Looking for Not Quite a CRM

Organizer Skillsharing Organizing a Brigade
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As I’ve been working on outreach for our demo night event one thing that feels like it would be useful is some sort of CRM solution. I am not super deep into this world but when I look at or try and investigate solutions like HubSpot they look and feel like commissioning an aircraft carrier when I want a speedboat. They focus on sales and things like deal flow when I really need a central repository of contact information and maybe a record of whether folks have been reached out to. I also think an easy way to import, segment, and group contacts from different sources is a key thing here. We’ve been doing a little bit of this in Google Drive/Sheets but it is a bit clunky. I do some more of it using CSVs on my hard drive but that also feels like a kludge. Are there any good solutions that are “just enough CRM” for a brigade that folks are using or have seen?

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Airtable might be the best bet here. A bit of a drag to have to build custom configurations, but super flexible. You could also integrate it with the SendGrid API.

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Yeah we’ve been using Google Sheets (which is not quite AirTable) for some basic needs and it seems like something in this realm might be the best fit. If something lightweight or better comes along I’m hoping someone shares!

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@mzagaja I wonder about open source airtable options… there seem to be a few:

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We’re talking about this with our exploring brigade leadership. Airtable is great for customization.

Thought I would share free volunteer management softwares if you prefer a less hands on approach but still an organized platform to help nurture the type of engagment activities at brigade events.

  • Timecounts
  • Mobilize
  • Goodworld
    *CivicCRM
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CivicCRM seemed very interesting to me! I find its ethos appealing but am hesitant about the need to use Wordpress or Drupal with it.

I have also considered NationBuilder which has been easy to use in the past, but also seems to take a “kitchen sink” approach to providing tools.

Let me know if anything sticks out when you evaluate them.

@elb The nocodb seems like a neat thing. I might check that one out!

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hi mzagaja, we have customized our Wix CRM (super user friendly) that can track a volunteer’s involvement. Happy to share in early 2023 (currently tied up in helping local gov’s apply for their Infra Bill grants). Best wihses!