want to track who do specific events/types or those who do not

    events - PK, eventname
    peopleEvents - PK, eventFK, peopleFK

    the existence of the record for an event and person in the peopleEvent table can then be used to indicate they do attend these events, or they do not. You decide

  3. #3
    ssanfu is offline Master of Nothing
    Windows 7 32bit Access 2010 32bit
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Anchorage, Alaska, USA
    Posts
    9,664
    Welcome to the forum.......


    I agree with Ajax, but remember that "Name" is a reserved word and shouldn't be used for object names. 2 fields would be better:"FirstName"/"LastName" or "ForeName"/"Surname".

    Consider first designing the tables/relationships using pencil/paper, whiteboard, cardboard/marker, etc.
    ===============================================
    "Old Programmer's Rule" is this: If you can't do it on paper, then you can't do it in Access. Until you can draw out your tables AND rules for how they change for each function you want to perform, you are going nowhere fast.
    ===============================================


    NGO partners & supporting government agencies might be in one table. (PK, OrgName, OrgType)


    Post back as you progress if you want someone to review/comment on your progress.



    Some other suggestions:
    Use only letters and numbers (exception is the underscore) for object names.
    Do not use spaces, punctuation or special characters in object names.
    Do not begin an object name with a number.
    Do not use Look up FIELDS, multi-Value fields or Calculated fields in tables.



    Good luck with your project....

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jul 2020
    Posts
    3
    Thank you for these helpful starting suggestions. My replies may be sporadic as we don’t always have internet up here in the bush. But my gratitude for your assistance is daily and sincere. I look forward to the journey.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2020
    Posts
    3
    I laughed out loud when I saw the whiteboard suggestion because I had just put one up against the wall. Now I just have to arrange a ride to a town about an hour away to get some dry erase markers for it. Life in rural Jamaica is a balance of charm and challenge.

Please reply to this thread with any new information or opinions.

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