How to make a sandwich

Could you write instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Burroughs, once gave us exactly that assignment.

She said, “You write it out. I'll bring the ingredients and follow your instructions precisely.”

Of course, Mrs. Burroughs had a point to make.

She knew as well as we did what the outcome should look like, but she made a point of following our instructions to the letter in a way that would result in anything but an edible sandwich, no matter what we'd written.

We all had a good laugh, and she noted for us the lesson:

When you know what the outcome is supposed to be, claiming that you followed all the instructions is not as useful as showing that you got what you started out to create.

I took home a couple of additional lessons:

• It's easy to get caught up in the details and forget the outcome you're trying to achieve.

• Some things are so simple they don't need explanation. To much explanation can even make it worse.

• Often, there's no “one right way.” It's okay to give it a try and see what comes out.

If I could do the assignment again, I think I’d just write this:

1. Think of what a peanut butter and jelly sandwich looks like.
2. Arrange some bread, peanut butter, and jelly, so it looks like that.
3. If you need help, ask me.

And that's the remaining lesson:

When you can't figure out how to get the results you want, it can help a lot to step back, figure out where you're getting stuck, and ask for help from someone who's done it before.

All the best,
A.

Making CiviCRM beautiful

How important is it that your CRM should look beautiful for your staff?

After all, staff can be trained. And they should, in theory, already be bought-in on your mission. Maybe you don't need to impress them with beautiful design.

But then again, there's no denying that they are people, and are thus susceptible to subtle cues that lead to trust, confidence, and pride in their work.

Or the lack thereof.

Just as you might invest in maintaining pleasant and modern office decor, there are tangible benefits to giving your staff a CRM interface that's it's pleasant to look at.

If you've been running CiviCRM for a while, you may expect it to look something like this:

But with a few simple configuration changes, it could look more like this:

All the functionality is exactly the same, and I would argue that the latter design is indeed preferable.

It just looks nicer.

And if you could have that, for virtually no additional cost or effort, would you want it?

I would.

Here’s how to get it:

1. Navigate to Administer > System Settings > Extensions, and there install the extension “RiverLea CiviCRM Theme Framework”

2. Navigate to Administer > Customize Data and Screens > Display Preferences, and there find the setting, “Backend Theme”; for this setting, select any of the “RiverLea” themes. (The above screenshot uses the one labeled “Walbrook (RiverLea ~Shoreditch/Island)”, but you can easily switch to another if you prefer, or just switch it back to “Automatic” if you want the “old” look.)

Now, isn’t that nice?

All the best,
A.

P.S. The RiverLea extension has been part of CiviCRM since version 5.80.0. And since CiviCRM’s last security release was 5.80.2, I’m assuming you’ve got it!

Be sure it works

Can you guess why I was the first one to register for CiviCon 2025? And for the post-conference sprint? And for the pre-conference Admin Training?

• Because I was worried about space running out? (It could, but that’s not it.)

• Because I was just so excited to see CiviCon happening in the US again? (I am, but that’s not it.)

How about this:

It's because I was the one who created those event registration forms.

Why should that matter?

Before I told the entire world that registration was open for those events, I wanted to be 100% confident that the registration process was solid.

So I logged out of CiviCRM. And visited those forms myself as an anonymous user. And then registered and paid. For each event.

Sure, I didn't have to. If I had skipped that step, everything would probably have been just fine. Probably.

But then again…

I spoke with someone last week at an organization whose main donation page had been broken for months before they realized it. Fortunately, a friend emailed him personally to let him know.

But from our conversation, we felt pretty sure that he would have spotted it long ago, if he had tried making a donation himself after the last time he made changes to that page.

Here’s the thing:

None of us are perfect, and any number of little mistakes can make it difficult or impossible for our constituents to take that next step.

And if they’re having trouble donating, or registering for events, or completing a membership form … you probably won’t hear about it. They’ll just move on to something else.

If you’re lucky, a friend will notice and let you know. Eventually.

But a couple of minutes testing it yourself … that’s usually time well spent.

All the best,
A.

