The “No Overwrite” extension

Yesterday I told you how the No Overwrite extension solved a client’s mysterious “name change” issue, and that the extension deserves a write-up of its own.

Here it is.

This extension aims to solve one problem and one problem only:

The accidental renaming of one contact to another.

People very rarely change their name, but they often take action on behalf of others.

If they called you on the phone and said they wanted to register an employee — or a child, or a spouse — for an upcoming event, you’d make sure to create a new contact for that other person.

But when they take that action in an online form, they'll sometimes just change the first and last name from their own to someone else's.

Anytime CiviCRM is pre-populating the form with the user's own information, it assumes that the user knows what they're doing.

But when the users actually rename themselves to a completely different person, you've now got a very confusing situation.

The No Overwrite extension solves this in a very elegant way:

Where CiviCRM pre-populates the user’s first and last name, this extension ensures those fields are read only.

So they can't change their own name. At all.

Sure, people do sometimes change their names.

But it's very rare — much more rare than goofing up your data accidentally when they take action on behalf of another person.

If you're not using this extension, I recommend you give it a try. You can find it in CiviCRM’s Manage Extensions page.

There's nothing to configure. Just install it, and it just works.

And try it, and you don't like it, you can just disable it again.

But I don't think you will.

All the best,
A.

Oops, I renamed myself

A client had a problem last week:

They found a few contacts whose history and data seemed to be mysteriously incorrect.

One example: a familiar contact, "Marcus Williams" was missing from the system, and in his place was a new contact named "Cindy Barker", one of Marcus' employees.

Oddly, except for the name and a few contact details, the record for Cindy matched what my client remembered about Marcus — donation history, event participations, and more.

And it wasn’t just Marcus/Cindy. Similar patterns appeared with other contacts.

The headache:

Obviously this kind of data inconsistency is disconcerting. This client was starting to doubt the accuracy of all of their CRM data.

Once the cause was found, the client and I spent several hours identifying and correcting affected records (most of that time was the client, making manual data corrections).

The cause:

With a little effort we were able to reproduce the problem and identify the cause. It goes like this:

1. Marcus logged into his member account.

2. He opened the online registration form for the upcoming conference event.

3. CiviCRM dutifully pre-populated that form with Marcus’ name and contact info.

4. Here’s the kicker: Marcus was not trying to register himself for the event. He wanted to register Cindy, his employee.

5. So he edited the first and last name fields to say Cindy Brown.

He thought he was just registering Cindy.

What he actually did was rename himself in the CRM.

The long term fix:

We installed "No Overwrite" extension. Problem solved.

This extension deserves a write-up of its own, which I won't do here. But here's a link.

The lessons:

1. Mysterious inconsistencies don't mean your entire CRM is broken.

2. But they do deserve quick attention.

3. Reproducing the bad behavior is critical to identifying the cause and ensuring a fix.

4. The No Overwrite extension is awesome.

All the best,
A.

Who needs a rodmap?

When you're driving from your house to your office, do you whip out your cell phone and follow the navigation?

Probably not.

You've done it dozens or hundreds of times, and you know your way around.

If you were planning a cross-country drive with friends or family to a town you've never seen before, would you be more inclined to look at a map?

Probably so.

That is, unless you and your friends enjoy the adventure of getting lost and finding your way again. I admit, that can make for fun times if you're with the right people.

But when schedules are tight, or you just don't want to deal with getting lost, you might spend some time planning first.

You’d pull out the maps and made a clear plan that included starting times, alternate routes, allowances for meal and bathroom breaks, and maybe even a sightseeing detour or two.

Here's the thing:

When you're trying something new for your CRM, or your staff workflows, or your programs, there’s some effort involved in researching and thinking and making a very clear plan.

If you've done this kind of thing before, and the stakes are low, and you're not too concerned about when you'll get there or how much it will cost, just jumping in is a fine thing to do.

You'll probably learn a lot along the way, and have a good time while you're at it.

But if you've never done this kind of thing before, and if margins are tight and timely success is critical, it's probably worth investing in a little planning and roadmapping.

The road map itself does not get you the results that you're after.

But it goes a long way towards reducing risk and helping you to actually achieve your goals.

All the best,
A.

Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.

There are times when it's important to move quickly, no matter what.

House on fire? Get out now. Hope you make it.

But it's rarely that urgent, and moving quickly — without proper attention to detail — leads to expensive mistakes.

Say this out loud to yourself a couple of times:

"Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."

I can't remember where I heard this first, but it's come up in several areas where I've worked to improve my skills. Competitive shooting, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, weight training, business development, large purchases, financial investing.

