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

Surveys and petitions


CiviCRM is open source software and is very much driven and developed, based on the needs of the organizations using the software. In fact, much of the functionality in CiviCRM is a direct result of organizations needing to extend the system to meet a particular need, and then working with the core team to contribute those modifications back to the core software. The campaign tools are one example of this, as they were largely contributed—then later extended—by an organization involved in voter advocacy efforts.

The upside of this model is that CiviCRM is continually being expanded and improved by the community of organizations using it on a daily basis. The downside is that we sometimes get functionality where the initial implementation is very specific and narrow in scope. Over time, it may be more generalized, and yet the remnants of its history are still present. To some degree, we see this to be the case with Surveys and Petitions.

Let's first understand how these...