Wait, what’s FormBuilder?

Sometimes I just write stuff and assume folks will know what I’m talking about. Not great, but it happens.

List reader MJ wrote back with a question on my Search Kit. Form Builder. email:

Good morning, Allen! I just wanted to clarify—when you mention "form building," are you referring to the registration forms for our events? If so, I'd be really interested to see what you have in mind.

Thanks, MJ

It’s a great question for me because it reminds me that not everyone is as “deep in the mud” of CiviCRM as I am.

So to explain a little more:

What is this Form Builder you speak of? And can it help with my event registrations?

This is not directly related to event registration — indeed, at this point, it can't handle paid event registrations at all (or any kind of payment). And it's not much related to anything you've probably done in CiviCRM so far — it's a totally new set of features!

FormBuilder is the new drag-and-drop form creation tool in CiviCRM. It's similar to working with Profiles, in that you can specify which fields appear on the form, but it does much more:

• Position fields easily in any order, in a variety of layouts, with the drag-and-drop form editor.

• Create special-purpose forms for data entry by logged in users or anonymous visitors.

• Specify which permissions a user needs in order to access the form.

• Define a specific URL (web address) to access the form

• Easily group fields in sections or boxes with various options for outline style, background color, etc.

FormBuilder doesn't yet support payments, so it's not going to replace your contribution pages or event forms for paid registrations or memberships — but that's on the list of features "soon to come" (whenever "soon" is).

But its powerful layout tools, along with the types of data it supports (activities, related contacts, cases, and more) make it much more flexible than profiles, and useful for a wider array of needs.

For example, I'm using it now with a client who's doing a series of surveys as part of a grant-funded research project, and it's the kind of thing we really couldn't do (or rather, not do as well) with Profiles.

You can find it under Administer > Customize Data and Screens > FormBuilder. It won't hurt to play around with creating new forms if you like, but I'll offer two qualifiers there:

1. Probably best not to modify any existing forms that you find there; CiviCRM is probably relying on those to function just as they are designed now, and fiddling with them could have some surprising and undesirable effects.

2. Getting started on your own is a steep learning curve. The official FormBuilder documentation can help, but even the official docs have trouble keeping up with the rapid pace of improvement in FormBuilder.

So to sum up:

If you've never heard of it, you probably don't want to dive into it. But when you have an unusual need that can't be handled with Profiles, someone who's familiar with FormBuilder might be able to suggest ways that it could help.

I hope this helps!

All the best,
- A.

Starting the relationship

What does it take for someone to progress from hearing about you for the first time to being a repeat major donor?

For most of your supporters, that journey will start off something like this:

1. They hear about you

2. They're interested in you

3. They care about your cause

4. They believe in your work

5. They seek out ways to help

6. They take action to help

That progression is a funnel that decreases in number at each step:

Of a thousand people who hear about you for the first time, something less than a thousand will be interested in you. And far fewer will make it as far as taking action to help.

So part of the challenge here is increasing the number of people who make it from one step to another.

What's even more challenging is this:

At those early stages, you probably won't even know who they are.

This above all else is the reason your communications must be crystal clear about:

• What you do

• Why to do it

• The difference you're making

• One or two bone-simple, "heck yeah," easy, no-commitment ways for them to stay connected (and to tell you who they are).

Because once you've got that, the real relationship can begin.

And without that, you have almost no way at all to help them take that next step.

All the best,
A.

Search Kit. Form Builder.

Form Builder.
Search Kit.

Very powerful.
Relatively new.
Rather complex.
Super flexible.
Rapidly improving.

Have you tried them?
Have you heard of them?
Are you loving them?
Are you frustrated by them?

Frankly I've been unsure how to introduce them to CiviCRM admins.

They're very powerful, but require a good understanding of CiviCRM's underlying data structures —something many non-technical admins don't think much about.

If you’d like to learn more, I've got two options for you:

1. Sign up for the pre-conference Admin Training at CiviCon in May. Both Form Builder and Search Kit are on the agenda.

2. Reply here within the next 7 days, and I'll schedule a free one-on-one session to explore these features with you. Yep, no charge. It's worth my time to learn more about how to explain them to non-technical admins, and if it's worth your time to learn more about the features themselves, then we have a win-win situation. (Space is limited, and it’s first-come-first-served, so don’t wait!)