If you care about achieving valuable outcomes in your work, it's important to remember that rushing into things without practice and forethought is a recipe for needless risk:

• Putting in a lot of effort, time, and expense on tasks that will have to be thrown out and done over.

• Jumping into a large project without a reasonable expectation of completion timelines and overall expense.

• Using up your resources on things you don't really need or will never actually use (or that won't get you a benefit that exceeds your investment).

Slow is smooth.

Taking the time to hone your skills, and to make reasonable plans, will get you a much better chance of achieving your goals.

Smooth is fast.

Once your skills are more firmly developed, or your plan is more carefully thought out, you'll be free to take action quickly, and you'll have a better chance of actually achieving what you set out to do.

Here's the thing:

When you've done something a thousand times, there's less risk in moving quickly.

And sometimes you have no choice but to move quickly, so you do what you have to do and hope that it works.

But hope is not a plan.

Next time you consider a significant investment of time, money, or effort in your membership development, CRM functionality, or fundraising and outreach, it's worth slowing down, taking a step back, and making sure you have a good chance of doing it right.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM security update is here

CiviCRM version 5.65.0 contains some security fixes rated “highly critical,” per the release notes.

Have you upgraded yet?

All the best,
A.

Hard problems

We all run into hard problems now and then.

• Trying to get my board to approve this new project, but it doesn't look promising.

• Trying to get my CRM to do things in this particular way, but I can't figure it out.

• Trying to arrange my budget to allocate resources for this new program, but I can't cut from anywhere else.

It's no fun, right? We've all been there, and we’ll probably all be there again at some point.

So what can you do about it?

Here are two options:

1. Give up on it and move on. This is nobody's first option, but when it's your only option you have to take it. There are other things worth fighting for.

2. Mentally zoom out, remember why you wanted that thing in the first place, and find another way to get it.

• Can't get board approval for your project? What was the project for? How else can you work toward that goal?

• Can't get your CRM to do exactly what you want? What valuable outcome were you trying to achieve? How else could you achieve that outcome?

• Can't reorganize your budget to fund a new program? Who needs that program and why? How else can you help these people get what they need?

Here's the thing:

Our day-to-day life is full of actions. Actions are how we get things done.

But the action itself is almost never the point. It's always in pursuit of some valuable outcome.

When one plan of action starts to seem impossible, it doesn't mean the outcome is impossible. Don’t get attached to the actions. Stay attached to the outcome.

The actions don't matter. The outcome does.

All the best,
A.

I’m going to CiviCRM Manchester

I've said it more than once on this list:

In-person events are the absolute best bang-for-buck investment you can make in your journey to mastering CiviCRM.

That’s why I’m going to CiviCRM Manchester, which happens this year from November 29th to December 8th, in Manchester, England.

Over a period of 10 days, the event will include several components:

• Admin training: two days of training for CiviCRM administrators, on November 29th & 30th

• CiviCamp: a one-day conference for all users of CiviCRM, on December 1st

• Developer training: two days of training for CiviCRM developers on December 2nd and 3rd

• Sprint: a week-long residential event to improve and develop CiviCRM, December 2nd - 8th

Manchester is pretty far from North Texas, but until we start having more North American events, I believe it's worth my time and effort to make the trip.

Depending on your location, your schedule, your taste for adventure, and your desire to learn more and connect with the community, it just might be worth your time and effort too.

All the best,
A.

Web hosting for CiviCRM

I got a couple of questions last week about hosting, which I'll summarize like so:

We're looking to get started with CiviCRM but are wondering about the hosting requirements. Can we use our current hosting provider or do we need something special?

The short answer is this:

If you're already running WordPress or Drupal, you can probably just install CiviCRM on that site and things should be fine.

That's especially true when you're just starting out.

Later on you may find that you have special needs as your constituent base and use of the CRM grows. But there's no point in doing anything fancy until you need it.

If you're really looking for something that will be sure to support CiviCRM, you might try one of these options:

• CiviHosting: These guys have a good reputation in the community, and they work hard to ensure their hosting is well configured for WordPress, Drupal, and CiviCRM. They've also got really low prices.

• Your CiviCRM specialist can surely recommend a hosting package for you. Many CiviCRM specialists offer their own hosting packages. Here at Joinery, for example, my team provides hosting for many of my clients.

• The CiviCRM Partners directory includes listings for partners who specifically focus on providing good hosting for CiviCRM sites.

Here's the thing:

Web hosting, even for CiviCRM, is usually not a big decision.

