What is so exciting about the Analytics Edition?

• Bucketing, a feature which lets you group data and place them in categories (or buckets). For example: you can say that all gifts under $1,000 are small and over that are large.

• Cross-filtering, this will allow you to filter on related objects. For instance, you will be able to create a report on households and contacts, to show all contacts in households that didn’t attend the last volunteer event.

• Joined reports, this new report type will allow you to join reports together, to report on multiple children of the same parent object. For instance, if you are using the Nonprofit Starter Pack you will be able to build a report showing the payments, related contacts for each donation you received last year.
  This means that your organization no longer needs to spend hours in Excel or third-party business intelligence app’s to gain insight. You can see view a short training video here.

What does it mean for your organization?

Whether you are using Salesforce to fundraise, manage cases, or recruit, understanding the effectiveness of your efforts is essential.  The new and improved insight will help you capture “what works” and which services require improvements.

Ready to learn more? Would you like to schedule one-on-one training? Inquire about our support package today.

Internally, people work more productively when they can easily collaborate with colleagues. Internal social networks are replacing intranet solutions allowing employees to find information when and where they need it.

The Social Enterprise is a new way to elevate communication both with your constituents (donors, volunteers, students, clients and partners) and within your organization.

How can your nonprofit tap into the social revolution?

Step 1: Create a Constituent Profile

Your constituent profile should include basic contact information, his/her last courses, or last donations. In addition, the social profile should also include a complete picture of your constituents including information about their likes and dislikes, interests, hobbies, and connections.

Step 2: Develop and Employee Social Network
Organizations, specifically nonprofits, should make it easy for their employees to stay on top of what’s important, collaborate, and share information. One of your mentors might be your next major donor so you need to make sure that information can easily flow across departments.
Chatter is a great way to collaborate internally. You can use it to connect with internal experts, share large files and presentations, receive updates about donations, manage team projects, and more!

Step 3: Build a Constituent Social Network
Connecting your organization with the broader social Web is critical for your mission. Salesforce offers integrations to help you understand what people are saying on social platforms (I.e. Facebook or Twitter) about your services, mission, or competitors. You can easily filter what’s important and engage when appropriate and even instantly.

Additionally, you can invite your constituents to your internal network (I previously wrote about Chatter as a game changer for higher education here). Chatter Customer Groups allow organizations using Chatter to collaborate with people outside their organization in a private and secure way. You can invite students to share information about the class, clients can share best practices, and board members can discuss the agenda for the next board meeting.

Building your Social Enterprise

Cloud for Good continues to help organizations build Social Enterprises to meet today’s social revolution on the Salesforce.com’s trusted, fast, and open cloud platform. Contact us today for more information.

Anyone interested in ‘cloud computing’ quickly comes to realize that their data is not really stored in the cloud. In fact, cloud computing carries several definitions so no wonder it can be confusing. I like the following definition which I found at usinex.org. “Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

But is the cloud a step towards a brighter and cleaner tech future? I do not know the answer and I am way under educated to offer a strong opinion on this topic. On the other hand, there may be more to consider than the actual computing itself.

Salesforce.com has opened the doors for large corporations to rely on their security and expertise. In addition, and more relevant to Cloud for Good, salesforce.com has opened a channel for nonprofits of all sizes to benefit from their cutting edge ‘cloud based’ tools. In fact, our clients range from small, start-up nonprofits driven by a community need to Ivy League Universities and everything in between.

With a vision for a better world, many nonprofits are often searching for partners that are aligned with some of their driving elements. Cloud for Good deals with several organizations involved in sustainability on some level. They could be working towards economic sustainability, environmental, access to education or services, or many other areas of need.

By choosing Cloud for Good as your implementation partner you get more than a knowledgeable and trustworthy business relationship. We strive to be a paperless office even though we are not yet there (but we are very close).  We recycle any materials that are able to be reused and we produce a miniscule amount of trash. Our driving principles are reinforced with every relationship we forge. With backgrounds in nonprofit management, fundraising, grants management, and more, Cloud for Good is invested in your organizations success.

