CiviCRM and Drupal, the dream team!

Posted by JD Collier on April 26, 2012

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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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Submitted by Hershel 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!