CiviCRM - an introduction

What is CiviCRM?Constituent Relationship Management

Designed for non-profits and third sector orgs

Easy to use web-based software

Tightly integrated with Drupal/Joomla! CMS

Extensible through additional modules

Actively developed project (3 releases/yr)

Open source (licence free)

Key Features

Import / easily add contacts

Organize contacts into groups

Define and store custom data on all records

Track interactions

Manage events

Manage memberships

Manage campaigns and donations

High-capacity broadcast email

More FeaturesFlexible search and reporting capabilities

Powerful de-duplication

Manage Grants

Manage Cases

Map constituent locations

Track all payments and export to accounts

Community• 500,000+ total downloads since 2006• 5,000+ active installations• Many users and developers in UK• Community forums

– 12,000+ members

– Avg 75+ posts / week-day

• Developers and users contribute:– improvements

– documentation

– bug fixes

• UK meet ups (6 per year)

Who’s using it?Amnesty International

New York Senate

Socialist Party of Murcia

Wikimedia Foundation

Green Party of England and Wales

>20 Councils for Voluntary Service

Charity Technology Exchange

Dyslexia Action

5,000 others

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Choosing CiviCRM• Flexible

– “We were small and new at this, we wanted to be able to have our systems adapt”

– “Customizable if we need it to be”• Supported

– “3-4 significant releases per year”– “Incredibly responsive development and user community”

• Features– “Has the basic features we need, can allow us to manage

donors & fundraising”• Cost

– “Would rather spend our $$ on customizations, not license fees

• Reviews– Solid A’s for user satisfaction in NTEN data ecosystem

report

Customer Service & SupportSupport contracts available through providers

UK training: details on civicrm.org

Extensive online documentation

CiviCRM forums: extremely helpful

Books: both free and paid for

Arrange bespoke training through providers

User groups: details on civicrm.org

Likely CostsCiviCRM is FREE Open Source SoftwareNo user licence fees but you might pay for• Consultancy (typically ~ £500/day)• Implementation & data import (typically £5k - £15k)• Training and Support (£200/day training)• Additional custom features• Hosting (typically <£75/mo)• System maintenance• Backup regime• Additional security e.g. SSL cert

Thank you

Technical

Standards compliant HTML

PHP/MySQL with Smarty templates

Supports modern browsers but works on IE6

Import from CSV, XML, JSON or SQL

Export to CSV

Can host on Apache, IIS, nginx, lighttpd etc.

Full API access - PHP, REST, AJAX or Smarty