About CBSMembers

Why this exists

CBSMembers was built out of direct experience. Community Benefit Societies, cooperatives, and other alternative economic ventures deserve software that reflects their values — not tools built by and for the large commercial platforms they exist as an antidote to.

Most membership software in this sector either depends on Microsoft infrastructure, locks your data into a proprietary cloud, or simply wasn't built with share registers and dividend management in mind. CBSMembers is different: open-source foundations, self-hostable on a Linux server you can control, no dependency on big tech.

The people running community land trusts, renewable energy cooperatives, and community-owned businesses tend to share a certain outlook. So does CBSMembers.

Who built it

CBSMembers was developed by Sebastian Parsons, a founder and member of Stockwood Community Benefit Society. Sebastian combines a background in running businesses with hands-on software development — CBSMembers grew directly from the need to manage Stockwood's own membership.

CBSMembers is owned by Sebastian Parsons and distributed by Stockwood CBS.

Stockwood Community Benefit Society

Stockwood CBS is a community-owned property and land trust located halfway between Worcester and Stratford-upon-Avon. It owns and manages a rural business park of 27 units and around 150 acres of farmland, employing approximately 100 people on site.

Stockwood is itself a Community Benefit Society — the same legal structure that CBSMembers is built to serve. The software has been in active use managing Stockwood's own membership since the start.

Pricing

CBSMembers is free, or close to it, for small societies that do not pay dividends to members. We want the barrier to entry to be as low as possible for new and small ventures.

For societies that pay dividends, there is a per-member charge — reflecting the additional complexity of running dividend calculations, generating statements, and processing payments. Get in touch to discuss what's right for your society.