The Community Module
The community module is an add-on service.
For more information, please contact [email protected]
Community: what does it do?
The community module allows you to have your own marketing database, or "CRM" system as some people term it. This can also be viewed as a "sales tracking system". The main benefit of this system is that it allows you to have a single-person record for everyone in your community that contains the history of their interactions with you.
These interactions can include things such as:
- if they've every been a member of your group,
- if they've volunteered,
- made a donation,
- bought merchandise,
- attended an event,
- received particular emails from you/your group, etc.
This system simplifies your operational data - bringing all your data together so that you can engage with your community in an effective and efficient way.
Location: Main menu > Community
Related roles: Site admin, Community admin, Community outreach, Community view.
- Permission to view community area: Community view, Community outreach, Community admin, and Site admin.
- Permission to use community area to reach out to people (send mail): Community outreach, Community admin, and Site admin.
- Permission to administer the community module: Community admin, and Site admin.
here are the various sections in this article
Dashboard
The dashboard is a place where special "community" blocks can be used to see data trends at a glance. This will allow you to keep an eye on your pipelines without having to dig into the data on a day-to-day basis.
The following blocks are community specific blocks for each pipeline in your site. There will be a set of these blocks for each pipeline.
- Groupanizer community: Pipeline history - this shows the number of opportunities in a specific pipeline and the stage they're in each day. You can change the date groupings (weekly or monthly) and you can filter by the owners of the opportunity.
- Groupanizer community: Pipeline status - this shows the number of opportunities in each stage of a specific pipeline. You can filter by the opportunity owner. the pipeline's total value is displayed at the bottom.
- Groupanizer community: Pipeline won/lost summary - this block is currently under construction.
These blocks will not be available until there is data for them to display. This will happen as you add pipelines and opportunities. You can read more about these items below, or use the links to jump to the relevant section.
Contacts
Contacts are a record used to store contact information for a particular person. They're like a card in an old-fashioned Rolodex, or a phone book entry in your cell phone. They can be found by going to: Main menu > Community, and then click on the "contacts" tab.
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Labels
Labels allow you to organize contacts into certain groupings. Labels are manually added to contacts. This is useful for general organization, or sending email to certain contacts regarding donation requests, opportunities for advertising, upcoming performances, etc. Default labels include: patron, donor and volunteer.
You can edit the available labels using the link in the top right hand corner of the Contacts tab page. Use the "add link" to add a new label, or click edit across from an existing label to edit or delete it. Use the save button on the labels page to save any changes to the order of the terms. You can drag and drop them using the arrows on the left.
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Add a contact
To add a contact, click the "+ add contact" link on the top right of the Contacts tab page (Main menu > Community, and then click on the "contacts" tab). There are 8 sections to a contact record:
- Basic - this generic information about the contact, including the type of contact (Person or Company), contact preference (email, phone, any, do not contact, etc), Gender (male, female), Birthday, and any labels that should be applied for organization.
- Names - this includes: salutation, first name, last name, other names, suffix, and nickname. Only first name and last name are mandatory fields.
- Location - this is their mailing address.
- Email address - multiple email addresses can be added. They can be identified as personal, work or other, and a primary email address for contacting can be chosen.
- Phone numbers - multiple phone numbers can be added. They can be identified as mobile, home or work, and a primary phone number for contacting can be chosen.
- External IDs - this includes a field for external ID type, and then a space for the external ID value. An example of this would be a twitter handle.
- Relationships - this allows you to create connections between contacts - such as adding people related to a company contact. You can choose the relationship type ("is part of" or "is the profile for"), which contact they're related to (this field auto-suggests contacts that are already in the system), and add any details regarding this relationship. You can delete a relationship by using the "del" checkbox.
- Notes - this field allows you to add any extra information you wish to include as part of the contact record.
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Viewing contacts
To view your contacts, navigate to: Main menu > Community, and then click on the "contacts" tab. Your contacts will appear in a scrolling table, with the headings: name, label, location, and email. Clicking any of the arrows in the headings bar will sort the list by that heading, click it twice to reverse the order. By default, it is sorted by name. A small icon of either a person or a building is located on the left hand side of the contact name - this indicates if the contact is a person (person icon) or a company (office building icon).