Switching from one host to another is typically a simple affair. You'll probably need a little technical help, but it's a well-worn path that any skilled CiviCRM specialist could handle for you.

Since you can pretty easily change later on, you probably shouldn't let yourself be delayed by this question.

It's more important to get started with almost anything, rather than spend too much time looking for the "perfect" hosting package.

If you have questions about it, shoot me a reply and I'll be glad to elaborate further.

All the best,
A.

Backups: Inspecting the safety net

I've never been tightrope walker in the circus, but if I were, you can bet I'd be one that uses a safety net.

And, you can bet that before every practice or performance I'd be inspecting that net.

Because what you don't want to bet on — what I wouldn't bet on — is that an un-inspected net is actually going to do its job when it's needed.

Quick questions:

Do you take regular backups of your website and CRM? If you don't it's a lot like walking that tightrope without a net.

And if you do, do you inspect on a regular basis to be sure that your backups are actually happening correctly, and that you can easily restore your mission-critical data from a backup?

If you don't, it's a lot like forgetting to inspect that safety net.

Sure, you could bet that it's “just going to work” when you need it, but that's probably not a bet you could afford to lose.

Don't make bets you can’t afford to lose. Inspect your backups.

All the best,
A.

What’s a spare tire worth?

What do you think is the value of a new spare tire?

It seems obvious that a spare tire is a good thing to have. You don't need it often, but it's sure comes in handy when you do.

Imagine your car’s spare tire needs replacing. What is that worth?

A few minutes online will tell you what it would take to get a new spare tire for your car.

$50? $100? $200?

But:

That dollar amount is not the value. It's just the cost.

The value is what it's really worth to you.

The cost is just the effect of broad market forces, supply and demand.

The value on the other hand, depends on a variety of factors in your specific situation:

• Are you about to go on a long drive across the desert?

• Or do you only drive your car occasionally, in town, and would rather have it towed than change a tire yourself?

• Are you generally adventurous and cavalier?

• Or are you anxious about risk and looking to plan for every contingency?

Even if you're generally adventurous, there's a good chance that the value of that spare tire will be far more than the cost — especially if you're about to drive across the desert.

Here's the thing:

For a small purchase like this, we may not think much about putting a number on the value. It's easy enough to check the prices and make a quick decision.

But for larger investments, like the time and money you could put into major improvements to your CRM, it's worth thinking about the actual value, a question quite separate from cost:

Value in funding, in mission goals, in staff efficiency, and in the many intangibles that make up your organization's image and culture.

Without calculating the value, how could you even know if it's worth the investment to start?

And what’s more: how could you know if it was a good investment once it's done?

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM release notes

Here's a neat little resource that the city CRM project started publishing recently:

A convenient list of all releases, with release notes for each, at https://download.civicrm.org/release/

This is no earth-shaking development. Release notes have always been publicly available. This just makes them a little easier to find.

And when you're deciding whether to upgrade — and to which version to upgrade — the release notes are a great resource.

I hope you'll use them to stay informed in deciding your upgrade strategy.

All the best,
A.

The second-best time to plant a tree

You've probably heard this one before:

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

The second-best time to plant a tree is today.

Here's the thing:

It would probably help you a lot to have one year, or two years, or even five years of historical data on trends showing the connections between observable constituent behavior, your own actions, and the actions that you want your constituents to take.

• How many events does a person attend before they decide to become a paying member?

• For a donor who's been giving at a certain level, what's the right ask amount to help them move up to a higher level?

• When a member is coming up for renewal, how many reminder emails will get them to renew, and how many will just annoy them?

Whatever your specific goals are, what are the trends that, if your knew them, would help you get there?

If you have that information, it's incredibly useful. Presumably you would have started collecting it sometime ago.

That would have been the best time to start.

Would you like to guess when is the second-best time to start?

All the best,
A.

No money, no time? CiviCRM Spark

Yesterday I said that if you have no budget of money or time, it might not be worth digging in with CiviCRM.

I should amend that.

The CiviCRM project does offer a very inexpensive hosted version of CiviCRM called CiviCRM Spark.

It's a hosted service, so you don’t have the responsibility of hosting it and handling security udpates; but you also don't get a lot of the benefits of running it on your own site: things like infinite flexibility and tight integration with your website CMS.

Still, for some people that's actually a good thing. Too much flexibility sometimes equates to having enough rope to tie yourself in knots.

From the website:

Spark is a lightweight hosted version of CiviCRM that offers you quick setup, zero administration, and most of the power of CiviCRM with some limitations.

