In a recent blog post by Salesforce, they announced an expansion to the nonprofit solution portfolio: Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud. If you are a current Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) client—or are in the early stages of implementing it—you may wonder if you’re on the right path.
At Fíonta, we believe Nonprofit Cloud brings additional platform interoperability to the already strong presence of NPSP and related solutions. To help your nonprofit understand this change and what it means for your organization, we’ll review a few key considerations and the details of Nonprofit Cloud.
Nonprofit Cloud considerations
More than 40,000 organizations use Salesforce NPSP, and it has proven to be a stable, extensible platform for a community of nonprofit users and consultants. NPSP will continue to receive resources and planned enhancements for current customers in the coming years. This news is not an end-of-life or support announcement from Salesforce, and NPSP licenses will still be available to new clients.
Nonprofit Cloud will also receive significant investment from Salesforce. This shift in focus will turn Nonprofit Cloud into a strategic asset for nonprofits, ensuring they can utilize beneficial features outside the NPSP data model, such as those available in Financial Services Cloud, for example.
In short, current and prospective clients should know that NPSP will continue to be supported and enhanced by Salesforce in the near term.
Nonprofit Cloud introduces an exciting addition to Salesforce’s already well-resourced product portfolio. As new product updates come to market, we at Fíonta look forward to taking the Nonprofit Cloud through its paces to learn more about the solution and how it can help our clients fulfill their missions.
Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud: A look under the hood
Salesforce released the next generation of Nonprofit Cloud on March 14. New Salesforce customers can use a new, optimized data model and feature sets for Programs and Case Management. Nonprofit Cloud will see the addition of fundraising and grantmaking features later this year. This new offering is built directly on the Salesforce platform, providing users with shared innovation and more stable infrastructure.
Nonprofit Success Pack history
NPSP and Education Data Architecture (EDA) have been managed packages. In layperson’s terms, managed packages like apps are installed on top of the Salesforce platform. This architecture meant nonprofits using NPSP, Project Management Module, Outbound Funds, and Grants Management could take advantage of new Salesforce releases. However, these solutions are not core products.
Moving forward
Nonprofit Cloud is a core product built on the Salesforce platform. This means it provides access to the features and functionality of both Sales (Leads/Opportunities/Campaigns +) and Service (Cases +). It has a standard Industry Data Model, including Person Accounts and the Party Relationship Model.
Additionally, current and future Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud customers will be able to access new tools and features they haven’t been able to use previously. For example, components of common software used across industries are fully integrated and built into the platform for ease of use.
What are Salesforce industry clouds?
Salesforce services a variety of industries through industry-specific Clouds, including Financial Services Cloud, Health Cloud, Manufacturing Cloud, and, as of March 14, Nonprofit Cloud and Education Cloud.
These Clouds are built on a common core Industry Data Model, meaning Nonprofit Cloud can now utilize pre-built components from other industry clouds. Organizations using Nonprofit Cloud will have access to tools and resources from the Industry Data Model. At the same time, Salesforce can focus on innovating the data model and making it available for all industries.
Highlights of the 40+ common components
Actionable Relationship Center (ARC) takes your NPSP Relationship Viewer to the next level by allowing you to customize the related objects and records, display them graphically, and take action from within the Lightning Record Page.
The new life events and milestone tracking features allow users to capture and visualize their supporters’ entire journeys with their organization. Moving forward, program and case management, tracking life events, interactions with case workers, attendance, and benefits are will come together in one easy-to-digest format.
If you were already using a Salesforce Industry Solution, OmniStudio might be familiar. With the new Nonprofit Cloud updates allowing it to operate within the Industry framework, OmniStudio is now available for nonprofits. OmniStudio’s digital engagement suite simplifies and accelerates digital transformation, making your Salesforce solution agile, flexible, and ready to respond to spikes in demand.
With OmniStudio’s drag-and-drop configuration capabilities, nonprofits can create prebuilt guided experiences with clicks rather than custom code. You can think of OmniStudio as a sibling to Salesforce Flow, and it includes tools for integrating with other enterprise applications and data. When paired with the Action Launcher, another common industry solution, OmniStudio and Flow allow end users to interact with Salesforce data and, as the Action Launcher’s name implies, take multiple actions all from one location.
What do the Nonprofit Cloud updates mean for my organization?
As a customer using Salesforce for the first time, this new offering will allow your nonprofit to take its engagement and mission to the next level by providing the best Salesforce offers, future innovations, and features. For existing Salesforce customers, rest assured that as more information becomes available, Fíonta will continue to be your trusted partner to determine the best path forward.
To get your questions about Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud answered, schedule a time to talk on Zoom with our experts at Fíonta.