CRM: easy?

I love CiviCRM. Except when I don’t.

Right now I'm looking at the results of a recent survey of several hundred non-profit organizations and how they rate their current CRM.

The good: CiviCRM was one of only 3 products to score higher than four out of five across every single category.

The not-so-good: One of its lowest-scoring categories was "Ease of Use." Only 4.1 out of 5. Not bad, but not great.

But in that same "Ease of Use" category, CiviCRM ranked:

• Well above the average, and

• Far above more well-known offerings such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and Raiser's Edge.

What does this say to me?

1. Even in its lowest category, CiviCRM scores near the top of the pack.

But more importantly:

2. CRMs in general don't score very high in the "super easy to use" category.

And what does this suggest for you?

1. The term “ease of use” is relative — not just to your own experience and skills, but to the type of problem you're trying to solve.

2. If your CRM is helping you to solve high-value problems, then that's a win. If you're struggling to make it do things you thought were simple, it will probably help to take a step back and rethink your approach to the problem.

Your CRM can make it possible to solve some really difficult and high-value challenges, but you'll probably benefit from some experienced advice along the way.

Upgrading twice FTW

You probaly know, CiviCRM has security update coming up next month.

So here's a crazy idea:

It might be smart to upgrade twice.

Yeah, I know. Upgrading is work, so why double that work?

But consider this:

1. When a security update is released, it's important to upgrade quickly.

2. The more versions your upgrade spans, the greater chance you'll have of hitting some surprising challenges to complete that upgrade.

So, if it's been a while since your last upgrade (say, you're running the most recent security release from version 5.65.0 or thereabouts), you’ll have a large upgrade (greater chance of surprises) at the same time as a time-sensitive security update.

Upgrading twice will allow you to split those problems and deal with them separately.

In this case, we know (per the announcement) that the security release will come on June 19, after version 5.74.0 is released around June 5.

So you could take the “upgrade twice” approach like so:

1. Soon after the release of 5.74.0 on June 5, upgrade to that version. This will give you a chance to deal with any surprises without the time pressure of a security upgrade.

2. On June 19, when the security update is released, upgrade to that version. Since the time between upgrades will be very small, you'll have a very small chance of hitting any challenging surprises, which means you'll be more likely to get that security upgrade done in a very timely manner.

The alternative is to do the whole thing at once on June 19. That's not impossible, but you're setting yourself up for the chance of hitting difficult upgrade challenges while you're under some serious time pressure.

You can avoid that — by upgrading twice.

All the best,
A.

Upgrades: the bigger, the harder

You've probably noticed that your CiviCRM alerts will let you know now and then when there's a new version available.

So you might ask, "Do I need to take every upgrade?"

The short answer is “no.” I don't usually recommend that you do. (Upgrade strategy is a bigger topic that geeky people like to sit around and talk about while normal people are out having fun, but in general it's just not worth chasing version numbers.)

But here's something to think about:

The longer you wait, the more work that one upgrade can be.

A small upgrade, say from 5.65.1 to 5.65.2, contains very few changes. Naturally, a larger upgrade, say from 5.65.1 to 5.74.1, will include many more changes to CiviCRM’s — both in its inner workings and in its visible features.

The more changes an upgrade contains, the more you may need to deal with certain challenges, such as:

• The need to upgrade various extensions

• The need to test and modify any custom features you've built

• Configuration changes

• Training in new or different functionality

• Compatibility with your website infrastructure (PHP, MySQL, WordPress, etc.)

Usually, there's no problem, and no extra work is needed. But it's good to be aware that the chance of needing extra work will increase together with the amount of time between upgrades.

What does this mean for you?

In general, I still don't advocate taking every available upgrade. The benefits of that approach don't usually justify the effort and expense.

But when you know you have a time-sensitive security update on the horizon (as CiviCRM does right now), understanding this fact can help you be ready to perform that upgrade in a timely manner.

More on that tomorrow.

All the best,
A.

Security updates: don’t wait!

CiviCRM has a security update coming in June.

If that’s an inconvenient time for you, you might think that you'd rather wait until later.

Don't wait!

Here's why:

A security update fixes security problems that already exist in your software.

Of course, that's not a big concern by itself. Major commercial software providers (think iPhone, Android, and the rest) routinely release security updates for exactly the same reasons.

