CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Please see post http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,22416.new.html#new  for the details of what I am trying to do.

Basically, we want a CiviCRM site to run petition campaigns in every state in the US.  Each state will have different petitions and will need a "State Coordinator" to oversee the work and volunteers in each state.

As I am new to Drupal and CiviCRM I need assistance in how best to structure the site from the beginning.

All assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for the reply, Robinhood.

I have looked into Organic Groups but I'm not sure that will do what I want as that is for Drupal and I want the organization to be structured inside of CiviCRM.

The main reason for using CiviCRM in the first place is that we need to have separate petitions for different states and the petition software is written for CiviCRM.  So it seems to me that the "groups" need to be within CiviCRM somehow.

I could be mistaken but this is my first time trying to work with these programs so I don't know.

Is there anyone else who can help us with this?  We will consider paying someone to help us if you have the necessary understanding of these systems.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Trishah

You might also find a well-placed Custom Field of type "State/Prov" to be useful in categorizing things like activities.

Using an Org or using Groups are two different approaches. They could go together, but probably it's more logical to use one or the other. If you had a State Org "Then when people sign up or sign a petition they would have a relationship with that particular "State Organization"."

You would probably have to custom code that feature however. Although perhaps with Rules you could also do it.

colemanw, thank you--I was not aware of that.

trishah, this sounds like it might be perfect for you. Note that colemanw is actually the author of the Webform CiviCRM Integration module so he is a good person to ask about this.

A good person to discuss this with might be Mary Ellen. (m.e. on the forums) She just completed a site that sounds almost exactly like yours - survey forms, civicrm, drupal, and cd. sunlight.

Hello Mary Ellen,

Thank you very much for your offer of assistance!  I appreciate any help you can offer.  Here are the basics that I can divulge outside my confidentiality agreement...

I am the web designer for a new corporation that has a product that will make incandescent light bulbs meet the new energy efficiency standards the US in enacting.  However, the new law will make it impossible to manufacture or import incandescent bulbs, making this energy-efficient product essential worthless. Because this is a federal law we will have to fight the specific provisions in it, one state at a time.  Some states are already working on legislation around the law while others are set on enforcement.  Therefore, the campaigns we start in each state must be specific to that particular state situation and our petitions must be as well.

The requirements of the petitions for each state are as follows:

• Make it very easy for people to sign the petition(s) for their state.
• Verify the person has not signed before accepting new signature.
• Capture their contact information separated by state to send them follow-up information.
• Allow them to opt-out of future mailings.
• Show them their state Representatives and Senators information so the petition signer, (a) knows who the petition is being sent to, and (b) they can easily contact their congressman themselves.

So, I think you can see we need to run a country-wide campaign but on an individual state level.

My research lead me to Sunlight Labs which in turn lead me to CiviCRM and then Drupal.  I am open to other solutions to our needs, but I think I am in the right place if I can just get the right information on how to structure the programs to work as needed.

Thank you again for your offer to help.

Trishah

Hello Mary Ellen,

Please ask all your questions as this will only make the end result even better

In my research I have found that most congressman no longer use direct email but instead use contact forms on their websites.  We are currently unsure if it's better to send one petition with numerous signatures, or do it on a one-by-one basis would get the best results (I suspect the latter).

I have wanted to ask some well-established sites who run petitions how they go about delivering the petitions, including the John Birch Society and SignOn.org, but wanted to find out what was currently available off-the-shelf for CiviCRM+ before taking that step.  No sense bothering them if I don't know what I currently have available.

I do a little PHP coding and know a number of coders who can help me tweak things if needed.   

If you think I should contact these other organizations first before going further with the software configuration then I'll go that direction.

Does this help you at all?

Trishah