+1-480-382-1320
+61-1300-332-888
+91 9811400594Our Blogs
Salesforce for NonProfits: Products Overview
Salesforce offers two solutions for nonprofits:
Nonprofit Cloud is a set of tools and technologies that connect nonprofit organizations with their donors and allows them to manage campaigns, monitor volunteers, and all tasks they need to do.
Nonprofit Success Pack or NPSP is the foundation of Nonprofit Cloud. NPSP is an app stack that gives nonprofits access to pre-built donor management components in Salesforce and enables them to operate faster and more efficiently in Salesforce.
NPSP is founded on a robust, industry standard-data model that allows nonprofits to manage income streams, grants, and programs in a single place.
There is also Salesforce.org which is a nonprofit social organization that resells Salesforce licenses to nonprofits at a significantly discounted price.
With Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud you can:
- Significantly boost impact, revenue, and reach.
- Automate volunteers and staff to launch powerful campaigns at scale.
- Leverage data intelligence and insights and grow revenue.
- Expand your community with real-time data.
Salesforce Nonprofit Сloud and NPSP allow nonprofits to access various Salesforce apps to seamlessly execute tasks such as obtaining digital signatures, creating web forms, manage projects etc.
Other use cases include:
Nonprofit Cloud Fundraising. Salesforce comes with tailor made features unique to the fundraising operations. It allows you to launch targeted fundraising campaigns, collaborate with staff and volunteers, and save critical data.
Program Management. With NPSP, organizations can manage and monitor their programs easily. With smart tools available within the Salesforce console, nonprofits can establish which programs are the most successful. Teams can quickly modify the non-performing programs.
Engagement. Nonprofits rely on support from all segments of their community such as donors, members and volunteers. They need to communicate their mission to each donor effectively to encourage them to make regular donations. With Nonprofit Cloud, organizations augment awareness, find new donors, and foster long-term relationships.
Grant Management. Salesforce is widely used as a grant management solution. Nonprofit Cloud can automate the entire process of giving with pre-built solutions for grants management, donor engagement, and more.
However, to get the most out of Salesforce for nonprofits, it may be a wise decision to hire a specialist who could help with the implementation. This is where a Salesforce nonprofit cloud consultant comes in.
Why Do You Need a Salesforce Nonprofit Consultant?
Salesforce CRM can become a powerful tool for managing all constituents of your operations and fundraising activities if you know how to maximize its potential. Without a planned implementation followed by thorough training of users, Salesforce for Nonprofits could take a heavy toll on your resources, become an impediment to seamless operations, and thereby create a resistance amongst users for proper adoption. Working with a specialist will save you time, money and effort in the long run.
Nonprofits have specific needs. That makes it all the more important to know how to use Salesforce correctly to stay on top of your initiatives. A Salesforce nonprofit consultant will help you with that!
When you hire a Salesforce Nonprofit Consultant, you’ll get:
- A dedicated professional who will work diligently to drive adoption.
- A Salesforce certified partner who will put in the hours to understand the world of nonprofits
- 360 degree services for Salesforce implementation to drive revenue and engagement
- A technology implementation and training plan in collaboration with your team at every step;
- An expert who will train your users to configure the system customised to your needs.
Considering the above benefits, it would be a prudent decision to hire a Salesforce consultant.
Top 5 Salesforce nonprofit consultant hiring strategies
Are you assessing Salesforce to manage your fundraising and outreach initiatives? There is always a temptation to do it yourself thinking once you do it, everything else will fall into place. But without knowing and understanding how to use Salesforce strategically for your nonprofit efforts, you will not be able to drive adoption and significantly limit the utilization of the platform’s capability. Bringing in a Salesforce consultant has several benefits. A Salesforce consultant will guide you on how well you can align Salesforce with your NGO’s overall mission and scale up with your operations. Here are 5 things you should keep in mind when you are looking to hire a nonprofit Salesforce consultant.
Create a realistic budget
You need to have a clear idea of how much you are willing to spend on a nonprofit Salesforce consultant before you actually set out looking for one. Salesforce consultants are expensive. Many of them have several years of experience in the relevant field and are very good at what they do. While establishing the budget, make sure you have taken into account the following:
- Salesforce NPSP deployment costs
- Consultation fees
- Third party software integration costs
Establishing a realistic budget will go a long way in ensuring an effective Salesforce implementation.
Establish a clear understanding of How a Salesforce consultant brings value
You don’t hire a Salesforce consultant only to implement Salesforce for nonprofit in your NGO. A Salesforce consultant brings value to your organization in many ways outside of your Salesforce project. It is important to understand the potential value in this partnership and what skills, knowledge and experience you are looking for before hiring a consultant. Here are some pointers to establish that understanding.
Current technology needs: Is your existing technology framework delivering the desired results? If not, what is the gap and how do you intend to fill that gap with Salesforce? How will this impact the existing systems that you are currently using? Which of those systems don’t bring any value to your efforts and need to be cast aside immediately?
Salesforce Goals: What are your goals while implementing Salesforce in your organization? Which aspects if your operations do you wish to manage with Salesforce such as fundraising activities, events, marketing and promotional activities, team collaboration etc?
Look for a Salesforce consultant with relevant experience.
You must keep relevant experience in mind once you start looking for a Salesforce consultant. Most consultants will have details of their work experience on their website, along with case studies and portfolios. That should get you started to identify the relevant ones. Ensure that you have answers to the following:
- What are their areas of expertise with respect to technology?
- What nonprofit projects have they worked on, what was the engagement like and for how long, what were the outcomes?
- What is their project experience on Salesforce apart from nonprofits?
Know More About Their Processes
Once you have shortlisted potential Salesforce consultants, meet with them in person and understand who they are how they work. Understanding their solution implementation methodology will help you assess whether or not it aligns with your processes and objectives. Ensure that you have clarity on the following points:
- How do they intend to capture your nonprofit’s current processes and Salesforce requirements?
- How will they plan the Salesforce implementation?
- What would be the dependencies and constraints of the implementation?
- How soon can they start with the implementation after getting done with the planning?
- How would they define the success metrics?
- What is their methodology to prevent delays, if any?
- What would be their training methodology?
Make sure they are willing for a long-term relationship
It’s very important for you to establish how long is this partnership going to last? Once you have detailed discussions about the project and your expectations, ask them for a project timeline and assess the potential of a long-term relationship with you as your organization grows. Make sure you get answers to these questions:
- Will they be providing support if there are any additional projects?
- Will they provide long term support?
- What is their preferred mode of communication? – phones, emails, text chat or in person meetings?
Girikon is a Gold Certified Salesforce Implementation partner with over a decade of Salesforce experience. Our team of experts can help nonprofit organizations implement the right solution that benefits all constituents.
We have extensive experience in Salesforce consulting, customization and deployment. Our rich experience across multiple industries allows us to get a deep understanding of your unique project requirements. Our global delivery capability will ensure you get value for the money you spend.
We can also assist you with:
- Grounds up Salesforce implementation
- Migration from any existing system to Salesforce
- Re-implementation or optimization of Salesforce
- Migration to Salesforce Lightning from Salesforce Classic
Contact us today.
About Author
Indranil is a technology enthusiast with over 25 years of experience in project management, operations, technology and business development. Indranil has led project teams in egovernance, business process re-engineering, product development and worked with Government and Corporate customers. Indranil truly believes in the power of technology to drive productivity and growth for teams and businesses.
Share this post on:
