Author Topic: Yes another "is civiCRM right for me" topic.... (Read 1752 times)

endeavorc · October 12, 2008, 12:40:53 pm

Hello all and thank you in advance for your help. I am looking into civiCRM to assist, if not eventually replace a rescue software package for our non-profit organization.

Hosting background:
Currently we are on a shared hosting package and are looking into a VPS solution. For the VPS solution we are currently looking at InMotion hosting. After speaking with them for pre-sales, they are recommending their highest VPS package (because of the memory requirements) of civiCRM and civiMail. The cost of that package is out of the budget price range

The package that I am looking at is their base package which has 256MB of memory with an available burst of 1GB. Their highest package is 1GB of memory with an available burst of 3GB.

The design of the site will look like this:
One domain for the main website running Joomla 1.5.7 with, eventlist, phoca gallery, remository, and a few other modules.
Second domain would be for membership administration running Joomla with civiCRM component.

Background - The organization rescues Golden Retrievers, we have approximately 800 members. We send email blasts for newsletters once every other month, and occasional email blasts of upcoming events, foster homes being needed, etc.

The rescue software tracks membership, the ability to send email blasts, dog intake, membership applications, adoption applications, donations, dog boarding, vet information, and a few other items I am probably missing. I know the software will not handle the dog information but could it be made to? The cost for the rescue software is extremely high. I am looking at civiCRM to replace as much of this software as possible, hopefully all of it.

Questions:

Hosting - Does the base package have enough memory (256MB) to run these sites or would I need to go with something that has more memory?
Software - Would I need a second instance of Joomla or could I run a Stand-alone version of civiCRM?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Derek

Eileen · October 13, 2008, 02:03:51 am

We host our site with approx 650 contacts on http://www.freeparking.co.nz/hosting/plus_hosting.mv?sid=48F30BAF00081BC30000699300000000 for NZD$200 per year (something like $US 15 per month). I note the server has 1GB RAM but that's the whole server not our portion of it.

We use civiCRM with civiMail on that and it works alright. Sometimes it feels a little slow but not such that I would consider making any changes.

CiviCRM is pretty customisable - without knowing all the details you want to track I think custom fields will take you a good way with it - have a play on the sandbox.

endeavorc · October 13, 2008, 07:25:48 am

Thank you for your reply.

I have a few more questions:

If I create two Organizations, one for members and one for dogs, can I have links between them?

Can I create custom fields for each Organization?

I also noticed that the software is only tracking income, is there a way to track expenses?

Thanks again,
Derek

xavier · October 13, 2008, 08:48:09 am

Hi,

on civicrm you have 3 main type of contacts: orgn household and individuals

You could pervert one of them to be your "dog" type. then you can add the specific fields for the dog, and track relations between dogs, shelters and people.

(For one install, I didn't need household, and I simply did create a translation for household (to committee in my case, dog in your).

As for the expenses, you are right, it doesn't track them. Haven't tried dealing with negative donations and so on, have a go on the sandbox to see if you could use it that way

X+

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Author Topic: Yes another "is civiCRM right for me" topic.... (Read 1752 times)

endeavorc

Yes another "is civiCRM right for me" topic....

Eileen

Re: Yes another "is civiCRM right for me" topic....

endeavorc

Re: Yes another "is civiCRM right for me" topic....

xavier

Re: Yes another "is civiCRM right for me" topic....