Have you hit the trail with Trailhead, Salesforce’s fun, interactive learning path? It is a great way to learn more about Salesforce while earning badges and points (if you’re into that kind of thing). And Salesforce.org recently created the first trail specifically for nonprofits; Nonprofit Trail – Fundraising. This trail currently has two modules; Fundraising Basics and Donation Management.
Most of the other Trailhead trails are designed for system administrators and/or developers but the Nonprofit Trail is ideal for end users. It provides a “big picture” overview of the Nonprofit Starter Pack and also provides details on how to create Contact, Account and Opportunity records. Salesforce estimates it will take you 3 hours and 35 minutes to complete the two modules that make up this trail.
The first module is Fundraising Basics and it has 2 units; Getting Started with Fundraising and Fundraising with the Nonprofit Starter Pack. This provides a great introduction to the Salesforce platform and how the Salesforce Platform is used by nonprofits. It also gives an introduction to the Nonprofit Starter Pack that can help you to determine if it would be a good fit for your organization. Additionally, it gives an overview of the Salesforce AppExchange and how it works! It even walks you through setting up a trial Salesforce org.
The second unit walks you through the Nonprofit Starter Pack’s functionality using an actual Salesforce.org customer, Cradles to Crayons, illustrating how they are using the tool to run their nonprofit. At the end of the unit there is a list of helpful resources for nonprofits who are using Salesforce.
The second module of this trail is Donation Management and it walks you through how to manage Households, Contacts and Donations in Salesforce. It has 5 units; Creating a Contact and Associated Household Account, Editing Household and Contact Information, Creating an Organization Account and Affiliations, Creating and Managing Donations, and Creating Payments and Recurring Donations.
Trailhead contains practical examples and step-by-step instructions for how to do common tasks like setting up a household, creating an organization account, creating payments and adding recurring donations. Not only will you get real world scenarios that apply to many nonprofits but you’ll get specific instructions so you can follow along every step of the way.
Additional nonprofit modules are under development and are coming soon. They include Grant Management, Volunteer Management, and Events Management. Be sure to check back to see when these modules are added.
Once you complete the Nonprofit Trail you might want to check out some of the other trails. You should start with the Admin Beginner Trail that shows you the basics of customizing Salesforce. This trail is estimated to take 9.5 hours and covers Salesforce Platform Basics, Data Modeling, Data Management, UI Customization, Salesforce1 Mobile Basics, Chatter Basics, Report & Dashboard Basics, and Formulas & Validations.
Another great trail you should take a look at is Learn CRM Essentials which helps you understand Salesforce and how to navigate, customize, and manage Salesforce. This trail is estimated to take 3 hours 55 minutes to complete. This trail covers CRM Basics, Accounts & Contacts, Leads & Opportunities, and Service Cloud Basics.
It is also worth pointing out that Trailhead was built entirely on the Force.com platform and was built with Force.com and Heroku.
Trailhead is an awesome learning resource and it is free and available to everyone. New trails are being created often so be sure to check back and see what new content has been added. Start collecting badges and expanding your Salesforce knowledge. As you complete trails you will gain confidence and hopefully be inspired to tackle some of the other trails such as Admin Intermediate, Developer Beginner, and Getting Started with Lightning Experience. Also if you’re a badge collector look for limited-time badges Salesforce offers from time to time such as a Back to the Future badge and a Halloween badge. These fun offerings give you and your users extra incentive to complete modules to earn these special badges. So what are you waiting for? Pull on your hiking boots and hit Trailhead today.
More posts you may be interested in:
Organizing An Awesome Salesforce Training Program for Your Users
Ensuring Training Success
Better Living Through Training and Documentation