In addition, it appears that salesforce is on the right track as well. Just take this past Dreamforce 2011 event for example.  This is surly one of the largest technology events in the world and is probably the greenest of them all. Each Dreamforce attendee received a backpack, water bottles, and there were countless stations throughout the event for recycling and composting. Of course this took place in San Francisco but still the company made conscious decisions to contribute to environmental sustainability. I have never seen any event (let alone a technology event) offer more dietary requests than Dreamforce. There were options for gluten free, dairy free, kosher, halal, vegetarian, vegan, and more.

Cloud for Good has chosen salesforce.com for more than their technological innovations and we hope our clients choose us for more than our partnership with salesforce.com.

Ultimately, if we (consumers) are striving for a green and renewable cloud, we must invest in partnerships that have the power and resources to effect this change. Cloud providers (not only salesforce.com) need to leverage their power and influence to funnel investments towards renewable resources and into research and development for the continued growth of the greener cloud. The cloud is not intrinsically green but has a tremendous amount of potential to be green.  Contact Us  to learn more about how Cloud for Good can work with your organization toward fulfilling your mission.

Online forms are a great tool for collecting information from your constituents, however, when they are not integrated with your CRM the process of manually entering the information into the database can be overwhelming.

There are number of ways to integrate your online website forms with Salesforce. How do they compare? We did the leg work for you and below you can find some integrations that have worked for our clients and might work for you as well.

1. Web to Lead - Native Salesforce functionality that allows generating up to 500 new leads a day.

Pros:

Start by thinking about your needs. If you’re just looking to collect newsletter registration or simple inquiries Web to Lead forms might work for you.  On the other hand, if you’re looking for updating multiple objects in Salesforce and searching for duplicates Salesforce Sites or third party applications are more likely to have the features you need.

Ready to move to the next step? Contact use to receive a quote today.

Donation Split

This FREE app is offered by us! The Cloud for Good Donation Split application was designed to help nonprofit organizations in their fundraising and donor management efforts. With this application you can easily record how funds should be allocated between multiple designations and budgetary years. Our designations and budget charts will provide you with a quick overview of your fundraising efforts including total donations raised by a budget year and total funds raised for each program.

Follow this link to download the application from the AppExchnage and don’t forget to add a review for us: http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000059P3fEAE

Demand Tools

This is a free app for nonprofits and one that any admin and organization should utilize. This powerful tool helps with several areas such as importing data, cleaning & standardizing data, data manipulation without requiring import or export, removing duplicates, comparing external data to salesforce data, and more. I can’t say that it makes data migration fun, but definitely more approachable. Take it for a test drive and discover its usefulness. Follow this link to download it from the AppExchange. http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016bXjEAI

Dupe Catcher

Here’s another free app for your organization. This one specializes in catching possible duplicates from entering your system at their point of entry (contacts, accounts, & leads). Dupe Catcher gives you full control of the dedupe process and allows you to choose which data to keep and which to toss out. It’s quite possible that another staff member met the same person at your most recent event. Dupe Catcher will notify you before you double up on records. For more information and to download it click this link. http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000003IYLlEAO

Conga Composer

Well this app isn’t free, but it is heavily discounted for nonprofits. Conga Composer allows you to generate thank you letters, tax receipts, event invitations, proposals, documents, labels, and more in just a few clicks. It will extract information across objects and merge them into your documents or letters for easy delivery. Use this app to quickly generate thank you letters to everyone who attended your gala dinner last night and gave more than $50. Click the link for more information. http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016b7FEAQ

Survey Force

Create a custom survey from your salesforce CRM with this free app. Survey Force enables you to create and distribute surveys via email. This gives your constituents a convenient way to send back important information for your organization. When submitted, the results are automatically entered into Salesforce and you will be able to compile reports and even display results in dashboards. This is a simple tool that can be used for program evaluation, general feedback, and even event registration. http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000003I2gDEAS

