Introduction to CRM & Salesforce.

Introduction:
CRM = Customer Relationship Management = Lead Management

Nonprofit: who are the Customers? Donors, Members, Volunteers, Community , Beneficiary = Constituents.


Structure of Project: Moving/Changing Software.

1. Creation of a project team
2. Analysis of existing data systems
3. Requirements identification
4. Software analysis
5. Work with software vendor on implementation and customizations
6. Implementation and training
7. Use analysis and change request management
8. Documentation

Short list of available CRMs

CiviCRM www.civiccrm.org
Pro: Free, reasonable user-base
Con: Setup is difficult, UI poor, needs tech resources to get the best from it, works best if using Drupal

Salesforce.com www.salesforce.org
Pro: Free for 10 users, well established, many resources available, feature rich, SAAS & offline facility, powerful free APIs available
Con: $$$ after 10 users, SAAS only

MPower Open www.mpoweropen.com
Pro: Free, mature product, designed for NPO
Con: OS licence has catch, newly OS, requires .NET/SQL Server, no SAAS option, fat client

SugarCRM http://www.sugarcrm.com
Pro: Free, LAMP stack, GPL
Con: Sales orientated (rather than relationships), feature rich, good user-base

NTen.org

Techsoup.org - TechStock

For a more comprehensive list look at

2007_NTEN_CRM_Satisfaction.pdf
Free for Members: CRM Vendor Satisfaction Survey 2007
$50 for Non-Members.

More articles on topic can be found: ie: idealware.org: On low-cost database systems
TechSoup: Comparing Lower-Cost Online Integrated Applications
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Screen shots of Trial Start:

1- Apply for Trial

2 - After Registration

3- Check e-mail and follow link

4- First Login - create password

5- Add more users

6- First View of the system

Enter the live system.
www.salesforce.com<

This week Google Apps and Salesforce announced their cooperation model. Watch the published Video and learn more on this web page
http://www.salesforce.com/products/google/apps/

Google Grants

http://www.google.com/grants
Google allows qualified nonprofits to use Google Adwords for free.

Organization can use the Google Adwords to drive more traffic to their web sites and therefore raise awareness of their cause and solicit online donations. Google Adwords are the small text ads on the right site of their search results pages.
Google quotes that example organization have increased their donation revenue by 43% or another organization increased their volunteer base by 60% to 70%.

Even if the potential for increased donation might not as big for area non-profits, it still would be worth the effort, as you set it up one time, and then monitor it so you can tweak it to your needs.

To take advantage of this offer, apply for the Google Grant at http://www.google.com/grants through Google's easy online application. Please spend some time reviewing the site to learn more about the program, eligibility, grant details, etc. Google also plans to partner on education initiatives for the nonprofit community, and will be developing these efforts over the next several months.

Better donor administration with Salesforce Foundation

http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/product

Try to manage your donor database, volunteer contact database and other list of contacts, that hooks directly into great online mass mailing tool? Want to better organize fundrasing events and track RSVPs as well as donations? Always tried to compile a donar contact history? With Salesforce you can do all that and more. The most popular CRM online system vendor offers 501(c) 3 organizations a 10 user Enterprise license for free. IF you have tried to use it couple of years ago, you might have found it to be a little overwhelming? That definitely has changed. The foundation's team has created a genuine nonprofit template which stays within the nonprofit language and offer specific forms and reports gear to nonprofit needs. The number online tutorials and videos to almost every aspect of the system is impressive as they are easy to follow. Get rid of your excel spreadsheets, Works databases and Access databases and use an online tools that allows you to grow and use the feature much more efficiently! You will make a much better impression on your donors, because you will know more. And then your organization is set-up to grow it's donor base rapidly.
"Salesforce is currently used by over 2700 nonprofits around the world to manage a wide range of organizational needs including managing constituent relationships, fund raising campaigns, volunteer opportunities, program delivery, and much more."

To learn more about this program and what you can do with it, join me for a hands-on demonstration at their Headquarters on April 25, 2008 9:30am to 12:30pm at the Naples Free-Net Headquarters. Sign up for this course at http://home.naples.net/education.
Later this year I will set-up more sessions as my time will permit.