A CRM for a Chamber of Commerce
Rocky Mountain French American Chamber of Commerce
The Rocky Mountain chapter of the French American Chamber of Commerce network (RMFACC) is a membership based organization that manages approximately 200 members and twelve events per year including two major fundraisings. The organization is run by a small team of three employees based in different locations and a board of directors.
Before implementing CiviCRM, the whole organization was managed using multiple software (Excel files, emailing software, event registration) with no comprehensive control of the Chamber’s operations and frequent inconsistencies due to multiple data entry.
The goal for CiviCRM implementation was to improve and automate day-to-day operations such as membership, event and financial management, streamline communications, collaborate more efficiently with staff, volunteers, and members.
Background
To improve and automate memberships management
To improve membership retention and recruitment of new members
To improve and automate communications with members and targeted prospective members
To reduce the time needed to update the membership database and online directory
To improve and automate event management
To provide reporting on the Chamber’s activities and revenues
To enable collaboration and document sharing between the staff and the board
Challenges
The Chamber has a very limited budget, and no in-house technical skills. Finding the time to collect, organize and cleanse the data to import in CiviCRM. Custom developments needed to synchronize the member database between CiviCRM with their online directory on their public website (Typo3 based).
Solution
Cividesk implemented a complete solution assembled out of open source or low cost components: CiviCRM hosted on a Cloud Server and GoogleApps. Cividesk developed the integration between CiviCRM and their website, the synchronization between CiviCRM and Google Contacts and single sign-on between CiviCRM and Google Apps.
The whole solution is delivered as an affordable monthly service including ongoing technical support, mentoring and training, maintenance, backups, software updates. The users know they always have someone available to answer their questions or provide assistance.
CiviCRM was chosen because it is fully customizable, specifically designed for nonprofits, powerful and cost effective.
Functionality
The online membership directory is now synchronized with the member database, eliminating the duplication of data entry. The membership and event management processes are automated (membership renewal reminders, online membership and event registration, automated email messages before and after events).
Developed by
Cividesk provides affordable CiviCRM services for nonprofit organizations including implementation, training, data import, hosting, maintenance and support. We are headquartered in Denver but also have a presence in India in order to best support our customers in various time zones and to answer our customer’s needs for software development and customizations.
Cividesk was founded in 2011 on the premises that CiviCRM users will need on-going support and best practices sharing to fully realize the potential of this incredibly rich software. Over the years Cividesk has grown to become one of the leading Software-as-a-Service providers for CiviCRM. We do have customers in more than 25 countries or states around the world, spanning all types of nonprofit organizations – charitable, humanitarian, advocacy, religious, political, governmental and trade-oriented.
We provide you with a fully configured CiviCRM, take care of all the technology behind the scenes, and are always available to answer any questions you might have. No surprises: hosting, maintenance, mentoring and unlimited customer support are bundled into a fixed monthly subscription so you can budget your expenses in advance.
