CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hello all,

Looking for a recommendation - we are working with a local community development organization on a database project.

They have about 30 staff total, all of whom need access to the database. Half of their staff work on the road or from home, from various towns around the state. Everyone has internet access, but some people are limited to slower connections, such as cellular network.

The bulk of their services can be described as organizing and hosting meetings and trainings. Staff in the field work with staff in the main office to organize meetings, arrange for facilities and catering, and invite attendees. They need to report on such things as what trainings have been offered, where and when, and the demographics of who attended them.

We need a database with a strong event management module to handle these meetings, to track vendors for facilities or catering, and keep a history of who attended and their other ties to the organization. Also, we've just hired a new development person, who intends to grow the fundraising area substantially. To that end, we need a database which can track donors and grantmakers; gifts, conference fees, and grants. She'd like to be able to query the database and find out how our donors are connected to the organization, track grant research notes as well as information on grants they've already received for easy reference.

We are not looking to replace the org's website, but to build them an internal site and tool. If it integrates with other collaboration tools, so much the better, as we'll be looking for integration long-term.

I've installed a test instance of CiviCRM to look at, and it looks like it can most of this, with the exception of some of the grant tracking. Those of you with some experience building/using it, what do you think? Is this a good fit? Has anyone set up CiviCRM for a staff of 30, and how does it work for you?