Vertical Response

Vertical Response is one of the most common Email Service Providers nonprofit organizations use, mainly because of their 10,000 email per month donation. Vertical Response gives you a quick answer to building email campaigns, postcards, or event marketing using professional looking templates (they have about 700 templates for you to choose from). http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016aYQEAY

Campaign Combiner

This is a free app that is well worth downloading. Created by Groundwire, Campaign Combiner is a Visualforce page that will allow you to sort through multiple campaign members and add them to a target campaign or exclude members who are assigned to multiple campaigns. This app allows for easy merging for campaign members needing to be added to an additional campaign. You will also be able to include or exclude campaign members based on their member status. Do you ever need to access a previous campaign and add all the members to a new email campaign? This is an answer for compiling historical campaign information and applying it to current campaigns.

Get more information from the App Exchange.  http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000003IlDHEA0

Cloud 2 You

Here is a free app that is well worth exploring. Cloud 2 You simplifies the process of sending letters, newsletters, greeting cards, post cards, and more. No more bringing stacks of outgoing mail to the post office since you can send mail from several places in Salesforce with a click of a button. Choose your template; write your message, and send, it’s that simple. Additionally, there is no minimum number to be sent at any time. Send one stay in touch postcard to a new contact from a recent event or send hundreds of thank you letters to your recent donors. Lastly, at 99 cents per letter or greeting card you can’t go wrong. http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000026BRWEA2

DocuSign Electronic Signatures (e-signature)

This app is not free but can be leveraged to save time and eliminate wait times between receiving, reviewing, signing, and mailing documents, forms, or contracts. This may be a good solution for event registration forms that require signatures, school release or medical forms, and even financial aid forms. And what about using this app for case management? Considering the amount of forms that need to be signed and approved, it would ease tension to know that the e-signatures are built with intricate identity management and authentication solutions to ensure that they are legally binding.

Read more about this app on the App Exchange. http://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N30000001taX4EAI

Still confused? Contact us to talk about our Salesforce analysis and ongoing support services. 

The Cloud for Good Donation Split application was designed to help nonprofit organizations in their fundraising efforts. With this application nonprofit professionals now can easily record how funds should be allocated between multiple designations and budgetary years. The application includes graphic charts to provide the organizations with a quick overview of their fundraising efforts including total donations raised in a budget year and total funds raised for each program.

This module is built natively on the Salesforce.com’s force.com platform and is fully integrated with the Nonprofit Starter Pack (NPSP). It is available at no cost for nonprofit organizations on the AppExchnage.

Link to the application: https://sites.secure.force.com/appexchange/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000059P3fEAE

About the Salesforce.com and the AppExchange:

Salesforce is an on-demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution vendor. It is the enterprise cloud computing company and one of the most flexible and powerful web based databases available on the market.

The AppExchange is the leading online marketplace for cloud computing applications. It includes more than 1,000 applications and services on the force.com platform.

Idealware and NTEN teamed up yet another time to give organizations a guide to affordable donor management systems. The full report, which was released in June 2011, can be found here, A Consumer’s Guide to Low Cost Donor Management Systems.

Know What’s Out There
There are several systems out there filled with features that you may or not be searching for. However, what does your organization need to know about choosing the right system that is within your financial means and will do what you are looking for? I have outlined some categories from the report that will hopefully assist you in selecting a system that reflects your organizations’ needs.

Hosted System vs. Installed System
More and more solutions are becoming available in the cloud. The cloud eliminates the need to purchase and maintain expensive servers (all of your information is stored on the vendor’s servers), it makes it possible to access your system from anywhere your staff may be (with an internet connection), and best of all you don’t need to worry about upgrades and backup, the vendor will do it for you. You know that we at Cloud for Good are big fans of the cloud!
The other option is to purchase software that needs to be installed onto your internal network. You may need to purchase an additional server dedicated to only hosting this system, maintain updates and backups, and these systems may or may not be accessible from locations outside your organization. Generally you will pay per user for a cloud solution vs. a yearly licensing fee and additional maintenance fees (updates, service, etc.) with installed systems.

