T he survey also found that staff members were frustrated with the systems they were using because they lacked the necessary functionality for them to effectively communicate and do outreach. Specifically: search capability was limited; there was no ability to send high-volume emails which meant that it was not possible to send newsletters or announcements; and there was no ability to collect information online. After investigating several database systems, the IT Department finally decided that, all things considered, CiviCRM might be the best fit for the AFSC.
What They Did Initially, CiviCRM sites with CiviMail, managed by an external vendor, were established for offices in Los Angeles, Rhode Island, San Francisco and Seattle. Los Angeles also chose to use the CiviEvent component to track event registrations and the CiviMember component to track contact information of committee members. After implementation, an LA staff person discovered that certain functionality was missing from the CiviMember export component and this was preventing them from being able to compile a membership directory. AFSC talked to the CiviCRM Core development team and contracted them to add the missing functionality. T his was a win-win situation: AFSC got the functionality they needed and because it was integrated back into the CiviCRM product, the entire CiviCRM community was able to benefit from the addition. An extra advantage for AFSC is that because the functionality became a standard part of CiviCRM they don't have to worry about compatibility with future upgrades.
The Results T he decision to have their sites hosted and managed by an external vendor turned out not to be a good one when the vendor ran into difficulties and was not responsive to issues or in providing the services that had been promised, such as timely updates for CiviCRM. Once the hosting issue was resolved, staff were able to take full advantage of the capabilities of CiviCRM and do all of the things that they had previously been unable to do. T he Los Angeles office is in full swing, using CiviCRM as the main repository to track their constituents, board, committee members and volunteers. T heir constituents are able to sign up for events and petitions online, and staff can send volume emails for newsletters and announcements. Getting rid of their old system and being able to send out a monthly newsletter was the main goal for the Colorado office, who came on board with CiviCRM a little later in the process. T hey are now able to identify newsletter subscribers and send the newsletter to them via CiviCRM. T hey couldn't be happier! T he AFSC currently has nine CiviCRM sites and the IT Department is now recommending CiviCRM as the "database of choice" for all of its offices. Support from the CiviCRM community is excellent and CiviCRM itself is improving every day, as more and more functionality being added. AFSC staff are now able to access their data from any place that has internet access, run complex searches, manage online event registrations and send online newsletters and postal mailings. CiviCRM has enabled them to better manage their constituents. T his makes their life easier and in turn, is of great benefit to AFSC.
ACTIVATING THE COMMUNITY
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