Case Study: Creative South achieves streamlined volunteer management and lower costs with CiviCRM

Getting Grassroots Using Volunteer Management

Creative South, a grassroots art and design conference in Columbus, GA, needed a way to manage paid registration while recruiting and organizing a pool of discounted volunteers to keep event costs low. They selected CiviCRM, using the Events module and the Volunteer extension, to set up registration, offer volunteer discounts, and match registrants to roles across multiple venues.

Using CiviCRM, organizer Sandy Ellingson coded volunteer role names, created supervisor relationships on contact records, and coordinated 60 volunteers across six venues, streamlining logistics and attracting young talent while reducing overall attendee costs. Creative South also used CiviCRM’s built‑in communication tools for post‑event follow‑up and appreciated that CiviCRM avoided extra hosting, maintenance, and third‑party fees.

Creative South