IMBA Extends CRM Services to Local Chapters Using CiviCRM

The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit educational association whose mission is to create, enhance and preserve great trail experiences for mountain bikers worldwide. Since 1988, IMBA has been bringing out the best in mountain biking by encouraging low-impact riding, volunteer trail work participation, cooperation among different trail user groups, grassroots advocacy and innovative trail management solutions. IMBA's worldwide network includes 35,000 individual members, more than 750 bicycle clubs, more than 160 corporate partners and about 600 retailer shops. IMBA's members live in all 50 U.S. states, most Canadian provinces and in 30 other countries. IMBA's extensive network of US clubs have traditionally operated independent of the national office in Boulder, CO.

We recognized that continuing down an independent path would lead to competition between clubs, and no incentive for IMBA or the individual chapter's to invest in each other's growth.  So we set out to create a model with joint membership, where individuals and organisations became members of IMBA alongside their local chapter and where all the organizations could grow together.

Prior to Drupal and CiviCRM, only an handful of IMBA staff were able to manage CRM and content creation on the website. Today in the US, it supports 50 internal staff and over 250 local volunteers all of whom have access to CRM and content creation services. There are over 128 chapters now being served by the system. Administrators at each chapter have access to their own contacts in CiviCRM, and all the relevant modules they need to manage membership, communication and organisation of their members.