It’s amazing that we’re talking about CiviCRM in 2016. First, because it’s 2016… how time flies! And second, because we’re still pushing CiviCRM forward after 11 years! This year does mark a big change for CiviCRM, however. As Dave Greenberg indicated several weeks ago, he and Donald Lobo, the co-founders of CiviCRM, have transitioned to advisers of the project and are no longer active Core Team members. We’ve spent much of the last half of 2015 preparing for this transition and adapting the Core Team’s capacity to continue pushing CiviCRM for another 11 years. We’ll be very focused on keeping the momentum going and on making certain that CiviCRM remains true to its mission of ensuring that all organizations have access to an amazing CRM, regardless of their size, budget or focus.
What else is in store for CiviCRM in 2016? Similar to 2015, we’re going to focus heavily on making CiviCRM sustainable. That not only means growing its base of supporters, it means scaling the overall size of the ecosystem. We’ve been beating the sustainability drumbeat for a few years but we’re still not where we need to be, closing out 2015 with only 60 (albeit awesome) members and a shortfall of $134k in the budget. Like the very organizations that use CiviCRM, we’re sincere when we ask for financial contributions. CiviCRM operates and is built to impact the world, but it can only continue to do so with strong community support.
By this time next year, we want to have 250 member organizations, 75 partners and over 12,000 active installations.
This is an ambitious plan for sure. You can help us get a head-start by becoming a member today. :)
What about future versions of CiviCRM? In the Fall of 2015, the Core Team introduced a broad product roadmap, citing improvements to the API, a new form tool, and support for Bootstrap as primary objectives for version 5.0. Before 5.0 however, we have version 4.7. Slated for release at the end of January, 4.7 will be the last in the 4.x series, meaning that we will begin work on CiviCRM 5.0 later this year. We've had a lot of feedback and discussion with CiviCRM partners and stakeholders on the CiviCRM roadmap which has helped shape our approach to implementing improvements. Stay tuned for more details as we get into the new year and get ready to get stuck into 5.0 development with us!
In addition to work on version 5.0, CiviCRM will undertake organizational changes in 2016 to ensure that it has the capacity to deliver on its technical plans and to further achieve its mission of ensuring access to a world class CRM for NPOs. As developers, we tend to get technical in a hurry. However, just as we plan to improve CiviCRM the software, we hope to mature the organization and the ecosystem behind it throughout 2016. As the year progresses, we plan to more clearly align our strategies such that CiviCRM can foster ecosystem growth and can sustain its product development goals.
Here are a few organizational objectives that we hope to bring online within the first quarter of 2016:
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Improved contributor program
Contributors truly are the lifeblood of the project, providing patches, improvements and support for the core product. Going forward, we want to do a better job of tracking, encouraging and recognizing contributors. -
Implement trademark policy
CiviCRM exceeded 10,000 active installations in 2015 and continues to see a slow increase in community growth. We’d like to see the pace of growth increase more rapidly and more steadily. Part of managing growth is providing clear structure on how the community can take CiviCRM and push it forward in a concerted, consistent manner. Trademarks and branding policies are steps in a larger effort to standardize and improve our marketing and communications. -
Implement project teams
We’ve maintained a simple set of community guidelines to help coordinate the project up to its current release. As we look at the overall ecosystem and consider the project’s complexity, its underlying need for sustainability, as well as the role and constraints on the Core Team, we feel that the ecosystem needs to more clearly be driven by defined project teams. We’re evaluating models implemented at Ubuntu, Joomla and others and will introduce a model unique to CiviCRM that not only helps to focus the community’s efforts, but that ideally fosters both end-user and developer growth and better recognizes project contributions. -
B-Corp certification
Currently, CiviCRM is a California-based Limited Liability Company. Though the formal structure will not change this year, we do hope to achieve B-Corp certification as many of its central ideals resonate with the Core Team and with the community at large.
This is just an overview of some of our plans for 2016. Look for more details and communications as the year progresses. We’re very excited about the new year and the future of CiviCRM, and as always, we invite you to get involved and support CiviCRM.
