• Give Camp UK - Start a CRM in a weekend

    Nov 8 2011 4:22 PM

    Thanks to Kendall Miller of Gibraltar Software for another guest post on GiveCRM. This blog is re-posted with permission from the original on the Gibraltar Software blog.  The GiveCamp UK team behind this open source CRM solution are engaged in on-going improvement on the solution and you can find out more and get involved by visiting GiveCRM.Org.UK or following @GiveCRM for more information. Our Mission: Create a CRM for Charities in a Weekend When talking with the charities that were interested in having something done at GiveCamp a common thread showed up – many needed a basic customer relationship management (CRM) capability to replace their existing paper or Excel process.  Nearly every charity has the need to track donors, volunteers, and people they help.  Additionally, these charities often have little or no in-house IT talent so self-hosting an option of any complexity wasn’t a good option. Instead of helping one or two of them by implementing an existing CRM option (like SugarCRM or a commercial option) we saw an opportunity to use Give Camp to kick off a greater initiative: A free hosted CRM tuned just to small charities. The core idea is to provide just what small charities need in the easiest to use fashion through a software-as-a-service platform.  This way the charities wouldn’t have to worry about security or backups and could shave off a lot of time that otherwise went into basic recordkeeping.  In many ways, this CRM would be distinguished by what it didn’t do more than what it did.  The primary goal is simplicity of setup and operation and setup, not flexibility to handle any scenario. Before Give Camp started, I’d had a range of conversations with the organizers to make sure we had a clear reason for why we weren’t taking something off the shelf. We looked at a few open source offerings to see if we could just make a customization engine on top of them but in the end it was clear that the risk and complexity of … Continue reading...

  • GiveCamp UK - Day 1

    Oct 22 2011 4:56 PM

    GiveCamp UK day one was a cacophony of madness and uncertainty: I was uncertain as to where Paul was, Paul was uncertain about the location of the entrance to UCL and the volunteers were uncertain about … well just about everything I’d say! Continue reading...

  • GiveCampUK Contributors

    Oct 20 2011 10:26 PM

    Over the past few months, we have been working with a number of companies in order to collect ‘swag’ to give away at the end of GiveCampUK. The swag will be given away using the famous, but rebranded, NxtGenUG swag-o-meter! Continue reading...

  • Welcoming Black Marble as a GiveCamp UK sponsor

    Aug 30 2011 5:28 PM

    The GiveCamp UK team are very pleased to announce the support of high-quality, home-grown professional consultancy house, Black Marble. Black Marble is home to some of the UK’s finest IT consultants and community voices, including Robert Hogg and Richard Fennell and we are very happy to have them on board as supporters of this event. Linda Hogg said of Black Marble’s support: Black Marble is delighted to welcome GiveCamp to the UK.  As a long term supporter of the developer community, we know that great skills, knowledge and talent are plentiful. GiveCamp gives the charity sector an opportunity to experience first-hand what the great and good of our developer community have to offer.  Black Marble is proud to be part of the first GiveCamp event here in the UK. Please help us extend our thanks to Linda Hogg and the team at Black Marble. If the organisation that you work for is looking into application lifecycle management and is searching for reputable and highly-skilled consultants to help them, consider contacting the team at Black Marble.  Continue reading...

  • Jetbrains - Another GiveCampUK Sponsor

    Sep 2 2011 11:09 AM

    Jetbrains are another well known name to be associated with GiveCampUK. This is very exciting to have a company as well know as Jetbrains behind our event. Hadi Hariri, Jetbrains Technical Evangelist, said: Continue reading...

  • Red Gate Software to sponsor GiveCamp UK

    Aug 17 2011 3:37 PM

    The community supporters over at Red Gate Software have committed their contribution to the first GiveCamp UK event coming up in October 2011. As a local development company, we hope to see some of the Red Gaters over GiveCamp UK weekend, volunteering their “Simply Ingenious” skills to our charity organisations. We are very proud to be able to support GiveCamp UK. We are passionate about helping the SQL Server and .NET communities and the fact that GiveCamp are giving us the opportunity to help the wider community through their event is really exciting.” Please help us to thank Hannah Jermy and the folks at Red Gate for their support. If you are a .NET developer looking for tools to help you with memory and performance profiling, why not check out what they have to offer on the Red Gate website, or if you are searching for a new job in software development maybe you’d like to consider them as your future employer. Continue reading...

  • Telerik show their support for GiveCamp UK

    Aug 22 2011 3:56 PM

    GiveCamp UK are very excited to have Telerik on board as sponsors of the first GiveCamp UK event. Telerik are a very visible supporter of the developer community and Community Program Manager, Emily Parker, said of Telerik’s involvement: Telerik is honored to be part of GiveCamp UK. The US GiveCamps create a tremendous value in the developer community and, more importantly, in the local community. To see this grow into the Europe is wonderful and the least we could do to help. The GiveCamp concept is a win-win for both the charities and the volunteers, as developers will create new connections and learn from each other while contributing a cause. Telerik’s commitment to the community derives from an honest appreciation for the growth and education that comes out of these events for all parties, while they assist those who need it most. We’d like to thank Emily and the Telerik team for their support of GiveCamp UK and we encourage you to visit the Telerik website to find out more about the selection of developer tools and technologies that they supply. Continue reading...

  • Announcing ThoughtWorks as a Sponsor

    Aug 12 2011 3:47 PM

    I am very happy to announce that ThoughtWorks have decided to sponsor GiveCampUK in launching its UK venture. When asked why they were willing to support GiveCampUK, Nick Hines, CTO of Innovation at ThoughtWorks, said: Continue reading...

  • Gibraltar Software Sponsor GiveCamp UK

    Aug 2 2011 8:29 PM

    GiveCamp UK is proud to announce that Gibraltar Software have agreed to be a partner for the upcoming GiveCamp UK event. They have very kindly offered to sponsor as well as allow Kendall Miller, Principal, to attend the event. Kendall’s said: Continue reading...