When you take a hard look at what CRM you might want to use, it’s common to strictly look at what it can get you. Features. Support packages. Integrations. Hard cost benefit analysis.
But, there’s one area I find that is overlooked too often. The CiviCRM community values and how they align with that of the nonprofits it serves.
First off, let’s get it straight on who “CiviCRM” is. From the about page:
Founded in 2005 as a California-based Limited Liability Company, CiviCRM was conceived as an alternative to proprietary CRMs serving the nonprofit sector. As open source software, CiviCRM was made freely available for use and improvement, allowing it to attract a passionate community of software developers and nonprofit professionals to drive its roadmap and feature set.
Its vision was and continues to be:
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.
When I talk with nonprofits considering CiviCRM, this community-driven ethos resonates deeply. And it’s no surprise why.
Let’s be real: slick marketing, “limited-time” discounts, and promises that they are the only tool for you like NationBuilder boasts: “No one else can do what we do.” That’s quite the confidence there. Okay…
The nonprofit world, in particular, craves authenticity—a quality that corporate-run CRM companies can’t really deliver on. Of course some people won’t care and just want the technical tools to do the job and move on with life. But others do give it more thought. Maybe you?
So I got to thinking about the the top line reasons what makes CiviCRM and nonprofits are kindred spirits as a nonprofit leader:
- Meaningful Mission over Profit: CiviCRM empowers nonprofits with tools to prioritize impact and community over shareholders and the profit-motive.
- Community-Oriented: It’s developed, maintained by a global community of contributors, and many users who share approaches and experiences to creative a collective effort.
- Transparency and Accountability: As an open-source platform, the code and processes are well, open, without any artificial barriers to making it better other than skills or some funding, aligning with nonprofit values of transparency and ethical operations.
- Decentralized: It’s all about do-ocracy! That is, a non-hierarchical approach valuing all who contribute time and energy into the project. There is a core team of 6 people, 50 some partners who implement and develop it, additional developers that are even from nonprofit organizations directly, DIY implementers and super users plus the 10,000+ organizations who rely on it. Many who provide support, feedback and new ways of looking at problems.
- Sustainability: Nonprofits retain full control of their data and systems with CiviCRM while also leveraging ongoing updates of the community, avoiding vendor lock-in and ensuring the platform “keeps up” with industry standards and is maintainable.
- Mission-First Development: Features and enhancements are done by the end organization or on their behalf to “scratch the itch”. This benefits all organizations with each new version.
- Built for Advocacy and Action: With features for campaigning, fundraising, and community engagement, CiviCRM supports the features nonprofits count on. That’s why it can claim the “#1 open source CRM for nonprofits” title for a reason.
Here’s the deal:
Choosing CiviCRM means aligning with a community that’s genuinely here for the right reasons—to create meaningful change for humanity and the world around us. No ulterior motives, no hidden agendas. What you see is what you get…WYSIWYG, sorry I had to do that.
CiviCRM isn’t just software; it’s a reflection of your nonprofit’s values too.
And that creates something special: deeper trust, a shared purpose, and a connection that goes further than a transactional relationship for some piece of software.