Tracking Donors vs. Tracking All Constituents
Some systems are only able to track donors. Other systems allow for tracking of events, members of the organization, volunteers, and other constituents. This helps to contain all constituent information in one system. If you already have a system that tracks constituents that the organization is satisfied with, you may only need a stand-alone donor tracking system.

Looking To Custom Built Your System?
It does not seem to make sense to build your own system. Donor management systems have been well researched and offer most of what you will need. Building your own system would mean that there will be no one to discuss issues with. There will be no upgrades or support. Also, no other organizations will have this system so it will eliminate sharing ideas, best practices, etc. Many systems out there (talk with us about Salesforce) are customizable. This will allow your organization to add unique features that will express your needs. In this case, it may be best to look for a system that has basic functionality as well as expandable customization capabilities.

Adding / Tracking Donations
It is safe to say that most systems allow users to easily enter donations. Beyond entering the figures it is important to understand the systems’ functionality. Are you able to quickly and easily search before entering information to avoid duplicates? You may be interested in entering several donations at a time either manually or by uploading a file. What about tracking multiple types of donations? Not all systems allow for easy reporting in terms of the giver (I.e. individual vs. Company). Are you looking to track honorary gifts or in-kind gifts? Even if a system offers all or most of your needs you will need to test how user friendly each of them are.

Manage Donor Information
How extensive is the system in terms of information storing and accessing? You may need to store several phone numbers, addresses, or other contact information. Is it easy to spot if a donor does not want to be contacted? Or maybe the donor only wants to be contacted by email but not through snail mail. Can you group people (couples, partners, families, etc.) in one home? Some systems group people using one record while others group by individual and then allow for linking records by creating a relationship between individuals. Again, a system may have the functions you are looking for but it is important to determine a users ability to perform the functions when needed.

Still Unsure or Need Help Deciding…
Cloud For Good will help you determine if Salesforce and the Nonprofit Starter Pack is a good fit for your organization. We are experienced in implementing Salesforce.com CRM as well as including customization based on how you want the system to look and feel. Contact us for more information.

I attended my first Dreamforce 5 years ago while I was still the Director of Resource Development for a nonprofit organization dedicated to at-risk youth. I almost didn’t go; actually, I convinced my board that it was the right decision only a couple of weeks beforehand. The organization only agreed to send me after I secured a few meetings with potential funders at the conference.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that trip was the impetus to choosing my new career. I was so impressed with the whole experience that a short time after I returned home, I quit my job and opened Cloud for Good, a consulting firm that specializes in Salesforce implementations for nonprofit and educational organizations.

So what instigated this? Maybe it’s because Dreamforce feels a little like Disney World…

Not Just for Kids
Whether you’re a first timer or a Salesforce.com MVP, you’ll be able to find a track that fits your interests, experience, and knowledge. There are more than 400 sessions this year, including expert panels, best practices, and a great selection of hands-on training sessions.

Magical Networking
There aren’t a lot of other opportunities for customers to talk to salesforce.com employees and partners—or for vendors to talk to developers and nonprofits—all while focused on cloud computing. With receptions, volunteer events, and “birds of the feather” lunches, there is always an opportunity to network during Dreamforce. And even better, networking doesn’t start at the actual event. I’ve been using theDreamforce App throughout the year to continue conversations with clients, other partners, and fellow Salesforce addicts.

The Vendor Theme Park
The Cloud Expo is a wonderful opportunity to learn about innovative solutions on the Force.com platform directly from the people who developed them. Exhibits include everything from email marketing to financial and HR solutions. This is an ideal place to pick up new ideas and learn how to enhance your implementation.

I’ve been inspired by Dreamforce every year since 2005; I hope to see you there this year!

