Interview with David Geilhufe - May 10, 2006

David Geilhufe talks with Michael Stein (N-TEN) about the future of Open Source Software, leaving the Beaumont Foundation, creating CiviCRM and his latest move to CivicSpace.

N-TEN: You've recently left the Beaumont Foundation to join CivicSpace LLC as a Managing Partner. Start by telling us the reason for your move, and the latest news about CivicSpace.

Geilhufe: For almost a decade, I've been working on leveraging open source technology to provide small nonprofits with effective, cutting-edge technology at an affordable cost.

A unique confluence of events gave me the opportunity to join CivicSpace. For the past 18 months or so I've been working with Donald Lobo and Dave Greenberg to build CiviCRM, an open source constituent relationship management system. Now that CiviCRM is ready for broad usage in the nonprofit sector, the next stage of the plan is to make CiviCRM and other tools built for nonprofits available in a "Software as a Service" model. Very few accidental techies have the skills or want to take on the potential hassle of downloading, installing and configuring complex and powerful software like CiviCRM.

CivicSpace is launching CivicSpace On Demand, a hosted version of CivicSpace to deliver a powerful and extremely affordable solution to nonprofit and civic organizations. CivicSpace On Demand is delivered through a network of Associates, companies and individuals qualified to install, configure and support CivicSpace.

CivicSpace On Demand is currently in testing with our initial associates who will tell us when it is ready for a broader release. The CivicSpace organization will be raising additional capital from philanthropic and commercial sources to fund a broad roll-out of the service and the creation of a sustainable ecosystem around the software.

N-TEN: How does CivicSpace On Demand fit in amidst the other commercial and nonprofit software solutions? What unique value will CivicSpace On Demand provide?

Geilhufe:CivicSpace is unique because it is a Social Enterprise driven by our mission and strategy to bring powerful technology to all groups engaging in creating social change, regardless of size, budget, or nonprofit status. We know that we need to build a sustainable economy around the technology in order for it to truly benefit the nonprofit sector in the years to come. We also know the U.S. tax code doesn't have a category for us.

CivicSpace On Demand will deliver three important value propositions:

(1) A complete and integrated solution. A solution designed for nonprofits - website, central organizational CRM database, online donations, mass email, and more.

(2) An opportunity to tap the incredible power of open source. Nonprofit customers want things that just work, they don't want to have to understand and navigate among open source communities. We provide a direct link to those communities though our network of CivicSpace Associates.

(3) The ability to use your technology budget to create social change. Every dollar invested in the CivicSpace ecosystem directly benefits groups engaged in social change. The open source license business model ensures it. It is our mission, after all.

N-TEN: CivicSpace Foundation is a new nonprofit organization fiscally sponsored by CompuMentor and headed up by Zack Rosen. How do you see a nonprofit and for-profit entity interacting together? How might this be a model for financial sustainability for other organizations?

Geilhufe: Right now, Zack and I coordinate very closely on pretty much everything. The goals of CivicSpace remain the same, we just needed to change the tactics. Right now we work together on training materials, Drupal and CiviCRM development, understanding the needs of people building businesses around CivicSpace and a whole lot more.

We're still working out the interaction between the two entities, but we do know we need both a for-profit entity and a nonprofit entity to achieve the mission. To a certain extent, this is just a situation of IRS tax laws not changing as fast as technology and society.

We don't know what financial sustainability looks like yet. We're raising capital and building revenue as we speak. We know our mission has elements that look like traditional philanthropic activities - training grassroots groups in online advocacy, for example. We also know our mission has elements that look like a business - nonprofits pay a monthly fee for CivicSpace On Demand as part of their technology budget.

There are probably some lessons on sustainability in our experience. I'm definitely not a proponent of the "corporatization" of the nonprofit sector and the general thought that nonprofits need to act more like businesses, but there are some very basic principles involved.

If you pay for something, it has value. So though we offer CivicSpace for free, we need to deliver value at a price. Earned income repeats and grows as long as you deliver value. This same dynamic is not always true in philanthropic funding.

The core lesson is that just because someone chooses a for-profit legal structure, it doesn't mean their plans include going public or buying a Porsche. Let their actions define their mission.

N-TEN: You're still involved with CiviCRM and the Social Source Foundation (SSF). What are you trying to accomplish at SSF?

Geilhufe: Social Source Foundation is one of a few players in the ecosystem working to enable nonprofits to tap to the power of open source solutions. SSF is a bit more technology-centric, building and maintaining CiviCRM, a constituent relationship management system that can be at the heart of a nonprofit. Other software applications can talk to CiviCRM in addition to staff using CiviCRM interfaces.

SSF is really focused on the core technologies. A good example of this is that CiviCRM was recently used by Quest Scholars to power their online scholarship application system. Why did we do this? It offered the opportunity to extend CiviCRM into being able to support online grants management.

We've never had an enterprise technology stack in the nonprofit sector - we go to vendors for a "solution". Often that solution has been designed not to work with other solutions. CiviCRM is building out an open, robust technology stack that meets the common basic needs in the nonprofit sector.

This esoteric, technology-centric stuff is what makes CivicSpace possible and what will enable software innovation in the nonprofit, civic, and nongovernmental sectors for years to come.

N-TEN: As a longtime advocate of community computing, you're now leaving the Beaumont Foundation. How do you reflect on your time there?

Geilhufe: I'm sad that our leadership was unable to rise to the challenge of giving away $350 million in computer equipment to schools and community-based agencies. But we did create a lot of knowledge that I hope is not lost... just like with the ending of the federal Telecommunication Opportunities Program (TOP), there is a lot of knowledge that could benefit those that come later.

The access problem (people getting their hands on a computer) is not so much an issue anymore. At Beaumont, we were able to craft a grant program that rewarded "mainstream" innovation - proven basic program designs that worked.

The biggest lesson is that good and important causes without effective constituencies don't necessarily get the funding, support and outcomes they might deserve. I hope to put that lesson to use as we build a constituency around CivicSpace.

N-TEN: From a big picture standpoint, where do you see the nonprofit open source movement heading right now?

Geilhufe: I think we are at a tipping point between business and values. There are a tremendous number of technically savvy, social-change oriented individuals out there. They are starting to identify themselves as a community and are beginning to work together. Open source values are a natural starting point.

CiviCRM and CivicSpace have been one of many kernels of sand that begin the formation of a pearl. Open source software provides a starting point for the folks in the nonprofit sector who are focusing on open source because it is compatible with their values and mission. These are the real guys creating the pearls.

Open source in the nonprofit sector will graduate from small fragmented pockets of people into a network that can deploy the same or more resources as the big companies like Blackbaud or Kintera.

At some point, someone is going to figure out they can own large swaths of the nonprofit technology marketplace with an effective open source strategy. I just hope that it is the network rather than a VC-funded start up company. I also hope those players are values-driven rather than profit-driven.

END