We currently create our donor research profiles in Word and attach them as Files to Account records. The profile contains Contact info (name, email, phone, mailing address), some giving history, and data from external sources. We would like to transition this to Salesforce. My preliminary idea is a custom object with fields for data that doesn't already live somewhere else, then some sort of mail merge tool (we have Apsona) that merges it all together in one document. Has anyone built anything like this,or used a third party tool they recommend?
We are on NPSP with no immediate plans to move to NPC.
@Nonprofit Success Pack #Nonprofit Success PackA custom object sounds like a great approach here. I have seen organisations struggle when donor research ends up scattered across Word documents. Moving that information into a structured Salesforce object can make reporting much easier. You could use a rich text field for the narrative sections while keeping key research details in dedicated fields. External data merging may still require a separate tool, but native Salesforce fields will give you a much stronger foundation. This sort of strategy usually pays off in the long term.
