By nvisioncurtis on

Hi All,

I'm looking for some general advice and recommendations on whether to use the civiCRM modules.

-- Is CiviCRm generally considered a good solid modules?
-- Are they easy to use?
-- Are the functionality they provide better suited through other modules?
-- If so, what modules would you recommend over these?

civiCONTRIBUTE - Online fundraising and donor management.
civiEVENT - Online event registration and participant tracking.
civiMEMBER - Online signup and membership management.
civiMAIL - Personalized email blasts and newsletters.

At first glace CiviCRM looks like it fits a lot of my non-profit client's needs, but then I strated watching the tutorials and began to wonder if the features could be accomplished with other modules. They don't look particularly easy to use for non tech types.

My Drupal skills are weak so any information would be helpful.

thanks,

⋅ Categories: Drupal 6.x

Comments

dgeilhufe@yahoo.com’s picture

dgeilhufe@yahoo.com commented

In general, most everything that CiviCRM does can be approximated by native Drupal modules + deep Drupal knowledge + custom code + a lot of time or money. Or you could download CiviCRM.

On the configuration side... creating a contribution page, creating an event, etc., the non technical user is going to need training and practice. Event management and such is just complicated. There are no idiot proof solutions that offer the power and flexibility of CiviCRM. If your client has ultra simple needs, then they probably don't need the complexity of a Drupal solution anyway and you can get the set up on a Drupal/CiviCRM alternative.

Solid? Rock solid.
Easy? For the amount of functionality they provide, they are in the middle-easy range.
Other modules better? Nobody else gives you charity specific functionality... soft credits, full events management, integrated contributions, premiums, etc.

Disclosure: I helped start the CiviCRM project many years ago.

nvisioncurtis’s picture

nvisioncurtis commented

I think that it may be more then I need.

I am going to investigate other options first.