It’s the story

I spoke recently with the Director of Development at a local organization, and I asked her how she would summarize her work.

She said:

"My role here is simple: Money in, stories out."

Here’s the thing:

Donors — like volunteers, members, and even staff — are surely interested in your cause.

But what moves them is not just the cause itself.

It's the stories you can tell about the impact you're making in the lives of real people.

Are you telling the right stories to the right people?

When you do that, the funding becomes a while lot easier.

All the best,
A.

Getting buy-in from your team

One of the biggest challenges in rolling out a new CRM or a new set of features is getting your team to buy into the plan.

Your team will have to invest a lot in the change. They'll need training, and they'll need to change their way of working to fit the new features.

That's not easy for them. And they know it.

The best way I've ever seen to overcome this is pretty simple (though not always easy or obvious):

Start with their pain. Understand how your current systems are limiting their work. Name the specific pain points they’re experiencing now, and demonstrate how the new system will solve those problems.

For example, they may already feel that they're

• Wasting time on boring and tedious tasks, or

• Dealing with too many complaints from members, or

• Unable to get the information they need to do their jobs well, or

• Struggling to hit their monthly goals.

Naturally, your whole team feels a duty to do whatever is best for the organization, so you could just try explaining to them that your changes “are awesome for all of us.”

But we're all human, and what's best for the group is not always enough to make us feel good about change. Because change is difficult.

If you can show them how your changes will help them, they're much more likely to be excited about what you're building for them.

All the best,
A.

CiviCamp Montreal: First presentations announced

CiviCamp Montreal is just four weeks away now, on February 28.

And the organizing team has accounced the first presentations lined up for the day. Whether you’re just getting started with CiviCRM or have been using it for years, it sounds like there’s a lot of value here for you.

Very cool: The event this year includes an Ask an Expert clinic, so you can sit with an experienced CiviCRM specialist who’ll help answer any questions you may have. (See more below.)

Here’s what’s on the agenda so far:

• CiviCRM Core Team and Community Council Update
  A review of recent developments and upcoming plans for the CiviCRM Core Team and CiviCRM Community Council.

• How to use CiviMobile
  CiviMobile is a native mobile application that allows CiviCRM users to leverage the combined benefits of CiviCRM with their smartphones.

• Overview of Search Kit and Form Builder

  SearchKit and FormBuilder are recent additions to CiviCRM that make a huge improvement to how you can get data into and out of CiviCRM.

• Custom shopping cart for events

  How to leverage Drupal Commerce's powerful user experience with CiviCRM's data structure and reporting capabilities for event registration management.

• How to use the CDN Tax Receipt extension

  A powerful extension used by over 1000 charitable organizations across Canada.

• Case study on a CiviCRM WordPress implementation

  Learn about features and processes implemented with CiviCRM and WordPress for a French nonprofit organization.

CiviClinic: Ask an Expert

This is a series of open question-and-answer sessions led by experienced CiviCRM specialists who’ll help you to solve a CiviCRM issue you are experiencing or just to ask questions.

Specialists will include CiviCRM core team members and CiviCRM partners from US and Canada.

Are you going?

All of the above sounds like great value to me.

I myself have a scheduling conflict so cannot make it this year. But if you can make it, I strongly encourage you to consider the investment.

Early pricing ends on February 10, so if you’re going, now’s your chance save a little. You can (and probably should) register now, right here.

All the best,
A.

Problem definition

Last week I spoke with a gentleman who’s looking for someone to build a new CRM for his team.

It was a great example of how surprisingly difficult it can be for folks like you and me to define the problem we aim to solve.

On our first call, I asked him to name the business goals he was trying to achieve and not just the features he was looking for.

So he put thought into that, and we met a second time.

He had a lot of ideas on what the solution should look like: Lists of workflows to improve; flowcharts of processes to support.

But he had not named any actual business outcomes: Headaches he was trying to solve; opportunities he wanted to capture.

We talked for a while, and I pointed out that under “Goals” he had listed a few outcomes, but they were all phrased in terms of a solution, not in terms of a problem.

There was a wonderful pause in the conversation.

And after a few moments of silence he said, and I quote ...

"Oh. Right. I'm not the solutions expert here. I'm the problems expert. Dang it!"

