Interview with Ric Merrifield – Who is our ideal customer? (Part 2 of 3)

Note:  This is part 2 of CiviCore Principal Charles Naumer's interview with Ric Merrifield.  See Part 1 for more information on this interview.  For more on Ric Merrifield’s work, http://www.rethinkbook.com

One of the questions that Ric posed to me during our chat was “Who is your ideal customer?”  This is a question that we have thought about a lot.  So, it didn’t take me by surprise but always causes me to re-evaluate our beliefs as a company.  In the context of my conversation with Ric, and his focus on core business processes, the question caused me to evaluate our answer against the premises of his work.  Ric’s approach fits a mission driven organization, such as CiviCore, very well. My initial reaction to this question is to think about the clients that we have created the most value for and to try and identify the commonalities across those client relationships.  Additionally, as a social mission driven organization, we like to ask the question “where do we feel we make the greatest social impact?”

In the context of Ric’s work, we believe that the types of organizations we create the most value for are organizations that have a clear view of their unique value proposition.  Once we understand our client’s value proposition we are able to customize our software to help our clients become more efficient and effective.  This customization process allows our clients to continue to be innovative in the way they serve their clientele and provides a path forward allowing software to adapt to the evolution of their organization.

We believe that the value proposition that Ric discusses doesn’t only apply to individual organizations, it may also apply to networks of organizations.  An area CiviCore has been able to create great value is by working with multi-affiliate groups.  CiviCore works with multi-affiliate groups to understand core processes across their network and identifies common functionality shared by all affiliated organizations.  Shared work processes and data elements are also identified to support the network’s activities. In this way, CiviCore works with networks of organizations to provide them with software customized to their unique needs and provides a way for costs to be shared among affiliate organizations.

Our experience has been that by customizing our application platform to provide our clients with solutions that fit their specific needs our clients are better able to achieve their mission and grow as an organization.  It is very gratifying for us to hear from our customers once we have finished customizing an application that it is “exactly what they need” and for them to say “you get us – you get what we are trying to do”.  These are the types of comments that really make us feel as if we are on the right track and that we are helping our clients to make a difference.

CiviCore Launches software for ELK (Environmental Learning for Kids)

CiviCore is proud to announce the recent launch of our youth services platform for Environmental Learning for Kids. ELK is a Denver-based, 501(c)3 organization established in 1996 by two wildlife biologists, Scott and Stacie Gilmore, who saw a growing need to introduce and educate Colorado's urban youth about science, math, leadership and careers. ELK focuses on experiential youth development and to date has taken more than 95,000 youth into the outdoors.

Here is what Cindy Chang, ELK's Resource Development Associate Director, had to say about her experience working with CiviCore:

“Before Civicore, we were using a database that was built for sales, not for non-profits. This meant we had to jury-rig a lot of the tools for our own use, which oftentimes failed us. Eventually, we gave up and stopped using it regularly, which meant our data quickly went out of date.

With Civicore, we had a database that was built for us, which meant it worked right away, the right way. The staff at Civicore were easy to work with. Their experience with so many non-profits was clear when they were talking with us about our programs and about our needs. This made the development process surprisingly smooth, calm, and pain-free! Now, after the development process, Civicore staff are responsive to our needs and requests within one working day. I am extremely impressed with their service, their skills, and their ability to communicate with us laypeople.

In my experience with many databases, I can easily say that Civicore’s makes the most sense to enter, find, and report data, and to teach others how to use. It just makes sense. And they’re improving it everyday. We benefit from these improvements immediately and with absolutely no hassle or interruption on our end. I would definitely recommend Civicore to anyone in the non-profit sector who just wants a working database.”

We'd like to thank ELK both for choosing to partner with CiviCore as well as for the great things they do for the youth of Denver. We hope that our software will help their organization continue to grow and exceed!

Interview with Ric Merrifield – A Focus on Core Processes (Part 1 of 3)

Recently, CiviCore Partner Charles Naumer had an opportunity to sit down and talk with business analyst and author Ric Merrifield. Ric is Microsoft's official "Business Architect," focusing on helping companies to rethink their operating models and get out of the “how” trap. In his latest book Re-Think, he challenges readers to think about “what” we’re doing and “why” we’re doing it. He suggests that we need to move beyond focusing on how we do things to think about what activities are critical to success. In addition to his work at Microsoft, Ric is engaged and interested in the social sector. Below is part one of a three-part series covering their conversation.


