CiviCRM/Demo

At Coastal Trails Coalition, we've sought to improve operations for quite some time. A systematic review of the tools, people and processes involved has led to the focus on implementing a Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) system. A comprehensive CRM system serves as the digital control center for the organization. As is typical, our data are spread across multiple systems and functions which leads to a host of operational problems such as inefficiency, lack of responsiveness, duplication of effort, and generally making it truly difficult to aggregate in a way that allows for a holistic view of relevant information. A CRM can dramatically improve this situation.

This presentation will explore CiviCRM, the leading free software Constituent Relationship Management system. CiviCRM is designed specifically to meet the needs of non-profits as well as advocacy and non-governmental groups. CiviCRM is developed by CiviCRM LLC, a California company which operates as a not-for-profit organization. The management of the company has an operational goal to achieve "B-Corp", or benefit corporation certification in 2016. As free and open source software, it is a community-driven project. That is to say that the 10,792+ organizations that use CiviCRM, plus the 49 business partners, outside ambassadors, and consulting experts who provide services around the system are the driving force for it's existence, features and development.

It allows you to record and manage information about your volunteers, donors, board/employees, clients, vendors, and other third-parties. You can track donations, pledges, transactions, phone calls, emails, visits, events, or any type of conversation with each constituent, and store it all in one easily accessible and manageable source. You can even accept online donations, register constituents for events, track grant applications, and manage cases or projects for those you serve.

With such a powerful system, you can put good effort into the planning, installation, deployment and continued support of CiviCRM, however this presentation will focus on actually using it. We'll explore it's features with real-world data. I have already setup a live demo server at 104 . 236 . 110 . 7 It's a fully functional copy of our current website plus CiviCRM added. On top of that I've loaded the system with our constituent data and done much of the configuration that makes it operational.

One of the design features of CiviCRM is that it is built as a web platform that integrates with your website. It works seamlessly with WordPress, Drupal or Joomla, which handle the website aspect. In this case, we already have a WordPress website. Adding CiviCRM will extend the capabilities of the website. In short, the website is transformed from a marketing and communications tool to become a true nerve center of the organization. The control center is fully accessible from any location. The CiviCRM system resides on a hosted web server. Anyone to whom you choose to give access can connect to the database from any computer that has internet access. Given the very specific and highly customizable role-based permissions, you can control exactly who sees what. This allows maximum flexibility for volunteers, staff, or anyone located in multiple locations. And since there are no per-user licensing fees, you are able to approach the sharing of data in your organization in whole new ways.

Pricing

CiviCRM is Free Software. You can download it, copy it, share it, inspect the source code, set it up and even contribute back to the project with documentation or code. There are no per-seat or license fees of any kind so you can have as many people as you want access the system. This means that you can spend your effort and budget on implementation, training and support. For around $1,900/year you can find providers such as eQuality Technology who will host your system. Financial support of CiviCRM LLC is welcome and encouraged; and there are many ways to engage in the community.

Features

This is a list of some of the features of CiviCRM. We'll cover many of these in the demonstration

System

• Direct entry "click the screen" where you want to edit
• Unlimited Custom Data Sets
• Unlimited Custom Data Fields
• Quick Search, Advanced Search, And Advanced Query Builder Capabilities
• Customized Organizational Hierarchy & Access Rights
• Send Individual, Group, Or Bulk Emails
• Extensive Import Capabilities With Duplicate Record Identification (Deduplication)
• Customized Data Export To Multiple File Types
• Manage Tasks

Constituents

• Unified View For All Constituent Types
• Track All Interactions With Each Constituent
• Track All Activities For Each Constituent
• Segment Constituents By Type, Group, Membership, Or Tag - All Customizable
• Fully Customizable Relationship Tracking Between Constituents (Friend Of, Employee Of, spouse of, brother of, etc.)

Giving and Acknowledgement

• Record Contributions
• Track Matching Gifts (Soft Credits)
• Track Gift Acknowledgements
• Send Automatic Gift Acknowledgements
• Record Pledges
• Track Open Pledges
• Send Automatic Pledge Payment Reminders
• Accept Online Gifts
• Offer Premiums (Gift Incentives)
• Easily Create Personal Campaign Pages

Events

• Track Event Participation By Role (Volunteer, Staff, Speaker, Vendor)
• Accept Online Event Registration
• Accept Online Event Payments
• "Tell A Friend" Capabilities For Online Gifts And Event Registration
• Choose To Dynamically Show Or Not Show Who Had Registered To Attend An Event On The Event Registration Page

Memberships

• Track Memberships
• Accept Membership Payments

Grants

• Input and Track Grant Requests

Reporting

See Reporting section below and CiviCRM/Reports

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Now let's take a look at some of these components and features in real use

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Contacts

1. address updates (automatic tie-in to USPS address standardization and web tools) Show 666 Ferry Rd.
2. Volunteer tracking
3. "Smart Groups" 01951
4. Relationship tracking - automatic import of companies and "employee" relationship
5. Correspondence filing - send email to crm@coastaltrails.org
6. Deduplication - merge Greg and Greg
7. New Contact
8. Phone appends
9. Email appends (clickable record UI)
10. Mark as Deceased

Events

1. Event promotion
2. Event registration
3. Payment processing
4. Post-event surveys

Memberships

Membership dash

Reporting

There is an extensive list of reports available in CiviCRM "out of the box" (40). Every report can be further customized and/or saved as a new report.

Each report can be viewed, saved as PDF, exported as CSV, deleted, saved as 'new' (custom), or printed.

For each report, you can select the available Columns, multiple Filters, Title and Format, Email Delivery (automated reporting), and Access controls

In addition to these reports, there is a customizable "welcome dashboard" that each user can customize with the data most important. (And there are other dashboards in other components

Print Services

1. Annual Fund Appeals
2. Newsletters (draft, send, subscribe, unsubscribe, re-use, report)
3. Lapsed donor mailings
4. Special solicitations
5. Annual reports
6. Event promotions
7. Specialty mailers
8. Case statements

Electronic Services

1. Website creation and maintenance (mobile friendly)
2. Bulk emails - automatic tracking, reporting, unsubscribes, bounce processing
3. Online giving
4. Mobile giving
5. Texting campaigns
6. Surveys
7. Social networking

Research

1. screening based on any custom data available
2. matching gift analysis

Administration

1. Gift entry and reporting
2. Donor acknowledgement - save as template
3. Matching gift follow-up
4. Merchant accounts

Integration with WordPress

https://book.civicrm.org/user/current/website-integration/integrating-with-wordpress/

The tie-in to USPS offers

1. Price Calculators
2. Package Tracking
3. Service Standards and Commitments
4. Address Information (The USPS does not allow you to use it to cleanse your entire database at once)

ToDo

1. Email System Configuration https://book.civicrm.org/user/current/advanced-configuration/email-system-configuration/
2. Setup price set(s) for membership
3. To switch the domain from IP, you'll need to update civicrm.settings.php as well as the configuration in admin; plus delete caches
4. If you want to move Wordpress to it's own directory https://codex.wordpress.org/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory
5. If you want to get rid of the built-in "household" contact type (if you don't use it) since there is no configuration setting or UI to do this.

UPDATE civicrm_contact_type SET is_active = 0 WHERE name = 'Household';

or, you can do it in the API explorer if you don't have database access.

More

Call eQuality Technology and ask about a demonstration. Any demonstration fee counts as a bonus towards a future Installation.