There are a lot of organizations that can achieve their goals with CiviCRM out of the box. Some organizations though will want to, or need to, customize CiviCRM to their needs. If you do want to customize CiviCRM there are two aspects to think about:

A critical factor in the success of your CRM initiative will be deciding who is on your team. The size of the team will obviously vary among differing organizations; those with 3 staff members will have to do things differently than those with 300. While this section is oriented towards larger organizations, the principles apply to any size.

The implementation team should include the people who will play a direct role in the ongoing project development. Not everyone affected by the CRM initiative needs to be on this core team tasked with driving the strategy and implementation. A good working group is seldom larger than six to eight people, and very often, a smaller group can be more effective. To get where you want to be, it is a good idea to have a representative project team where the different voices of the organization will be heard. Apart from representation, it is also good to have a mix of talents in the team. Some tasks will require extrovert communication skills...

Now that we have a plan in place, we can move from how to set up the project to how to do CRM.

Many non-profits have processes and activities with certain types of constituents that are analogous to those in the marketing and sales areas of for-profit business. Two metaphors that are common in the for-profit arena have crossover value for non-profits. The first one is a sales funnel, which envisions a large number of unqualified (or semi-qualified) prospects entering at the top of the funnel in order to create a sufficient number of sales realized at the bottom. The second metaphor is the picture of a ladder of engagement, with contacts classified according to how many steps they have taken, such as revealing more information about themselves, or increasing involvement on the path toward becoming a client, donor, or volunteer.

In both these metaphors, the overarching goal is to increase commitment and involvement. You want the casual newsletter recipient...

Depending on your process—Agile, or more traditional—you will determine your needs in a less or more formal way. Whatever your process, some approaches are always appropriate.

First of all, it's useful to review the functionality, data structures, and data in your existing systems. Functionality is the easiest to discuss. Define the data fields and collection forms in your current system—custom data and profiles in CiviCRM's terminology—that may be needed in the new system. As you analyze existing systems, don't be limited to your primary contact database alone. For example, if you use paper sign-up sheets at events or have other paper, e-mail, or web-based data collection forms that are not part of your primary system, be sure to include them in the discovery analysis. If you use third-party web-based tools for broadcast emails or advocacy-related engagement, consider how those datasets will by migrated into or integrate...

In this section, we're going to delve more deeply into the functional areas supported by CiviCRM. We'll be reviewing the kinds of questions to ask, often of a more technical nature that will help in planning your implementation. These topics and questions, in our view, are the top-level broad-stroke issues that should be sorted out before specific workflow matters are examined.

We discussed some considerations regarding your server environment and required resource levels. Closely related to that topic is the matter of determining the development environment and code management practices.

In almost every situation, you will want to create a development environment where you can safely implement and test your CiviCRM implementation without impacting your production site. Even if you are not planning to customize CiviCRM in any way, it is still worth creating that development environment where features can be tested, data imports can be reviewed, and you can safely explore different configuration options without risking disruptions to your production site.

Larger organizations, especially those that have planned a phased rollout of their CiviCRM implementation, will likely want three environments:

This chapter outlines how to create a successful CiviCRM implementation project.

The chapter lists common barriers to the success of CRM initiatives that arise because of people issues in an organization, or technical issues getting systems and tools supporting disparate business functions to provide integrated functionality.

We advocate a pragmatic approach to implementing a CRM strategy for your organization. We encourage the adoption of a change in approach and associated processes and methodologies that works for your organization: wide ranges in the level of structure, formality, and planning all work in different organizations. Your implementation plan should include a schedule and a realistic budget that anticipates on-going costs.

Choosing the right people for your team is crucial to the success of the endeavor. Ideally you'll include an executive or board sponsor, one or more key functional managers, one or more key staff users, and appropriate technical expertise for...