• Organise and mobilise your contacts

Open source software advocates and programmers

CiviCRM is a free and open source software tool that can be used to manage your relationships. It can send and track responses from bulk emails and be used to help plan events and fundraise. Like an address book, CiviCRM organises constituents' contact information in a database, but it also tracks interactions with people (emails sent, emails responded to, live events attended) and people’s relationships with each other. CiviCRM stores this data on your own web server, which means you can install security to ensure the information is private and you can access it anywhere with an internet connection. 

TOOLS USED: CiviCRM requires a web server running PHP and MySQL, with an option to use Drupal or Joomla or a standalone content management system (CMS). 

LINKS TO LEARN MORE:

CiviCRM website

Free CiviCRM manual

• Providing targeted reconstruction information

Mercy Corps and Frontline SMS

As part of reconstruction work after the Asian tsunami, Mercy Corps used FrontlineSMS to provide people with highly targeted relief information by mobile phone. FrontlineSMS is a free and open source software tool that allows you to send text messages to customised groups of contacts. In this way, Mercy Corps could send different information to different groups of people; by using their mobile phones, tsunami-effected people had access to up-to-date information. 

TOOLS USED: FrontlineSMS, mobile phones 

LINKS TO LEARN MORE:

FrontlineSMS website

Mercy Corps & FrontlineSMS article