How CiviPlus makes CiviCRM hosting easy

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So it’s not exactly a secret that CiviPlus is based on CiviCRM - whether it’s on our About page, or our very first blog post, we have put a lot of work into bringing this wildly powerful software to its intended nonprofit audience in its most accessible form. This meant tackling the hosting issue that many nonprofits run into when trying to manage their own installations.

Today we’ll be talking about why so many nonprofits choose CiviCRM, why hosting ends up a thorny issue, how CiviPlus tackles the issue, and why CiviPlus is the very best version of CiviCRM available.

Without further ado, let’s begin!

So why is CiviCRM so popular?

With nearly 10,000 active sites across the world, around 290 million contacts across them and over 300 million donations and payments processed, it’s fair to say that CiviCRM has a large userbase. Founded in 2005, CiviCRM is an open source project specifically designed for nonprofit and civic sector organisations.

Being open source, in brief, means that CiviCRM is free to download and get started with. This means you don’t need to pay any licensing fees, you can simply find the latest version on the website and download it.

This fact, alongside the absolute wealth of dedicated membership and charity based features, alongside all of the community’s many extensions means you can get an extremely powerful CRM that you can truly tailor to your needs for no startup fee. This isn’t commercial software reverse engineered for the nonprofit sector, it is a communal project between nonprofits working to build the best possible software.

So why is hosting an issue?

With open source software like CiviCRM, it is true that you don’t need to pay licensing fees if you download and set it up yourself. But you will also need to configure everything, and more than that, you’ll need to host your Civi site and keep it secure and up to date.

Now if you are an expert at servers and deploying databases, this might well be possible. You’ll have to train yourself on CiviCRM’s technical particularities, and be confident that you can keep everything working together and handle any bugs that you may encounter.

However, even if setting up a server seems doable, keep in mind that running your own version of CiviCRM means that you’ll be responsible for the maintenance, including the crucial security updates. And if you want access to any of those community extensions, you’ll have to test them alongside your updates to ensure they don’t break.

The reality is that this is simply not feasible for most nonprofits to manage in house. If you don’t have access to a server whiz and technical guru you’re going to face significant difficulties at every step of the way - but if you do, then it is possible to achieve! But even if you think you have the expertise and want to go down this route, we would still strongly recommend help from an agency, specialised in CiviCRM, such as our very own, Compuco.

How does CiviPlus solve the problem?

CiviPlus takes the hosting issue and makes it easy for you by ensuring that we entirely handle everything for you so you don’t need to worry about a thing!

With over 10 years of experience hosting CiviCRM sites, we’ve got the knowledge to ensure your site runs smoothly. And what makes CiviPlus special is that we keep your site seamlessly patched with the latest security updates plus you get a carefully selected and curated list of the best CiviCRM features and extensions. From our 15 years of experience, we know that this is a package that will be able to service every kind of nonprofit. And we ensure these extensions are kept up to date and running smoothly, while also consistently adding new features to CiviPlus.

This is why CiviPlus has platform fees. Instead of hosting costs mounting in the background, the platform fee costs are predictable and cover everything you’ll need, so you can focus on leveraging the full power of CiviCRM. And it’s quite the feature set!

What else makes up the ‘Plus’ of CiviPlus?

Of course, CiviPlus is more than just a CiviCRM hosting solution. In fact, we’re confident that it might well be the best version of CiviCRM available. As we’ve mentioned it takes some of the most useful community extensions, some innovations of our own and puts them all into a version of Civi that acts as any other SaaS CRM would.

One of the biggest features you won’t see in the standard Civi implementation is our exclusive self service portal. This supporter facing interface is perfect for nonprofits who want to give their supporters something extra special!

This can be especially valuable for organisations with members, volunteers or committees and more. The portal comes with great quality of life features, such as letting supporters update their own details, check invoice history, or download any certificates you may have awarded them. Plus it also provides a tailored experience, letting them see relevant events and news, access a membership directory, or record any CPD hours they’ve achieved, not to mention having a dedicated committee area and being able to support any kind of application process your organisation may need!

How to get started with CiviPlus

Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of Civi, or if you’ve already got an existing CiviCRM site you’d like to make easier to handle, CiviPlus is the perfect platform to serve all of your needs and help you take advantage of one of the most powerful pieces of nonprofit software out there.

Get in touch with our team and they’ll be able to advise you on the best option for getting started today.

Howdy y’all,

We are delighted to announce a new integration of CiviCRM with Open Social, a community engagement platform.

CiviCRM is the number one open source CRM for not-for profits, used by more than 11,000 organisations worldwide, and Open Social is a leading community engagement platform, used by over 1000 organisations in a range of different industries from Charities to member organisations and companies also.

It’s exciting news for organisations using CiviCRM, who will now be able to combine the power of CiviCRM with the collaboration and community building that the Open Social platform provides.
If you’ve not heard of community platforms before, a community platform is a tool that allows your organisation to create your own branded and tailored social network. Users of the platform (normally your members or supporters) can interact, join groups to share knowledge and exchange ideas, publish and promote events and collaborate within a safe online curated space. With a community platform you can expand your digital offer and strengthen your relationship with your supporters.

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Open Social is open source (much like CiviCRM) and as such has no user licences fees. This means it can be deployed affordably to scale to even the largest of communities. It’s also flexible with a huge range of different add-on modules that can be integrated to enhance the platform.

Our new two-way integration between Open Social and CiviCRM syncs data between the two platforms allowing information about the groups and committees that members have joined to be seamlessly synced to CiviCRM. You can even create Open Social groups and manage their membership directly from within CiviCRM, which would be useful for managing private groups in the case of committees or working groups.

By combining the data of a community platform with that in your CiviCRM your organisation can obtain deep insights into your members' interests and behaviours. You can see which groups are popular and engage with your members on topical issues, automating communications and tailoring their experience.

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A great example is a recent implementation for the UN’s PRI (Principles of Responsible Investment). Their user community includes over 2,900 organisations with over 40,000 individuals spread across 6 continents. Their Community Platform now supports discussions between 24,000 users with over 750 online collaboration spaces. The data is seamlessly synced to their CRM allowing for deep insight guiding their policy engagements.

As Open Social partners, we would be delighted to help you start your journey with Open Social and help you build your online community. We can help you through both the implementation and the CiviCRM integration (or other CRM integration such as Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM).

Please contact us through our website https://www.compuco.io/ or by email at hello@compucorp.co.uk.

Further information about Open Social can be found at their website: https://www.getopensocial.com/

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CiviPlus Team

November 24, 2023