A lot of software is free. Hopefully though your overriding decision for the best software to use for the job is based on the value you get out of it and not the absolute lowest cost.

I did my PhD dissertation on open source CMS and related systems, and one of the questions was sustainability. For those that can sustain the issues with a system like CiviCRM, it might be appropriate. Alternatively, an enabler like Greenleaf could help an org -http://greenleafadvancement.com

Or, a product like Giveffect might be helpful.

> I did my PhD dissertation on open source CMS

That sounds really cool! I work with CMS's all the time and will be teaching a class on them -- is your dissertation publicly available, and/or do you have any interest in sharing or chatting about the topic? (my contact info is in my profile)

I think this is it?

Sustainable multilingual communication: Managing multilingual content using free and open source content management systems by Kelsey, Todd, Ph.D., Illinois Institute of Technology, http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/906782853.html?FMT=ABS

Yeah that's it - thanks - there's also a Google presentation with the high points at http://tinyurl.com/gomultilingual

hello, feel free to reach out on linkedin - http://linkedin.com/in/tekelsey - I also wrote books on drupal and wordpress - students might enjoy dissertation though. glad to skype into a class.

coincidentally, our most disgruntled clients come from civiCRM. That's actually how we at Giveffect even learnt of CiviCRM (through their former nonprofit clients eager to jump on ship with our software because of product and customer support issues). ps: I'm the founder and ceo of Giveffect. Happy to answer any questions about our product.

Also, check out Odoo; open source CRM, CMS (with a graphical website builder and ecommerce support), HR, ERP, and more, all integrated.

https://www.odoo.com/

(Disclaimer: I work for a partner company; we've put Odoo on some of the largest companies in our country)

I'm not very familiar with Odoo, but I think what sets CiviCRM apart is that it only targets nonprofits/community groups. Nonprofits have different uses for CRMs, like accepting donations and managing membership, and don't work with leads that much.

Odoo can manage memberships [1]. There are also community modules for managing donations (such as [2]), though they may not fit all use cases.

By the way, both Alpinter and the WWF use Odoo:

https://www.odoo.com/blog/customer-reviews-6/post/how-alpint...

https://www.odoo.com/blog/customer-reviews-6/post/how-many-e...

[1] https://apps.openerp.com/apps/modules/8.0/membership/

[2] https://apps.openerp.com/apps/modules/8.0/donation_recurring...

Hadn't heard of CiviCRM before. I work at a Legal Aid office and I really hate our CMS system, which I know is a bit of a different beast.

Things we'd need in a CMS are 1) security 2) document management and 3) knowledge base.