But what is a major concern is this: before the security update, very few people know about the vulnerability; but on the day of the security update, potentially everyone will know about it.

That's because that's the day when the software authors acknowledge it publicly — by publishing a solution for it.

Think about this:

If your home's back door wouldn't lock properly, you might think, “I should get that fixed pretty soon.” But if your darling teenager posted that fact on Facebook, you might suddenly start thinking, “I've got to fix this right away!”

When a software author announces an upcoming security update, it means your version has something like a back door that won't lock. You (and the rest of the world) just don't know where that problem is, or how it could be exploited.

But once they drop that release, anyone can know about it and begin to exploit it. That, dear reader, is Not A Good Thing™.

So I implore you, for this CiviCRM security update scheduled for June 19, take time now to make sure someone on your team will be taking care of it.

You’ll sleep a lot better at night knowing your back door actually locks.

All the best,
A.

New security release for CiviCRM

Get ready for an upgrade to CiviCRM. The announcement is below.

How prepare for this important security release:

• Understand the importance of security updates. This is not the kind of thing you want to skip.

• Test your backups. You’ll want to perform a full site backup before upgrading, and have confidence that you can revert to that backup in case of any surprises during the upgrade.

• Get a preview of any extra steps that may be needed. CiviCRM upgrades can require some additional manual steps, and you typically won’t know what those are until you read to on-screen instructions during the upgrade, which is not the most convenient time to learn about them. You can prepare ahead of time by previewing those messages in my CiviCRM Upgrade Messages Previewer.

This update will be released on June 19. Don’t wait until then to start preparing!

All the best,
A.

P.S. Here’s the original announcement from the CiviCRM Core Team:

There will be a security release for CiviCRM on Wednesday, June 19 (US/Pacific Time). Updates will be provided for the following versions:

* CiviCRM v5.74 (current RC; pending release circa June 5; see download at https://download.civicrm.org/latest/)

* CiviCRM v5.69 (current ESR; see https://civicrm.org/esr)

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

Your “donate” is a donut, unless ____

Do you have a “donate” button on your homepage?

If you're like most organizations, that button brings in just a few contributions now and then, if you're lucky.

I'm betting it's pretty close to zero — a big old donut.

Unless ...

... that button links not just to your online donation form, but to compelling content that informs visitors of why they can feel great about supporting your work; AND

... you're using those first-time donations as a starting point to a long-term relationship with new donors.

If that's not you — if you're seeing great results from a well-placed “donate now” button on your site, and you're not doing those two things, write me back and tell me I'm wrong.

I'd actually love to hear your success story!

All the best,
A.

Lost in the “how”

People often come to me with questions about tactics.

• How can we configure our membership levels to support this novel requirement?

• How can I use a wait-list for my limited-capacity team-based event?

This is awesome! I love to see that folks are reaching out for help with how-to questions.

But what I really love is when people hit pause on the "how" long enough to think about the "what" and the "why":

• What is it that I'm really trying to achieve, long-term?

• Why do I want that? What do I think it's going to get me, and why is that so important to me?

Because — believe me — I know what it's like to agonize for hours (or days) trying to get some feature or configuration to work exactly right, without having thought clearly about why I wanted it in the first place.

And then — really believe me on this one — the sinking feeling, after spending all that time and effort, that this thing isn't so important after all; that I could have gotten the same results (or better!) with a simpler solution.

Example: Fighting with that report to make it show exactly the right output, before finally realizing that I just need these numbers one time, and I could get them far more easily by just exporting it to Excel and quickly manipulate the data there.

Chances are you've done something similar.

I've done it, and I have stories from most of my clients who've done it.

Here's the thing:

Don't get lost in the "how." It's a seductive trap.

Our brains just love puzzles, and there's some (usually fleeting) satisfaction in the feeling that we're "working hard on something."

Before you start digging in on the "how," push back on that temptation and make sure you can articulate clearly "what" your end goal is, and "why" that end goal is so important.

You may have to really force yourself into this at first.

But the payoff is real.

In the end, we all have a mission to improve the lives of people we care about.

No one will care how slick our solution was or how hard we banged our heads on the keyboard to make it happen.

They will only care that we helped them. That's where the payoff is.

All the best,
A.

Reasonable estimations for reasonable goals

Yesterday I mentioned how an expected 6% increase is leading one organization to implement new features in their client communications.

In that email I mentioned, "6% seems very doable". Honestly, that's a claim worth challenging.

