In late 2009, we were looking for a better solution for one of our larger faith-based clients. The AMS and CRMs we investigated were either too expensive or too simplistic. We had taken a hard look at CiviCRM about a year earlier, but we didn’t think it was ready. However, with the release of CiviCRM 3.1, CiviCRM was more mature and gave us the flexibility and Drupal integration we needed. CiviCRM was ready and so were we.
Making the decision to implement CiviCRM was probably the most pivotal decision we made at BackOffice Thinking. Flash forward to 2016, CiviCRM is still our go-to CRM/AMS in many situations ; CiviCRM has matured and developed into a leader in the space.
I’d been involved in other open source “communities”, but this one is different for several reasons. Two that stand out are:
(1) CiviCRM becomes the lifeblood of nonprofits it serves. The community understands how important this is and it drives us to make it best possible solution. We see CiviCRM and nonprofits as kindred spirits both driven to make the world a better place and this drives our passion.
(2) Openness of partners. Yes, there are times when we compete with other CiviCRM implementators, but for the most part, we see each other as part of the same community. We share ideas, approaches and solutions with each other often and without reservation. We all believe that it's paramount for nonprofits to have the best possible experience with CiviCRM.
Over the years, we’ve given back to CiviCRM in different ways, but today we concentrate in marketing CiviCRM especially to nonprofits exploring CRMs with little or no knowledge in CiviCRM. There are so many great technical folks giving back to the community, we felt our help in marketing could really make a difference.