Jackpot! Now we could get down to discussing his real problem. Only after that can we discuss solutions that truly matter.

Here's the thing:

Defining the problem is surprisingly hard.

It's definitely not as fun as dreaming up a solution.

But it's a critical first step, if you want to build a solution that solves problems that actually matter to you.

You can be the solutions expert later, or find someone else to fill that role.

But first you must be the problems expert.

All the best,
A.

Problem awareness

If the first part of defining a problem is awareness ("No data, no problem”), it's worth asking:

How are you becoming aware of problems in your systems?

• Are you asking your staff about pain points they experience?

• Are you making it easy for your constituents to report any difficulties they may have?

• Are you tracking error messages that may appear at various points in user workflows?

• Are you monitoring and measuring all of those inputs to make high priority issues more visible?

Of course, there’s an alternative: Just a wait until an issue becomes so painful that it has to be addressed immediately. But that's never fun.

Here’s the thing:

Proactively gathering information puts you in a position to address any issues or opportunities before they become urgent.

How are you making that happen?

All the best,
A.

No problem, no project

We've established that if you don’t have information on a problem, then you really don't have an actionable problem at all. ("No data, no problem")

The corollary to this is that if you don't have an actionable problem, then you don't have a worthwhile project either.

No problem, no project.

This may sound trite and obvious, but it's remarkably common for folks to start working on a project without having defined the problem they're trying to solve.

You've probably done this. I know I have.

You can spend hours on it, or days, or more — without ever having clearly identified the pain we're trying to solve, the opportunity we're trying to secure, or the actual value of getting it done.

Why do we do this?

I suspect it's just because tinkering with things is fun.

In some ways it's a lot more fun than gathering data, clarifying the problem, and estimating its value. Those are all so technical it's almost boring.

But you know what's really fun?

This: Working to solve a problem that you know is important, implementing a solution within an appropriate budget, and celebrating that measurable victory.

That's actually way more fun than fiddling around for a month on a problem you haven't carefully defined.

All the best,
A.

No data, no problem

There are countless problems in the world, and you probably run across dozens of them everyday.

But you can't solve everything. You'll have to pick some things to fix first, plan to handle some later, and leave the rest for "maybe someday."

So how can you tell if a problem actually merits your action, or even your attention?

1. Awareness: First, you must be aware of it. That seems obvious, but I'll touch on that later.

2. Definition: Next you must be able to define it. What exactly is the pain you're trying to solve? (Not the cause of it, just the pain point.)

3. Severity: Finally, you need to know how serious it is, so you can assign it a priority.

Say, for example, some members are having trouble registering for events.

• Awareness: If they're having trouble, how likely are you to find out about it?

• Definition: What problem are they actually experiencing? Are they not finding the event registration page? Do they not understand some questions on the registration form? Are they seeing some error in the registration process?

• Severity: How serious is this? How many users are having this particular problem? How often? And more importantly, how much does this impact your mission or your goals?

Without these three things, you don't really have a problem you can solve.

It may exist in theory. It may even exist in someone's experience.

But it doesn't exist in a way that you can respond to it.

And if you can't respond to it, it is literally not worth thinking about.

Although, if you are thinking about it, it might be worth gathering the information that would actually make it into something you could act on.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM Montreal: February 28!

CiviCRM Montreal is just around the corner.

Though I've got a schedule conflict and cannot make it, Joinery is an even sponsor, because I very much believe in the value of these in-person events.

I've heard from the event organizers, and they're planning a wide variety of presentations targeted to an end-user audience such as executive directors, fundraiser or event managers.

These presentations are aimed at helping help you:

• Better understand how CiviCRM can facilitate your daily operations and create more efficient workflows.

• Improve your current use of CiviCRM.

• Learn from recent case studies, best practices, pointers to extensions or other resources you can leverage.

So this is not a "tech-fest" or "geek out". It's for folks like you who want to leverage CiviCRM in accomplishing measurable goals in your organization.

I encourage you to make plans to attend, if you can. Learn more here: https://civicrm.org/events/civicamp/montreal-2024

All the best,
A.

You still have it when you give it away

You’re a hard worker and diligent learner.

You’re always looking to gain some new knowledge that will help you master your systems and reach your goals.