You can filter the contacts list using the "filter" button on the top left (available filters are: label, location, and type). Selecting a row in the table (or selecting multiple rows) activates the "actions" button, which can be used to change the labels of a record, or delete it.
To view more information on a contact, click on the contact's name - this will bring you to that's contact's record page where the rest of their information is displayed. It is here that you can click the tab marked "history" to see all past interactions with this contact.
This can be found on the "history" tab of a contact record. This page shows all past interactions in a scroll-able table with the headings: time, event and notes. The headings can be clicked to sort by them. A filter option is available to sort by event type.
You can add history events - such as a ticket purchase or a donation - on the "history" tab of a contact using the "+ add history" link on the top right. This will open a page where you can add the event type, the date it occurred, if it's related to a campaign, is if should be credited to a user, and any other relevant notes. Depending on the event type, you can also include monetary values.
Log entries on opportunities are automatically added as contact history. Not sure what a log entry is? Jump to the section.
- Note: You can only credit history events for contacts to users with the "Community Outreach" role.
You cannot delete history events in the beta version.
At the bottom of a contact's page, there will be a list of all associated opportunities. Jump to the section on opportunities.
Do you have a long list of Contact History to import? Perhaps you have a history of donations and ticket purchases?
You can import your contacts history on import/and exports page located under: Settings & Admin > Import and Export.
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Editing a contact
You can edit several contacts at once using the "actions" button on the main contacts tab page. Selecting a row in the table (or selecting multiple rows) activates the "actions" button, which can then be used to change the labels of a record, or delete it.
You can edit a single record by clicking on the pencil icon to the right of the contact's name. You can also view the individual contact (by clicking on their name) and then clicking on the edit tab. Remember to scroll to the bottom and click the save button to save your changes.
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Deleting a contact
You can delete several contacts at once using the "actions" button on the main contacts tab page. Selecting a row in the table (or selecting multiple rows) activates the "actions" button, which can then be used to delete the records.
You can also delete a contact by clicking on the pencil icon to the right of the contact's name. This will bring you to the edit tab of their contact record, where you can scroll to the bottom and click "delete". You can also view the individual contact (by clicking on their name) and then clicking on the edit tab to get to this same page.
Segments
Segments are used to create groups of contacts based on various criteria. In the contacts section you were introduced to labels - labels allow you to manually identify contacts as fitting into a certain group. Segments allow you to set up a list of criteria, and the system will automatically place contacts meeting that criteria into a segment.
Segments can be found by going to: Main menu > Community, and then click on the "segments" tab.
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Add a segment
To add a segment, click on the "+ add a segment" link on the top right hand side of the segments tab page.
Segments have two main parts - a name, and clauses. Clauses are the arguments used to define your criteria a contact must meet in order to be placed in a segment. In order to know what kind of clauses you should add, you'll first need to decide the kind of contacts your segment should find. Once you know what you're trying to achieve, it's will be easier to know what king of clauses you should use to get the right results. Use your goal as your segment title.
Then, begin creating your clauses by clicking the "add clause" button. A dialogue box will appear with your clause options. There are 4 main clause types, each with their own secondary settings.
- Contact type - person or company (as listed on the contact record)
- Contact preference - email, phone, ect. You can select multiple
- Label clause - select any of your labels. Multiples can be selected. This clause can be reversed.
- History clause - select a historical actions (donated, was a member, volunteered, received an email, etc). Multiples can be selected. Select a relative date for the action. This clause can be reversed (meaning it can be the negative of the statement).
There is one more clause type - OR - but we'll get to that in a moment. First, we'll discuss an example segment.
- Perhaps I want to reach out to patrons who haven't donated recently - let's say, in the last 6 months. That will be my segment name: Patrons who have not donated in the last six months.
- I only want to reach out to the contacts, not companies, so I'll need a clause for contact type where it looks for "person".
- I may want to add a clause for contact preference - maybe I only want to reach out to those where their contact preference is any and email.
- I've decided I'm reaching out to patrons, so I need a label clause that looks for the label "patron".
- and finally I want to find contacts that haven't donated in the last 6 months, so I need a history clause for donating, with the relative time of 6 months. However, if I added this clause in this format, it would find contacts that have donated in the last 6 months. Instead, I'll want to checkmark this clause so that the condition is reversed (making it a negative).
