SUCCESS, TOGETHER

Transformative CiviCRM implementation

Create a transformative CiviCRM digital space to intelligently gather meaningful data you can use to better engage with your supporters.

Whether you’re a seasoned nonprofit director or a volunteer just getting up to speed, you know advancing your nonprofit’s cause is no easy task. It requires leadership, dedication, hard work, and the right tools specifically tailored to your organization’s way of working.

But here’s the thing: in order to capture your audience’s attention and make a lasting impact, you need to have the right data at your fingertips for every opportunity that comes your way.

Are you struggling with:

Tracking and engaging with your constituents in one place?
Managing your members in alignment with your actual membership policies?
Running events that capture everything you need with variable pricing?
Fundraising reporting that gives you insights on what is working so you are informed on who to target next?
Giving specific access-levels to different team members and volunteers?

If any of these points resonate, then CiviCRM might be a good fit for you.

Remove barriers

Are you feeling stuck with systems that don't quite cut it?

Empower your team

Move forward with ease using CiviCRM

Now imagine getting to a better place, where:

You’ve left behind spreadsheets or the painstaking hours of working between siloed systems,
Your members are automatically segmented and integrated with your payment system of choice,
Your events handle registration, sponsorships and fees seamlessly,
Your development team is raising more funds because they have a steady stream of fruitful opportunities to pursue,
Your system is integrated and democratized to people who are motivated to advance your mission.

These are just some of the reasons why I work with CiviCRM – designed exclusively for nonprofits like yours, for effective membership engagement and fundraising so you can do more good.

The process

4 steps to CiviCRM success

Having a successful implementation isn’t rocket science, but there is a systematic path to follow. I’ll expect that you will carve out some time at the outset. Together, we’ll clearly hone in on your goals so you are happy with the end result.

CiviCRM is a long-lived asset that boosts your nonprofits effectiveness when it’s done right; it pays of many times over to carefully plan it from the beginning.

Goal-oriented outcomes

Through a series of strategy sessions, I'll carefully listen and analyze so we can focus on the mission-critical outcomes you are working towards.

Requirements gathering

Your goals will be verified against requirements to develop a roadmap for how CiviCRM can serve your long-term objectives. This will establish a MVP (minimally viable product) to set the foundation for a purposeful system that you'll actually enjoy working within.

Build phase

Once a specification is created, I’ll proceed with the implementation that will include periodic check-ins to show you progress and to accommodate for small adjustments from the master plan.

Training and Ownership

You will gradually transition to owning the system after "going live" over the course of the next month or so. I'll show you searching, reporting and critical functions that matter to you as we fine-tune the system based on your real-world use and feedback.

Features

Comprehensive and powerful CiviCRM features

Contact Management

Efficiently manage and organize your contacts in one central location. This feature is crucial for building relationships with donors, volunteers, and other constituents, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of your network.

Fundraising Management

CiviContribute makes tracking donations and reporting on the effectiveness of fundraising campaigns easier. This helps maintain transparency, analyze donation trends, and report on the financial health of your nonprofit.

event management

Plan and execute events seamlessly. CiviEvent streamlines event registration, attendance tracking, and communication, enhancing your organization's ability to host successful and engaging events.

membership Management

Use CiviMember to effectively manage memberships, subscriptions, and renewals. This feature is essential for organizations with membership structures, ensuring timely renewals, member engagement, and sustained support.

Communication and Campaigns

CiviMail and CiviCampaign facilitates targeted and personalized communications. This empowers organizations to run effective campaigns, engage supporters, and build a strong online presence, ultimately driving success.

Workflow Automation

Streamline processes reduce manual work. Various tools like CiviRules and CiviCase automate repetitive tasks, increasing efficiency, minimizing errors and allowing your team to focus on high-impact activities.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there contact or user limits?

No, that’s the beauty of open source software. Other than ensuring your hosting is adequately sized and tuned to handle it in a performant way, there are no restrictions here.

Is CiviCRM user-friendly?

Because it has many options for customization it is it does go a long way to do some upfront training. And reviewing the documentation will get you unstuck many a times. Like anything new, it takes getting used to. It’s typical that old habits from previous systems may need to be adjusted to the new ways. That’s why each implementation focuses heavily on training for a smooth onboarding.

