[development] CiviCRM 1.3 Released (with CiviContribute)

[David Geilhufe]

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CiviCRM 1.3: A Free and Open Source eCRM Solution
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We are pleased to announce the latest release of CiviCRM - version 1.3.

CiviCRM is the first open source and freely downloadable constituent
relationship management solution. CiviCRM is web-based,
internationalized, and designed specifically to meet the needs of
advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups.

New to CiviCRM? Read more at http://www.openngo.org/aboutcivicrm

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What's new in 1.3?
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+-  Joomla/Mambo front end. Profiles and online contribution pages can
be displayed to and accessed by users.
+-  Introduces CiviContribute, a solution for accepting, tracking and
managing online and offline contributions including cash and in-kind
donations. Accept online donations and have them automatically
recorded in your donor database.
+-  Custom fields available for activities and contributions.
+-  Improved website integration. Profiles allow users to maintain
more of their own CRM records.
+-  Improved developer release of CiviMail, a mass mail solution with
token replacement, open and click trough tracking.

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Get CiviCRM: Demo, Downloads & Documentation
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+-  Test drive CiviCRM on our demo site.
http://demo.openngo.org/civicrm/drupal-php5/
+-  Download CiviCRM.
http://downloads.openngo.org/civicrm/
+-  Installation instructions.
http://objectledge.org/confluence/display/CRM/Installation+Guide
+-  Documentation, including a Quick Start Guide and a detailed
Administrator Guide.
http://objectledge.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM+Documentation
+-  Automated installer for 1.3 is available with the CivicSpace 0.8.3 release candidate.
http://civicspacelabs.org/home/developers/download

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CiviCRM Community
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+-  CiviCRM has been downloaded over 4,000 times and has been
installed by almost 1,000 groups.
+-  Over 100 individuals and consultants have participated in the
design and development of CiviCRM.
+-  Consulting firms from one-person shops to organizations with a
staff of 18 offer CiviCRM-based services.
+-  Open visibility and community participation in bugs, features and
product roadmaps.
+-  Active translation community with efforts complete or under way
for Brazilian Portuguese, British English, Canadian French, Dutch,
Finnish, French, German, Italian, Khmer, Polish, Spanish, Thai and
Traditional Chinese.

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New for 1.3: CiviContribute
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CiviContribute can be used to track virtually any contribution an
organization receives with user-defined contribution types--in-kind,
cash, and volunteer time, for example. You can add custom fields to
track extra information about a contribution, information required by
the FEC for campaign contributions, for example.
+-  Basic donor database solution that accepts online donations,
records contributions, manages receipts and thank-you communications.
+-  Create an online donations page, pick a payment provider (PayPal
and Moneris supported in 1.3) and start accepting online donations.
+-  Track receipts and thank you notes.
+-  User configurable contribution types allow tracking contributions
of money, in-kind donations, time or anything else contributed to your
organization.
+-  Easy import and export of contribution data to/from other systems
like an accounting package.
+-  Search for contributions by type, amount, date, etc.

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Future Releases
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CiviCRM is in active development and constantly improving. Key
upcoming features to look for are:
+-  Joomla integration. 1.4 will focus on improved Joomla/mambo integration.
+-  Ongoing CiviMail improvements in our high-capacity email broadcast
tool, including user-friendlier interface.
+-  Voice your opinion on the 1.5 release by posting your ideas.
http://objectledge.org/confluence/display/CRM/CiviCRM+1.5

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Technical Requirements:
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CiviCRM is a web-based solution that runs locally on a web server or
on a hosting provider. Installs on local machines should consider
using the XAMPP/WAMP stacks which almost painlessly install
Apache/PHP/MySQL.
+-  Apache 1.3+
+-  PHP 4.3.3+
+-  MySQL 4.0, 4.1 or  5.0
+-  Drupal 4.6.3+ or Joomla 1.0.3+ / Mambo 4.5.3+

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About the Social Source Foundation
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The Social Source Foundation is a 501-c-3 nonprofit creating
internationalized, open source software of uncompromising quality for
the nonprofit and nongovernmental sectors. Social Source Foundation is
one of many partners in the creation of the CiviCRM platform,
providing primary engineering support for the software.

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How Do I Participate in the CiviCRM Project?
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Interested parties are encouraged to participate in the development of
CiviCRM. This can take the form of providing use cases, feedback on
existing functionality, feature suggestions, code contributions,
documentation contributions and beta testing.

-CiviCRM Team