Not-for-Profit Navigator
With Nicole Aebi-Moyo - SalesFix For Purpose Practice Lead
The shift from Salesforce’s Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) to Agentforce Nonprofit (AFNP) previously known as Nonprofit Cloud, is more than just an upgrade, it is a fundamental architectural evolution. As organisations consider this transition, the temptation to use “lift and shift” migration tools is high. After all, who doesn’t want to save several weeks of manual effort?
However, at SalesFix, our internal evaluation of these tools led us to a different conclusion. While automated solutions offer impressive capabilities for migrating metadata and configuration, we believe following a “lift and shift” approach means you’re missing a trick.
Here is our point of view on why you should look past the “simple” migration and focus on a strategic transformation.
The Architecture Has Changed: Your Processes Should Too
NPSP and AFNP are built on entirely different foundations. Because they do not directly translate, a bulk migration of custom metadata often fails to account for the modern use cases AFNP was designed to solve.
I love a good analogy, and thanks to a coffee with Leigh Beardsley the other day, here’s another one. You live in a house with a basic bathroom. No bath, so you have a bucket in the shower that you fill with water and throw your small child into. It’s sub-optimal. You renovate your bathroom, putting in a bath, but you still stick to your familiar bucket trick.
Our POV: If you are migrating just to keep doing things the “old way”, you are missing the opportunity to leverage the superior architecture of AFNP.
Don’t Move the "Mess"
Many NPSP instances have become “quirky” or cluttered over years of use. Tools that automate the transfer of custom objects, fields, and flows risk importing technical debt into a clean, new environment.
- Review and Optimise: We believe in a proven process that reviews every customisation to ensure it still adds value.
Avoid Rebuilding the Past: Moving bulk custom metadata without evaluation adds little value to the organisation and can complicate future scalability.
Strategy Over Speed
While automated tools can save initial implementation time, they cannot replace a structured approach to data migration and process review.
- Repeatable Processes: Building a structured, repeatable data migration process ensures data integrity without the baggage of legacy configurations.
- The Discovery Phase: Every migration should start with a discovery to determine if you are simply rebuilding NPSP on AFNP or actually evolving your operations to meet current needs.
The Bottom Line
An NPSP to AFNP migration is the perfect moment to revisit your processes and optimise how you work. While migration tools have their place for specific technical needs, they should not be the “easy button” that bypasses critical strategic thinking.
Before you “lift and shift”, ask yourself: Are we just moving our old problems to a new platform?
If you need any assistance understanding anything in this edition of NFP Navigator please reach out at [email protected], I am always happy to help.
Until next time,
Nicole
Useful Resources
Some great resources from the Institute of Community Directors:
Coming Up in 2026
- Agents of Change for NPSP: 2 April, 4-5pm AEDT. Feeling left out of the AI revolution? Stuck on NPSP and thinking you’ll never get to play with the nice toys? Think again! Join this user group session, see some AI in action and join together with your peers to actually build something.
- Kiwi Dreaming: 23 July, Auckland. Why not head over and see what they’re doing across the water?
- True Blue Blazing: we’ll be back in 2026! Watch this space for date announcements and more.
Australian Salesforce user groups
If you use Salesforce and you’re not part of a user group, you’re missing out! There’s over 30 groups in Australia and New Zealand alone, and many now meet online so there’s no excuse for not joining in and finding out more.