CiviCRM is free to download, but it is not free to maintain, improve, secure, document, or support. There’s an essential core team and a host of partners providing services to nonprofits, and neither runs on hope and wishes. They need funding to make it all go around.
It also works quite differently from a typical commercial CRM, which can make people look at you a bit sideways in an introductory call. In practical terms, there is no single vendor deciding and funding everything that gets built.
When an organization adopts CiviCRM, it becomes part of the ecosystem around it. How much involvement is up to you from there.
Every organization benefits from what others build. However, the ecosystem only works when enough organizations also help make, fund, test, and collaborate. The ecosystem needs more makers, not just takers.
The problem comes when too many organizations act only as passive consumers. They wait for someone else to fund the feature, fix the bug, maintain the extension, or build the integration.
But there is not always a someone else.
That’s why it’s so critical for CiviCRM as an entity to attract large organizations. These big organizations can make an outsized difference by funding improvements that also benefit the wider community. The New York State Senate, Wikimedia, and Amnesty International are a few examples that come to mind.
If something matters to your organization, you may need to scratch that itch. It’s not an all or nothing decision that can rely only on a small number of heavy-lifting organizations.
Pay for operational support from a CiviCRM Partner
Operational support (or a similar style mode of engagement from a partner’s services) creates capacity to investigate problems, reproduce bugs, document issues, test fixes, and coordinate with maintainers.
It goes beyond simply keeping software updated and hosted.
Fund an extension improvement
Start with the CiviCRM Extensions Directory. Another organization likely has already funded or shared something close to what you need. Building off an existing extension can provide a shortcut.
And this is key with AI development. You may get something that works now without engaging with community but maintenance and fixes down the road will also be on you. It might take some more effort to collaborate but it’s usually worth it.
Participate in a make it happen funding effort
Some improvements matter to several organizations but are too large for one to fund alone. In the CiviCRM, world, we call these Make it Happen campaigns. Shared funding lets organizations with the same need pool resources and move the work forward together.
Contribute staff time and expertise
Not every contribution requires writing code. A lot of times it is understanding how CiviCRM works and identifying business use cases using the software.
Testing, documenting bugs, reviewing designs, sharing implementation experience in Mattermost Chat or sharing a success story. There are many working groups that all need help.
Donate to the wider project
Organizations can become a CiviCRM Member Organization, with recommended dues based on annual budget. Individuals can also make a recurring contribution through the CiviCRM Coffee Club.
Here’s the deal:
Organizations will contribute at different levels, because it is all about ROI and value delivered. But if you depend on CiviCRM, that surely is not zero. Take a moment to review the list above and ask what ways make sense for you and your organization.
You do not just use CiviCRM. You are part of what keeps it moving forward.