Inspired by the comparison charts at Techsoup and AFP and Grassroots Funding Journal and Nonprofit Times and others, I thought it was time to rectify the fact that CiviCRM appears on none of these charts. One wonders if one needs to have a bigger marketing budget to appear on these lists.
Unlike these very un-useful comparison chart, we'll also provide some actual, balanced details on the chart.
THIS IS FOR CIVICRM VERSION 2.1
REVISED JULY 2008
Delivery
Web-based |
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CiviCRM is accessed primarily through your web browser.It can also be accessed via API. |
ASP |
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No CiviCRM ASP is available at this time. |
Hosted |
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You can install CiviCRM in a hosted configuration yourself or vendors (http://civicrm.org/professional) can supply and maintain a CiviCRM installation for you to use. |
In-house |
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You can install CiviCRM in an in-house configuration yourself or vendors (http://civicrm.org/professional) can supply and maintain a CiviCRM installation for you to use. |
Costs
License fee |
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None. Software can be freely downloaded by anyone. |
Installation |
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You can do it yourself or select a vendor to install CiviCRM (http://civicrm.org/professional). |
Support |
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As an open source project extensive documentation and support forums are provided for free. You can also select a vendor to provide support (http://civicrm.org/professional). |
Major Charity Functionality
Abstract analysis |
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Annual fund campaigns |
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Simple support. Track campaign through source field or with custom field. No strong campaign functionality. |
Annual giving |
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Solicit through CiviMail, accept donations through CiviContribute and track and report on giving. |
Auction event management |
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No specific auction event management. Potential support by creative use of basic functions. |
Capital campaigns |
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Simple support. Target and segment your donor database. Track campaign through source field or with custom field. No strong campaign functionality. |
Corporate giving |
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Supported through CiviGrant. |
Credit card processing |
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Supported through CiviContribute payment processors (PayPal, Google checkout, Authorize.net and others). |
Data management / analysis / reporting |
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Supported through CiviReports. CiviCRM lacks extensive donor management fields (which can be added as custom fields) and an extensive reports library. |
Direct marketing |
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Strong segmentation and targeting through groups. Stong email direct marketing through CiviMail. Tracking interactions through constituent record. No strong campaign functionality. No integrated mail merge. |
Donor relationship management |
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Core functionality. |
Donor research |
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No default integration with donor research resources. Strong integration capabilities through open APIs would support integration with data providers. |
Endowment management |
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No financial / accounting integration. No strong campaign functionality. |
Event management |
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Supported through CiviEvent. |
Gift annuity administration / contracts |
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- |
Government relations / advocacy |
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Strong basic CRM, but no specific advocacy scoring or other advocacy functionality. |
Grant making |
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Supported through CiviGrant. |
Grant tracking |
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Partially supported through CiviGrant. No post grant performance tracking, task management, calendaring, etc. |
Information on foundations / prospects |
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No default integration with grant research resources. Strong integration capabilities through open APIs would support integration with data providers. |
Internet services |
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Strong integration with CMS (Drupal or Joomla). |
Mailing list management |
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Supported through CiviMail and Groups. Not a replacement for a traditional mailing list management solution. |
Major-gift management |
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Handled through activities functions. No lead / prospect conversion capabilities. No default project entity. |
Major-gift marketing |
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Handled through activities functions. No lead / prospect conversion capabilities. |
Matching gift management |
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Handled through custom fields instead of default functionality. |
Membership / alumni management |
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Handled through CiviMember. |
Online auctions |
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Online events / registration / management |
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Handled through CiviEvent. |
Online fundraising / donations / management |
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Handled through CiviContribute |
Outcome management |
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Potentially supported by upcoming CiviCase. |
Planned gifts administration |
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Planned gifts marketing |
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Customization, not default functionality |
Pledge management |
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Handled through CiviContibute. |
Recurring gifts management |
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Strong capabilities through CiviContribute, but few default pledge management reports. |
Volunteers / opportunities management |
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Customization, not default functionality |
Working with Records
Type in partial constituent names to get a match. |
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The quick search provides a predictive interface which narrows down the list in real time as you type additional letters. |
Data entry default settings allow users to enter constituent and contribution information easily and rapidly. |
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CiviCRM provides profiles that can handle repetitive data entry tasks. Create a profile for your data entry task. Unfortunately you cannot set default values for profile fields in CiviCRM, HOWEVER, all modern browsers have a feature that will automatically fill our web forms for you and/or remember what you have typed in previous fields of that type, speeding up data entry siginficantly. |
Seperate recognition names for donors so that they can appear on honor rolls or published materials differently than in the database. |
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CiviCRM provides the database record name and custom greetings that can be used for mailing labels and similar situations.The user can also add a custom field easily to store the honor role name, handling this requirement. Custom fields can be accessed programatically or via csv export. |
Spouses can have joint and seperate giving records. |
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Spouses can have both joint and seperate giving records by creating a household record that is connected to both spouses' constituent records. Contributions do not, however roll up into the household record without manual data entry. |
Mailing names are auto-created per a set of rules. |
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CiviCRM provides seperate prefix, suffix and name fields and assembles them automatically. |
Auto-address formats can be over-ridden. |
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Users can specify a custom greeting to over-ride the auto-created mailing name. |
Relationships between constituents can be tracked. |
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CiviCRM provides standard relationships (employee of, head of household) out of the box. Users can create unlimited custom relationships. |
Administering Records
Allows records to be archived. |
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CiviCRM does not provide an inactive check box that would hide the record in day-to-day workflows yet still allow it to be accessed if needed. |
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Globally change a large number of records in a batch. |
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You can create a profile with the fields you want to update, search for any set of records in the database and then batch update via profile. |
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Audit log of changes to records. |
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Provided as a tab on the constituent record. |
Common Development Tasks
Calendar of grant deadlines |
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Simple list by date of grant deadlines via CiviGrant or via activities list. |
Tickler to remind users of deadlines |
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Create other activity for each grant deadline, assign to staff. |
Task tracking for the user and their manager |
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Assign activities. |
Track correspondence and communications with constituents |
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Logged as activities. |
Tracking Gifts
Handle in-kind gifts |
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Create a contribution type for in-kind gifts. No specific in-kind functionality. |
Handles soft credits |
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Handles matching gifts |
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Use custom fields to track matching status and searches to identify open matches. |
Track gifts to different funds |
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Use custom fields to track funds. No default functionality. |
Handles split gifts between funds |
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Workaround... enter single contribution for each split. |
Handle tracking gifts via campaign |
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Handled via custom fields. No default campaign functionality. |
Handle tracking gift via appeal |
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Handled via custom fields. No default campaign functionality. |
Handle tribute/ honor gifts |
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Supported in CiviContribute. |
Notifying the honoree re: gifts in their name |
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Manual process involving searching, creating CRM records and then notifying. |
Handle anonymous giving |
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Can be handled with a custom field, but not integrated functionality (masking from reports, for example). |
Handle gift acknowledgments and thank you letters |
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Handled by CiviContribute. |
Handle gift receipts |
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Handled by CiviContribute. |
Handle end-of-the-year donor statements |
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Manual via search. |
Pledges
Handle pledges |
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Schedule and track pledge payments |
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Remind staff of pledges that are due |
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Remind donors of pledges that are due |
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