It is built and intended for small to medium-sized organizations that are dipping their toes into the CRM space for the first time or that want to take control of their data and their systems.

Spark offers an enormous amount of functionality at a ridiculously low price. As cool as that sounds, it’s equally important to understand what Spark isn’t:

- Not a replacement for the full download version of CiviCRM

- Not a replacement for CiviCRM support provided by the community

- Not open to complex customizations unique to your organization

If you or someone you know needs a CRM that's built from the ground up for community-driven organizations, but there's just no time or money to justify running your own system, this is a great alternative.

Check out CiviCRM spark here.

All the best,
A.

P.S. There are a few other services offering fully hosted versions of CiviCRM, though not at such low price points as CiviCRM Spark. Still, they’ve all been around for a while, so someone must think they’re a good deal. You might want to check them out:

• Greenleaf ONE

• CiviPlus

• CiviDesk

• Civi-Go

Reasons not to use CiviCRM: no money, no time.

Here's another reason you might not want to use CiviCRM: you have literally no budget of time or money.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Sometimes you have to start very small.

As in: “I really care about this cause but I have no funding and only a few hours a week to work on it.”

That's a fine place to start.

But if that's where you are, you probably don't have a business case for a robust system like your own installation of CiviCRM.

Because somebody's going to have to maintain that installation. And configure it to be right for your needs.

If you don't have time to do that — and to learn how to do it — and you don't have a budget to hire someone who can help you, then you're not going to have a good time.

But here's the thing:

You don't have to let that stop you.

You are where you are. The resources you have are the resources you have.

You can still raise funds, promote your cause, build a network of like-minded individuals. And when the time comes, you can invest in better systems.

The point is to understand your own goals, and to find a way to reach them with your own limited resources.

You will always have to do that. Everybody always has to do that.

All the best,
A.

Reasons not to use CiviCRM: no need

Here's a good reason that you might not want to use CiviCRM:

You don't have a use for most of what it offers.

• Just want to collect donations, get the donor's money, and then never contact them again? Just use PayPal.

• Just want to sell tickets to one event, and then never contact the attendees again? Just use EventBrite.

• Just want to send out thousands of emails now and then, but not segment your email lists based on interactions like event attendance, contribution history, membership level, etc? Just use MailChimp.

CiviCRM's power lies in bringing all these aspects together, so you can gain useful insights about your constituents — so you can engage them where they are now and lead then where you want them to be.

If you don't need that, you probably don't have a solid business case for CiviCRM.

Here's the thing:

Everyone has goals. Everyone has limited resources.

Smart people work out reasonable strategies to apply their resources effectively in order to reach their goals.

Whatever your goals, be sure your strategy includes mastering the tools you actually need to reach them.

Then you can have confidence that investing in those tools is really worth your effort and expense.

All the best,
A.

Mastering CiviCRM Crash Course

Have you ever felt like this:

• You love the potential of CiviCRM, but are a little overwhelmed by its complexity?

• You're spinning your wheels trying to get CiviCRM to do what you need?

• You hesitate to try a new feature or configuration, because you’re afraid of painting yourself into a corner with missteps early on?

And if not you, do you know anybody else who's feeling that way?

I've just released a free 10-day email course help people get past exactly this kind of problem.

• How to manage the complexity of this robust system so you can take advantage of its full capabilities.

• Actions you can take now to get the functionality you need.

• How to make smart decisions early on so you can have great results long-term.

If you or someone you know would like to get answers like that, you can check out the free email course here: Mastering CiviCRM Crash Course.

All the best,
A.

Expedition, or exploration?

When you know where you want to go, the challenge is getting there.

That's an expedition.

When you think something interesting may be out there, but you're not sure what it is, the challenge is to go and see what opportunities may await.

That's an exploration.

In fundraising, membership development, programming, and outreach, you might have a specific goal in mind, or you might just be looking for opportunities.

You'll need to do both from time to time.

And when you begin such an effort, it's important to know which one you're undertaking.

So what's next for you: an expedition, or an exploration?

All the best,
A.

Good planning for great membership management

A little careful planning in your setup can save you a lot of hassle down the road.

For example: memberships, which can be quick and easy to configure in CiviCRM. With a few clicks, you can start accepting paid memberships, at a variety of levels, with automatic renewal, add-on options, and more.

Where things can get messy is a year or two later, when you have thousands of members coming up for renewal.

That's when you'll need efficient processes for your staff and your members:

• Identifying which members could use a nudge to renew.

• Helping members understand their current status and the benefits of upgrading their membership level.

• Spotting trends in membership behavior that could represent new opportunities or missteps to avoid.

