Explore Salesforce.org Solutions and Services
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe the solutions available to nonprofit and educational institutions.
- Explain the Salesforce.org ecosystem to a colleague.
What is Salesforce for Nonprofits?
Every day, nonprofits around the world are working on the front lines of social change, and their work is more important than ever. Salesforce for Nonprofits provides a complete set of solutions for nonprofits by combining Salesforce.org technology with industry-leading Salesforce products.
Whether building relationships with donors, measuring the effectiveness of programs, or engaging constituents on their preferred channel, uniting all of these data and processes in one place helps nonprofits stretch their resources further and gives them a complete view of their impact.
Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP)
Salesforce for Nonprofits' core product is Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). NPSP is a free, open-source application, developed by Salesforce.org employees and supported by the community. NPSP comes pre-installed when nonprofits sign up for Salesforce.
Since it’s an open-source product, NPSP is continuously evolving and improving based on the needs and input of users. NPSP consists of six managed packages and translates Salesforce functionality to match the most common use cases of Salesforce for nonprofits.
NPSP has custom fields, custom objects, custom code, and a dedicated Settings tab to make changes to how NPSP works. It’s critical to understand that NPSP works differently from what you might be used to in your day job.
What is Salesforce for Education?
Ok, we’ve talked a lot about the solutions available for nonprofits, but Salesforce.org also has solutions for educational institutions.
At Salesforce.org, we empower educational institutions with the technology solutions needed to manage the entire student lifecycle. We call this set of solutions Salesforce for Education.
Salesforce for Education provides a recommended set of Salesforce technologies and apps that empower educational institutions to realize the full potential of Salesforce for their specific needs. It’s an outline of solutions including the Salesforce Platform, Education Data Architecture (EDA), solution sets for Recruiting and Admissions, Student Success, Advancement, and purpose-built products like Salesforce Advisor Link (SAL).
By integrating data across the student lifecycle, Salesforce for Education not only drives student success but institutional success as well. It’s the only platform that uses the world’s #1 CRM and is uniquely designed for K-12 education and beyond.
Education Data Architecture (EDA)
Education Data Architecture (EDA) is the foundation of Salesforce for Education. Developed in collaboration with our partners and educational institutions, EDA is an open-source, community-driven data architecture and a defined set of best practices to configure Salesforce out-of-the-box for education.
So, what exactly do we mean by “data architecture?” Basically, we’re talking about a series of standard and custom data objects built on the Salesforce Platform that model student relationships and affiliations to departments, prospective employers, and more.
As data architecture, EDA empowers institutions to easily see the relationships students have with advisors and family members, as well as affiliations with clubs, departments, and more from day one.
Now that you’re familiar with Salesforce for Nonprofits and Salesforce for Education, let’s dive into other resources nonprofit and educational institutions have access to.
Salesforce.org Ecosystem
Just like commercial companies, many nonprofits and educational institutions will need a certified consulting partner to get them up and running on Salesforce. Salesforce.org has more than 140 partners in the Salesforce.org Consulting Partner Program who specialize in implementing Salesforce for nonprofit and educational institutions.
Nonprofit and educational institutions also have access to the AppExchange. We have an incredible ecosystem of third-party apps designed specifically for nonprofit and educational institutions. Once organizations get up and running on Salesforce, they have access to a ton of success resources, including the Trailblazer Community.
Nonprofits and Educational Institutions in Trailblazer Community
Trailblazer Community is an online community for everyone who uses Salesforce, including nonprofit and educational institutions, certified partners, and Salesforce employees. It's a great place for nonprofits and educational institutions to get answers, build their Salesforce skills, share their expertise, and connect with others in the nonprofit and education sectors.
To get started and connect with our vibrant, active community, join the Salesforce.org Customer Hub, Nonprofit Hub, and Education Hub groups. All three groups are linked in the Resources section.
Now that you’re familiar with how Salesforce.org serves nonprofit and educational institutions, let's build your knowledge about the nonprofit sector as nonprofits are the largest consumers of pro bono services.
