Salesforce has a home run on its hands with support they extend to non profits with 10 free licenses....and a stable product
Updated August 09, 2014

Salesforce has a home run on its hands with support they extend to non profits with 10 free licenses....and a stable product

Bonnie Hilory | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Enterprise

Modules Used

  • Chatter

Overall Satisfaction with Salesforce.com

  1. This is my 6th implementation and the first, where we are deploying the enterprise edition across the entire non-profit. Typically I have deployed in one or two departments.
  2. After 8 1/2 years the non-profit really needs a database.
  3. We need efficiency and integration with QB, constant contact, etc.
  4. We need to create cases and have a method to re-assign work to the right people to respond/handle.
  5. We want to reduce email. Chatter and groups with chatter will allow us to improve internal and external communication.
  • Its easy to add or deactivate users.
  • For non profits it is free for the first 10 licenses. This is a $15,000 value of savings and is a great value for free. I prefer to put our resources into an implementation consultant vs paying for licenses.
  • Chatter is each, fun and really helps get folks started touching the system.
  • Reports are amazing with dashboards which can be sent automatically to folks.
  • We named our Salesforce instance. Created a logo, imported it in the system and at our login and are having fun. Avoid calling it Salesforce ...in a non profit the name salesforce is not easily accepted and misunderstood. Making the name align with your own culture is y(our) responsibility.
  • I wish Salesforce would create way for corporate and non profits to help each other more.
  • + In past efforts increased efficiency by employees and volunteers in the area of customer service has been amazing.
  • + Better donor/member/volunteer/ tracking on contributions of time, talent and treasure. Better tracking of what interests donors.
  • + Tracking of customer service concerns and our responses are tracked to each customer. Its easy to see how a college addressed and issue. A single place a look creates a calm in any storm and really helps the team to work together.
  • - Language in the Salesforce Eco System can be a block to communication.
  • + Huge that this is in the cloud. I have never lost data and have used this system since 2005. Its a trusted product.
  • BBNC,Telesoa Exceed Premere
  • Faster spool up time with Salesforce
  • Customer service is great
  • Salesforce's user group community is active, alive, and well and works well.
reliable, dependable, trusted, community based, helpful, flexible

I love Dreamforce (annual Conference in San Francisco).
I adore using and working in the Salesforce Eco System. Importing data for non-profits can be tricky to align accounts and contacts correctly. It's a lot of manual work. Ask about how the de-duplication will work.

Using Salesforce.com

16 - This is my 6th implementation for Salesforce and my first throughout an entire company (non-profit).
We are starting with our Customer Service Staff who answers calls and questions. We have implemented a help desk ticketing system and automated solutions.
We have our development team also using this for database and record keeping.
Our CFO is exploring QB
Our Director of Operations is looking into staff scheduling resources
We all use chatter. We have 6 groups set up; quality team, implementation team, Directors team, All FT staff, etc
Marketing department
Membership
Education
We have a volunteer who will help us with reports down the road
People who want to learn, want to understand the business logic or need do better in Salesforce. Workflows, dashboards, being able to measure your ROI are motivators to some of us and to others can be devastating. My experience is start with folks that will adopt and use it. People who need or appreciate having good tools will become champions. Those who dislike accountability or change may struggle or not even login. Or better yet, they will say I don't have a login (and yes, when we look they in fact logged in. Its all in the willingness to learn and having a positive attitude. The adoption and on-boarding of staff is often the biggest challenge. Salesforce is not just software. It is a platform or ecosystem, fully transparent and can truly help staff and volunteers work together if they believe they want to be amazing. Learned helplessness is often in a culture and so the challenge or root cause is you may have to change who is in the seat if current staff are not willing to adopt and learn and grow.
  • Creation of a donor-centered culture- being able to have shared intelligence with all staff, about what our contributors are interested in or what they like is invaluable. One system, one place to look.
  • Improved customer service- with a queue so the right staff member is responding and the right tone is being sent.
  • No more silos-
  • working together is invaluable. Very important. Seeing what is being accomplished and what the challenges are is amazing. Chatter deployment can be very helpful.
  • Standard Operating Procedure (SOP's) workflow
  • Analytics with our visitors
  • Knowing who are repeat visitors means we can have a deeper conversation. Perhaps a membership is a better fit. Or they might like some of the events coming up? Or to get our newsletter.
  • Reports, dashboards can be very helpful when developed with the staff.
  • Feedback. Surveys, Polls, so helpful to hear what people need and want. Salesforce can improve our ability to listen.
  • Innovation- I like seeing what else staff are asking for and wanting. This helps with adoption and also transfers to "we". Can we do this...? Love it...
  • Standards Operating Procedures workflow was developed to help with storing SOP's and also confirming the workflow documented in the SOP is approved.
  • Quality Team- our consultants idea...they have a chatter group and meet almost weekly and are the testers for him. Its fun to watch people get excited and learn together. My favorite is when they help each other. I can show you,,,,or they clarify with each other...
  • We have a contest with our staff on what to name our platform. We are right next to the Dreamlifter operations. The name that won is Dreamsifter. Its very fun and way better than saying check Salesforce. Instead you hear, in Dreamsifter I posted a question about....
  • Quick Book integration
  • Signing up schools and youth groups including payments for our Education programs
  • Adopt a membership app of some sort
  • We will learn together...

Salesforce.com Implementation

Its the end of June. We won't be complete until end of summer
  • Vendor implemented
  • Professional services company
We are using a small boutique firm called Buzzbold. The founder Steve Ley has personally lead the discovery phase and we are now in testing and moving to production, Steve spent four days onsite with our staff during discovery. Steve did a great job engaging our staff, having them help call out the needs and identify pains and would be nice to have solutions.
Examples are:
  • Data integration (over 2mm data points)
  • Standard operating procedures (SOP) storage and workflow
  • Case management w/ queues
  • Chatter groups
  • Custom logo and login
  • Email with outlook integration and email templates
  • integration with 3rd party systems: constant contact, mail chimp, etc.
  • Many other tasks : our RFP was over 20 pages!
Yes - 
  • RFP
  • Discovery
  • building & testing in Sandbox
  • begin to move into Production
  • testing/fixing
  • evaluation/fixing
  • warranty and debug
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled - We started the organizational restructure of staff which was announced after the discovery visit. Consultant was aware roles, titles and responsibilities were changing with our small team of 15 people.
So far one one new case has emerged as a need (staff scheduling) as a new director needs an improved system/process. Otherwise not many additional items have been identified as of yet.
  • Sorry just in beginning phase...