Tech Impact’s Nonprofit Technology Trends 2023 report reveals a stark truth: 72% of nonprofits see technology as crucial to achieving their goals more efficiently. They understand the power of digital tools to streamline processes, boost fundraising, and, ultimately, make a more significant impact.

But here’s the shocker: only 12% are achieving this tech-driven efficiency. This massive disconnect is due to the inability to access the latest technology and required resources. With their tight budget, NGOs often need help to invest in robust IT infrastructure.

This gap between ambition and action leaves many worthy organizations needing help. Hence, it brought Salesforce NPSP into existence in 2016, developed and designed by a community of thousands of nonprofit organizations.

Therefore, this blog post will explore what Salesforce NPSP is, another solution for nonprofits by Salesforce and everything else that’s important.

Challenges That Non-Profits Faced While Undergoing Digital Transformation

Here are some of the challenges of digital transformation that non-profit organisations are facing.

1. Limited Funding Opportunities

As per TechSoup, the average cost of digital transformation for a small nonprofit organization can lie between $10,000 to $50,000, while larger organizations might need funding of more than $100,000, limiting them to access technical resources.

Like the Education industry, nonprofits are also undergoing high-tech digital transformation. However, the real challenge is shown when discussing limited budgets and funding options. This can restrict them from allocating funds to introduce new technologies in their practices.

To overcome these challenges, an organization must approach a more strategy-centric solution that covers all the nonprofits’ pinpoints and makes them benefit from this digital change the most.

2. Lack of Technology Infrastructure

Approximately 70% of NGOs and nonprofits still rely on legacy IT infrastructure, which later keeps them from staying ahead in the digital transformation wave. They must start initiating technology infrastructure updation rather than investing in multiple separate software.

Searching for a basic yet latest solution would be ideal in these scenarios. This means that NGOs must implement software that they can use to align with different departments and convert everything into digital.

3. Lack of support from leadership

Most of the time, leaders of such organizations need to be made aware of what technology can help them become more efficient and productive in their jobs. This ultimately impacts the overall performance of the nonprofit organization.

It is essential to see the bigger picture to avoid a leader putting the budget in the wrong place and leaving with nothing for other aspects. To stay caught up and roaming cluelessly in uncharted territory, leaders must clear their paths and approaches that promise long-term value derivation from cloud implementation and projected return on investment.

Leaders need to envision how this change aligns with the organization’s mission and promotes impact so they can confidently support the investment.

4. Difficulty in User Adoption

Even if organizations have average IT infrastructure, users might need help understanding and adapting to their routine use.

According to Forbes, 50% of employees still need to gain the basic digital skills required to work on new technologies. Nonprofits and NGOs are also encountering the same challenge: educating personnel about the technology is the first thing needed, followed by user adoption training.

Check out how we helped Teach For India, a non-profit organization overcome its challenges. 

What could be the ideal solution?

Considering all these challenges and being a part of most of them, a 47,000 Salesforce nonprofit community built the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack in a way that caters to the requirements of any nonprofit organization looking to manage various operations.

Recently, to help nonprofits and NGOs operating on a large scale, Salesforce launched Nonprofit Cloud, a comprehensive suite of solutions designed for nonprofits. It opens new opportunities for efficiently tracking supporters and programs, finding new donors or supporters, and finding a better way of succeeding in your mission.

Salesforce creates both options and somewhere brings along similar functionality, but what makes them different from one another:

What is the difference between Salesforce NPSP and Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud?

Organizations should collaborate with a trusted Salesforce implementation partner to ensure the right solution aligns with business needs and excites the team about the implementation process.

Well, this was just the tip of the iceberg. The rest is yet to be explored. Stay tuned.

What is Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack?

The nonprofit success pack is a set of managed packages of Salesforce configurations enabling nonprofits to utilize Salesforce CRM as a fundraising system and a unified platform with all the information of donations and donors in one place.

It’s a solution designed especially for charitable organizations, empowering them to track individual stakeholders, their households, and different types of donations. And as a plus, they can analyze all the assembled data through reports and dashboards.

NPSP entirely is free and remains free of cost for the first 10 licenses, allowing nonprofits to access the CRM when they aren’t already using it. You can access NPSP through the Salesforce AppExchange platform.

With the transition to Nonprofit Cloud as Salesforce’s primary platform for nonprofit organizations, you must inform your Salesforce Account Manager that your ten free licenses will be used for NPSP. Otherwise, it will be assumed that the licenses are for Nonprofit Cloud.

