Managing hundreds of
grass-roots events in CiviCRM
Young-Jin Kim
Emphanos LLC, Chicago, IL
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CiviEvent setup requires one to:
coordinate -> schedule ->
configure -> publish -> publicize
What if a small staff has to setup and
monitor over 300 events in just 45 day???
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Client Profile
Non-profit environmental advocacy group in NY state
with 2 full-time + one half-time staff and active board.
Major Activities include:
 Volunteer based community outdoor clean-ups
 Environmental education programs in schools
 Advocating and promoting waste reduction and recycling
issues in the community
 Fostering awareness of environmental issues by
linking citizens and their local environment
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJl1Bbuu7L8
Clean-up events (all ages)
300+ cleanup events
3000+ volunteers
Fundraising events + Symposia
5 events
~120 attendees
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Client's tools to reach its audience
– Vertical Response for email blasts
– EventBrite for event registration
– Excel for Constituent, Donor and Volunteer tracking
– LOTS of emails (Outlook, now switched to Google Mail)
– Word + Excel and mail merge for postal mailings
– QuickBooks tracks donations and general accounting
– Donations through Network for Good
– Phone Hotline
Standard patchwork of non-profit management tools that
don't talk to each other. Data sprawl grows unwieldy
quickly!
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Annual Spring clean-up campaigns
Staff of 3 people coordinates over 300 distinct events
spread over several counties (large geographic extend)
involving 3000 volunteers in a span of 45 days (!).
Major pain points:
Very few volunteers tracked, limited quantity of equipment
that needs to be tracked and distributed efficiently along
with supplies, reaching team members in case of rain day.
Other concerns:
Seek good geographic coverage, equipment tracking,
reporting volunteer hours, getting the word out,
recording statistics...
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Options Ahead
Existing current system needing replacement:
Phone calls + Emailed proposals + Limited online signups.
A) Default option after stock CiviCRM install:
Staff creates up to 300 individual events centrally based on
phone-in and emailed proposed events -> hub for all events.
B) Proposed custom workflow + dashboard:
Propose events online, custom dashboard for staff and team
leaders, automation event config -> publish after approval.
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Design choices
JQuery sortable tables to avoid hitting the database as
much as possible (CiviCRM 3.0 was lacking JS table sort!)
 Light weight custom dashboard in Drupal (both for staff
and cleanup team leaders to manage event registrants)
 Clean-up leaders should only be able to manage their
grass root events and their volunteer teams but have no
access to other contact or donor records.
 Automate the full event configuration process with a
simple approval step triggering emails to both staff and
team leader with a URL link to the new online signup
page.
 Approval process can be triggered through both the
stock CiviCRM event interface as well as the custom
dashboard.

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Technical implementation details
Reproducible, repeatable, re-usable and fully automated
configuration of an entire CiviCRM deployment (from basic
ZIP file to fully live system within 8 minutes)
Re-usable solution for any other Keep America Beautiful
affiliate organization, configured via a simple flat config
file
Continuous Integration (CI) server combined with Source
Control Management (SCM) for easy spin-up of a new
instances, also proved beneficial for faster bug tracking
and improved code quality.
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Live demonstration
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Some lessons learned...
CiviCRM/Drupal is a great framework for non-profit event
management that is extensible to a custom workflow solution.
Profiles used in the online registration with custom data fields are
your best friend along with the rich built in features of CiviEvents.
Light-weight dashboards make for streamlined workflow
management and improved usability.
Keeping within the bounds of the CiviCRM table structure was very
helpful to the upgrade path, ported from 3.0.x to 3.1.6, now 3.3.5
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Open for any questions
Thank you for your interest!
Find us on the web:
http://emphanos.com
Send us an email:
info@emphanos.com