My Segment clauses will end up looking like this:
When you're done, click save ont he left hand side. You can use the segments page to review your segment and see how many people are selected. You can always go back and edit your segment if it's not pulling the correct contacts.
It's important to remember that history clauses use a relative time component - this means that your segment selection is going to change depending on your interactions with the contact. For example, if I use this segment to send a message to patrons who have not donated in the past six months, but there's someone who has donated 5 months and 29 days ago - they won't receive the message if I send it today - but they will receive it if I send my message in two days (because they will then be part of the segment, having donated over 6 months ago).
- OR clause - this is the final type of clause you can use - it allows you to set up an "or" argument.
Clauses within arguments function on an "and" argument - meaning that to be part of a segment, and contact must meet cause 1 AND clause 2 AND clause 3, etc. The "OR" clause allows you to set up a segment where a contact must meet clause 1 OR clause 2. You do this by creating a "tree" in your clauses using the cross-arrows to the left of the clause. The OR clause goes above and is the "parent" of the two clauses that can be "or" statements. You can add all your clauses, then ad an OR clause and drag them around into the order you need. Be sure to save your changes.
Here's an example of an or clause being used:
This segment will find contacts who meet two arguments:
- contact is a person AND attended a show in the past year
OR
- contact is a person AND purchased a ticket in the past year
Remember, the easiest way to verify you're creating the segment you want it to save it, and check which contacts it pulls into the segment.
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View a segment
Your available segments can be viewed on the main segments tab page. This is located in Main menu > Community, then click on the "segments" tab. This will display a page where there is a scroll-able table with the headings: segment name, description and selects. Any of the headings can be clicked to sort by that heading.
The segment name is clickable and can be used to view the clauses and all contacts that fit into that segment at this moment in time. You can also view who is selected in a segment in the "selects" column. This column tells you the number of people, and by clicking on the number, you can see the list of contacts this segment currently includes.
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Edit a segment
You can edit a by clicking on the pencil next to the segment name on the main segments tab page. Alternatively, you can click on the segment name to view it, and then click on the "edit" tab.
You can remove clauses by clicking on the garbage can button to the right of the clause, or edit the clause by clicking the pencil. You can add more clauses using the "add clause" button on the bottom left. You can move clauses using the cross-arrows on the left (only relevant is you're using an "OR" CLAUSE).
Remember to save your changes using the save button on the bottom right.
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Delete a segment
Navigate to the edit page of a segment (see instructions above). Then, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the "delete" button on the right.
Opportunities
Opportunities are a way for you to track interactions which present a chance to gain something beneficial from your contact. This could be money via a donation, or even a new member for your group. Opportunities can be linked to pipelines - which are the steps/actions a contact will typically complete before an opportunity is successful - as well as campaigns - which are typically organized events/actions to gain numerous opportunities during a specific time frame. For this section, you'll want to brush up on pipelines and campaigns if you're unfamiliar with these concepts - it can be easier to understand how opportunities work when looking at how they fit into the bigger picture.
Opportunities typically have two final states - lost, and won. "Won" opportunities are ones that are successful - they end in a "yes" from the contact. "Lost" opportunities are ones that are not successful - they end in a "no" from the contact.
Opportunities can be found by going to: Main menu > Community, and then clicking on the "opportunities" tab.
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Add an opportunity
Opportunities can be added in two ways - from the opportunities page, or on a contact's page.
To add an opportunity from the opportunities page, first navigate to the opportunities tab (Main menu > Community, and then click on the "opportunities" tab), then click the "+ add opportunity" link in to the top right corner.
This will open to a new page where you will set:
- the contact - who is this opportunity tied to? This field is a "smart" field, so it will suggest contact entries as you begin typing a name. If your contact has not been entered into the system, you will need them to add them first.
- the pipeline stage - This field is mandatory. how far along is the contact in the process to fulfilling the opportunity? Not sure what a pipeline is? Jump to the section.
- the reason lost - If this opportunity has been "lost", you'll want to list a reason here so you you can track tends to adjust your strategies in the future. Not sure what 'lost' means? Jump to the section on pipelines.
- the opportunity owner - This field is mandatory. Who is charge of tracking this opportunity? You can choose from a list of those with permission to perform community outreach (role).
