Using CiviCRM to Engage Global Members and Promote Human Rights
International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) is a member-based network that connects NGO’s, social movements and advocates across more than 75 countries to build a global movement to make human rights and social justice a reality for all. ESCR-Net has used CiviCRM to improve the network’s communication with members which has resulted in strengthening their organization at the global level.
Background
ESCR-Net did not have a comprehensive system of contact management for their data. They were using outdated Excel spreadsheets that contained some of their contacts, whereas other contacts were stored in staff’s email address books, in yahoo groups or on various computers. They needed a centralized data system in order to streamline communication outreach with members. In addition, the organization was required to update their website when their original website platform was sunsetted. They chose to migrate to Drupal because it would integrate well with CiviCRM.
Challenges
The staff was not prepared for the time commitment required to get CiviCRM up and running. Like many organizations, they were busy working on other urgent projects and it was extremely difficult to launch a website, coordinate a major international meeting and get started with CiviCRM all at the same time. So during the implementation of CiviCRM, they found they could not find the time to effectively clean their data for import. In retrospect, ESCR-Net realized they should have adequately budgeted staff (or intern) time to effectively prepare the data and they should have chosen a less intensive period in their organization’s schedule to start the implementation.
Solution
CiviCRM met all their primary needs including:
- Organizing contacts that include media, donors, and governments from around the world
- Ability to easily identify contact types, differentiate by language, personalize emails and contact targeted groups
- Needing a new website and Drupal integrates well with CiviCRM
- Multiple language options
Functionality
Groups, Smartgroups and Tags have been key to successfully managing contacts in the way they were hoping.
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.