Their goal is to increase their rate of "client services appointments kept" from 80% to 85% — an increase of just 6.25%.

They believe it's “quite doable.” But is it really? Remember, if you can't justify your assessment, it just might be hot air — based on anything from wild guessing to wishful thinking.

In their case, they've gathered useful measurements, used some simple math, made a few reasonable assumptions, and honestly acknowledged their confidence (or lack of confidence) in each those assumptions and estimates.

For example:

• Among clients who've missed an appointment, and whom they've been able to ask, the number one reason given — by far — is simply, "Darn it, I forgot."

• Almost all of these clients have already indicated they'll receive text messages on other matters.

This gives them some reliable information to work with.

It doesn't mean nobody will ever miss an appointment again, but it's pretty reasonable to guess that at least 25% of those missed appointments (one quarter of the 20%) could have been prevented with timely SMS reminders.

And that's enough to get them from 80% to 85%.

Here's the thing:

There's no such thing as a silver bullet. No one solution is guaranteed to fix everything.

And projections like these will necessarily contain some uncertainty.

But by gathering some information and quantifying its reliability, it is indeed possible to make reasonable estimations, even when not everything is 100% certain.

If you wait for 100% certainty, you'll never begin. On the other hand, if you never bother to estimate the likelihood of success or failure, you'll also never be able to target reasonable goals.

All the best,
A.

The 6% goal

Would a 6% increase in your results be worth implementing a new feature? It depends.

One of my service organizations is looking at implementing a new automated SMS/text system to remind clients of appointments.

Their situation:

• They receive some funding for each completed appointment.

• A missed appointment has the same cost as a completed one, because the staff time simply goes unused.

They have an “appointments kept” rate of 80%.

They have a goal to get that number up to 85%.

That's an increase of just 6.25%.

Besides the obvious benefit to their mission (by serving more people), the additional funding from that increase would be far more than the cost of implementing this SMS program.

Is it guaranteed to work? Nothing is, you know.

But 6% seems very doable, and it will clearly pay for itself.

This, my friends, is how you take reasonable steps forward.

It starts, as do so many good things, with defining a goal.

What’s your next goal?

All the best,
A.

When “yes” is the wrong answer

Say your shoulder hurts after a car accident. Would you tell your doctor, "I have a broken clavicle. Please perform surgery to repair the bone," or would you just say, "I've been in an accident and my shoulder hurts. What do you recommend?"

Frankly, if a doctor agrees to perform surgery based only on your request, without performing her own assessment, you should get a new doctor. (And, you know, tell your friends to stay away from this one!)

Here's the thing:

Whether it's your shoulder in need of medical attention, or your CRM systems in need of expert help, you want someone who doesn’t always say “yes.”

If your selected “expert” isn’t willing to stand their ground and insist on a proper assessment to determine the best course of action, you might need to look for someone else.

Hopefully you can find someone you trust to listen to your situation, understand what you're trying to achieve, and then recommend a course of action that will actually get you what you want.

That's a sign that you've selected someone who is actually worthy of your trust.

All the best,
A.

"Always ready" = "always maintained"

If you were a chef with a nice collection of high-quality knives, you'd want to take care of them well.

Not just because you'd have to replace them, but because you need them to be ready when it's time to work. They’re critically important for your work.

How you use them, how you store them, how you clean them, how you keep them sharp. All of that matters.

Your own work, dear reader, is not so different. You rely on a high-quality CRM system, probably every day, to help you excel in your work and mission.

Sure it's important to know how it works. But it's just as important to make sure it's well cared for.

To make sure it's in top condition when it's time to work (which is all the time), make sure you're giving it the care it needs:

• Keeping up with new releases, for security updates and any relevant feature improvements.

• Cleaning out duplicate contact records on a regular basis.

• Testing new configurations in a wide variety of situations.

• Organizing — and documenting — user roles and permissions.

• Ensuring backups are taken frequently (and testing to ensure those backups actually work).

• Training relevant staff on usage and configuration within their area of responsibility.

• Understanding how the CRM integrates with the rest of your website (your CMS, e.g. WordPress or Drupal), and handling all the security and upgrade concerns for that system as well.

• Designating someone on your team to oversee all of this care and maintenance.

I know, it may sound like a lot. Just the way caring for a good knife can sound like “a lot” when you’re used to owning the clunkers they sell at the dollar store.