Key features of Salesforce NPSP

1. Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)

This NPSP feature focuses on managing relationships with volunteers, donors, and clients. It provides a centralized platform where all interactions and information related to constituents are stored and is easily accessible.

The Salesforce CRM functionality allows nonprofits to create comprehensive profiles for each constituent. It captures critical details such as contact information, demographics, donor preferences, relationships, household structures, and business affiliations.

2. Reports and Dashboards

NPSP empowers NGOs with a versatile reporting and dashboard system. With over 70 industry-specific reports and dashboards, organizations can gain real-time insights into their performance and impact. These visualizations provide a user-friendly interface for understanding key metrics, tracking progress, and identifying trends.

NGOs can customize dashboards to cater to their specific needs, facilitating data-driven decision-making across various aspects of their operations. This feature enhances transparency, accountability, and the ability to communicate the organization’s impact effectively.

3. Recurring Donations

This NPSP feature manages the revenue from the committed supporters, and NGOs highly rely on these.

Thus, NPSP provides various tools to efficiently manage and track these recurring contributions. It includes setting up and managing recurring donation schedules, tracking payment information, and forecasting revenue. This feature also helps organizations plan and budget more effectively by providing insights.

4. Program Tracking

The Program Management Module (PMM) in Salesforce NPSP offers a standardized framework for tracking various programs or services, irrespective of their complexity.

This feature allows NGOs to define, monitor, and manage programs efficiently within the Salesforce platform. The PMM provides a centralized space to capture essential information about each program, including goals, milestones, participants, and associated resources. This streamlines program management and enables organizations to gain insights into the performance and impact of their initiatives.

5. Services Tracking

NPSP enables NGOs to track individual service deliveries with precision. This feature allows organizations to record and monitor details about each service provided, including service type, date, duration, and the individuals involved.

By capturing this information, NGOs can gain a comprehensive understanding of the services they deliver, identify patterns, and assess the effectiveness of their programs.

6. Cohorts

Cohorts in NPSP refer to the ability to group program participants based on specific attributes such as season, class, or funding. This feature allows NGOs to categorize participants into segments for better organization and analysis.

For instance, an organization may create cohorts based on the time of enrollment, funding source, or other relevant factors. This tracking facilitates targeted communication, personalized engagement, and tailored reporting for each segment, ultimately enhancing the organization’s ability to manage and evaluate programs effectively.

7. Recurring Services and Attendance

The recurring services and attendance tracking feature in Salesforce NPSP is crucial for programs with regular offerings. NGOs can easily set up schedules for recurring services, simplifying the management of repeated activities.

This feature also lets organizations track attendance and help monitor participant engagement. Efficiently managing these aspects enables NGOs to allocate resources wisely, analyze the participation trends, and ensure the successful delivery of services.

8. Personalized Content

One of the powerful capabilities of Salesforce NPSP is its ability to facilitate the creation of personalized content using the data within the system. NGOs can leverage the data stored in NPSP to develop targeted and segmented communications. Organizations can tailor their messages based on specific criteria such as donor history, engagement level, or other relevant data points.

Personalized content allows NGOs to connect more meaningfully with their constituents, providing content relevant to their interests and engagement history.

9. Emails from Templates

Marketing Cloud for Non-governmental organizations, integrated with NPSP, offers a user-friendly solution for creating and sending personalized emails through pre-built templates. This feature simplifies email communication, allowing NGOs to send visually appealing, streamlined, and eye-catching emails easily.

The use of templates ensures a consistent and professional look across all communications. Additionally, these templates are designed to be responsive and visually appealing on various devices.

How NonProfit Success Pack Works with Salesforce?

Because of the extension in its core functionality, the Nonprofit Success Pack works well with Salesforce, customizing catering to the needs of nonprofits and NGOs.

Following is a detailed piece of information on how it work:

1. Data Model:

Salesforce offers a general data model for managing contacts and accounts.
NPSP adds a specific nonprofit data model, including objects like:

• Accounts (Donors): Stores information about individual donors, foundations, and corporations that support your cause.
• Contacts (Individuals): Tracks detailed information about volunteers, program participants, and other individuals your nonprofit interacts with.
• Donations: Manages all incoming contributions, recording pledges, tracking receipts, and providing insightful reports.
• Grants: Facilitates the grant application process, tracking approvals, reporting on outcomes, and managing grant funds effectively.
• Programs: Helps design, manage, and track the impact of your various programs for better resource allocation and evaluation.

