Re: CRM recommendation: CiviCRM

[John Carr <john carr unrouted co uk>]

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 4:26 PM, Jeff Schroeder <jeffschroed gmail com> wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 8:20 AM, Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org> wrote:
>> The CiviCRM team has offered to help. Who should I put them in touch with?
>>
>>> Donald Lobo said...
>>>
>>> We'd be happy to help and assist the GNOME foundation with the CiviCRM
>>> implementation :) I'm the CiviCRM lead developer and we definitely would
>>> like to see you'll use the software effectively :)
>>>
>>> You can contact us on IRC / forums (http://forum.civicrm.org/). We did
>>> note a GNOME developer asking questions on the CiviCRM channel (we were
>>> offline at that time, but a few community folks took care of him :)
>
> I asked a bunch of questions about CiviCRM on their channel but am far
> from being considered a gnome developer. Would installing this on
> label be ok? If not does anyone have any other suggestions? Can I get
> a few people to agree with that? If so I'll work on it tonight.

Go for it :)

>> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 10:30 AM, Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org> wrote:
>>>
>>> GNOME Sys Admin team,
>>>
>>> How do we move forward with this?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Stormy
>>>
>>> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 3:15 PM, Jeff Schroeder <jeffschroed gmail com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 1:39 PM, Paul Cutler <pcutler gnome org> wrote:
>>>> > Jeff - I believe you had the action item on installing a CRM system
>>>> > once one
>>>> > was picked.
>>>> >
>>>> > From an infrastructure point of view (security notices, bug fixes,
>>>> > etc), do
>>>> > you have any opinions?
>>>> >
>>>> > Thanks.
>>>> >
>>>> > Paul
>>>>
>>>> Hey paul, thats news to me :)
>>>>
>>>> It looks like you are looking for Sri or Alexandro:
>>>> http://live.gnome.org/SysadminTeam/Meeting20090814
>>>>
>>>> If you need help setting it up or what not I'd be more than happy to
>>>> help this weekend. When poking around and asking on #civicrm about it,
>>>> Nathan Kinkade of the Creative Commons Tech team answered several
>>>> questions about it. A standalone version of civicrm exists but isn't
>>>> really supported. That leaves us with the choices of using Drupal,
>>>> Joomla, or writing integration to our new Plone CMS. Another guy on
>>>> IRC mentioned they use Drupal only for CiviCRM which is also an
>>>> option. If you want my opinion, lets do it.
>>>>
>>>> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>> > From: Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>
>>>> > Date: Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 2:58 PM
>>>> > Subject: CRM recommendation: CiviCRM
>>>> > To: GNOME Marketing List <marketing-list gnome org>, GNOME Foundation
>>>> > Membership Committee <membership-committee gnome org>
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > GNOME Marketing Folks & Membership Committe,
>>>> >
>>>> > We'd like to use a CRM system to track finances, donors, sponsors,
>>>> > members,
>>>> > etc.
>>>> >
>>>> > I'm recommending that we use CiviCRM, http://civicrm.org, and I'd like
>>>> > your
>>>> > feedback. (Note that one way to do this would have been to install all
>>>> > the
>>>> > CRM systems or to get demos of all of them. I didn't do that. I read
>>>> > about
>>>> > them, talked to people and checked out their webpages.)
>>>> >
>>>> > Here are some of the reasons I think we should use CiviCRM (over
>>>> > SalesForce,
>>>> > SugarCRM,Oracle, SAP ...)
>>>> >
>>>> > CiviCRM is used and well liked by a number of other free software
>>>> > organizations:
>>>> > * QuestionCopyright.org
>>>> > * opensourcematters.org
>>>> > * Wikimedia
>>>> > * Wikipedia
>>>> >
>>>> > Here are the things we need it to do (that it does):
>>>> > * It's free software: under an open source license (GNU AGPL) and
>>>> > developed
>>>> > in an open source model with a community.
>>>> > * We can install it and support it ourselves. (Several people voiced
>>>> > dislike
>>>> > with the hosted some where else model.)
>>>> > * Configurable - you can add and edit your own fields for every type of
>>>> > person you are tracking.
>>>> > * It has community support as well as paid support options. (We'd do
>>>> > community support but if the Foundation grows a lot, at some point it
>>>> > might
>>>> > be good to be able to hire back up support for the sys admin team.)
>>>> > * Integrates with Paypal and Google Checkout.
>>>> > * Automated mailings to donors (so we can thank them automatically,
>>>> > send
>>>> > receipts, send annual reminders, etc. Comes with features like groups
>>>> > and
>>>> > not resending to the same people, tracking click-throughs, handling
>>>> > bounces,
>>>> > etc.)
>>>> > * track people (members, volunteers, sponsors and donors)
>>>> > * track donations and subscriptions - it tracks in-kind, cash, and
>>>> > volunteer
>>>> > time
>>>> > * track events (not sure we would use this)
>>>> > * import and export contribution data to/from other systems like an
>>>> > accounting package (I don't know if it works with gnucash but I assume
>>>> > with
>>>> > some work we could make that happen if it doesn't already)
>>>> >
>>>> > It has lots of features that might be fun to have like:
>>>> > * "Allow constituents to create their own personal fundraising pages
>>>> > linked
>>>> > to an organization campaign. Supporters add their own add content, and
>>>> > can
>>>> > choose to include a progress bar and an 'honor roll' of contributors.
>>>> > Supporters are given 'soft credit' for each contribution that comes in
>>>> > through their fundraising page."
>>>> >
>>>> > It was designed for nonprofits.
>>>> >
>>>> > What it doesn't do:
>>>> > * document managent (Currently the board, Rosanna and I do not have a
>>>> > good
>>>> > place/way to put contracts like for our insurance, 401K plan, etc.) It
>>>> > does
>>>> > integrate with Joomla! and Drupal so I don't know if something could be
>>>> > done
>>>> > that way.
>>>> > * track action items (Currently Rosanna and I need a way to sync and
>>>> > track
>>>> > action items and the board manually tracks action items in the
>>>> > wiki/board
>>>> > meeting minutes.) It doesn't do any project management that I can see.
>>>> > It
>>>> > was suggested that you could use "activities" to manage tasks. I looked
>>>> > at
>>>> > it a bit and I think that would work.
>>>> >
>>>> > Areas where it might be weak:
>>>> > * Integrating with snail mail (and Rosanna sends out gifts for Friends
>>>> > of
>>>> > GNOME)
>>>> > * Managing prospects (the only prospects we keep now are sponsors and
>>>> > that
>>>> > number is suffiently small that we aren't doing lots of things to it
>>>> > automatically)
>>>> > * Accounting integration
>>>> >
>>>> > You can try it out here: http://drupal.demo.civicrm.org/. It seems
>>>> > relatively intuitive.
>>>> >
>>>> > I think it would make life easier for me, Rosanna, the treasurers and
>>>> > the
>>>> > Membership Committee. It would make it much, much easier to track our
>>>> > Friends of GNOME donors.
>>>> >
>>>> > Best,
>>>> >
>>>> > Stormy
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > --
>>>> > marketing-list mailing list
>>>> > marketing-list gnome org
>>>> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > _______________________________________________
>>>> > gnome-infrastructure mailing list
>>>> > gnome-infrastructure gnome org
>>>> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-infrastructure
>>>> >
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Jeff Schroeder
>>>>
>>>> Don't drink and derive, alcohol and analysis don't mix.
>>>> http://www.digitalprognosis.com
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jeff Schroeder
>
> Don't drink and derive, alcohol and analysis don't mix.
> http://www.digitalprognosis.com
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