And you try to fill your team — small as it may be — with folks who have that same drive.

So, while you’re busy learning and improving, who else is gaining from your knowledge?

Are you sharing it with your team, in a way they can easily use it?

They’re as driven, and curious, and goal-oriented as you are.

Wouldn’t they be happy — and more effective — if they could access what you’re learning?

Funny thing, though:

Everything you've stored in your brain is still hiding there, unless you've recorded it somewhere and shared it with someone.

Skills and knowledge are like gold for your team. If you’ve got it, find a way to share it. Unlike actual gold, you don’t lose it when you give it away.

All the best,
A.

Win or lose

This weekend I competed at a local sports tournament.

I won about as many matches as I lost. Some players lost all their matches, others won them all.

Sure, everyone felt great when they won and disappointed when they lost.

But every single player at that tournament had this in common:

Win or lose, they went back and re-watched their videos to learn more about what they did right and what they did wrong.

At least, I hope they did.

Because that's where the real win happens: in long-term improvement.

Here’s the thing:

Hitting your goals is nice. But analyzing and improving your systems will position you for continually improving your results.

That's the long-term value of setting goals, whether you win in the short term or not.

All the best,
A.

Where to?

Whatever road you’re on, wherever you’re starting, the journey is better when you know where you’re going.

It's more effective, it's faster, and it’s more enjoyable along the way.

Sure, sometimes it’s nice to just wander about, but that’s not a journey. It’s just wandering about.

If you’re working hard to accomplish something good, it’s worth taking the time to define what you’re really after.

If you can get there, then you can decide what to go for next; and if you don’t quite make it, you’ll have some good context for understanding what stopped you, so you can do it better next time.

All the best,
A.

In it for the income?

If you’re a leader in a community-driven organization, I’m guessing you’re not in it for the income.

But I bet you are — at least a little bit — in it for the outcome: the impact you make in the lives of people you care about.

What outcome are you hoping to see? And what transformation will you need to make in your organization to make that happen?

If you’re focused on that, getting what you want is just a matter of time (plus a little consistent effort and iterative improvement).

All the best,
A.

Goal-setting is a practice

Setting and achieving goals will probably require you to hone your skills, and maybe learn some new ones.

But it turns out setting goals is a skill in itself.

And like any skill, it only gets better with practice.

All the best,
A.

Cold calculation: cost vs value

Say you’re considering a new project or improvement to your systems.

And let’s assume you also want to get a healthy return on investment so as not to waste precious resources.

So you’ll have to consider both the expected cost of this project and the expected value of completing it successfully.

Here’s a good reason to consider the value first:

As human beings, we are generally — and unfortunately — not as always honest with ourselves as we think we are.

There's quite a bit of truth behind the saying that people buy based on emotions and then justify that purchase based on logic.

It's just part of who we are as human beings.

And usually we don't even notice it.

So let's say you calculate the cost first. Now that you have some number in mind representing the cost, it's very easy to let that influence your calculation of the value.

The more excited (emotionally invested) you are about this project, the easier it will be for your brain to inflate the expected the value until it's higher than the cost, in order to justify the project.

On the other hand, if you calculate the value first, there’s no such temptation; since you haven’t spent a moment on estimating the cost, there’s just no way for that to influence your value estimation.

Here’s the thing:

Our excitement and emotions are powerful things. They can be one of the most effective motivators to carry us to completion when things get tough.

But when it’s time for cold, rational calculation, letting them sneak in is usually a mistake.

Do what you can to keep your business decisions objective and rational. Calculate the value before the cost.

All the best,
-A.

Consider the value before the cost

When you consider starting a new project, do you like to think of the cost first, or the value?

Naturally, before undertaking a new project you’ll want to consider both cost and value. If the value isn't worth the cost, you can just avoid wasting the resources.

But for me, something odd happens at this point:

Before I spend even 2 seconds thinking of the value, my mind leaps into a calculation of the cost. And that leads quickly into a flurry of ideas about how I could get it done:

• Who I can hire, and how much that might cost

• Technologies I might use, and the ease of maintaining them after launch

• All the features or systems I'll have to build, and how much of my own time that might take

Frankly, that's a lot of fun to think about.

But all that planning takes time. And that time is an investment all by itself.

