tamarmeir's blog

Membership status is normally assigned and updated automatically based on your configured membership status rules, and, as explained in "Data Hygiene: Keep your Membership Data Up to Date", the key to maintaining accurate membership data (or any data for that matter), is to limit the amount of data that needs to be manually keyed into the system.
CiviCRM, however, provides users with an option to manually override the status of a membership record with the Status Override check box. It can be sometime useful to force a membership status to a specific value. For example, if you want to make the distinction between members that have not renewed theit membership yet versus members that explicitely communicated with your organization that they don't want to renew their membership.

In "Data Hygiene: How to Keep Data Clean and Healthy!", we spoke in general terms of the basic steps you need to take to keep your data clean and healthy.
In this blog post, we focus on keeping memberships up to date.

Membership-based organizations rely on membership revenue for a steady cash flow, so keeping accurate membership records and ensuring a smooth renewal process is vital. The key to maintaining accurate membership data (or any data for that matter), is to limit the amount of data that needs to be manually keyed into the system. When a new membership is created, CiviCRM automatically does the following:

• Generates membership records based on relationships 
• Updates membership status based on membership status rules
• Sends scheduled reminders for membership renewal

Email is a vital tool to engage and maintain long-term relationships with your constituents.

CiviCRM helps protect your sending reputation in several ways:

• An unsubscribe or opt-out token is required to send any mass email
  If you hide the unsubscribe option, your contacts are more likely to hit the spam button.

In "Data Hygiene: How to Keep Data Clean and Healthy!", we spoke in general terms of the basic steps you need to take to keep your data clean and healthy. In this blog post, we focus on keeping financial data accurate. 

Non-profit organizations are under intense financial scrutiny - they must show accountability through the willingness to explain actions to stakeholders, and must be transparent by publishing critical financial data about the organization. These two tasks, however, can become exceedingly difficult if multiple systems are used to track financial information without regular reconciliation. Luckily, CiviCRM has an Accounting Batch feature that allows you to avoid manually re-keying financial data into your accounting software. 

In "Data Hygiene: How to Keep Data Clean and Healthy!", we spoke in general terms of the basic steps you need to take to keep your data clean and healthy. In this blog post, we outline 5 simple steps that will keep your contact data squeaky clean!

Your CiviCRM database is the central hub of your nonprofit's fundraising efforts, membership and contact management, event organization and other important ongoing initiatives. Because of its integral role in your organization, your database requires ongoing maintenance to ensure optimum performance. With nonprofit constituent mobility and employee turnover at an all-time high, data can quickly become messy and stale when data entry procedures for the organization are not properly regulated. 

To ensure consistent data entry by all users, every organization (even those run by a single person) should have a DES¹ (Data Entry Standards) document that clearly outlines what information the organization aims to maintain and how it is entered in the database. 

Let's say you have a registration profile you are using for an event in which you are collecting both the home and work addresses for an individual.

As you can see in the screenshot below, without headers, it is hard to see where the fields related to the personal information end and where the fields related to the professional information begin.

CiviCRM uses mapping and geocoding service providers such as Google to display event location maps and geocode addresses to enable proximity searches.

The use of API keys was optional until changes (as detailed HERE) recently went into effect in the Google Maps Platform.

Ever find yourself days or even weeks away from the next available training session, when what you need is immediate instruction on how to complete a certain task in your CiviCRM? Don't worry! Helpful resources are just a click away - below is a list of the best resources and tips on searching to help you find what you need fast!

CiviCRM online forms aren't just for your target audience. They can also be used by your staff to streamline data entry and ensure data integrity when recording donations, membership signups/renewals and event registrations.