12) Always on the Hunt for Good Constituent Relationship Software

If you’ve read Brigada very long, you know we’re always on the prowl for a great deal at Constituent Relationship Management (CRM) software. The org where we work is making a go of CiviCRM — and it indeed has a lot to offer. But honestly, we would never attempt this without a full-time I.T. guy. It’s just too much work (like pulling TEETH sometimes — and just as painful). So what’s a body to do when there’s no “Greg” around to help with I.T. issues? First, ask the security question. (For more on this, see the “Last Bit” item below — #14.) But if security isn’t a haunting factor and if the end-user license agreement makes sense to you, one ‘hit’ we’ve been hearing about lately is Hubspot CRM…
http://www.HubSpot.com

First, make sure you’re looking at their CRM product (as opposed to their marketing or sales software, which are different). The great thing about their CRM product is that it’s essentially completely free. Forever. All your users, free forever, with up to 1 million data entities (contacts, companies, deals and tasks). So think about it — unlimited users — and not just for a one-month trial. It’s true, to integrate with email, you’ll need to be using Gmail or Outlook. But even if you aren’t (using one of those two products), you can still use their forwarding address feature and the blind copy feature to integrate and record emails in your database. And guess what: no ads. Ever. I’ve read their privacy policy. They have agreed never to sell any personal information. So you’re never being marketed. Ever. They do send marketing information from time to time — but you can opt out of that just like you do any other email. So bottom line, could this be the CRM for which we’ve been waiting? They have a web app, along with corresponding digital device apps. I’m trying these out on the side right now and they look good, for free especially. See what you think.