- the product - product is a general term used to describe the goods or service this opportunity is for - is it a ticket sale? Donation? Singing valentine? Membership?
- the expected value of this opportunity. If it's a ticket, this would be the value fo the ticket. If it's a new member opportunity, then this would be the total membership fee you'd receive from the contact. The expected value will appear in USD. In the beta version this cannot be changed.
- the campaign - is this opportunity tied to a particular campaign? Your campaigns will be listed in this field. Not sure what a campaign is? Jump to the section.
When you're finished, remember to click save.
To add a opportunity from a contact's page, navigate to the contact's view page (not sure how to do this? Jump to the section) and click the "+ Add Opportunity for this contact" link in the top right corner.
This will open a similar "add an opportunity" page as listed above, but the contact field will already be filled in.
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View opportunities
Opportunities can be found by going to: Main menu > Community, and then clicking on the "opportunities" tab.
This page will show opportunities listed in a table, organized by the pipeline of which they are a part. The table has 5 headings, which can all be used to sort opportunities using the arrows in the table header:
- Opportunity - This lists the contact's name, and the "product" they're interested in
- Stage - This is the stage that the opportunity is in within it's assigned pipeline.
- In stage - This is the length of time the opportunity has been in that stage. This helps you spot opportunities that haven't moved in a while as your pipeline stages all have "shelf lives". This is set in the pipelines area. Jump to the section.
- Owner - This is the user responsible for this opportunity. It should list the person responsible for managing this opportunity, and reaching out to this contact.
- Plan - this is the next step the owner plans to take regarding the opportunity.
Filters are available using the "Filters" button just above the table on the left. You can filter by Stage and Owner. Completed opportunities are automatically hidden in this table, so you can also use the filter button to show completed opportunities. If you're looking for something specific, you can use the search field on the right (just above the table, not the one at the very top of the screen).
To view details of an opportunity from this page, click on the opportunity name. Here you can add next steps the owner of this opportunity should take, or add log entries about your interactions with this opportunity.
You can also view opportunities for a particular contact on that contact's page. Jump to the section on contacts to review how to view a contact. The opportunities associated with tha contact will be listed down below their main information.
This is where you can determine the next interaction that should happen between you and your contact. This is a reminder of the next action you plan to take, and does not have any automatic processes behind it. The available event types include: Send email, Call by phone, Send SMS message, and Meet in person. You can also set a deadline, and add any relevant notes. The list of actions is not editable - you will not be able to add your own custom options. Once you have set the next step for an opportunity, it will be listed until you "resolve" it by adding a log entry that is check marked as "completes the next step". Once your current "nest step" has been resolved with a log entry, you can add a new "next step" for this opportunity.
Next steps are visible on this opportunity's page, and in the table for all opportunities, under the table heading "Plan".
Note: In this beta version, the next step cannot currently be edited or deleted, only "resolved" by adding a log entry.
Log entries help you track what interactions have taken place between you and your contact. At this time, all log entries are manually added and maintained. The available event types include: Sent email, called by phone, Sent SMS message, Talked in person, and Note. "Note" can be used to add a short message to the log about this opportunity that isn't necessarily tied to any event. Each log entry allows for a short note as well, where you can expand upon the event type and it's outcome, or the particular message that was sent to the contact.
Log entries appear in a table on the opportunity page for a contact. They are also automatically added to the contact history tab for a contact. Need to review what contact history is? Jump to the section.
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Edit opportunities
To edit an opportunity, first navigate to the view page for that opportunity (see instructions above). On the specific opportunity page, click the "edit" tab. You can then change any particulars about that opportunity. Remember, changes to next steps and log entries are performed on the view tab of the opportunity, not on the edit tab. When you're done, click the save button.
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Delete opportunities
To delete an opportunity, first navigate to the view page for that opportunity (see instructions above). On the specific opportunity page, click the "edit" tab. Then scroll to the bottom and click the delete button. Remember, changes to next steps and log entries are performed on the view tab of the opportunity, not on the edit tab.
