Join us in Seattle in May and learn from our powerhouse PTP team. Working with our team, you'll apply CiviCRM / PowerBase skills through the lens and context of  using data to turn out people to your events, tracking leadership development and membership activities, sending out mass emails, conducting phonebanks  and e-advocacy campaigns, using different reporting and dashboard features to analyze your data and show the results of your work, and much more.

Are you a CiviCRM user?  You're welcome to join us too! PowerBase is CiviCRM, hosted and supported by Progressive Technology Project. The lessons we cover in this training will help you use your CiviCRM more effectively.   Most of the PowerBase features are available to all CiviCRM users.  This does not mean, however, that your CiviCRM installation will actually have all the features that PowerBase offers.  Please contact us if you have any questions.

Sessions
Each day will cover a different track. You can attend one, two, or all three days. You do not have to attend all three days nor do you have to start with fundamentals if you are already familiar with CiviCRM / PowerBase.

This is what participants told us at PTP's recent trainings:

"I learned things in this training that will greatly increase my organization's ability to have successful fundraising campaigns."

"PTP helps our organization combine communications and technology to go further"

"PowerBase is a gift for organizations large and small that want technology that is designed by and for organizers."

"PTP is bringing the cutting edge of constituency management to grassroots organizations. Powerbase is simply an excellent product and the support couldn't be better.

Session 1: CiviCRM / PowerBase Fundamentals

Session 1 provides a foundation for participants who need a stronger understanding of the key features of CiviCRM / PowerBase. This session emphasizes hands-on learning, with exercises designed to show participants how to accomplish the typical day-to-day operations of an organization using CiviCRM / PowerBase. Participants, working at their own pace, will learn to use PowerBase confidently. Specifically we will cover how to:

• Support an organizing campaign, from entering door knocking data through taking attendance at a meeting
• Enter and retrieve data about your base: contact information, demographic information that matters to you, issues interest, other special data you want to collect
• Send mass emails and SMS to a targeted list
• Manage events in CiviCRM / PowerBase and organize your staff to make turn out calls
• Keep track of relationships and interactions with members, constituents, elected officials, media

Prerequisite: Session 1 is designed for participants who want to learn basic skills in using CiviCRM or PowerBase to accomplish the day-today operations needed for an organization.

Session 2: Advanced Organizing Strategies

Everything we do involves organizing people to do something - whether it is coming to an event, attending a demonstration, volunteering at a phone bank, making a donation, getting out to vote, or other activities to move people to take some form of action. There is more than one way to organize and there is more than one way to use CiviCRM / PowerBase. Session 2 focuses on applying various organizing strategies to CiviCRM / PowerBase. We will cover common organizing approaches, including those brought by the participants, and discuss and demonstrate how to use PowerBase to accomplish these strategies most effectively. Specifically, we will cover:

• Leadership Engagement: how do you know who a leader is? How do you find your most engaged leaders?
• Strategic segmentation: Who are you constituents? How can you most strategically segment them? How do you use groups, relationships and other features in CiviCRM / PowerBase to accomplish this goal?
• Advanced Workflows: How can you manage data from various locations, like the VAN, or external petitions? How do strategically import the data you need and classify it so you can effectively use it
• Organizing Strategies: How can you use online organizing to build our base? Should you use e-advocacy? How can you collect donations and event registrations at the same time? How do we organize gala events, with tables and sponsors?
• Mobilizing: what is the best way to get people to an event? Or collect donations?

Prerequisite: Session 2 is designed for participants who have basic experience and comfort with CiviCRM or PowerBase or have completed a CiviCRM / PowerBase Fundamentals session.

Session 3: Being More Effective & Strategic: Making All Your CiviCRM/ PowerBase Dreams Come True

You may know that there's lots of possibilities with CiviCRM / PowerBase and you have specific campaigns or organizational workflows or daily tasks that you want to manage using CiviCRM / PowerBase. How can CiviCRM / PowerBase support this work? Session 3 is a supervised work session where you can spend the time to configure and organize your CiviCRM / PowerBase the way you want it. The day will start with each participant or group sharing the plan you want to accomplish for the day. Then, we will spend the day preparing CiviCRM / PowerBase and designing the workflow to support your plan with two PowerBase professionals to coach you every step of the way. When you are done, we'll end with a show-and-tell. The following are examples of plans you may bring to this training:

• Set up the de-dupe rules that make sense for your organization and designing your de-dupe process;
• Create up the perfect Gala work flow, with a registration page, sponsorships and group tables;
• Develop up a strategic grassroots fundraising campaign workflow, peer-to-peer campaign, and more;
• Identify the right membership strategy for your organization - with multiple levels and the ability to pay dues monthly or annually, in person or on-line;
• Re-work your groups / smart groups and establish a new organization-wide policy on bulk email messages;
• Prepare for a major volunteer driven phone banking donation sprint.

Prerequisite: Session 3 is designed for participants who have basic experience and comfort with CiviCRM or PowerBase or have completed a CiviCRM / PowerBase Fundamentals session.

Costs

Pricing will be per person per day. Each person registers for the session (or sessions) they wish to attend. For example, if a person would like to register for both Session 2 and Session 3, they could do so. If an organization would like to send several staff members, each staff member registers and pays individually. Please contact us if you have questions.

If you are organizing, fundraising, organizing events or doing communications in your organization, then this training is for you.

Please sign up ASAP to guarantee your spot at the training. We'll close registration when we're full or by May 8th, which ever comes first.

Questions?

Get in touch with us with any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. The best way to get our quick attention to your questions about the training is to send an email to support@progressivetech.org.

This training is a "commuter" training and will be held at the offices of SEIU 775 in Seattle. Please plan on arranging your own accommodations and travel to the training site. We plan to start the training promptly at 9 AM and end at 5 PM each day.