CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi Folks,


I know this topic has been discussed in the path, but I'm hoping folks will oblige me with allowing a brief update on this subject.


I previously worked with a church where I implemented CiviCRM as the ChMS, but it was a fairly small church. I'm now working with a much larger church that currently uses Church Community Builder (CCB) and previously utilized F1. I'm considering whether a move to CiviCRM would make sense for us...and if so, I'd want to create an ecosystem around church / religious organizations usage.


What I'm looking to discover now is what already exists and who is using it. I'm hoping folks will take time to share the following:


1. The name of your church if you are using CiviCRM.
2. What significant changes you have made to CiviCRM to make it work for your church.
3. How long you have been using CiviCRM.
4. What other ChMS you have used previously and what features if any you wish where in CiviCRM that are not currently available.


Here is where I would see things going if we were to move to CiviCRM:


1. Setting aside annual budget currently utilized for paying licensing with CCB for ongoing custom development of CiviCRM customizations, especially as applicable to the church.
2. Publication of all customizations on GitHub / public website.
3. A public website with an overview of how CiviCRM is being used by churches, a starter guide for folks wanting to use CiviCRM for their church.
4. A customization extension that could be installed immediately after installing CiviCRM to make the most significant/common changes needed to CiviCRM rather than everyone performing the customization manually.
5. A Discourse forum for discussion of church related CiviCRM.
6. Potentially a conference on CiviCRM for the church on should there be the interest for such.


If you are aware of any church related CiviCRM resources, I'd love to hear about them. Here is what some quick research on my part turned up:


Churches Using CCB

• St. Paul's Church, St. Albans.
• The United Church of Canada.
• United Methodist Communications.
• Church of Christ (Holiness) U.S.A.
• Northwest Community Church.
• Calgary First Spiritualist Church.
• Unity Church of Overland Park.
• Woodlands Church.
• Deliverance Bible Church.
• St. Mary's Orthodox Syrian Church.
• Unity Church of El Cajon.
• African American Baptist Mission Collaboration.
• Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church.
• River's Edge Cleveland.
• Asylum Hill Congregational Church.
• Restoring the Foundations.
• Clayfield Church.
• Kansas City District of the Church of the Nazarene.
• Unity of East Louisville.
• Unity Church of Maui.
• Unity Church for Creative Living in St. Johns.
• Unity Church of Peace.
• Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church.
• Beacon Hebrew Alliance.
• Unity Church of Charlottesville.
• Harvester Church.
• Saint Mary & Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church.
• Croydon Minster.
• Bliss & Fire Network.
• Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
• Unity Church of Medina.

At this point it looks like two of the organizations that have heavy involvement in CiviCRM for church usage are the United Methods and Unity Churches.


Articles on CiviCRM as ChMS

• Eric Dye. CiviCRM: A Free & Open CRM Solution. Churchmag, 2011.
• CiviCRM. OpenTech Ministries.
• Deepak. Core Recursion: The Recurring Events Engine. Veda Consulting, 2014.

1. The name of your church if you are using CiviCRM.
The Rock Church, Saskatoon,SK, Canada
we pay for Hosting services and additional tech support
2. What significant changes you have made to CiviCRM to make it work for your church.
use activities to track attendance, transportation, and involvement of children and adults for church attendees and a large number community outreach contacts
use memberships for vetting and monitoring all volunteer "plan to protect" documentation and training
use permissions to keep children and guardian information away from all but the people permitted to see this.
use contributions to receive funds and issue tax receipts
use  Drupal Webform to aid table hosts in registering contacts for their table at repeating events
use events to register children and leaders for summer camp

3. How long you have been using CiviCRM.
5 yrs
4. What other ChMS you have used previously and what features if any you wish where in CiviCRM that are not currently available.
Did a lot on MS Access. Only miss the nice report writer.