All the best,
A.

“But we did the work!”

How important is good old hard work? And by comparison, how important is the outcome of all that work?

Here’s a story my grandfather liked to tell:

I was sitting right there on the porch when these two fellas come up the street, walkin’ along in the median, with shovels.

One of ‘em would dig a hole. Then they’d look at it for a minute. Then the other’n would fill ‘er in.

Then they’d walk on and do it again.

Well I hollered out and said, “What in the hell are you two boys doin’?”

And one of ‘em said they was plantin’ trees. Plantin’ trees, he says!

Well I said, “How you figure?”

And he says, “Well, this here’s our job for the city, and we do it like they told us. I dig the hole. Johnson puts in the tree. And Bill here, he fills it in.”

I said, “Where’s Johnson?”

And he says, “Johnson called in sick this morning. Says he’s feelin’ awful. ‘Course, we all know he’s gone fishin’. … But me and Bill here, we ain’t loafers. We show up and do our work!”

Boy, he really loved that one.

But here’s the thing:

It’s a silly story.

Nobody can be so short-sighted as to think that their job is just to do what they’re told, without regard for the actual outcome — can they?

Nobody can get so caught up in the details of their work that they forget to consider whether they’re accomplishing something useful — can they?

Nobody can get so focused on tools and techniques that they forget why they acquired the tools in the first place — can they?

Sure they can. Happens all the time.

Don’t let it happen to you.

All the best,
A.

Do you own your CRM data?

A well known political fundraising platform has been in the news recently, as they seem to be suddenly on the edge of closing their doors permanently.

This raises the question: What happens to the organizations who are using that platform?

Will they be able to export their data reliably, in order to use it elsewhere?

It’s a good question to ask:

If you needed to move away from your current CRM provider, or switch to a different CRM system entirely — for any reason at all — would you be able to take your data with you?

If you're using CiviCRM for your fundraising and outreach efforts, the answer is almost certainly: Yes.

I've heard from several CiviCRM service providers on this topic in the past couple of days.

Without exception, all of them make a point of ensuring that their clients can get a full and complete copy of their CRM data at any time, for any reason.

(And if you're hosting your system yourself, you don't even have to ask for the data.)

To be fair, there would be some work involved:

• You might need a specialist to help you, if you want to move that data into a different CRM system.

• Even if you stayed with CiviCRM, you’d still probably need some technical help to get that set up with a new provider.

But it would be possible.

And because CiviCRM is a widely used open-source system, you would have a good selection of experience specialists who could help you where needed.

As with anything, ownership comes with some overhead. After all, it's up to the owner to make sure everything works as well as it should.

But it should give you some comfort to know that you have options.

And that you're not trusting the future of your CRM data to a company that could simply close its doors — on you.

All the best,
A.

Good enough is good enough

Last week my doctor prescribed a couple of MRIs, for which he referred me to his hospital's radiology department.

I got the appointment scheduled and then asked for an estimate of costs. (For my own good reasons, I'm a self-paying patient in almost every case, so I usually count the cost pretty early in the process.)

The estimate came in at $11,000. You and I can sit down over a beer some time and lament the state of healthcare pricing, but I'll spare you the rant.

For now, I'll just say that I reached out to a local imaging center I've used before, and found that they can take exactly the same images for $1100.

Yes. That’s a 90% difference.

So of course, I re-scheduled with them.

But you might be wondering:

Why would the hospital charge so much for essentially the same job?

The answer is:

This hospital has the best imaging equipment in the entire area. They can do things nobody else can do. Their machines can scan at much higher resolutions than the place I'll be going.

But I checked with my doctor.

My situation doesn't require the super high resolution imaging. He doesn't need it, and won't be using it for me.

Polaroid quality is good enough.

But then you might ask:

Allen, wouldn't you want nothing but the very best when it comes to your own health?

