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CiviCRM and Drupal, the dream team!

April 26, 2012 by JD Collier

I'm just going to get this out of the way: CiviCRM is complex. Of course, it is complex. We are not comparing CiviCRM to a simple blogging platform or little piece of software to perform a simple task.

CiviCRM is a constituent relationship management solution. It is a great solution to manage non-profits, advocacy and any membership-oriented organization.

What is it?

A little of everything:

Contact management
Contributions
Communications
Peer-to-peer fundraisers
Advocacy campaigns
Events
Members
Reports
Case management

So, of course CiviCRM is not simple. How could something as complex as the needs of a CRM be simple?

Why I like CiviCRM

For over a decade, I managed and consulted on faith-based CRM solutions. These solutions had the same requirements that I've seen in CiviCRM, but for some reason I hadn't heard of CiviCRM itself. I wish I had!

I like CiviCRM best and here's why:

CiviCRM is paired with Drupal. I never found a solution for faith-based organizations that included a great CRM and a great CMS. In my experience, one of them always lacked something. What's better is that CiviCRM data is exposed to Drupal so I can use the power of Views and other Drupal standards to pull in CRM data.
CiviCRM is Open Source, using well-supported technologies. When an organization chooses CiviCRM, they aren't using a niche technology that no one can support. PHP, Drupal, MySQL … these technologies are well supported. An organization choosing CiviCRM knows the system will be able to grow with their needs.
CiviCRM already has the main functions I searched for when evaluating CRMs. In addition to the main functionality needed, CiviCRM can also manage advocacy campaigns, pledges/contributions, grantors/grantees and volunteers.

No robust CRM solution should be attempted without guru support. Train your employee with similar skills, hire a (well vetted) consultant, hire a company like Digett.

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Comments

> These solutions had the

Submitted by Hershel (not verified) on Sat, 04/28/2012 - 5:25pm.

> These solutions had the same requirements that I've seen in CiviCRM, but for some reason I hadn't heard of CiviCRM itself.

Yes, this is one of the weak points of CiviCRM--marketing. But there is a team working on getting the word our better.

Thank you for the positive writeup!

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