Tal Frankfurt is the Founder and CEO of Cloud for Good, a Salesforce.com MVP, a Certified Salesforce.com Consultant, and a Certified Salesforce.com Administrator.

Over the weekend I received an urgent call from the director of a small nonprofit organization. I spoke with her almost 6 months ago about the possibility of migrating their organization to the cloud. She was specifically interested in Salesforce as a tool to manage their members, track donations, and send mass newsletters and Google Apps for emails and joint calendars. After our conversation, she took my proposal to their board and the day after the board meeting she called and expressed some concerns. The vast majority of their board members agreed that “the cloud is too dangerous, it is not secure.” Instead of migrating to Salesforce they bought additional servers and migrated to one of those client/server based databases…

Last week their region experienced some serious thunder storms. Their offices were struck by lightning and “fried” their servers; as a result, the organization lost all of their data (they did not have any backup!) and due to the lost servers, they now don’t have a system to manage their upcoming gala event.

Don’t Confuse Security and Control

People tend to think that if they don’t see their information then it is not secure. Rest assured that your data in the cloud is much more secure than what lives on a tower under your desk.

When you access Salesforce using industry standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology, your information is protected using both server authentication and data encryption, ensuring that your data is safe, secure, and available only to registered users in your organization. Salesforce.com’s secure data centers include:

• Access control and physical
• Environmental controls Power control
• Fire detection and suppression
• Network protection
• Backups
• Application vulnerability threat assessments
• Internal and third-party testing and assessments
• And more…

As a nonprofit organization, you should focus on bringing about positive social change to your community- let someone else deal with the IT needs. Contact us today to learn how your organization can move to the cloud

As with any new technology, your organization will need to choose a tool that will allow you to collect and report on required data, easily integrate with an existing database (if your organization uses one) or work alongside existing management software, and is efficient.

Researching and choosing the right software takes time and may still leave your organization with several questions. Idealware and TechSoup conducted research and released a report focused on volunteer management software in May 2011. Here are their main recommendations:

Get ready…

Before you begin, it is important to pull together a multidisciplinary team in order to discuss and thoroughly cover the following issues:

• Determine which features and functions are non-negotiable for your organization.
• Create a time line to outline when you want this new system to be implemented.
• Create a budget so you know what your organization is able to afford.
• Do you want a hosted or installed system?
• What functions do you want volunteers to have access to? For example, do you want your volunteers to have web access in order to complete new volunteer forms, change their profile, or allow access to other needed forms?
• Is the organization simply tracking basic contact information, skills, and ability or is the organization in need of more custom tracking? Examples could include instant background checking, tracking volunteer hours, creating volunteer opportunities which can be updated, tracked, and consolidated into useful reports.

Get Set…

Joining volunteer management discussion and/or talking with other organizations will assist with understanding the functionality and features your organization may be searching for. When you have a better understanding of what your organization is looking for in volunteer management software, contact vendors that you are interested in. Take advantage of free trial runs and vendor knowledge of their products.

On the other hand, contacting either a software company or a consultant before you fully understand what your organization is looking for can sometimes be a waste of time for both parties (click here to read tips for your request for proposal). As with any purchase, do your research first to ensure you are familiar with the options that are out there and understand what your budget constraints are.

Go!

It is important to mention the new Volunteers for Salesforce application that was released after the Idealware report. It was created by Groundwire and was supported by a grant from The Salesforce Foundation.

The application’s deep integration with Salesforce CRM makes it a ‘one stop shop’ when considering volunteer management solution. Once the app is installed it will seamlessly integrate into your existing CRM as well as add some objects and custom tabs. This software has some great and exciting features. Here are our top 3:

• Manage volunteers and their volunteer hours
• Manage volunteer jobs and optional shifts
• Allows for volunteer and job sign-up on your website which instantly updates your Salesforce CRM

Another great feature is that this application is open source software. This means that even if the application does not do everything your organization needs, we will be able to customize it for you, integrate it with a portal or social networks, and more. Contact us to schedule a demo of Volunteer for Salesforce!