Not-for-Profit Navigator
With Nicole Aebi-Moyo - SalesFix For Purpose Practice Lead
It’s been just over 2 years since Salesforce’s Nonprofit Cloud was released: and it’s been a busy 2 years for the product team! I don’t think anyone would be surprised to hear me say that the product was a tad underbaked when it was first released: there were glitches in things, a lack of documentation, and some functionality that was simply missing.
But where are we now, and is it time to make the move?
Nonprofit Cloud Overview
When first launched, Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) covered just Program and Case Management, but since then, multiple releases have delivered Fundraising; Grantmaking; and Outcome Measurement. And in just a few short months, Volunteer Management will be released on core for the first time ever.
Perhaps more significantly, because NPC is built on the core Salesforce platform, product developers can make use of solutions such as Agentforce and Einstein. So when we talk about Fundraising and Volunteer Management, we’re not just talking about replacing what is currently available in Nonprofit Success Pack and Volunteers4Salesforce, we’re talking about being able to introduce completely new features.
So far, NPC has these pre-configured AI components:
- Einstein Major Gift Proposal (current)
- Einstein Donor Engagement Summary (current)
With the following being released imminently:
- Prospect Research Agent (June 25)
- Volunteer Management Agent (June 25)
- Donor Support Agent (Oct 25)
- Fundraising Support Agent (Feb 26 TBC)
(As always, Safe Harbour Statement: make all purchasing decisions based on what’s currently available!).
All NPC orgs have access to AI, but what’s coming are pre-built agents programmed to do tasks common to fundraising and volunteer management. I like to think of it as the difference between having all the ingredients for a cake in your kitchen vs buying a cake from the local shop.
NPSP vs NPC: should we think about moving?
We’ve been working with several organisations recently facing this dilemma. It’s not always an easy choice. First off, the question to answer is:
Are you planning on making significant investments into your current NPSP solution?
This could be to fix or update some things that haven’t had much love recently, or it could be to introduce completely new features, but if the answer is YES, then you should definitely be considering a migration.
If you’re new to Salesforce, then you should always consider NPC. At this point, we like to start with the hypothesis that we’re talking about NPC until proven otherwise.
So, you’ve had NPSP for a while and it needs some love: you should consider NPC as an option. How do you decide what to do?
Not surprisingly, there’s no right or wrong answer. And Salesforce certainly aren’t pushing you to migrate. With around 70,000 for purpose organisations using Salesforce around the world (and the majority of those using NPSP) it ain’t going anywhere anytime soon!
Last year, we worked with a large, well known for purpose organisation who had been using Salesforce for well over a decade. They had 3 instances of Salesforce and literally hundreds of third-party apps, some integrated, some not. The goal of the project was to consolidate all three instances of Salesforce and simplify the wider architecture. We talked about using the opportunity to migrate to NPC, but it was decided that there was simply too much change already. NPC was taken off the table.
This year, we’re talking to several organisations who’ve had NPSP for a while and who have significant strategic plans to expand their fundraising efforts, particularly in the philanthropic space. They could stick with NPSP and do significant work to bring the solutions up to spec, or they could migrate to NPC.
I like to think of NPSP as a beloved old car: it still gets you from A to B, and it does it very well because the people that built it, knew what they were doing.
It might be beautiful and have some classic lines, but it doesn’t have all the latest safety features. It guzzles fuel and costs a lot to maintain. It’s also always on the cusp of breaking down. You’re always tinkering with it, fixing this, adjusting that, and gradually you realise that over time, the cost of maintaining it, far outweighs the cost of a new car.
Whilst you love the old car, you know its quirks, you have some great memories, you start to admit that a new car is the best option.
NPSP vs NPC: pros and cons
Here’s what I think are the pros and cons to NPC:
NPSP: | NPC: |
Good for small value, high volume donations. | Good for grants and high value donations with complex relationships. |
Stuck with no future feature improvements. | 6+ major releases in 2 years inc pre-built AI. |
Simple to use and set up. | Suited to more complex fundraising organisations. |
Mostly fundraising focused. | Whole organisation capability. |
Module Based without access to new features. | Built on Core Platform making use of all Features. |
Includes Generative and Predictive AI Features | |
Volunteer Management coming in August. |
So if you’re thinking of expanding Salesforce across your wider organisation: NPC is for you.
If you are really looking to grow your philanthropic fundraising: NPC is for you.
If you want to make use of all the latest features that Salesforce releases: NPC is for you.
We’ve decided: what now?
NPC and NPSP are quite different beasts: their data structure is different; and their features and functionality are different. You can’t just turn one off and the other one on sadly. However, thanks to some amazing people in the community, there is now some really good documentation out there to help you transition. Take a look at the following three resources:
- Best Practices for NPC: written by the community.
- NPC Implementation Guide covers the core setup (Person Accounts, Relationships, etc).
- Migration Guide focuses on data migration
Of course, we would always recommend working with a partner like SalesFix so do reach out if you’re thinking about moving.
Salesforce is also offering 6 months of free licencing so you don’t have to pay for two solutions at once.
Why not take a look at what NPC has to offer?
If you would like to have a chat about NPC or anything Not-for-Profit related please feel free to email me at: [email protected]
Until next time,
Nicole
Upcoming Events to Attend
F&P Events for a year of great fundraising conferences
For Purpose Alliance have a range of events and masterclasses throughout the year
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.