Upgrading from Drupal 6 to Enhance CiviCRM Membership Management
The Colorado Mortgage Lenders Association (CMLA) represents mortgage professionals across Colorado through advocacy, education, and community engagement. After years on an outdated website and database, CMLA needed a secure, flexible platform to manage memberships, payments, and communications.\
With support from Skvare, the organization migrated its website and CiviCRM system from Drupal 6 to a new Drupal platform. The upgrade improved performance, security, and usability for both members and staff while enhancing CiviCRM’s role as the core system for membership management.
Challenge
CMLA’s previous Drupal 6 website had reached end of life and was prone to outages and performance issues. Staff struggled with limited documentation, third-party forms, and a fragmented process for managing membership renewals and payments.
The outdated infrastructure created unnecessary maintenance work and slowed down engagement with members. CMLA needed a reliable, unified system that connected its website and CiviCRM database to support efficient membership operations.
Solution
Skvare rebuilt CMLA’s website and CiviCRM integration on an updated version of Drupal that streamlined management for both staff and members.
The new system included:
- Webform CiviCRM integration for membership registration and payment processing through a single form.
- CiviCRM Entity module for consistent data sharing between Drupal and CiviCRM.
- CiviCRM Image Resize extension to resize contact and custom images automatically.
- CiviCRM CMS User extension to automatically create and manage Drupal users based on CiviCRM tags and groups.
At the time of this project, these updates unified member data, reduced manual work, and gave staff a flexible, easy way to manage both content and relationships in CiviCRM.
Results
- Membership sign-ups and renewals flowed directly into CiviCRM.
- Staff managed payments, communications, and member records from one place.
- Automated user creation simplified access and permissions for members.
- The system was faster, more secure, and easier for staff to maintain.
- CMLA’s technology infrastructure better supported its mission and members.
Summary
This project demonstrated how CiviCRM and Drupal together can provide a reliable, scalable foundation for membership management and engagement.
To learn more about this project or other CiviCRM solutions, please visit Skvare.
