Te c hno lo g y in s upport o f Vo lunte e r Ma na g e m e nt Freeform Solutions for Volunteer Ottawa Brown Bag Lunch February 2010 by Kasia Wakarecy kasia.wakarecy@freeformsolutions.ca
Overview Introduction to Freeform Solutions What is your experience with technology and volunteer resource management? Introduction to CiviCRM - software that supports volunteer resource management Discussion
About Freeform Solutions Not-for-profit organization Mission: provide technology support for other not-for-profits Clients all over Canada and abroad Use Open Source software & free technology
Open Source Software FREE Reliable & secure Flexible & easily tailored to invidual needs Constantly being expanded and improved Widely used by all types of organizations, including governments, throughout Europe
Your experience with technology and volunteer resource management? Who does it? (who collects volunteers submissions, how, who has access to the collected data, etc.) How much time/resources it takes? What are the challenges with the current process?
Introduction to CiviCRM Free and Open Source Constituent Relationship Management solution for NFP Modular base features can be added as needed, at every phase of the project Main feature: web-based contact database with information about contacts relationships
CiviCRM: contacts database Shared address book Available to everyone within organization (login protected) Contacts information constantly updated by all staff members Flexible: ability to add custom fields at any point (police check record, references, address, best way to contact)
CiviCRM: organizing contacts Grouping contacts based on the common traits like type of contact, contact preferred language, etc. Ability to run custom searches and save results as a smart list Ability to run reports (PDF, Excel) Easy import of the contacts from other sources (Excel files, Outlook, etc.)
CiviCRM: activities database Shared information about activities where staff engaged with volunteers and or clients everyone sees the history of contacts at a glance Flexible: ability to define different types of activities (phone call, meeting, volunteering) Ability to plan upcoming tasks
CiviCRM: relationships database Tracks information about relationship between volunteers and staff (e.g. volunteer supervisor) or volunteers and clients (e.g. volunteer assigned to the family) Flexible: ability to define different types of relationships (employee of, volunteer for)
CiviCRM: newsletter Ability to send newsletter and other mass mailing to all or chosen group of contacts Newsletters can be scheduled to run at future time Newsletter content can be simple text or full HTML Newsletter delivery tracking: opened links, bounced emails, number of viewed emails
CiviCRM: online events management Ability to publish online information about upcoming events Ability to have free and paid events (easy integration with online payment system) Flexible: ability to create different intake forms for different events Can be used as a volunteer intake form for special events
CiviCRM: online donations/membership Ability to collect donations online (easy integration with online payment systems) Online sale of membership and tracking the membership status
Benefits of presented technology Lower costs by using free and open source system (costs of installation, configuration and support) All staff members contribute to up to date information hosted online Flexible system that can be tailored to specific needs of the organization Flexible system with modules that can be added at any time
Resources Freeform Solutions website: http://www.freeformsolutions.ca CiviCRM website: http://www.civicrm.org CiviCRM online demo: http://civicrm.org/node/17 Download CiviCRM: http://civicrm.org/download CiviCRM manual: http://en.flossmanuals.net/civicrm More resources on Free and Open Source Tools: http://www.freeformsolutions.ca/en/resources
Discussion