Book Image

Using CiviCRM - Second Edition

By : Erik Hommel, Joseph Murray, Brian P Shaughnessy
Book Image

Using CiviCRM - Second Edition

By: Erik Hommel, Joseph Murray, Brian 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 (20 chapters)
Using CiviCRM - Second Edition
Credits
About the Authors
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Creating online forms with profiles


Until this point, most of our attention has been spent understanding CiviCRM's administrative interface and customizing/configuring the system to meet your organization's needs. However, the power of CiviCRM isn't fully realized until you begin to collect and expose data to your website.

Tip

If you are using Drupal as your CMS, you can use Drupal Webforms in combination with the Webform CiviCRM Integration extension to expose and collect data on your website rather than use CiviCRM profiles.

It's not uncommon for organizations to have very disjointed systems collecting and maintaining their constituent data. Perhaps you have a central database, such as MS Access, that is used by staff to track your members or donors and is stored on your office network. Several staff people may be maintaining spreadsheets with information relevant to their job functions, and which they need access to while traveling, or away from the office network. Perhaps your current website...