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For Non-Profits, Common Ground vs. Raiser's Edge?
lanimreT writes "I work at a medium-sized non-profit organization. We've been considering a switch from our current constituent relationship manager (CRM) The Raiser's Edge to Common Ground, a non-profit-focused CRM built on SalesForce. I would like to hear from other organizations that have already done this. What features are present in Raiser's Edge but missing in Common Ground? Is your workflow improved by the new software? If you had it to do over again, would you make the switch?"
Too soon, dude! Too soon!
Raisers Edge builds the kind of queries that will have skilled SQL DBAs scratching their heads and saying things like, "I never realized you could do that with SQL."
As soon as you throw one of the previously mentioned uber queries on it, the poor thing will grind to a halt. The other day we did a 50,000 constituent export on a dual, quad-core Xeon box and it took two and a half hours to finish.
Sir, I think it is possible that the head-scratching from the skilled DBAs is less "how" and more "why." Not that all queries should run quickly, but if it takes 2.5 hours to select 50,000 rows I suspect that there may be a lack of optimization in how it builds those queries. Or possibly in how it builds its indices. Or something.
No OS on the planet can protect itself from a user with the admin password. - Yvan256
Don't get me wrong - I agree with your take. Trouble is, they wouldn't do that sort of thing if it didn't work. The honest truth is that a lot of people donate sporadically or impulsively to non-profit organizations for various reasons (family member comes up to them for some fund-raising activity, usually). Consequently, the non-profit can send a notice to remind the person that, hey, they donated to the non-profit in the past - would they like to do it again? Most of the time, the answer is "no", but it's yes often enough where they more than make back any money they put into the campaign, and certainly make more net than they would've made if they sat around and waited for the occasional check to float through.
It's annoying, but it's life.
Most NPOs can't even afford a decent tech guy, much less a dedicated DBA.
Remember that the next time someone asks how they can build a resume or get some experience. It may not be cutting edge, but working on an older system, gathering requirements, implementing changes and training... that can make a huge difference in their systems, build your resume, and give you an excellent reference. All this plus you can do some good. Find a charity that you like (warning: some have extremely strong views - know who you volunteer for) and it will be a really rewarding experience.
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
Yeah, the money's why I took an 80% pay cut to work for a 501(c)3. And am loving it!
I agree with #3, though, as long as you include LAMP/Drupal/CiviCRM as a "off-the-shelf" product.