Good Day, I am working with a small nonprofit with the mission of capacity building at food pantries and creating more access to health care initiatives. We are expanding and want to be able to track data in order to monitor and evaluate our impact. I am investigating CivicCRM for this purpose and not sure if this is the best platform. Would anyone have any advice?
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2i don't think 'best' is the best phrasing for this question. And I don't think you will get very helpful answers till you spell out the requirements for the system more specifically.– petednz - fuzion ♦Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 19:43
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at a very generic level 'Activities' can be used for projects where you need to keep track of things - so worth your time reading up about them to figure out how they might help you.– petednz - fuzion ♦Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 19:44
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also worth familiarising yourself with civi 'vanilla' via eg drupal.demo.civicrm.org– petednz - fuzion ♦Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 19:45
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2 Answers
the phrase 'best platform' depends on context, what might be best for you is not always best for other organizations.
CiviCRM is a database used by non profits to track donors, members, cases (such as debt relief), volunteers, buddy projects, etc...
So to help us answering your question you can help us by explaining and expanding what organizations issues have lead to a search for a platform, what your needs are and what you think your future needs are.
It also helps if you explain what you organization is doing and why it is doing. I am not sure if stack exchange is the right place for this as there is no easy answer. Its answer can be found by having a conversation, exploring, and sharing knowledge (you from your organization, me from helping other organization using CiviCRM).
answered Mar 16, 2022 at 9:02
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Thanks for the response. We currently have 2 volunteers working on capacity building at food pantries and introducing programs to provide access to health care. We hope to expand to 10 volunteers by the end of the year. The primary data we need to track would be clients served, volunteer hours, quantity of food distributed, etc. The goal is to be able to use the data to show it is making a difference and show that the program is sustainable. The organization is funded by grants so tracking of donors is not essential. It is an AmeriCorps program so preferable for it to be easily trained to use Commented Mar 17, 2022 at 0:38
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As said I am not sure whether SE is a good place for this kind of conversation but my answer would be that CiviCRM could be a fit. So you can check out the CiviCRM website which contains a partner listening and you can ask to have a conversation about this topic with one of the partners on that page. You can also try out the demo on dmaster.demo.civicrm.org and you have a look at the documentation at docs.civicrm.org and at docs.crm-showcases.org Commented Mar 24, 2022 at 16:05
Hi Wade and welcome on SE, usually there's a kind of correlation in terms of complexity between the size of database and the kind of tools to manage it. Having 50 / 500 / 5000 / 50000 contacts involves different processes and interactions between the organization and its contacts.
Try to contact some agencies/developers/integrators close to you to have a meeting and discuss about your needs. I'm sure you'll get personalized informations, advises and maybe a quotation.
What I can say is that CiviCRM is tremendous when it's adapted to organization :-)
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Thanks for the responses. We currently have 2 volunteers working on capacity building at food pantries and introducing programs to provide access to health care. We hope to expand to 10 volunteers by the end of the year. The primary data we need to track would be clients served, volunteer hours, quantity of food distributed, etc. The goal is to be able to use the data to show it is making a difference and show that the program is sustainable. The organization is funded by grants so tracking of donors is not essential. It is an AmeriCorps program so preferable for it to be easily trained to use Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 17:02