[Marketing] [SLOBS] CiviCRM, FSF just-recommended donor and contact management system for nonprofits

[Sean DALY]

http://civicrm.org/
http://civicrm.org/civicontribute

http://www.fsf.org/news/nonprofit-fundraising-civicrm

We've discussed contacts followup or 'CRM' systems with a view to
formalizing our fundraising efforts. We have no problem getting in the
door to see people, but we are sketchy on followup (I'm personally
guilty of this).

David Farning had previously set up a SugarCRM environment which I had
tried but I'm sorry to say I had some trouble learning.

This looks interesting. Can be hosted inside Drupal or Joomla!, or in
standalone with OpenID which runs on GNU/Linux or Unix (including OS
X). Requires Apache, MySQL, and PHP v5.2.x (not compatible yet with
v5.3).

I usually prefer minimalist systems with simple data-in data-out; I
regard with a wary eye complex backoffice systems which may or may not
streamline Google Docs stuff. But today, my "system" is a stack of
business cards, associated (or not) with e-mail... contacts requiring
triage and followup.

Typically, fundraisers should be able to find our from such a system
whom from which organization has been contacted, by whom, what next
step is, with observations.

Perhaps a better path would be a Sugar Activity ;-) ?

Sean