What are the 5 reasons to choose Salesforce for NPOs?

Salesforce is a great tool that helps nonprofits manage activities. With the Nonprofit Success Pack, you can manage organization accounts, donation funds, affiliations, and contacts, as well as track relationships, status of donations, and recurring donations. Your nonprofit’s CRM has a large influence on how your organization will dictate business such as communicating with donors and organizing events. Salesforce prides itself on its flexibility, scalability, and accessibility. It is designed to serve nonprofits for their daily tasks. 

Now that we figured out that Salesforce is the best solution for Nonprofits, let’s see how it improves your business.

What Can Salesforce do for Nonprofits?  

Salesforce serves a broad range of organizations using Cloud-based platforms that can be configured to fit the needs of the specific organization. Nonprofits that invest in Salesforce will use Nonprofit Cloud, the primary platform for nonprofits, which include different tools that are compatible with industry-specific technology.  Within the Cloud, Salesforce also offers a Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), which is a comprehensive package configuring the Salesforce CRM specifically for nonprofit needs.  

Nonprofits that use Nonprofit Cloud can even integrate the system with other solutions on the Salesforce AppExchange, such as apps for volunteer management, email marketing, and donation gift matching.

Why Should you Choose Salesforce for your Nonprofit Needs? 

There are so many reasons why you should choose Salesforce for your Nonprofit Needs, that we may not be able to cover all of them in just one blog! That’s why our team of experts has narrowed it down to the top five reasons why Salesforce would be the best choice for your nonprofit. 

• One Unified System- sometimes, you may have several disconnected software solutions that seldom work together making your operations more complicated and giving your team extra work. For nonprofits that are growing at a rapid pace and are seeking to expedite growth, you may be considering a solution for quick data synchronization and integrated analysis. Salesforce has many apps that can manage all software solutions on one platform. This even includes tools such as membership management tools and extends to various industry-specific products.  

• Complete Customization- Do you find it hard to control your current org? Maybe, there’s a specific feature that you want to use but it is either not available to you, or you are unable to find it. Maybe you have recognized that there are mundane tasks that you need to do manually such as email campaigning. Salesforce can help your nonprofit configure your platform to have the exact features you need, especially with the large library of apps available on AppExchange, as well as an open API to allow for more customization and integration.  

• High-End, Top-Notch Security- Salesforce’s security is always being updated so that your organization will always use the most updated version of Salesforce that’s been automatically stored in the cloud. This means that your software will constantly be updated to make sure that security requirements are being fulfilled to protect your data from any threats. Nonprofits can leverage Salesforce’s settings such as the ability to quickly set different permission levels for users so that only certain users can access certain databases.  

• Flexibility- it is a mark of a good organization that you will not always offer the same services or follow the same case management and fundraising practices. Salesforce understands that the needs of your organization are always changing, and growing, causing the need for constant upgrades. If there is no flexibility in your CRM, it can inhibit growth, meaning that any nonprofit will need to upgrade its CRM platform each time there is a change and relearn/retrain employees, wasting time and resources.

Salesforce can help with customization and provide a large selection of apps that are always being updated to ensure that the platform will work for your nonprofit regardless of size, services, or specialty. Though Salesforce is an extensive, comprehensive platform, it is compatible with so many different needs. Using AppExchange, you can look for an app that fits your needs, or partner with a developer to reconfigure part of your task management system.

A Supportive Developer Community- It may be easy to feel overwhelmed with the wide range of applications that Salesforce offers on AppExchange. Salesforce has developed a wide community of app developers, consultants, and other service providers to help you make full use of your org’s potential. One of the biggest pros of Salesforce is that there is a wide developer community at the tip of your fingers to help you whenever you need anything. Consultants such as Prudent can help you with quickly migrating data to Salesforce, assist you with navigating your org, and customizations, and make sure that all your employees are trained on how to continue using Salesforce in the future. 

Salesforce has a wide range of customizations, but this does not mean that they shirk on their core features that Nonprofits can benefit from Nonprofit Cloud or NPSP.  

What are the Top Features that Salesforce for Nonprofits offer? 
 
 

• Fundraising- with the future of Nonprofit Cloud, Salesforce will provide a new feature that allows nonprofits to track recurring donor management and build relationships with donors & volunteers by collecting data to build persuasive fundraising appeals. (Note, the fundraising feature has not yet been implemented), read more about the future of Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud

• Marketing Cloud for Nonprofits- create personalized messages and targeted ads using pre-built messaging templates to automatically send out relevant supporter details to create individualized communications.  

• Grantmaking- Nonprofit Cloud’s grant management tool can create new records for each foundation you plan to apply. You can also use it to track the status of the application, note grant requirements, and keep awarded funds organized. Salesforce has a separate Grant Management package that allows you to create unique grant applications, build user-friendly grant applicant portals, and standardize your grant review processes.  

• Operations - Nonprofit Cloud allows nonprofits to view all their data, streamlining their internal operations, and ultimately integrate, manage, and safeguard data with Salesforce’s user-friendly interface.

Nonprofit Success Pack- NPSP is a free, open-source software package that is designed to connect volunteers with all constituents and provide organizations with insightful reports and analytics to help measure fundraising performance and smoothly manage all donations.  

Keeping in mind all the features that Salesforce for nonprofits can offer, it can also be beneficial and fun to think about the benefits that Salesforce can provide for your organization.

What are Some Benefits you can Reap from Salesforce for Your Organization? 

Keep Your Organization Organized- use Salesforce for nonprofits to cut clutter, by using built-in functionalities that help Nonprofits create and design customized workspaces for everyone. You may have noticed difficulties in managing activities like fundraising, grants, or your workforce, but Salesforce can come in to help you overcome any challenge by providing you with an extensive platform to allow you to build personalized dashboards and make sure everything runs smoothly.  

• Boost Operational Efficiency- By helping increase communication relationships among the workforce, Salesforce can help make sure that everything comes together smoothly, boosting operational efficiency. 

• Customize Your Org-the Cloud allows you to customize whatever feature you need to fulfill operational requirements regardless of the features and functionalities you may need.

• Make Sure All Your Reports Are Accurate- reporting is very important to every nonprofit organization to make sure fundraising activities, programs, seminars, and donations work accurately. Salesforce is highly accurate, making it reliable to help your organization.  

• Save Money While Taking Advantage of All Features- As a nonprofit organization, you may have heard of the Power of Us Program, which is designed to help nonprofits with affordable products and programs. As a part of the Power of Us Program, the first 10 subscriptions are free for nonprofits, and then organizations will receive offers at discounted profits. This way, Salesforce can expand its reach swiftly and affordably. 

Conclusion

There are many different reasons to switch over to Nonprofit Cloud for Salesforce. There are many different advantages to switching over to Salesforce. With a vast range of consultants such as Prudent to help you seamlessly integrate into the platform, you will never need to worry about anything again! Click here to see how you can make the shift onto Salesforce and watch your worries flow away!

Published by Rakesh Neunaha, Sobha Rani, Chandrika
Reach out today at business@prudentconsulting.com. Ph : (214) 615-8787