Pipelines
Pipelines are a way to track opportunities as they move toward your end goal. Another popular nickname for this is called a "funnel". It’s called a “funnel” because it’s got stages - and you’ll never get 100% of the people to the next stage, so each stage has fewer people in it - like an upside down pyramid....or a funnel. Understanding this, you’ll see that you need far more people in the top of your funnel than you expect (or need) to fall out the bottom and successfully meet your goal for them.
The top stages of your pipeline should have an extremely low barrier to entry. If you walk up to a stranger and just say “do you want to join my choir”, 99% of your targets will say no. They may also find the whole interaction a little weird. A much more appropriate top stage would be simply that they expressed interest in your group, or even just came to a performance. Once they’re in the pipeline, you can follow up and move them through the stages. A similar format can be followed for donations or advertising opportunities in your next performance program.
The biggest reason people don’t follow through is because no one asks them to! So being organized about all your contacts and opportunities is critical. Who’s job is it to call them? When was the last time they were called? Understanding where each contact is in the process, you’ll know how to engage them to move them further down the pipeline toward your end goal. Finally, not everyone is going to get through your funnel, but the “drop offs” aren’t necessarily lost. They have some interest in your group, so they might want to come to a performance, or buy your CD. They may even want to be a member later, when the time is right for them. So all those “no’s” should be kept on an email list, if they are willing, so you can stay on their mind. People that say no are often referred to as "lost" opportunities, where as ones that reach the end of the pipeline and achieve the goal of the opportunity are referred to as "won". These should be the final two stages of any pipeline you create.
Because pipeline stages are specific to what you're trying to achieve, you may need several depending on what you're trying to gain from your contacts. The community module comes with one "default pipeline".
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View your available pipelines
To view your available pipeline, go to: Main Menu > Community, then click on the "Pipelines" tab. Out of the box, the community module comes with one pipeline created for you, called "Default Pipeline". Each pipeline is display in a table with the following headings:
- Name - this is the pipeline stage name
- Close % - this is the percentage of opportunities in this stage that are likely to close as a "win".
- Shelf life - this is the longest amount of time an opportunity should remain in a stage. Opportunities past this shelf life are highlighted on the opportunities tab. Jump to section.
- Stage type - stages are either open, won, or lost. Open means you're still trying to move the opportunity contact to a decision. Won means you got a "yes", and lost means it was a "no".
- Criteria - this is a free form field where you can remind yourself about what each stage means if an opportunity has reached it.
On the opportunities tab page, opportunities are organized into sets based on the pipeline they're in.
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Add a pipeline
You can add a a pipeline by navigating to: Main Menu > Community, then click on the "Pipelines" tab. This will bring to the pipelines page where you can click the link "+ Add Pipeline" in the top right corner of the page.
On the add a pipeline page, you be asked to add a label - this will be the name of your new pipeline. You'll want to pick something descriptive so you know which one you're using when adding opportunities. This might be something like "membership", "donations" or "ticket sales".
Next, you'll want to add your stages. You can do this by clicking the "add another stage" button. Each stage you add will have 5 fields. These are the same fields noted in the table when viewing pipelines on the main pipelines tab.
- Name - this is the stage name. Choose something short, but descriptive. You'll need to know which stage you're choosing when updating opportunities.
- Close % - this is the percentage of opportunities in this stage that are likely to close as a "win". Percentages increase as opportunities move down through the pipeline and closer to the "won" stage. Closed stages (noted later under stage type) Like Won and Lost will have 100% and 0% respectively.
- Shelf life - this is the longest amount of time an opportunity should remain in a stage. Choose a number of days that makes sense for your type of pipeline. If decisions are made weekly, then you'll want at least 7 days between stages.
- Stage type - stages are either open, won, or lost. Open means you're still trying to move the opportunity contact to a decision. Won means you got a "yes", and lost means it was a "no".
- Criteria - this is a free form field where you can remind yourself about what each stage means if an opportunity has reached it.
Here's an example of a pipeline for tracking the progress of possible new members in an auditioned choir.
You can see that both of the last two stages - which are both closed, have a shelf life of 0 days as they've reached the end of the pipeline.
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Edit a pipeline
To edit a pipeline, go to the view page for pipelines (Main Menu > Community, then click on the "Pipelines" tab). Then, click on the pencil icon next to pipeline name you wish to edit. On the edit page for the pipeline, you can edit any of the fields by clicking on them. You can move stages around using the cross-arrows on the left to drag and drop them into the correct order. You can remove a stage using the garbage can button on the right. Click the "Add another stage" button to add a new stage. Or, you can clear out all the stages and start over by clicking the "Clear all stages' button.