"Ric and I discussed some of his experiences with nonprofit organizations and ways in which his business process work is applicable to social sector organization. Ric has done a lot of work to better understand the role of technology within organizations. One area that is particularly interesting to CiviCore is his view on ways that social sector organizations can capitalize on technological innovation. He encourages organizations to identify which of their processes are unique to their organization and which are similar to other organizations. Once an organization identifies what they do differently they can begin to focus on where they add the most value as an organization. For example, if an organization does accounting like everyone else then this isn’t a key value added aspect of their organization. For these areas, they should move to adopt the same accounting software and products used by others. They should take advantage of low-cost, mass marketed “off-the-shelf” solutions or even open-source solutions designed for that specific function.


Once an organization identifies the value producing aspects of their organization they should dedicate resources to further developing systems and processes to support these aspects of their organization. For example, if an organization has a specialized method of delivering services to their clients, they should focus on developing systems to support their organization in delivering these services. They should continue to evolve, develop, and improve this aspect of their business and the systems that support it. In doing so, they should choose technology that will grow and can be adapted to their processes.


For us at CiviCore, this message has been refreshing and right on target. We work very hard to understand and tailor our software to specific focus organizational types such as volunteer organizations, mentoring programs, youth centered organizations, and many others. We then work hard to understand each organization’s individual requirements and further customize our software to meet each organization’s needs. In this way, our clients not only benefit from the work already done to understand their service area but also benefit from software tailored to meet their specific needs. In a nutshell, this is the CiviCore value proposition that we continue to develop in order to best serve our customers and to follow our mission of making the largest possible impact in the social sector."

Note:  For more on Ric Merrifield’s work visit – http://www.rethinkbook.com.  Stay tuned next week for part 2 of this interview.

CiviCore Launches Mentoring Management System for Home Builders Institute

CiviCore is proud to announce the recent launch of a version of our Mentoring Management platform for the Home Builders Institute (HBI). HBI was well down the road with another vendor when they changed directions and partnered with CiviCore.  We believe that our vast experience in the mentoring space and experience in the non-profit world really made the difference in achieving success on this project.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C.,  HBI was established in 1983 as the workforce development arm of the National Association of Home Builders.  For more than 30 years, HBI has trained skilled workers in residential construction, promoted the industry as a career, and helped the NAHB membership address its need for qualified employees.

Here is what Dennis Torbett, Vice President of HBI Workforce Training & Employment, had to say about our work:

"Home Builders Institute is very pleased to partner with CiviCore in the creation of a database of information for our new U.S. Department of Justice mentoring initiative, C-CORE. Software development is not an easy process, but CiviCore and their professional staff have made it easy and fun.  They have been extremely accommodating in customizing a product that will meet our needs for reliable and pertinent data. Their experience in the mentoring arena has added value to their products and services."


We'd like to commend Dennis and the rest of the team at HBI for the great work they do, and we look forward to working with them going forward.  Thanks, all!

CiviCore Launches Volunteer Management System for ASPCA

CiviCore is proud to announce the recent launch of a Volunteer Management System for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).  Founded in 1866, the ASPCA was the first humane society to be established in North America and is today one of the largest in the world.  As a privately funded 501(c)(3) non-profit, the ASPCA boasts more than 1 million supporters across the country as well as thousands of volunteers.

In order to more effectively utilize their volunteer force, the ASPCA recently partnered with CiviCore to launch a Volunteer Management System (VMS).  Our system allows ASPCA staff to create and manage volunteer opportunities and trainings within the system and enroll targeted volunteers towards these events. Further, ASPCA volunteers can log in to the system, register for events and trainings, and even use our online time management system to clock in and clock out during their volunteer hours, allowing the ASPCA to run powerful analytics on the impact of their volunteer force.

We would like to thank the ASPCA for partnering with us on such an exciting project, and we look forward to our system helping make their organization even more effective.