2. Functionality:

NPSP provides many in-built features, including:

• Donation Management: Helps track donations easily, record pledges, issue receipts, and provide insights into donor behaviour.
• Grant Management: Managing grant applications from start to finish, keeping tabs on approvals, generating reports on grant outcomes, and evaluating the impact of your work on funders.
• Volunteer Management: Recruiting and managing volunteers effectively, streamlining volunteer engagement.
• Program Management: Design, manage, and track the impact of your programs, allowing you to measure success and optimize your efforts.
• Reporting & Analytics: Generate detailed fundraising and volunteer engagement reports and measure program impact to gain valuable insights and make intelligent decisions.

3. Customization:

Not only does it offer pre-built functionalities, but it also empowers organizations to customize the solution per each nonprofit’s unique needs. It allows you to configure workflows, automate multiple tasks, and integrate tools to unify all connected systems and teams.

NPSP adds a thick layer of Salesforce functionality to the routine life of NGOs. A powerful and flexible platform helps nonprofits streamline operations, manage fundraising and programs more effectively, and ultimately achieve their missions.

Benefits of implementing Salesforce NPSP for NGOs

1. Streamlined Donor Management

An NGO using NPSP can track individual donor contributions, preferences, and engagement history. It centralizes the information as well as the interactions, which gives a 360-degree view of the constituents.

With this, it becomes easier for the NGOs to tailor their engagement strategies and build more robust and more personalized relationships.

For instance, if a donor consistently supports a specific program, NPSP enables the organization to acknowledge and target their contributions more effectively.

2. Improved Fundraising and Grant Management

NPSP enhances fundraising by offering features like donation tracking, grant management, and campaign management. This streamlines the fundraising process, making managing and analyzing donor contributions and grant activities easier.

Let’s understand this: NPSP enables the organization to measure the success of a specific fundraising campaign by analyzing contributions from different donors and sources.

3. Enhanced Volunteer Management

NPSP provides tools for tracking and managing volunteering activities, schedules, and profiles. This helps optimize volunteer engagement and ensures they are active in achieving the organization’s mission.

A nonprofit can easily track volunteer sign-ups, hours contributed, and specific skills or interests of volunteers. For example, if an NGO organizes an event, NPSP allows them to coordinate volunteer schedules efficiently and match volunteers with tasks that align with their skills and interests.

4. Efficient Program Tracking and Reporting

NPSP’s program management capabilities facilitate efficient tracking of program activities and reporting. This allows NGOs to monitor the progress and impact of their programs in real-time. Additionally, they can track individual service deliveries, segment program participants based on attributes, and assess program outcomes.

For instance, if an NGO runs an educational program, NPSP enables them to track student attendance, monitor academic progress, and generate reports on program effectiveness.

5. Better Communication and Engagement with Donors and Supporters

NPSP allows nonprofits to personalize communications using constituent data, fostering better engagement with donors and supporters. Integration with Marketing Cloud enables targeted and personalized communication strategies. An NGO using NPSP can send personalized emails to donors based on their giving history, interests, or previous interactions.

After getting thorough with all the features and benefits of this package, you might wonder about implementing it into your business. If so, you must be interested in knowing the cost of this package and what value it brings to your organization.

Salesforce NPSP Pricing

The Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) is a free add-on to the regular Salesforce software, providing extra features that nonprofits find helpful.

However, to use NPSP, you must first subscribe to Salesforce’s main products: the Sales Cloud and Service Cloud. These are not free. The Enterprise Edition of these services costs $150 per month, and the Unlimited Edition costs $300.

So, while the NPSP itself doesn’t cost anything, you do need to pay for the underlying Salesforce subscription to use it.

Conclusion

Salesforce’s Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) can significantly improve how NGOs work. It offers solid features and custom solutions that help organizations simplify their operations, manage donors better, and understand their impact more clearly. NPSP improves teamwork and helps NGOs build better relationships with donors, volunteers, and those they serve. Its ability to scale and adapt means NGOs of any size can grow without being held back by traditional systems.

With technology becoming more important in the nonprofit sector, using Salesforce NPSP is a strategic must for organizations wanting to succeed in a competitive and changing environment.

Thus, you must consult a Salesforce nonprofit implementation partner to leverage it for your Nonprofit Organization. These firms implement Salesforce NPSP into your organization and provide continuous assistance to get the best out of this platform.

Embrace the power of Salesforce NPSP to drive a positive change in society!