Earlier this summer, I shared about Salesforce’s new Volunteer Management for Nonprofit Cloud, a significant milestone for nonprofit engagement. But the Summer 25′ Release has just as much significance for higher education. With a new generation of philanthropy tools for Education Cloud, Salesforce is addressing a critical need: helping advancement teams optimize and scale the work of fundraisers, gift officers, and donor relations professionals who fuel institutional growth.
For higher education leaders, this ability to manage lifelong donor relationships and make informed decisions about philanthropy strategy has always been a challenge—especially as donors’ intentions, wealth capacity, and expectations evolve. Salesforce’s new Gift Planning and Philanthropic Research data models are designed to meet that challenge head-on.
Data Models That Capture Lifelong Giving
Salesforce has developed two new, purpose-built data models:
- Gift Planning: Built to manage the entire lifecycle of complex and planned gifts.
- Philanthropic Research: Designed to streamline donor and prospect research with AI-powered insights.
Individually, each model represents a leap forward. Together, they create a future-ready data architecture for advancement that enables institutions to deepen donor trust, steward major gifts over decades, and uncover new opportunities for generosity.
Gift Planning: Bringing Clarity to Complex Gifts
Major Gifts and Planned Gifts (whether through bequests, trusts, donor-advised funds, or annuities) are transformative for colleges and universities. They are also complex, often spanning years or even generations.
The Gift Planning Model helps advancement teams:
- Capture a donor’s intent early, even before formal agreements are signed.
- Align internal teams around legal, financial, and stewardship requirements.
- Track the performance and recognition of gifts over time.
- Ensure commitments are honored long after the individual pledge.
With objects like Planned Gift, Donor Gift Concept, Gift Agreement, and Gift Value Forecast, the Gift Planning model provides both structure and continuity, making it easier for gift officers to build trust and deliver on long-term commitments.
Objects of this data model include:
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
|
Planned Gift |
A complex gift (i.e., annuity, bequest, trust). |
|
Planned Gift Performance |
A planned gift’s performance over time, including returns, expenses, and net value. |
|
Donor Gift Concept |
The initial idea or proposal for a gift. Includes the donor’s intent and preliminary purpose for making the gift. |
|
Gift Agreement |
The agreement to accept a gift. |
|
Gift Value Forecast |
A gift’s monetary value over time. |
Three additional objects for the Gift Planning model will be released in Winter 2026 (October 2025):
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
|
Actuarial Entry |
Represents the foundational data for calculating a planned gift’s future value, including life expectancy and discount rates. |
|
Gift Stewardship |
A central record that manages a donor’s recognition. |
|
Gift Stewardship Activity |
Represents an activity carried out as part of gift stewardship. |
Philanthropic Research: Smarter Donor Intelligence
Donor research has long been essential, but it often lives in static reports or siloed systems. The Philanthropic Research Model, in contrast, enables advancement teams to collaborate on structured insights about donors and prospects in real time.
This model introduces objects such as:
| Object | Description |
|---|---|
|
Philanthropic Indicators |
Early signs of capacity or intent. |
|
Philanthropic Occurrences |
Confirmed wealth events. |
|
Philanthropic Assessments |
Formalized ratings and valuations. |
|
Philanthropic Milestones |
Tracking philanthropic activities over time. |
Paired with AI, these insights become dynamic, helping teams not only understand current donors but also predict future engagement and identify the next generation of givers.
AI-First by Design
Unlike legacy systems that retrofitted AI later, these new data models were designed with an AI-first strategy. By integrating directly with Agentforce, institutions can utilize AI agents to:
- Generate AI-driven donor research summaries.
- Predict engagement and cultivation strategies.
- Automate stewardship activities.
Because these models live natively within Salesforce, institutions can also extend their functionalities with custom workflows, tailored insights, and accelerators—a level of flexibility rarely found in traditional advancement systems.
Why It Matters For Higher Education
For colleges and universities, these innovations in Education Cloud represent more than just new technology. They provide a framework to:
- Scale advancement operations without adding administrative burden.
- Strengthen relationships with alumni and donors throughout their lifetime.
- Future-proof philanthropy strategies in an era of changing donor expectations.
Partnering with Experts to Unlock Potential
Navigating these new tools is ambitious, but institutions don’t have to do it alone. At Cloud for Good, we’ve helped colleges and universities implement some of Salesforce’s most groundbreaking innovations – from being one of the first Salesforce partners to implement the reimagined Education Cloud with its groundbreaking learner-centric data model for a distinguished university, to implementing the first university student information system (SIS) on Education Cloud.
We’re excited to help higher ed institutions harness these new philanthropy data models to:
- Align fundraising operations with strategic goals.
- Unlock new levels of donor engagement and stewardship.
- Redefine what’s possible for advancement teams in Salesforce.
If your institution is ready to redefine fundraising success, our team can help you make the most of Salesforce’s new era of philanthropy.
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