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Meet Salesforce for Nonprofits

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:

  • Define CRM, Salesforce, and Salesforce for Nonprofits.
  • Explain how Salesforce for Nonprofits can help nonprofits manage their missions.

Building Relationships, Building Change

Amid our global challenges, people like you work every day to make the world a better place. You take on the big problems, build community, and show bold courage and compassion.

Technology should make that work easier.

That’s why we worked with nonprofit leaders like you to create Salesforce for Nonprofits, a set of technology solutions purpose-built to help organizations like yours.

In this module, we explore how Salesforce for Nonprofits helps you scale your mission, capture critical data, and decide where to focus your time and resources. 

Some History and Vocabulary

Before we dive in, let’s start with the basics.

In the beginning, there was CRM software; CRM stands for customer relationship management. Sure, that sounds for-profit, but when you stop to think about it, you realize that the technology can help you track your stakeholder relationships too. CRM technology helps teams at any organization collaborate, gather insights, track important metrics, and communicate internally and externally.

Salesforce has taken CRM technology and brought it to the cloud, making it web-based without any software to install. That helps businesses and organizations of all types start using the technology faster and with more ease.

For decades, Salesforce has built powerful technology for diverse industries, including nonprofits, schools, and philanthropic organizations. With their help and guidance, we build solutions—like those you learn about in this module—to tackle the world’s biggest problems. Salesforce products and features to help you operate effectively, raise funds, distribute grants, manage program impact, and connect with supporters. Plus, the Power of Us Program helps eligible nonprofits get started with Salesforce.

Salesforce for Nonprofits is a complete set of nonprofit technology solutions built to connect your nonprofit with the people who care about your cause. Use it to unlock the knowledge to better track your supporters and programs, and find new, more efficient ways of working to accomplish your mission.

Nonprofit Cloud adds nonprofit-specific features to Salesforce.

The core product in Salesforce for Nonprofits is Nonprofit Cloud, a built-in Salesforce solution with tools for fundraising, program management, case management, and outcome management. For organizations that distribute funds or in-kind grants there’s also Nonprofit Cloud for Grantmaking, which includes everything in Nonprofit Cloud plus tools to manage the grantmaking lifecycle.

Alternatively, choose from a number of managed packages that can be installed into Salesforce, such as Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). NPSP organizes constituent, fundraising, and program data for nonprofits. 

How does this technology apply to your mission? Let’s explore that now.

Advancing Your Mission

Think about how your organization operates today, especially if it doesn’t use a CRM system. Can you imagine a better way to track contacts, appointments, programs, services, dollars raised, events, resources, and all the other information your organization needs?

Salesforce for Nonprofits can help. Here are the advantages.

Manage relationships that support your mission. Building stronger relationships and uniting the people behind your mission is a key task for any organization working for change. A CRM brings together the important information that otherwise exists in a jumble of sticky notes, spreadsheets, and various digital systems and services. A single source of truth makes it easier for your staff to do their best work, preserves your information for the future, and streamlines the work you do with donors and program participants.

Gain insights and grow impact through secure and usable data. When all your data is in one place, you can use it in better ways. For example, you can analyze fundraising against monthly goals and pull program reports for your amazing funders. You can find efficiencies in how you distribute work. Preparing for a board meeting gets a whole lot simpler. A single place to store all your data allows you to dive deep to find trends and insights, or train an AI tool to deliver them to you.

Adapt to change with flexibility. What happens when demand for your services surges? Will your current processes scale? Can you pivot quickly to a new program area or source of revenue? The future always presents opportunities, and organizations thrive if they have integrated systems to make the most of them. Salesforce for Nonprofits gives you the tools to adapt, whether you’re expanding into a new program area, managing new types of donor relationships, or automating your internal processes.

How does Salesforce for Nonprofits help you achieve all these goals? It includes a series of ready-made apps, tools, features, services, and technologies designed for the unique needs of nonprofits of all types, sizes, and missions. 

Now that you understand the basics of Salesforce and Salesforce for Nonprofits, explore the nonprofit components in the next unit.

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