But you can do it. With a little planning, and maybe a little outside advice now and then, you can keep your system sharp and ready.

And you'll be glad you did.

Because the right time to have your CRM working well and dependably is, well, all the time.

All the best,
A.

The price is not the value

Imagine you were a professional chef. What would be the value, to you, of a small collection of high-quality knives?

A good friend might have sold them to you for $10. A bad friend might have conned you into paying $5,000. (Yeah, we all need good friends.)

But what you paid for them has nothing to do with how valuable they are in your work.

Once you've got them, what matters is not what they cost you, but how well you use them, how much you enjoy them, and how much they help you get your job done well.

Here's the thing:

If a $10 knife can be invaluable to a professional chef, a license-free CRM can be invaluable to a community-driven organization.

This has important implications for you. More on that tomorrow.

All the best,
A.

Peer fundraising

Do your donors care about your cause? Do they trust your organization to make a difference in that cause?

Obviously they do. Otherwise they wouldn't be donors.

The next question is, are they proud to be supporting you? Would they like their friends and family to know about your work? Would they actually enjoy connecting more people to your work?

That's not quite a certainty, but there's a good chance many of them do feel just that way.

With that in mind, how much thought have you giving to a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign?

I've seen it used to great effect:

• The youth drum corps (my client) that's had its participants successfully fundraising for summer tour expenses for many years.

• The national political party (my client) that's raising funds for local candidates via "help me support my candidate" pages.

• The nationwide jiu-jitsu tournament organization that allows competitors to raise funds for cancer-fighting charities (not my client, but I am a fundraising competitor).

In case you didn't know, CiviCRM has the features to support such a campaign.

Of course, a successful campaign is based on good planning and communication, not just good features.

But if the features are there, and if you think your donors could be motivated, a well executed campaign could be a big win for you.

Surely it's worth considering.

All the best,
A.

Even better

Here in north Texas, at the local non-profit where I serve on the board, we wrapped up our big annual fundraiser, weekend before last.

Imagine my pleasure to get this email from our executive office this morning:

Congratulations on another successful Starfish Benefit! We've received many positive reviews from attendees.

We would appreciate your feedback on the event. Please share your thoughts with me so I can compile them for our next board meeting ...

Well! Someone here understands the value of a post-operation review!

Sure, there's the question of whether we’ve met our fundraising goals for the event (final numbers are still pending, but we're at least very close). That's always important.

But I see something that's potentially even more valuable:

Capturing lessons learned from the entire event — from planning to execution to follow-up — to make it even more likely that we'll hit our goals on future events.

That's part of the value of aiming for measurable goals, whether it’s fundraising or anything else: not just measuring whether you've met the goal, but learning what you did right, what you did wrong, and (right or wrong) what you could do even better.

All the best,
A.

Constraints vs. preferences

Every project or program you undertake will, naturally face some contraints.

Time and money are the big ones, though they’re not the only ones.

But not every limitation is a constraint. Many of them are just preferences.

What's the difference?

A constraint is non-negotiable. It's a deal-breaker. If it can't be accommodated, the project is not worth doing.

Everything else is a preference. Everything.

That’s not to say you should disregard your preferences. On the contrary, it’s wise to recognize them, call them what they are, and assign some value (or priority) to them.

You don’t have to ignore your hopes for the project merely because they’re “just preferences.”

But distinguishing them from real constraints will save you some agony when it’s time to make hard decisions — and that time is sure to arrive, sooner or later.

All the best,
A.

Who’s tracking the tracker?

So you've got this awesome CRM that’s fantastic at keeping track of your people.

Yay for that!

But what's keeping track of your CRM?

I mean, your people are changing all the time. Getting more involved. Making donations. Attending events. All of that.

And it's great to have a system that keeps that all straight for you, right?

But your CRM is changing all the time too. New configurations. New features. New custom fields. New permissions and rules and users.

Who's keeping track of that?

Well, hopefully you are. That's where your internal documentation comes in. That's where your in-house expert comes in.

Because as things change, keeping track is important.

You're doing it for your constituent data. Isn’t it worth doing for your CRM configs as well?

All the best,
A.

Who makes CiviCRM great?

Who makes CiviCRM great?

Well, you do.

Every time you tell a colleague about it, or share how you're using it with others, or even when you complain about it to someone who can help you (you know, me!)

