CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi Folks! 

I've been playing with CiviCRM for the last few weeks and I love it. I can't begin to tell you how many projects I can think to use it for. I'm excited! Anyway, I wonder if someone would mind giving me some advice on how I should set things up. Here are my main goals:

1.) Voter signup (creates an account or use existing account) - collect name/address/vote preference (by mail, early vote, election day, etc)
2.) Volunteer signup (creates new account or use existing account) - collect name/address/volunteer interests (phone bank, canvassing, etc.)
3.) Contributor/Donate (creates new account or use existing account) - collect name/address/occupation

All of these types of individuals could be independent from each other or not, in other words, you could have a contributor that does not volunteer or vote. Or, you could have a contributor that both votes and volunteers.

The real challenge I'm having is planning, do I create a profile for each of these (and if I do, do I add all of the fields - name/address/special - to the profile or just the special field i.e. vote preference, volunteer interests, occupation)? If I add the voter profile to druapl user registration, would that mean that it's going to show up on the volunteer form and the contribute form (because they would be creating a new account)?

I want to mark these folks when they signup in a group or a tag, is one better than the other? From what I gathered, group is good best for mail contacts and tags are best for searches?

I also read a short description about going at the volunteer from as a participant angle, any opinions on that? It made me think that maybe I should be going at this all from a different angle (i.e. making voter = members, volunteers = participants, contributor = duh). Hence this post.

Oh, one more thing, there is a possibility that we might also import voter data (this is a long shot) and use it for phonebanks/canvassing using CiviEngage. What considerations should I be trying to make?

Thanks for your thoughts!

Scott

Thanks xavier for the reply (and so quickly)!

I had the same thought about the case study and/or maybe a screencast. I did read the book, through and through. I even made diagrams. Over-thinking takes skill! If I ever get anything back for my volunteer time you can bet I will make a donation to civiCRM! Seriously, I've been so impressed. I'm really excited about the civiCRM rules module that I read about (primarily for the location module functionality).

I think you're right about keeping it simple. I'll certainly take that advice and I often need to be reminded. :p

I think you helped me see my dilemma more clearly. Thanks!