Google Docs gets a big thumbs up from me - it's a huge help for getting sign-ups for events and sharing information.

If web-based forms are okay (not specifically email), I think a Google Docs survey form would be handy for collecting as you described.

The site walks you through making an easy online form to collect whatever information you want and the results go automatically into a web-based spreadsheet.

To get started, click Create New > Form and set up the questions/prompts you want. When you're done, the spreadsheet is automatically created for you.