And if I go that route, I'm making that investment without ever once thinking about the value of what I'll get at the end.

So I've learned to stop doing that.

The better way:

First I think about the value.:

If I complete this project successfully, what will it get me, and what is that worth to me?

In dollars, or hours saved, or in some measurable unit, I want a specific number that tells me the value of this investment.

Only then is it time to think about cost.

There are two reasons why this way works better:

1. Expected value determines maximum investment.

As fun as it is to dream up the “right” way to solve a problem, the truth is there are a million ways I could do it.

By putting a real number on my expected value, I can put a realistic cap on what I'm willing to invest.

That allows me to focus on solutions that will get me most or all of what I want, within that cost, instead of some “ideal” solution that may cost far more than the value I'm expecting.

2. Cost analysis is an investment in itself.

The lure of building solutions in my head is so attractive that it's easy to begin, even if there turns out to be zero measurable benefit.

It's so easy to run off and begin something that just seems like it would be nice to have.

But by exerting the discipline of calculating the benefit first, I can quickly decide if it's worth the time to workout even a rough sketch of a solution.

Here's the thing:

This isn’t just a story about me.

I see the same “rush to solutions” mindset in the words and actions of my friends, colleagues, and clients.

Maybe, if you pay attention, you'll even see it in yourself.

Don't let it get you.

Put a number on the value first.

And only then allow yourself the fun of planning the investment.

All the best,
A.

What is a coach?

The word started as a description of a method of transportation. Think stagecoach, or motorcoach (more commonly a "bus" here in the U.S.)

Turns out it's the same in business, as in athletics: a coach is someone who can take you where you want to go.

They don't do the work for you.

But they should be helping you reach your destination in ways you couldn't do on your own.

Of course, deciding where you want to go ... that's up to you.

All the best,
A.

Community works: reCAPTCHA problems fixed

A few of my clients have been having problems with Google reCAPTCHA in the past couple of months.

Apparently Google has changed reCAPTCHA so that it's more strict — which is nice if you absolutely never want a bot on your site, but not so nice if you absolutely want every real person to have an easy time giving you money.

Unfortunately, there are no settings to make it more strict or less strict. It just is what it is, "you get what you get", and all that. This means the only option is either to use it or not use it.

Well, that was true. Until now.

Others in the CiviCRM community noticed this problem as well, and someone out there created a fix, just today, actually.

The Form Protection extension will, in its next release, offer setting to adjust the sensitivity of the Google recaptcha checks.

So if you're getting too many legitimate users being treated as bots, you can make it less strict to compensate.

Likewise, if you're getting too many bots being allowed through as legitimate users, you can make it more strict.

Here's why this is cool:

My clients noticed this problem and had no way to deal with it. They could have paid me to implement a fix, but instead they decided to just disable Google reCAPTCHA for now, and take the “wait and see” approach.

Meanwhile, someone else in the community came up with a fix — at no cost to my clients.

And here's the bigger point:

Sometimes you experience a problem, and it's urgent enough that you're willing to pay to fix it.

But sometimes, somebody else takes care of it, so you don't have to.

That's part of the beauty of open-source software like CiviCRM.

We're all working together. We all help each other. We all benefit.

Not too shabby, right?

All the best,
A.

Don’t be a spammer (or look like one)

Crafting the perfect email appeal is a worthwhile investment.

But when that email lands in your recipient’s Junk folder (or just gets rejected entirely), it’s not worth much.

Big email providers like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Yahoo are constantly working to protect their users from anything that even smells like spam, and Google and Yahoo have announced specific changes that will make those protections even stronger.

Nobody will make you keep up with those requirements. But if you don’t, you can expect your emails to start landing in the Junk folder more often. (See yesterday’s email for actions you need to take to avoid this.)

Would you like an easy way to test whether your outbound emails measure up?

There’s a free service at mail-tester.com that does just that. It’s not a complete solution (nothing ever is), but its tag-line “Test the Spammyness of your Emails” is accurate enough.

I don’t get paid to tell you this. I just think it’s a useful service.

Actions you can take now:

1. Head over to mail-tester.com and notice that it generates a unique email address for your test (something like test-cls74kxqtx37f@srv1.mail-tester.com)

2. In CiviCRM, generate an email to be sent to that address (e.g. on one of your Draft mailings, send a test message to that address; or, create a contact with that address and send an email to that contact.)