Remember to save your changes.
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Delete a pipeline
To delete a pipeline, go to the view page for pipelines (Main Menu > Community, then click on the "Pipelines" tab). Then, click on the pencil icon next to pipeline name you wish to delete. This will bring you tot he edit page for the pipeline. Scroll to the bottom and click "delete pipeline". This will remove the pipeline and all of it's stages.
Bonus Sales Technique info!
Looking for more information about sales and gathering donations? You may be interested reading about the "foot in the door technique" which can work well for getting a "yes" from your opportunities as you feed them through your pipeline.
Click here to read more.
Campaigns
Campaigns allow you to track the overall success of opportunities of a similar nature during a specific time frame. Think of this like running a membership drive for a month, or what many students do when they come home with a carton of chocolates to sell for school. Campaigns are a concentrated effort to achieve a certain goal by gaining many opportunities related to that goal, and pushing them through the pipeline so that there's an increased amount that fall out the bottom and are "won".
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Viewing campaigns
To view your campaigns, go to: Main Menu > Community, then click on the "Campaigns" tab. The community module has 2 default campaigns: Spring Campaign and Fall Campaign. The campaign page will show all of your campaigns in a table with the following headings:
- Campaign - this is the name of the campaign.
- Start date - this is the start of the campaign.
- End date - this is the end date of the campaign.
- Raised - this is the amount of money raised through opportunities for this campaign. This will auto update based on opportunities in this campaign that are closed as "won".
- Goal - this is your revenue goal. How much money do you hope to bring in with this campaign?
- Cost - this it the cost of the campaign.
- ROI - Return On Investment - this is the difference between the cost of this campaign, and the amount raised. It is automatically calculated. You want your ROI to be over 100% (100% is break even).
Columns can be clicked to sort the campaigns int his table. There is also a search field located on the top right of the table that can be used to search for specific campaigns.
Click on the name of the campaign to view more details about it, including the cost, goal and the start and end date. Below the basic information, a list of all opportunities associated with that campaign will appear - this is not currently available in the beta version.
Opportunities are linked to campaigns on the opportunity's edit page. Jump to the section.
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Add a campaign
To add a campaign, first navigate to the campaigns page (Main Menu > Community, then click on the "Campaigns" tab) then click the "+ Add Campaign" link in the top right hand corner of the page.
On the add campaign page, you'll fill out the following information:
- Label - this is the name of the campaign. Choose something descriptive. Add a year if you might have repetitive campaign titles.
- Cost - this it the cost of the campaign. This would include all expenses, such as marketing materials, space rental, etc. It is in USD. The currency cannot be changed at this time.
- Goal - this is your revenue goal. How much money do you hope to bring in with this campaign? It is in USD. The currency cannot be changed at this time.
- Start date - this is the start of the campaign. Opportunities should be created on or after this date to legitimately be part of this campaign.
- End date - this is the end date of the campaign. Opportunities should be created before or on this date to legitimately be part of this campaign.
When you're finished, click the save button.
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Edit a campaign
To edit a campaign, navigate to the campaigns page (Main Menu > Community, then click on the "Campaigns" tab). In the table, click the pencil next to the campaign's name. This will bring you to the edit page for the campaign. You can also click on the campaign's name to view it, and then click the "edit" tab.
On the edit page, you can edit any field by clicking on it. be sure to save your changes.
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Delete a campaign
To delete a campaign, navigate to the campaigns page (Main Menu > Community, then click on the "Campaigns" tab). In the table, click the pencil next to the campaign's name. This will bring you to the edit page for the campaign. You can also click on the campaign's name to view it, and then click the "edit" tab. Once on the edit page, scroll to the bottom and click the delete button.
Reports
There are only a few reports available at this time. More will be added after our beta round as we gather more feedback from customers about the reports that are most useful.
The reports that are currently available include:
- Opportunities: Won/lost
Reports can have their parameters set for start and end date so you can view opportunities from a certain time frame.
Reports can also be downloaded as a PDF.