When is Salesforce the Right Option for Nonprofits
In 2020, Salesforce bought Slack-an online communication and document channel system. Slack was perfectly in keeping with Salesforce’s endeavors to provide one-stop software for communication and data, so if you were already using Slack, welcome to the Salesforce family. You are now a part of it.
Now that you’re in the family, maybe it’s time to meet the matriarch: Salesforce herself, the most popular CRM for nonprofits and small businesses.
To start, SalesForce is a CRM which means it is software designed to help you manage your customer relationships. The way the software goes about doing this is by offering online cloud-based organization, for example, Salesforce stores data on their servers and not on your computer. The software covers donor databases, communication logs, email campaigns, reports on project work, funding, and volunteer management. Those are the main items, but certainly not the full scale of Salesforce.
It’s a data nerd’s dream system, you can read, print, and analyze data with somewhat simple steps. The reason so many organizations use salesforce is that it helps guide measurable goals and gives insight into patterns within the organization.
With such a powerhouse system, it takes years for many to fully understand all that it can do. When most people sign up for a Salesforce account they are met with an account consultant, a human being (not a computer) who can walk you through aspects of the software and answer your account questions.
So is this family a good fit for you? This depends on numerous factors. For one, how big is your organization? Do you have a broad and large donor base to justify purchasing a yearly software subscription? Do you have a large enough team to have someone dedicated to running the database? Or at least do you have someone who can add this job description to their current one? And finally, can you afford the subscription service?
“If you can keep your users down to only 10 accounts then Salesforce is technically a cheap CRM experience. ”
Let’s start with the money thing because that is what everyone is most concerned with isn’t it?
Salesforce Foundation actually donates 10 free user logins for each nonprofit. Although there have been complaints that many nonprofits have to upgrade after a year or feel like Salesforce customer service won’t leave their email alone after the first year of free service. While this is technically FREE for small nonprofits, you are likely going to have to hire a consultant to come in and set up the database for you with information, integrations, and get everything running adequately. This upfront cost could be thousands of dollars depending on where you get database help from.
The real impact of starting out with Salesforce is learning the database software. Truly the best system for making sure that your reports are running and accurate would be to have an IT member or a Salesforce staffer completely dedicated to database management. This could mean that you have to hire another staff member or that someone’s job description needs to change and they likely have to undergo paid training. Consider the time and resources this might take away from other projects and programs at your nonprofit. Is this the right time or can you reconsider in a few months or a year?
If your nonprofit is growing significantly and you need a system to track donors and volunteers that would impact your engagement levels, then Salesforce or any CRM is ultimately worth it. If your team is growing and needs to be able to access a database from any location, then Salesforce is worth it.
Ultimately, salesforce is for exponentially growing startups and medium nonprofit sized groups. This is where the software makes the most sense and impact. HOWEVER, you can always request a free trial from any CRM to test out if this software would be beneficial to your team. (Although keep in mind that with a free trial comes free constant email and phone calls from the CRM company.)
Want to avoid the annoying spam? Contact us instead! We have dedicated staff members who solely focus on database management and we would be happy to organize and successfully help you understand how data collection and marketing campaigns can contribute to your growth and impact.