3. Head back to mail-tester.com and click the “Then check your score” button.

4. Observe the results. If you’re seeing problems with DKIM, DMARC, or SPF, or any other domain-related problems, take action to address those issues.

If you don’t have someone on your team who can address these issues, please reach out to me (or your favorite CiviCRM specialist) to get it fixed.

Leaving these problems unattended will increase your chances of landing in the Junk folder.

And that’s not where you want your lovingly-crafted emails to end up.

All the best,
A.

Avoiding the Junk folder: Gmail’s new rules

Do you send newsletters or other mass emails via CiviCRM?

Do you want to avoid those emails landing in the Junk folder, or even bouncing altogether?

If you do, you'll want to be aware of some new requirements that Gmail and Yahoo are implementing very soon — and be sure you're ready to comply.

"What, more requirements," you ask?

Yep, more requirements.

I get it, it's a pain in the neck. Sometimes I feel like I’m chasing an ever-changing set of requirements to make sure my emails actually land in the recipient’s in-box.

That's because email providers like Gmail and Yahoo are constantly looking for ways to reject spam intelligently, without rejecting legitimate subscribed content. And that’s because they’re constantly slammed with spam; they have to deal with it somehow.

So, sometimes they make changes aiming to kick out the spammers and let the good emails through. And then it's up to us as senders to jump through their hoops, so we don't look like spammers and get blocked.

So here’s the thing:

As of February, Gmail and Yahoo will start gradually increasing the strictness of their anti-spam requirements. Legitimate senders (that's you and me) will need to ensure we’re doing everything right.

For example:

1. Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC email authentication for your sending domain.

2. Ensure that sending domains or IPs have valid forward and reverse-DNS ("PTR") records.

3. Keep spam rates below 0.3% (as reported in Google Postmaster Tools).

4. For direct mail, the domain in the sender's From: header must be aligned with either the SPF domain or the DKIM domain.

5. Use a TLS connection for transmitting email.

6. Lots more ...

SendGrid has a great article explaining these requirements and others.

Please take action on this.

If you have someone on your team who knows what all those things even mean, and can ensure those requirements are met, please discuss this with them.

And if you don't, please reach out to me (or a CiviCRM specialist you trust) about it.

Your email lists are a precious resource. Writing emails that motivate people is important.

But then, you also have to make sure those emails actually make it to the in-box.

All the best,
A.

CiviCRM misconceptions: “It’s one app”

Here's one more misconception that trips people up, especially in the beginning.

CiviCRM misconception #5: "it's one app."

In a world of single-purpose apps and services, CiviCRM at first looks like just another app or service, as if it were a single piece of software from top to bottom.

This leads to a number of assumptions that aren't quite right:

• That there's a company behind it that guarantee the certain level of service;

• That once you install it, it's self-contained and ready to go;

• That any organization using this product will have access to the same set of features.

Now, this is true for CiviCRM Spark and other software-as-a-service CiviCRM offerings.

But it's not true for CiviCRM itself, in the way that most organizations use it.

Instead, CiviCRM functions more like a platform for building your own customized CRM system:

• You'll install it into your own Drupal, WordPress, or other content management system (CMS).

• each of those CMSs offer their own unique set of features, with a number of modules or plugins to augment CiviCRM’s interaction with the CMS.

• You also have access to hundreds of CiviCRM extensions to customize the functionality of itself.

• Many organizations have at least one or two custom-built CiviCRM extensions by which they modify its functionality even further.

• Even without all that, CiviCRM is highly configurable, to the extent that you can configure it in ways that are nonsensical or counterproductive for your work.

Here's the thing:

Yes, CiviCRM is a mature and well-built software system powered by a dedicated core team and an active community of professional developers.

But thinking of it as a single product will tend to overlook its incredible flexibility, as well as the amount of effort you might need to make it do everything you want — not to mention the fact that you actually can make it do things that only your organization needs (unlike other CRMs which really are “a single product”).

It can be more useful to think of it as a powerful CRM platform, which gives you a ton of great features out of the box, and which you can use to build a fully customized CRM for your organization.

All the best,
A.