Salesforce is the world’s leading CRM, but how can it be best used by associations?
There are several excellent options available to associations who wish to take advantage of Salesforce.
The first option is to use Salesforce and the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) as a starting point and then customize it to provide the exact functionality you need. This is often a cost–effective option if the organization’s needs are straightforward and the comprehensive packaged applications are overkill. It can also be a good option if the association’s business is highly specialized and no packaged solutions come close to meeting all its the functional requirements. In this case, customizing a solution will be faster and usually less expensive, resulting in a solution tailored to the association’s very specific business needs.
A second option is to implement a Salesforce-based Association Management System (AMS). These applications run natively on Salesforce and provide much of the association-specific functionality required by many organizations. Normally these applications get you most of the way there “out of the box,” and can then be further configured to close any functional gaps. An AMS also encourages adoption of standard best practices over customization to ensure a smooth upgrade path. Fíonta is a Certified Implementation Partner for Fonteva, the leading Salesforce-based AMS.
