Book Image

Using CiviCRM - Second Edition

By : Hommel, Murray, P Shaughnessy
Book Image

Using CiviCRM - Second Edition

By: Hommel, Murray, P Shaughnessy

Overview of this book

CiviCRM provides a powerful toolbox of resources to help organizations manage relationships with constituents. It is free, open source, web-based, and geared specifically to meet the constituent relationship management needs of the not-for-profit sector. Beginning with broader questions about how your organization is structured, which existing workflows are critical to your operations, and the overarching purpose of a centralized CRM, the book proceeds step by step through configuring CiviCRM, understanding the choices when setting up the system, importing data, and exploring the breadth of tools available throughout the system. You will see how to best use this software to handle event registrations, accept and track contributions, manage paid and free memberships and subscriptions, segment contacts, send bulk e-mails with open and click-through tracking, manage outreach campaigns, and set up case management workflows that match your organization’s roles and rules. With specific emphasis on helping implementers ask the right questions, consider key principals when setting up the system, and understand usage through case studies and examples, the book comprehensively reviews the functionality of CiviCRM and the opportunities it provides. With this book, you can help your organization better achieve its mission as a charity, industry association, professional society, political advocacy group, community group, government agency, or other similar organization and position yourself to become a power user who efficiently and effectively navigates the system.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
15
Index

Chapter 2. Planning Your CRM Implementation

Obviously, you are now convinced your organization will be in a better position to accomplish its mission using CiviCRM. This chapter will help you plan your implementation of CiviCRM so that your Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) initiative has the best chance to achieve greater organization success.

In this chapter, we will do the following:

  • Identify potential obstacles and challenges to success and learn how to overcome them
  • Introduce background on development methodologies
  • Build a project team
  • Get started by measuring baseline metrics, creating a vision, and creating a plan
  • Itemize elements of a good implementation plan
  • Review how to calculate the total cost of ownership of CRM systems and their alternatives

This chapter is aimed at people who have the responsibility for initiating, scoping, and managing development and implementation for the CRM project. The first several sections of the chapter are very IT management-oriented....