I recently started being a part of the CiviCRM Ambassador Program — informal, no-pressure conversations for new prospective users to see what CiviCRM could do for their organization.
Shortly after the CiviCRM Core Team published “Forget beer, let’s talk pricing” article, I had two CiviCRM exploration calls — literally back to back — that showed just how flexible CiviCRM is, especially regarding budget expectations.
The first started off pretty soon with:
We have no budget. Like, zero dollars.
I smiled, mentioned TANSTAAFL, and suggested CiviCRM Spark — $15/month for a ready-to-go system. It’s all they really needed to move away from spreadsheets and manage their small association more effectively.
The second call was more along the work with a partner traditional route.
An environmental organization looking to manage incoming and outgoing grants, run events, and coordinate their network of partner organizations. They’d already seen a similar type group succeed with CiviCRM and planned to work with that same CiviCRM implementer.
Two very different budgets. Same platform.
That’s the power of open source — CiviCRM can fit both a grassroots startup and a mature, more sophisticated nonprofit.
Vision in action:
That all organizations – regardless of their size, budget, or focus – have access to an amazing CRM to engage their contacts and achieve their missions; that they own their data and their code; and that they can modify and extend their CRM without restriction.