And who else?

Lots of people. They contribute their time and skills to make the whole product better, create extensions, conduct trainings, write documentation, and more.

This list shows some of those contributors, but even that list only includes those who've a) opted-in to be listed (like me, who finally just decided to do that today), and b) contributed specific code improvements or documentation.

It doesn't include what folks have contributed by supporting others in MatterMost or StackExchange, or at live events, or in many other ways.

We're all out here helping each other.

I'm glad you're part of that, whether your name is on a list somewhere or not!

All the best,
A.

Paper wins again

As much as we love our fancy streamlined CRM systems, I've yet to see anything that beats good ol’ pen and paper for speed and flexibility.

I was on staff during the Starfish Benefit for the Child & Family Guidance Center of Texoma this past Saturday.

Besides the live auction that gets most of the attention, a fun part of the event is the “Heads or Tails” game. I won't bore you with the details, but the gist is that you must donate to play, and you must play to win, and winning is fun.

Thing is, many people weren't able to sign up for the game because of some issues with the mobile app for the event.

No problem, says the emcee. Before we start, I'll ask everyone who wants to play to raise their bid paddles, we'll note their bidder numbers, and then we'll just add that game donation to their auction totals.

Sure, fine idea.

But. Imagine you're trying to record a series of specific three-digit numbers as the emcee reads them from the crowd as quickly as he can. You know, 30 or 40 of them in a 60-second burst.

Are you going to type that into your notes app on your phone? Are you going to look them up one by one in the auction software?

The board member in charge of the Heads or Tails game tried that. It doesn't work so well.

Fortunately, somebody was ready with the right tools: one ballpoint pen, and one sheet of paper.

Problem solved.

Here's the thing:

It's really wonderful when you can do live data entry on the spot. The data goes right into your system, and your staff can see it right away. And once your live event is done, your data is there.

But someone needs to be ready with a fallback that is bone-simple and absolutely reliable. Just in case a surprise comes up.

Because in a live event, surprises will come up. Count on it.

All the best,
A.

Reality is imperfect

Last Saturday the Child and Family Guidance Center of Texoma hosted its annual Starfish Benefit.

I'm on the board there, and preliminary numbers indicate that we hit well above our fundraising goal. (Yay!)

Surprisingly, a few of our board members — and some of our guests — noticed a small problem during the event:

Some fundraising opportunities, which should have been available on our mobile app, were strangely inaccessible on some phones.

Naturally I checked on this with the representative for our fundraising partner, who manages the app. But since it wasn't a problem for everyone — and of course, it worked fine on their phones — they weren't able to resolve it immediately.

Fortunately, we found other ways to help any guests who mentioned it to us, so for those guests it was not much of a problem.

But I can't help wondering how many people tried to give, found it difficult, and simply moved on to enjoy the evening regardless.

From this I see a few lessons worth noting:

1. Test, test, and test again. During or after your live event is the worst time to learn that something's not working. Budget time for testing your systems, and test them in a wide variety of situations.

2. Remember that no system is really flawless. The real world is imperfect. When fortune smiles on us, things will go smoothly. But fortune is fickle.

3. Ensure your staff are well trained on alternative methods. If a problem comes up, a good contingency plan, though not ideal, can save you from a lot of pain (and missed opportunities).

All the best,
A.

Constraints

Highway construction on my way to work has recently made a big impact on my morning commute. I don’t like it, but it’s beyond my control.

What is within my control is how I deal with it. I can scout an alternate route. I can use the drive time to soak up that audiobook I’ve been wanting to get through.

Here’s the thing:

Whatever your mission or current goals, you’ll find that there are always constraints that are beyond your control.

• Time

• Money

• Manpower

• Regulations and compliance

• Security concerns

• Stakeholder demands

• Cash flow

• Impending calendar dates

• Uncertainty and lack of information

It’s tempting to be discouraged by these constraints, or merely to wave them off because “there are always constraints.”

On the other hand, because they always exist, you can get a lot out of identifying them, quantifying them, adjusting priorities for them — even turning them into opportunities.

Long commute? Why not an informative podcast or audiobook, to enrich your mind along the way?

Tough regulations and compliance requirements? Why not tout your excellent compliance to your donors, to demonstrate your commitment and inspire their support?

There will always be constraints. And there will always be a way to deal with them.

All the best,
A.