Chamber-first, on purpose
Most association software is built for everyone. This one isn't.
A general AMS has to serve medical societies, trade unions and alumni clubs at once, so every chamber workflow ends up as configuration. Chamberly starts from the chamber: members that are businesses, dues on plans, galas that sell tables, sponsors with promises attached, and a board that wants numbers it can trust.
So here's the honest version of who it's for.
A good fit
- Chambers of commerce, of any size, in the United States
- Business associations that sell dues, events and sponsorships
- Organizations whose members are businesses, with a public directory
- Teams that want a board report and a clean hand-off to QuickBooks
Not built yet
- Continuing education credits or professional certification tracking
- Document storage, e-signature and single sign-on
- Recurring events, SMS, and sites in languages other than English
- A general ledger of its own. It exports to QuickBooks instead
01Governance
A board report that says where it's weak.
Eight measures, each against the previous period, for this month, the quarter, the year to date or any range. Print it for the packet or export the CSV. Where a number could mislead, the caveat is printed beside it.
- 1
- Membership mix. By status and by plan, on file and active.
- 2
- Joins and leaves. Against the period before, with a note on what counts as a leave.
- 3
- Lapse rate. Labelled as a snapshot of lapsed memberships, not dressed up as churn.
- 4
- Committed revenue. What the membership is worth over a year if everyone renews.
- 5
- Collected revenue. Gross, card fees, net to the chamber, and what's still unpaid.
- 6
- Upcoming renewals. Next 30, 31 to 60 and 61 to 90 days, and who's in grace.
- 7
- Event attendance. Registered, checked in and capacity used, per event.
- 8
- Application pipeline. Received, approved, awaiting a decision, and the longest wait.
02Committees
Committees with terms, not just names.
Four kinds of committee and four roles, each seat with a start and end date. When a chair's term ends, the record says so, instead of someone remembering.
Committee types
- Standing
- Ad hoc
- Advisory
- Executive
Roles, with term dates
- Chair
- Vice chair
- Secretary
- Member
03Finance
Books your treasurer can follow, and your accountant can import.
Chamberly keeps the member side of the money: numbered invoices, payments of every kind, fees and refunds. It hands the rest to QuickBooks as a file, not a live sync, which is how most accountants want it anyway.
- 01
Every payment method is real
Card and bank through your own Stripe account, and cheque, cash, transfer or waived recorded by staff. Offline payments carry no Chamberly fee.
- 02
Every fee is visible
Each online payment shows what the member paid, Stripe's fee and the net, marked estimated until Stripe confirms it. Chamberly takes no cut.
- 03
Every export balances
Double-entry journal entries, cash or accrual, with your own account codes and sponsorship revenue on its own line. If it doesn't balance, it isn't exported.
04Communications
Email, forms and surveys, without a second tool.
- Campaigns built from blocks, Outlook-safe, sent from your own verified domain to audiences picked by member filters. Scheduled or sent now, with opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes reported.
- Automations on eight triggers, from member joined and renewed to event registered and tag added, with email, wait and condition steps.
- Forms and surveys with nine field types and seven question types, including NPS and anonymous responses.
Accountability
An organization's records, kept like one.
- 01
Its own instance
One database per organization. Nothing shared with anyone else, hosted and run by Chamberly.
- 02
A log of every change
Who changed what, with the old value struck through. Failed attempts are logged too, and secrets never are.
- 03
Seven years of money and permissions
Changes to payments and to who can do what are kept for seven years.
- 04
Access that ends when it should
Admin and staff roles, invitations by link, and deactivation that ends a user's sessions immediately.
Association management
Questions about fit.
Something not covered here? Ask us on the demo, or write to [email protected].
Is Chamberly a general association management system?
It's an association management system built specifically for chambers of commerce. Membership, events, sponsorships, billing, email and reporting all work the way a chamber runs them. Other business associations with similar needs can use it well, but if your organization depends on certification, continuing education or document workflows, Chamberly isn't the right fit today.
How does Chamberly compare with other AMS platforms?
Chambers often look at GrowthZone (ChamberMaster), MemberClicks, Wild Apricot and Glue Up. We'd rather show you how Chamberly works than make claims about them: bring your current setup to a demo and compare it screen by screen with your own data in mind.
Can our treasurer and accountant work with it?
Yes. Every invoice is numbered, every payment shows its fees, and each month Chamberly exports balanced double-entry journal entries, cash or accrual, with your own account codes, for QuickBooks. If the entries don't balance, it won't build the file.
How do committees work?
Create standing, ad hoc, advisory or executive committees, and give each member a role, chair, vice chair, secretary or member, with term start and end dates.
Who can see and change what?
Staff users are admins or staff, invited by link, with no per-seat fee. The activity log records who changed what and the old value. Money and permission changes are kept for seven years, and deactivating a user ends their sessions immediately.
Can we connect our own tools?
Through the REST API, with keys that are scoped, revocable, expiring and rate-limited. There's no Zapier connector or webhooks yet, and no built-in Mailchimp or HubSpot integration, because email is built in.
Where is our data kept?
Each organization runs on its own Chamberly instance with its own database, hosted and run by us. No tables are shared with anyone else.