Elevate Your Fundraising with Salesforce's Latest Release: Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising
Within Salesforce’s latest offering for nonprofits, Nonprofit Cloud, several major modules have been released: Grantmaking, Case Management, Outcome Management, and Program Management. This month, Salesforce launched its latest addition, Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising. The Idealist Consulting team is actively contributing as part of the Nonprofit Cloud Design Team, allowing us to keep up to date on every new development. To follow along, subscribe to our monthly newsletter, Ideation!
The latest innovation in fundraising
Fundraising is the lifeblood of many nonprofit organizations, and your mission deserves efficient tools to support those efforts. In this post, we'll dive into how your organization can use Salesforce's new offering, Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising, to get the most out of your efforts. We'll also provide a brief comparison of Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising’s equivalent in Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) to help you make an informed decision on which solution suits your nonprofit's needs best.
Fundraising comes in various forms but can be categorized into three fundamental pillars: high-touch giving, mass-market giving, and operations support. Salesforce's Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising is a game-changer for nonprofits, offering an array of features that support these pillars. Let's explore the intricacies of this new tool designed to empower fundraising teams to succeed.
The three pillars of fundraising
1. High-touch giving: This pillar involves engaging with donors on long-term cycles, both in receiving grants and dealing with substantial gifts. Nonprofit Cloud's enhancements to portfolio and donor management are crucial here. It allows fundraisers to efficiently manage large donations and complex gift processes.
2. Mass-market giving: On the other end of the spectrum is mass-market fundraising, where nonprofits receive numerous small donations. Nonprofit Cloud provides tools for segmentation, reporting, and tracking to engage with these donors effectively.
3. Operations support: Fundraising operations involve a multitude of tasks, from gift processing to donor support. Nonprofit Cloud streamlines these processes with features like single and batched gift entry, summary roll-ups, and donor support tools, making it easier for fundraising teams to manage their daily tasks.
What are the benefits of using Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising?
Improved data model: Nonprofit Cloud introduces a shift from opportunity data to transaction data, providing more granularity in gift reporting. This change is invaluable when dealing with various gift processes, whether simple or complex.
Imagine Nonprofit Cloud's data model as a pyramid structure. At the base of this pyramid is the Gift Transaction object, where every incoming dollar received by the organization is recorded. Moving up the pyramid, the Gift Commitments object represents the next level, capturing recurring donations and expected/promised gifts and connecting high-touch giving to Gift Transactions. Items at this level of the pyramid are often scheduled payments. At the apex of the pyramid are Opportunity objects, which require ongoing stewardship and include fields for different stages.
In Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), every incoming transaction directly associates with an Opportunity, encompassing one or more payments. However, within the new Nonprofit Cloud, Opportunities will likely be the least utilized of the three primary objects, as they are for high-touch giving only now. For many nonprofits, their development support staff will focus on the foundational Gift Transaction and the intermediary Gift Commitments to effectively manage most incoming funds.
Portfolio tool: With Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising, fundraisers gain access to a portfolio tool that provides out-of-the-box views of their entire portfolio and action items, making donor management more efficient.
Refund sync: In Nonprofit Cloud, refunds are tracked individually and can be more easily included in overall fundraising totals, providing organizations with an easy way to incorporate refund amounts in a holistic view.
Guided flows: Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising offers guided flows (process automation) for basic fundraising support tasks, empowering staff with limited nonprofit cloud experience to more easily perform tasks like adjusting gift amounts.
Comparison: NPSP vs. Nonprofit Cloud
The choice between Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) and Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) largely depends on your nonprofit's size, complexity, and budget. We’ve compiled some high-level differences specific to fundraising below:
*For more information on the Household and Person Account data models, check out our blog post here!
Both Nonprofit Success Pack and Nonprofit Cloud offer powerful tools to support fundraising efforts. Carefully assessing your organization’s specific needs and resources is an important step in making the best decision for your specific requirements. We’re ready to answer all of your Nonprofit Cloud questions. Click the button below to chat with us and see if Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising would be a good fit for you!