It depends on what we mean by "the very best."

Whether it's my own health, or the success of my business, or the home that I live in, or the tools I use at work, the "best" choice is the one that gets the job done in the way I need (or want) and doesn't soak up too much of my time, attention, or funds.

After all, there are plenty of better things I can do with $10,000 than pay for high-resolution images that my doctor doesn’t even want.

Here's the thing:

Your systems, I might guess, are not perfect. Nor are your staff. Your board members, any new program you might roll out, your software tools — none of them are perfect.

You could, if you wanted, spend a lot of time, money, and mental anguish trying to make them so.

But the truth is: Good enough really is good enough.

Are you thinking of making measured improvements, for the sake of a well articulated and clearly valued goal? Go for it!

But are you tempted to use up your time, attention, and other resources wrestling with little imperfections? Maybe think again. Is it really worth it?

All the best,
A.

Measuring outcomes of good design

Here’s some real data from an organization using CiviCRM. What could cause these jumps in annual contributions?

A colleague came back to me today with the above graph and a great response to a question I’d posed a few weeks ago.

I had said:

… I'm not yet sure how to articulate the measurable business value of a “great-looking” visual presentation.

I'm curious whether you have some thoughts about the cost/benefit factors that go into assessing the value of such improvements. Is this something you talk about with clients?

And today, he came back with this (shared here with his permission):

Tho I didn't have much to say, I have been thinking about this. Then today I saw [the above] chart for one of my clients. And there's two important things that happened in this chart… First in 2020 they invested in a new website design, logo, name. Everything looked much nicer after that. It stops a decline in members that's been running for 6 years. Then in 2023 they start using CiviEvent, income doubles.

Obvs it's not all causal - ie there's a new staff member in 2019-ish, and that helps the new website and new events programme succeed. But you can also see how the site changes fit with their income…

To highlight some great points he’s making:

• Few things have a single cause, and correlation is not the same as causation. (They did, after all, add a staff member in 2019.)

• But there’s a strong correlation between design/usability improvements and constituent support levels:

  • Design and branding refresh, followed by ending a 6-year ongoing decline in memberships.

  • Integrated online event management through the CRM, followed by doubling annual total contributions/receipts.

It’s easy to think of design improvements only in the context of emotional metrics like “we think it looks out of date.”

But careful consideration can link it to more objective metrics like "it's harming our reputation and thus our outreach and/or income.”

Here’s the thing:

An improvement in design and usability isn't just about making things “look pretty.”

It's about easing the journey that each of our constituents must make, progressing to the next step in their engagement with our mission.

And that has measurable benefits that all of our statekholders will care about.

All the best,
A.

P.S. I’m still looking for ways to estimate things like “how much our curernt design is harming our work” or “how much improvement we could expect.” If you have thoughts on that, shoot me a reply!

Things you can…

Things you can outsource:

• Auto repair

• Medical procedures

• Babysitting

• Exercise equipment ownership

• Catering

• Laundry

• Graphic design

• Software development

Things you can't outsource:

• Becoming a great driver

• Keeping healthy

• Relationships with your kids

• Exercise

• Becoming a great cook

• Your personal fashion sense

• Your brand and message

• Mastering your own systems

You can hire someone to do the standardized stuff that’s either too technical or too tedious.

But some things, only you can do. You can get someone to help you do it well. But nobody can do it for you.

Which is kinda awesome.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM 6: time to upgrade?

CiviCRM has just released version 6.0 — and you probably don't need it.

It's not a security release.
It doesn't fix any major bugs.

So what does it do?

• It does fix a lot of obscure bugs — ones you'll probably never encounter.

• It does make new installations look pretty darned beautiful (but makes no such changes when upgrading).

• It does add a few nice features to FormBuilder and SearchKit.

• It does have a few nice accessibility improvements for visually impaired users employing screen-reader software.

• It's the first official release of CiviCRM Standalone, for use without a CMS (Drupal, WordPress, etc.)

So yes, for geeks like me, it's pretty sweet.

