Exploring the Benefits of Salesforce CRM for Nonprofit Organizations

Salesforce has perfected a service provision specifically for nonprofit organizations both to service nonprofits and to support positive impact in the world today. Salesforce has managed to creatively address the core pain points of nonprofit organizations, which include fundraising, operations, and organizational program management. The impact this has had on service delivery as well as overall organizational efficiency is clear in organizations that have embraced Salesforce for nonprofits. This has all been made possible through the newly launched Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). This revolutionary innovation packs together flexible, open data architecture with pre-built donor management components added for improved efficiency for nonprofits. In fact, according to Salesforce, the Nonprofit Success Pack has been built by nonprofits and for nonprofits, all derived from Salesforce’s large global base of community developers, active partners, and users. It’s spreading due to its flexibility and community-focused qualities. However, that’s all just chatter. Does it benefit nonprofits in the day-to-day operations? Does it solve ,or at least minimize the difficulties nonprofits face daily? Let’s find out.

Benefits of the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack to Nonprofits

Nonprofits often have difficulty when it comes to choosing the right database platforms for their different organizations. The choice is also influenced by the ease with which the selected database platform integrates with other third-party applications. These applications work together to make everyday businesses painless. Salesforce’s nonprofit Success Pack is the perfect choice for nonprofits looking to harmonize their tracking of donors, dollars, contacts, project impact, etc. The Salesforce NPSP offers the following benefits to nonprofits:

1.    Eliminating data silos

Data management and integration are some of the most difficult challenges a nonprofit must deal with. However, with the Salesforce platform, nonprofits can harness flexibility and powerful tools to centralize or even integrate their data management needs all in a single system. The issue of data silos is taken care of when a single system can get rid of data silos by tracking and managing programs, outcomes, clients, fundraising, and operations all in one place.

2.   A marketplace of 3^rd party tools

Because different organizations have different needs, some of which may require the development of custom applications for them to be met, Salesforce has made its platform’s functionality extendable through third-party tools. This is made possible through its Salesforce AppExchange platform, which is a booming marketplace for tools or third-party applications used to extend Salesforce functionalities as desired by organizations. The biggest win with these tools is that most are free or largely discounted, making them extremely affordable compared to the cost of custom building an app to solve specific needs. Furthermore, some of these apps may not even work or integrate with other systems in the organization, which creates a waste of time and money. Examples of such third-party tools include tools for integration with popular email marketing platforms, event management tools, and online donation tools. Others are exclusive to nonprofits. These are tools used to track volunteers, track case management, etc.

3.   Point-and-click tools to administer and extend the system, with no additional investment

Most systems would require a consultant for every implementation of change in the system. With the Nonprofit Success Pack by Salesforce, you’d not need the services of a consultant every time you are implementing changes in the system. Salesforce included built-in point-and-click tools for your nonprofit staff to configure their system on their own. This makes it easy for the nonprofit’s staff to quickly learn a variety of tasks within the system, such as changing how information appears to other staff (page layouts) based on security permissions and customized reports. Over time, the nonprofit can own and manage its own systems without further investment in consultants.

4.   Open-source Nonprofit Success Pack

The Nonprofit Success Pack is an open-source creation by Salesforce for donor and constituent management. The developers support the service pack, as does the Salesforce community (users) and partners. One of the main reasons why the Nonprofit Success Pack is such a success is because it packs together almost all the customizations that a general nonprofit business would need. The customizations are so versatile that they can be fine-tuned to cover individual tracking of complicated client relationships.

5.    Enjoy great discounts with the license

If you feel limited in your resources and are wondering if Salesforce is still a worthwhile deal, there’s good news for you. The Salesforce team is generous enough to offer license donations and discounts for qualified nonprofits through the Power of Us program. For example, Salesforce gives 10 free licenses to 501(c)3s as well as to Canadian charities that are fully registered. There are also deep discounts added for additional licenses.

6.   Strong nonprofit community

As a nonprofit, it can be lonely venturing out into the sea alone. With the Salesforce platform, an entire community opens up. More than 20,000 nonprofit and academic institutions on Salesforce make it a lively and active community to be a part of. If you need consultants for anything related to Salesforce, there’s a thriving network of consulting firms registered on the Salesforce platform that works exclusively with nonprofits and education institutions. This community of consultants meets on a private, supportive social network dubbed the Power of Us HUB where they solve challenges and share success stories.

7.   A cloud-based system with mobile device access

Today, mobile accessibility is a huge factor that determines what systems organizations invest in. Besides systems being mobile-ready, the cloud-based feature adds an additional advantage so your IT team won’t need to run their own servers, which may be costly. The fact that the Salesforce platform is cloud-based means you can access data and other essential information from any device, anywhere on the globe. If the access seems too unrestricted, you can set limits on who gets access to what. Salesforce also provides three automatic upgrades per year through their regularly released schedule that requires no additional fee.

8.   Robust reporting and analytics at your disposal

Reporting is one of the most demanding tasks that nonprofits must undertake regularly, not only of donors but even just for their internal operations. With the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack, comprehensive reporting and analytics are safely included in the package so that all questions relating to your data can be readily answered and proofed whenever needed. You can easily and readily extract information on topics like top donors, top volunteers, who gave what last year, top-performing programs, etc.

9.   Enjoy Powerful security and sharing model

Flexibility and security of any system are critical while deciding whether to invest or not. Salesforce NPSP has robust, powerful, and flexible security and sharing model that allows nonprofit organizations to restrict access or functionality kept within individual nonprofit organizations. You can safely choose who sees donation information or even limit program updates to certain departments or people.

10.  Flexible workflow automation

If there’s anything Salesforce has excelled in beyond doubt, then it is workflow automation. With Salesforce NPSP, you can automate virtually every common task in the office, from sending emails to key staff when large donations are registered, to sending weekly summaries and volunteer activity updates to assigned volunteer managers, to creating follow-up tasks for assigned officers in the organizational development department. There’s so much to benefit from while using the Nonprofit Success Pack.

Final thoughts

Salesforce has revolutionized how nonprofits work with the introduction of the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack.  If you are a nonprofit organization and you are looking to implement Salesforce, but you are hesitant about where to start, let this be the extra of even more reasons to go ahead and get started. If you need certified Salesforce consultants to help with the implementation or understanding, go to Plumlogix.com today to find professional help and guidance.