Will it integrate with my existing website?

Absolutely, and in fact I’ll integrate CiviCRM directly within your WordPress site or have a standalone site that connects remotely. I can move your site to a hosting environment that is suitable to run CiviCRM (not shared hosting). Not happy with your site and know it’s time for a fresh start? I and trusted web design partners can build a beautiful and functional site for you in this digital transformation process as well.

Is CiviCRM just for techies?

CiviCRM is powered by an amazing group of developers and other technical folks; this is what brings you the best nonprofit CRM software out there. A strong community that build and supports the product propelling it from strength to strength. It’s completely true that it does attract “accidental techies” since it is open-source. But the bottom line for nonprofit leaders and end-users like yourself, it is 100% designed to advance all types of nonprofits.

Is CiviCRM really suitable for smaller nonprofits?

The trade off with CiviCRM comes down to limitations of simplicity v the cost of complexity. For small nonprofits, the key is to maximize all of the out of the box functionality, and in-browser customization potential. And I’ll tell you, there’s plenty you can do without needing to “write code”.

This KISS method increases maintainability by simplifying staff and volunteer transitions. Bottom line is this allows you to get what you need done while still remaining cost effective. For hard data, go ahead and jump on over to the stats page and you’ll see about 50% of all CiviCRM sites have 10,000 or less contacts.

How does mass email sending work?

CiviCRM integrates with several email services. If you have SMTP credentials you can send out email. However, there are specifically tailored extensions that fully integrate to collect bounces so your email list always stays clean. I commonly recommend AWS or Sendgrid. For a more comprehensive list check out the extensions directory.

How can we integrate our payment processing?

You have the option from several processors such as Stripe, Authorize.net and PayPal. This seamlessly uses those payment gateways and logs all contributions automatically, including recurring donations. The fees are only what the processor charges, there is no “add-on fees” you may find with other commercial donation platforms.

For a more comprehensive list check out the extensions directory.

Why should I hire a professional when I could try and DIY it?

Remember when you did something for the first time? You probably made some mistakes along the way. Is your organization’s mission worth putting at risk? Hopefully not. Having a professional (to the extent that fits your situation) that’s been there many times before will save you substantial amounts of time, headache and lost opportunities. In the long run, most organizations find it wise to start with some outside help to establish a solid foundation.

With this said, if you want to be coached or partition off parts of the work and be the primary responsible person for your implementation, I’m happy to “fill gaps” if that’s an arrangement that makes sense.

What is the annual cost to maintain CiviCRM?

This can vary widely; it really boils down to what you are doing and your internal team’s capabilities. A rough estimate for a small to medium-sized organization is to expect to pay $600-3,000 annually to cover hosting, CiviCRM updates, general maintenance and a baseline level of consulting support every now and then.

Want some hard data and nitty gritty details? Here is a survey funded by Mozilla that analyzed this type of information and a whole lot more. See Part E: The cost of the CRM.

What kind of support can you provide?

I have 3 plans detailed here depending on your in-house team and demands. They all cover system upgrades including all hosting maintenance tasks, WordPress and CiviCRM upgrades. On top of this, I offer strategic consulting and hands-on support when you need it.

Some common support areas are:

- Deciding how to best structure new data
- Organizing existing groups, tags and custom fields
- Diagnosing payment failures
- Building usable reports with Search Kit and Form Builder
- Adding useful dashboard reports
- Changing user permissions
- Integrating external data sources thru a mapping and process improvement evaluation
- Bulk data cleanup processes
- Advanced fundraising campaign page planning and setup
- Front-end directories or data views of your CiviCRM data
- Evaluating the value of potential enhancements and development projects thru paid discovery. Results in ready to execute discovery document specification.

Making it happen

Build a better CRM. Let's get there, together.

Implementing a powerful tool like CiviCRM is an investment in the future of your cause, and I’m here to help you do it right the first time without hassle. I want to hear your most pressing objectives so that you can get to the next chapter in your organization’s growth.

Andy is great to work with and a true professional. As a state chair, I regularly relied on his expertise to help us manage our CiviCRM tasks in the national database. He always had a solution when we encountered issues, and he helped us leverage the platform to increase our fundraising and cut costs by connecting with a new SMTP provider.

– Casey Crowe