But here’s the thing:

If you have better things to do than chase the latest technology — and I believe you do — I recommend letting this one go by, and upgrading only when you have a specific reason to do so.

As with anything, upgrading your software is an investment that comes with costs and risks, in addition to any benefits.

If you can quantify those costs, risks, and benefits, you'll know if it's worth the investment.

If it's not, it's perfectly fine to leave well enough alone.

All the best,
A.

Getting the answers you need

Easy how-to answers are available right inside of CiviCRM, if you’re using the DocBot extension (see yesterday’s email if you missed it).

Naturally, it lacks the critical thinking you’d expect from a knowledgeable person, but it’s a great way to find the kind of answers that are hidden within the thousands of pages of CiviCRM’s official documentation.

As a quick example, here’s an email exchange I had with list member Kim just a few days ago (shared with her permission, of course.)

Kim wrote:

Hi Allen,

If I create and run a General dedupe rule, is it going to show me the suspected matches, like it would with a Supervised rule? I've read the literature over and over again and am not sure how these two rules behave differently.

Thanks,
Kim

And I responded:

Hi Kim,

When you run any dedupe rule, they'll all behave the same (according to the configuration of the rule, of course).

As for the "Usage" setting of any deduple rule, this section from the docs may help: https://docs.civicrm.org/user/en/latest/common-workflows/deduping-and-merging/#understanding-dedupe-rules-supervised-unsupervised-and-general

Does that help?

- A.

And Kim, kind soul that she is, responded:

Yes! Thank you!

Simple enough.

But, check out this similar “conversation” in DocBot:

Me: What's the difference between a General dedupe rule and a Supervised one?

DocBot:

Based on the documentation, here are the key differences between General and Supervised dedupe rules:

Supervised Rules:

- Can be configured with a broader definition of what constitutes a duplicate

- Allow the user to decide whether to act on the potential duplicate match

- The user interface will alert the user if a potential duplicate is found, but gives them the option to keep or merge contacts

General Rules:

- You can configure multiple General rules for each contact type (unlike Supervised or Unsupervised rules, of which you can only have one per contact type)

- Provide additional criteria to scan for possible duplicates beyond the default Supervised and Unsupervised rules

- Offer more flexibility in defining duplicate matching criteria

The documentation notes that you can create "any number of additional 'General' rules to provide other criteria to scan for possible duplicates." When determining duplicates, CiviCRM checks up to five fields that you can specify, and you can even set a length value to determine how many characters in a field should be compared.

For more detailed information, you can refer to the Deduping and Merging documentation.

Not bad, right? It’s even got a link to the relevant documentation, right there in the answer.

Here’s the thing:

It’s great to have an expert on call. But there’s always at least some overhead there — whether it’s a financial cost, or just the time it takes to communicate.

But mastering your own systems — and indeed, taking charge of your own learning — is critical for getting the most out of your chosen tools, without having to incur that overhead each time you reach out to your perferred outside specialist.

Tools like DocBot are a great addition to your aresenal.

All the best,
A.

P.S. - In case you’re wondering, I still love to hear, and answer, any questions from anyone on this list! I just get excited when I see ways for folks to get the job done without waiting on a reply from me!

Documentation is huge

When you’re trying to keep your team all on the same page, maintaining your internal documentation is huge … by which I mean, it’s very helpful.

On the other hand …

When you’re looking through CiviCRM’s documenation for a quick answer, you can quickly find that this documentation is actually huge … by which I mean, it’s enormous. It’s just a massive amount of information.

But there’s a tool for that.

It gives you plain-language documentation help right inside of CiviCRM.

It’s an extension called DocBot.

It’s a pretty handy way get answers conversationally, with reference to the official CiviCRM documentation.

So you don’t have to read pages and pages of docs. Just ask DocBot.

And it keeps getting better. Just last week the CiviCRM team announced that they’d trained it on all the major extensions in the user documentation, including CiviDiscount, CiviRules, Inlay, Form Processor, Entity Construction Kit, and more.

It’s also continually learning from new content in the Q&A community at CiviCRM Stack Exchange.

