Author Topic: Non-profit CiviMember setup advice needed. (Read 2887 times)

drupleg · August 24, 2010, 10:31:28 pm

Hi, I am an experienced web developer building websites for non-profits on a volunteer basis. I have developed several non-profit websites with Joomla and WordPress, and now I have an NPO who would greatly benefit by using CiviCRM... and I need help.

I've become lost and frustrated trying to configure CiviCRM+Drupal for our purposes. I've worked with the demo data, read the e-book, tutorials and all sorts disparate documentation.

I'm looking for an experienced CiviCRM developer advise me in getting this project off to a proper start. I'm at the point now where, depending on the responses I receive, I may just leave the project and pass it off to a more experienced CiviCRM developer.

I'm specifically looking for advice on how to configure the following:

Membership Website for a non-profit organization
1,000 Members
This organization has six "Regions" in which members will be classified
Private/protected content pages for paid members
Roughly 12 static pages will be available to all/anonymous users
Several Custom Data fields are needed for the membership profile information (here's where I start to get confused - Drupal "Profiles" are for users' info as I understand it, CiviCRM "Profiles" are data profiles. So I guess we would need Custom Fields for Membership "Info"?)

If I could just get CiviCRM started/configured with the above I could figure out everything else, such as CiviEvent and CiviMail, at a later date on my own.

So far I've:

- Created the Organization
- Configured Membership Levels
- Added a dummy payment processor
- Created a CiviContribute sign-up page for "Membership Dues"
- Added myself as a member with said form

This is where everything goes awry for me and I'm getting lost with the CiviMember to Drupal User account configuration. When I log in as the member I created - my member can see the entire CiviCRM dashboard, which I don't want. I just want the member to see certain members only content and be able to update their own profile info, not administer or ever see the CiviCRM dashboard. Apparently I need to sync up the Drupal registered user with the CiviCRM member info, which I understand is done with the CiviMember/CiviGroup Roles Sync, and that's where I'm TOTALLY lost.

Even just pointing me to existing documentation I may not be finding would be very helpful as some CiviCRM documentation is not so helpful, or non-existent.

Please respond or contact me directly if you can advise on how get this site started properly. Or just let me know if there's a better place for me to post this request. Thank you for your time and consideration.

-Tony

** P.S. ** I would like to add that I am happy to pay a few hundred dollars for your time and guidance. If I can get the hang of CiviCRM I have at least three other non-profits who will benefit from it, some of them do have a budget for a website. ****

tim g. · August 25, 2010, 04:38:41 am

Ok, I recognize the feeling of lost and frustrated; I've been there but not in a few years. In any case I'll direct you to the resources that should help you.

1) If you want to pass the job off to someone else I have found this a challenge. It's not very often that someone volunteers to do something for free (I've done it) but I'm too busy at the moment doing another freebie; well, almost free ... or should I say free part of the time; it's complicated.
... Here is the place to post such requests: http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/board,19.0.html

2) "Membership Website for a non-profit organization"
... a) You can try these resources (the second which you said you've already read):
... http://en.flossmanuals.net/CiviCRM/MembershipPlanning
... http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC32/Configure+Membership

3) "This organization has six "Regions" in which members will be classified"
... If there are only 1000 members I would need to know what way this classification would be relevent to advise which direction that organization of data should go.

4) "Private/protected content pages for paid members"
... wouldl this be a "membership directory" or something else:
http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC32/Creating+a+website+member+directory

5) Roughly 12 static pages will be available to all/anonymous users
... This is one way of tackling the subject http://drupal.org/project/node_privacy_byrole
... Here is a discussion regarding this: http://drupal.org/node/262944
... Please do more research to find the best fit for what 'you' want to do.

6) "Several Custom Data fields are needed for the membership profile information"
... That confused me to. It'll take some getting "used" to.
... http://wiki.civicrm.org/confluence/display/CRMDOC32/Contacts+vs.+Users

tim g. · August 25, 2010, 06:13:58 am

Quote from: agroff on August 24, 2010, 10:31:28 pm

This is where everything goes awry for me and I'm getting lost with the CiviMember to Drupal User account configuration. When I log in as the member I created - my member can see the entire CiviCRM dashboard, which I don't want. I just want the member to see certain members only content and be able to update their own profile info, not administer or ever see the CiviCRM dashboard. Apparently I need to sync up the Drupal registered user with the CiviCRM member info, which I understand is done with the CiviMember/CiviGroup Roles Sync, and that's where I'm TOTALLY lost.

Oh yeah, I was totally lost at this point (but not frustrated) though I had been on this part for two weeks or more.
This will get cleared up for you once you get a really good hold on ACL (Access Control Lists).

You can read about my adventure here: http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,14847.0.html and thanks to Lobo and two weeks of not so happy trial and error, I have a good hold on it now so I will be happy to answer any questions you have about it as you ramble through that link above :-)

drupleg · August 27, 2010, 07:59:35 am

Hi tg, thank you for your response! Your previous post threads have been very helpful as I'm in the exact same situation you were. I'm still struggling though and I've decided to speak with a professional consultant to get my first CiviCRM site configured properly. I'm hoping to blog about my experience and perhaps put together a simple tutorial/case study on the challenges I am facing as a CiviCRM noob.

Thank you!
-Tony

tim g. · September 09, 2010, 02:21:51 am

Your welcome; happy to be of help when I can. I learned years ago that the best way to learn; is to teach.

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Author Topic: Non-profit CiviMember setup advice needed. (Read 2887 times)

drupleg

Non-profit CiviMember setup advice needed.

tim g.

Re: Non-profit CiviMember setup advice needed.

tim g.

Re: Non-profit CiviMember setup advice needed.

drupleg

Re: Non-profit CiviMember setup advice needed.

tim g.

Re: Non-profit CiviMember setup advice needed.