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For Non-Profits, Common Ground vs. Raiser's Edge?

Posted by timothy on from the nope-we-lost-it-all dept.

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?"

6 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. heh by stoolpigeon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I work for a large non-profit. We use Peoplesoft with Goldmine and we are moving to Siebel for the donations/fund development systems I think. I'm out of that side now. Outside the US for our smaller offices we use home grown stuff.

    I'm curious if there are too many people here with hands on with both these packages, it seems a pretty niche type thing to have worked with either. But maybe I'm wrong.

    There's a desktop CRM solution - TntMPD that has been extended out to support larger endeavors. It's Free as in Beer - not FOSS though. I use it, (I raise the funds that cover the cost of my employment myself) and I couldn't imagine life without it. So I thought I'd throw that out there for anyone that might be interested in the general topic. I wouldn't use if it for an organization system, but it works very nicely to extend data out to the people doing the actual fund development. We don't do central fund raising so we've got thousands of people doing that.

    I wonder what it would take to tweak a FOSS solution to fit this need. It would be fun and just looking at the pricing on the two options you've linked, I would think it could be profitable to build and support it.

    --
    It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
    1. Re:heh by metrometro · · Score: 5, Interesting

      > I wonder what it would take to tweak a FOSS solution to fit this need.

      Uh, yeah. Done. The FOSS answer to this is called CiviCRM. Works pretty well, but it's always a question of meeting organization needs to the tech solution -- YMMV. http://civicrm.org/aboutcivicrm

      My org (nonprofit, ~1.5M annual budget, data creators) uses Salesforce.com, which is donated to us gratis by the Salesforce Foundation. Saelsforce.com is the shit. Common Ground is just a rebranded version of Salesforce.com, presumably because people in the social sector are opposed to both sales and force.

    2. Re:heh by oatworm · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Civi isn't bad, though it does have a few quirks. To start with, you're probably hosting it on a web server somewhere, which means rolling out either Joomla or Drupal to host it - this means you need someone and something that can handle that, which is only trivial on Slashdot forums. Also, credit card processing is a little wonky, especially if you use a semi-supported gateway (Auth.net recurring transactions, last I checked, weren't supported). That said, it's hard to argue about the price.

    3. Re:heh by ThePortlyPenguin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      We're in the process of moving to CiviCRM. Setup was somewhat harder than it should have been, mainly because it wants PHP 5.2, not 5.3, which most of the repos have already switched to. But after installation, it has been smooth sailing. And it's clearly capable of doing the job for us. It is REALLY well thought out for non-profit CRM or "partnership management". All the rough edges are smoothed away, too.

      $6M budget, 250 personnel all over the world.

  2. one NPO CTO's experience w/RE and CIviCRM... by mlinksva · · Score: 4, Interesting

    http://yergler.net/blog/2010/04/22/civicon-plenary-what-are-we-paying-for/

  3. As a donor, what I would like from non-profits... by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 4, Interesting

    a) I gave you money unsolicited, for your cause. I only give when I can, and want to. Almost NEVER is it due to a solicitation or campaign.
    b) Please don't send me unsolicited materials, you are wasting your (our) money and I resent that a portion of my donation is being churned back into solicitations and not the original purpose.
    c) Don't sell my name to other charities. I know, it is a fund raiser (maybe?) but I will NOT respond to their solicitations. They are wasting their money sending me pleas...
    d) Please remove my name from your list when I ask, (usually the "c" listers, but sometimes the "a" lister too!). If I go thru the trouble of asking to be removed, I will REALLY not EVER donate to that organization.
    e) Just because the return address on my envelope doesn't match the address on the check I am still just one person. Please don't harvest this extra info into your database and SEND ME TWO of everything! What a double waste of money.
    f) It would be nice if you sent the tax-deduction acknowledgment letter, but just once at the end of the year is fine.
    BTW - I do check the efficacy of your charity before I give.

    I don't mean to be dickish about this, but there are more good causes than I can support, so this is just part of how I chose which to give to.

    In short, your CRM software should allow you to check the "hey this guy will give us money if we DON'T bug him" box.

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.