Here’s how you can try it out:

• If you want it directly on your CiviCRM dashboard (as in the screenshot above), you can just install it from Administer > System Settings > Extensions > Add New. Drop the dashlet on your dashboard, and it just works!

• Or, you can just visit it directly at its own website, for a quick chat.

This was first announced in a civicrm.org blog post almost a year ago, but as with many things, it takes time for word to get around.

I recommend you check it out.

All the best,
A.

“Impactful” is relative

Getting substantial results for your effort should not be an experience reserved only for larger nonprofits.

That's something I want to mention about that beautiful mailing I raved about yesterday.

One of the great things we saw was that, with just this one mailing, The Bay was able to triple their number of recurring contributions.

Results like that are virtually impossible for large organizations, because they're already cruising at a high altitude.

But look again at Morgan's comment about the impact:

All in all, accounting for hard and soft costs, we netted ~$1,300 from one time donations, plus ~$250 monthly from the new recurring donors.

If you were the American Red Cross or the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, those are not large numbers.

But if you're The Bay — or perhaps the organization where you work — those numbers mean a lot.

Here's the thing:

Small organizations run on tight budgets.
Their staff are often stretched very thin.

But their small size gives them important advantages:

• Staff are often very close to the front-line mission work, so they can see the stories that are waiting to be told.

• They can usually pivot more easily, adjusting to try new ideas for getting their stories out to their audience.

Because they're not already cruising at 30,000 feet, small changes can lead to results that are in, the scheme of things, very impactful.

If you're at a small organization, getting that million dollar bequest is pretty unlikely.

But effective outreach to people who care about your cause ...

And making big gains that matter to your work ...

Those are within your reach.

All the best,
A.

The mailing that “tripled our recurring donors”

Here's a great story about the value of beautiful design and good storytelling.

Last October I received a beautiful mailing from Morgan Ormsby at The Bay, a former client. Here’s the cover of one piece:

And here’s a teaser of the whole mailing — really a beautiful thing:

(I’m not going to stuff your inbox with images, but if you want to see the full mailing — and it’s worth a look! — it’s at the supplemental page for this email.)

Two things got my attention right off the bat:

• A gorgeous 16-page zine detailing the story of just one young person The Bay helped through their programs.

• A letter from Morgan herself telling the story of her own experience as a youngster coming up in the world.

Right away, I thought this mailing was worth sharing with you, but I wanted to wait until we had a chance to see what the actual outcomes were.

So I reached out to Morgan recently to learn more. (Details here are shared with her permission.)

I must say I'm impressed. As a result of this mailing:

• The Bay tripled their number of recurring donors.

• A large number of the one-time donations were from first time donors.

Here’s some of what Morgan had to say:

Results and effectiveness:

Prior to the mailing, we had 7 recurring donors. Within a month of the mailing (with no other efforts to recruit monthly donors), we had tripled that number to 21. I was especially pleased with this, because our letter specifically made the ask for recurring gifts, which meant people actually read it!

Stories:

We have always struggled to highlight the stories of the youth we serve without feeling like we're exploiting them, so we've always tried to get creative about how we tell stories in a way that feels good to us. I felt comfortable sharing what The Bay means to me, and why I would've greatly benefited from our programs when I was young, so we made that the focus of the letter, and Nicole, the Gap Year student that was highlighted in the zine, has been wonderful about wanting to share her story.

Timing of this appeal:

One of the things we did differently as it relates to this campaign was, we put the resources we normally use for our end-of-year campaign into this. We always plan for a direct mail campaign that goes out in November that includes printed marketing collateral, but knowing that donors that can give at, say $25-$100, struggle to do so at the end of the year with so many holiday and winter vacation expenses, we wanted to experiment with putting that effort into something earlier in the year, and then did a simple postcard mailer for end of year efforts.

Investment/costs:

Everything was designed-in house by our team, so we didn't have any additional expenses for contractors, and we actually switched from our normal print company because we ended up getting a much lower quote from someone else for that component.

Evaluating “whether it was worth it”:

All in all, accounting for hard and soft costs, we netted ~$1,300 from one time donations, plus ~$250 monthly from the new recurring donors.

