Flying into San Francisco, my plane was filled with Trailblazer hoodies, Salesforce backpacks, and tons of Astro keychains. Dreamforce is back and with it comes the thrill of thought-provoking sessions, the hustle of the Salesforce campground, and of course, incredible announcements sure to make waves throughout the broader ecosystem.
I had the pleasure of sitting in on the Nonprofit Keynote and was so inspired by what I witnessed. The room was filled to the brim, and the Salesforce team didn’t disappoint with inspiring stories from three nonprofit groups, new announcements of new product features, functionality, and announcements. Here are some of my favorite highlights:
Stakeholder 360
One of the most prevailing themes of the Nonprofit Keynote was the idea of Stakeholder 360. Simply put, Stakeholder 360 is the idea of consolidating all of the disparate systems and sources used to capture stakeholder data into one clean, unified place. From donors and board members to employees and partners, stakeholder information adds up quickly, and organizations can quickly feel the weight of all that data without a source of truth that is unimpeachable.
Now, after years of working hand in hand with partners throughout the ecosystem, Salesforce for Nonprofits is poised to unite teams on one platform with the Stakeholder 360 by gaining insights in real-time. Throughout fundraising, marketing and engagement, program management, nonprofit operations, and grantmaking, Salesforce Genie for Nonprofits (another great revelation from this year’s event), helps drive impact with stakeholder magic in three significant ways: automating to empower staff, creating intelligent and personalized experiences, and providing real-time insights to deliver impact faster.
Salesforce Genie Introduced
One of the most significant developments of the entire Dreamforce ‘22 event was the introduction of Genie, a hyper-scale real-time data platform that powers the whole Salesforce Customer 360. This revolutionary new innovation will help nonprofits create more personalized customer experiences and provide a complete, actionable view of stakeholders. An extension of Salesforce CDP, Genie unifies all of an organization’s customer data across channels and interactions into a single customer profile that is updated in real-time as new data comes in. This ensures that every interaction between an organization and its stakeholders is more automated, intelligent, and rapidly updated.
Enhanced Donor Experience
KWF Dutch Cancer Society is reinventing its approach to fundraising with the Stakeholder 360 platform and more personalized mobile app experiences. 1 out of 3 people in the Netherlands are touched by cancer in some way, and KWF Dutch Cancer Society is committed to not only fighting the disease but striving for a better life for those living with cancer as well.
Through Salesforce, KWF is able to build a deeper connection with those supporting and engaging with the central mission. More than just raising funds, KWF seeks to harness technology to strengthen those connections and reach new supporters. To achieve this, KWF has completely redesigned volunteer and donor experiences through a real-time, data-driven app that digitizes the organization’s efforts. Mobile App for Volunteers has allowed KWF to increase donations per volunteer by 25% resulting in a total of 4M individual donations in 2022 alone.
Using Marketing Cloud advertising, KWF is able to build geo-located ads targeting cities, towns, and even streets, to find volunteers and boost fundraising efforts. These same tools are available to any nonprofit looking to connect with a broader audience and raise more funds, and I can’t wait to see how clients of Cloud for Good harness this incredible technology.
Data Lake for Nonprofits – Powered by AWS
With Data Lake for Nonprofits, powered by AWS, data lakes have become much more accessible and easier to leverage through clicks and not code. Every nonprofit can now manage and secure the data it needs to innovate, adapt, and scale its impact through the centralization of data but that’s just the first step in a larger plan to help manage and unlock the value of nonprofit data. All data, from fundraising and marketing to program management, NPSP, and PMM data, can be stored in a data lake as a universal collection point of data, with a focus placed on ease of connectivity and data collection. This will help nonprofits gain an invaluable perspective on trends within the organization. This leads to another of my top takeaways…
Data Stories for Tableau
Through Tableau, teams can now better visualize and explore data in interactive dashboards providing real-time insight into the nonprofit’s mission. With these data stories provided by Tableau, nonprofit organizations will be better equipped to spot trends, make data-driven decisions, and then take action. From a higher level, teams will be able to stay up to date on key insights on a daily basis and even receive automated data alerts through Slack keying them into major items of note. Speaking of Slack…
More Engaging Slack
Three major Slack updates coincided with Dreamforce 2022 to help bridge gaps in communication and create unique value for the digital HQ.
The first of which is Slack Canvas. Described as a “surface to capture and share knowledge [with] the ability to access and take action on Salesforce data directly in Slack,” Slack Canvas helps users create, organize, and share information across teams. Considered as much more than a mere document, Slack Canvas is a place where teams can capture information, find answers, and move work forward.
Coworking in Huddles was also announced to help power spontaneous discussions and live working sessions in your digital HQ. This includes video, multi-person screen sharing, message threads, and more. Finally, a new Slack Platform is set to be introduced via an open beta. The new platform will allow developers to automate workflows using modular, reusable building blocks that are easy to customize, deploy, and share across Slack.
Couldn’t make it to Dreamforce this year? No worries, Salesforce+ has you covered. Register now and watch the session on demand here.