If your membership types, pricing levels, special discounts, and add-on options aren’t well organized in the beginning, you could have some real headaches coming your way when you get farther into the process.

Here’s the thing:

If you're already that far along and starting to see some of those headaches, don't despair. There are ways to restructure that data even after it's already in place.

But how much nicer would it be to have the benefit of a little careful planning, right from the start?

All the best,
A.

Planning for Sept. 6 CiviCRM security update

Well, the joke's on me.

Last week I told you CiviCRM would release a security update this week.

Nope. I just misread the announcement. That update is scheduled for Wednesday, September 6th. (See the original notice below.)

Silly mistakes aside, I'll still be applying CiviCRM updates this week for all the sites that Joinery manages.

Why?

Because most of those sites are running at the previous security release, which came out in February.

It's hard to know exactly everything that's changed in CiviCRM since then.

So there's a small chance that an update could cause some trouble.

That's true of any upgrade. There's always a chance — however slight — that you'll introduce some incompatibility with the CMS, or one of its plugins, or some CiviCRM extension.

That chance increases with the size of the gap between the installed version and the upgraded version. (One week between versions? Very small chance. One year between versions? Not-quite-as-small chance.)

So we have a choice:

• Perform one big update — from the February version to the September version — right after the security update is released. In other words: do it when there's pressure to get it right for security reasons.

• OR: Perform one almost-as-big update now — from the February version to the latest August version — when there's no such urgency, and then apply a smaller update to get the September version when it's released.

That second option has an obvious disadvantage: it means updating each side twice instead of once.

But it also has a important advantage: the larger update, which has a greater chance - however slight - of breaking something, will be applied when we're not under time pressure for security reasons.

If any incompatibility is found, we'll have more time to deal with it.

Of course we want to deal with it quickly, because nobody wants things to be broken.

But given the choice, I'd rather have that as the only concern. Not the additional concern of an outstanding security issue.

The second update — to get the security release — will have a much smaller gap of only a couple of weeks. It's much less likely that an incompatibility will appear in such a small update.

Here's the thing:

In the end, it's a judgment call. Everything has pros and cons.

But for a system that you own, it's good to be aware of potential issues and how best to prevent them.

For all the freedom that we love from owning our systems, there's no getting away from the responsibility that we take on as a result.

If you'll be handling your update yourself, give the above pros and cons of thought.

You might decide that a large update now, followed by a smaller security update later, is the way to go.

All the best,
A.

P.S. Below is a copy of the original email announcing the update. If you don’t have someone handling updates for you, I encourage you to head over to CiviCRM’s Security Policy & Announcements page to sign up for these emails.

On 8/17/23 15:15, CiviCRM wrote:

There will be a security release for CiviCRM on Wednesday, September 6 (US/Pacific Time). Updates will be provided for the following versions:

• CiviCRM v5.65 (current RC; see download at https://download.civicrm.org/latest/)

• CiviCRM v5.64 (current stable; see download at https://civicrm.org/download)

• CiviCRM v5.63 (current ESR; see https://civicrm.org/esr)

We expect the release to become available near the end of the day (TZ conversions).

Owning vs renting: freedom and responsibility

Consider the home you live in. Do you own it? Rent it?

Which do you prefer?

Owning a home comes with increased freedom and flexibility. It also — usually — comes with long-term financial advantages.

But it also entails responsibility.

Is it time to replace your roof? You get to (or "have to") decide everything about that:

• When to replace it — now or later?

• What to replace it with — 10-year composite shingles or 70-year steel?

• Who should replace it — the cheapest contractor you can find, or the best one in your state?

The same goes for your plumbing, your landscaping, your heating and air, and all the rest.

Of course you get the freedom to make those decisions, but you also have the responsibility of dealing with it.

Now consider your CRM and your website:

Do you own them, or rent then?

If you own them, you have a lot of flexibility. You own the hosting, and the code base, and the data they contain.

So you can literally make them do just about anything you want. As long as you have a sound business case to invest the time and money.

And when it's time for an upgrade, or configuration change, or a new feature, you get to (or "have to") decide everything about that.

Here's the thing:

Homeowners — and folks who own their CRM and website software — sometimes feel a little lost keeping everything running smoothly.

But just as with a home, there are plenty of people, books, and online resources to help you get the most value out of the systems that you own.

Mastering these systems is an achievable skill.

Put in the work, get help when you need it, ask lots of questions, and insist on getting answers you can understand.

No doubt, owning is more work than renting.

But the benefits of masterful ownership are right there waiting for you.

All the best,
A.