There are so many valuable lessons here. I might get more into those later, but for now, here’s the thing:

Morgan has solid indications that her recipients actually read the mailing — because the appeal was for recurring contributions, and this mailing pretty clearly tripled their standing in that category.

But why did they read it?

People are complicated, but here’s what I think:

They read it because stories are engaging.
Because donors are real people, and they care about real people.

This mailing, among all the other things it got right, told real stories about real people. And that gets attention.

All the best,
A.

P.S. The folks at The Bay really are doing great work, both for the people they serve and for their organzation. If you’d like a little inspiriation, I encourage you to check them out here.

Now is the time

Government programs are shrinking.

That's why we all need community driven organizations to succeed.

Government funding is shrinking.

That's why now is the time to leverage your CRM for building supporter relationships at scale.

Your CRM contains hundreds or thousands of people who are waiting for just the right nudge to help you in your mission.

If …

• you have a clear vision of the journey your donors take, from first hearing about you to becoming lifelong supporters,

• and you've been tracking the indicators that tell you where they are in that journey ...

then you're well placed to help them — all of them — take that next step.

If that's not you … then now is the time, like no other, to make that a priority in your development work.

All the best,
A.

The value of making connections

Yesterday I raved a little about the CiviMobile app and noted how surprised I was that more people aren't using it or talking about it.

But there's a funny thing here:

I've known about this app for years.
But when I tried it several years ago, it seemed to have only a few useful features.
And I didn't think much of it.

Then last week I jumped on a call with the project manager of CiviMobile just to chat.

She had reached out to me, just hoping to make some acquaintance before she and her team show up at CiviCon 2025 in May.

We had a great conversation, only partially about CiviCRM and mobile, and more generally sharing the ways that we try to help our people and our work.

As a result, I've got a great new connection in the CiviCRM community.
We've already exchanged a few emails to follow up on various points of our discussion.
I learned about CiviMobile, which I now see is a great resource for my people.
And I'm looking forward to meeting her and her team in person at CiviCon.

Here's the thing:

Making connections with others in your service area can seem like a significant investment of time.

We're already busy enough. We have plenty of people, issues, and projects competing for our attention.

But a casual chat with someone new in your service area tends to yield surprising benefits.

That's why I love the responses I get from this list, and why I always try to make time to meet new people, or to reconnect, even when there's no obvious immediate problem to solve.

I hope you're making time to do the same. The value, in my experience, is unquestionable.

All the best,
A.

Mobile app for CiviCRM

To be clear, I don’t get paid to endorse things, ever. So I’m not here to push you to try new tools that aren’t useful for you.

But dang. I just tried CiviMobile, and frankly I can't believe it isn't more often talked about and widely used.

With less than 5 minutes of setup, I've now got an app on my phone that lets me search and edit contacts, activities, event participants, memberships, and all the major components in my CRM data.

I can also sync contacts into my phone, and could in theory even use the app when I'm offline (although that's not as magically wonderful as it might sound, for good reasons).

What surprises me is that more of my clients aren't using this.

Of course it's just a tool, and tools don't solve problems on their own. (After all, the hammer won't swing itself.)

But it's free, seems like a great tool for staff users, and it’s super-easy to get started.

You can get a better idea from this (somewhat cheesy, but informative) promo video by the app developers.

Getting started is as easy as installing the “CiviMobileAPI” extension in CiviCRM, and installing the free app on your Android or iPhone device.

If you're not already using it, I suggest it's worth 10 or 15 minutes of your time to give it a look.

All the best,
A.

The hammer won’t swing itself

A hammer is a great tool.

It's simple and easily understood.
It does one thing very well.
It's relatively inexpensive.
It lasts a lifetime.

But it won't hammer itself.
It doesn't even know what you're trying to build.

Only you know that.
And only you, or the people you hire, can swing it.

Here's the thing:

Great tools (like your CRM) are important for great results.

But without a clear vision, they can't build anything great.

And without consistent effort, they won't build anything at all.

All the best,
A.