For years, the Trailblazer community has been asking for a more robust volunteer management solution, native to the Salesforce Platform and Nonprofit Cloud, and Salesforce has answered that call. Now, with the arrival of Salesforce’s Summer ’25 release, Volunteer Management for Nonprofit Cloud is finally here – and it’s a big deal.
The release of Volunteer Management for Nonprofit Cloud marks a significant innovative milestone. For the first time, nonprofits now have access to a volunteer management solution built on the Salesforce Platform – no third-party tools, no additional managed packages, just a streamlined data model and experience designed specifically for nonprofits at no additional cost.
A Look Back At How We Got Here
Volunteers for Salesforce
Volunteers are the lifeblood of many nonprofit organizations. They help raise funds, support programs, and spread the mission. But despite their importance, managing volunteers within Salesforce has historically meant relying on managed packages or third-party integrations. One of the most widely used tools prior to this release was Volunteers for Salesforce (V4S), an open-source application initially developed by an individual contributor, which Salesforce later adopted. V4S supported essential tasks like volunteer signups, shift scheduling, and hours tracking, all while integrating with the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) to help organizations gain a 360-degree view of volunteer engagement.
V4S was a strong starting point, but it wasn’t a native, scalable solution aligned with Salesforce’s new Industry Cloud strategy. Nonprofits continued to voice the need for a modern, integrated, and flexible volunteer management experience.
Continued Value Creation with Nonprofit Cloud
When Salesforce introduced Nonprofit Cloud in 2023, it signaled a strategic shift: moving away from managed packages like NPSP and toward native, industry-specific capabilities built directly on the core Platform, This new approach opened the door for greater innovation across industries – and Volunteer Management is a testament to how committed Salesforce to the nonprofit space.
What’s Included in Volunteer Management for Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud
The new Volunteer Management solution goes well beyond basic scheduling. It has a comprehensive data model and a suite of features dedicated to growing volunteer programs. Here’s a look at some of the key capabilities:
Simplify and Scale Volunteer Operations and Impact
Volunteer Management offers features to help nonprofits simplify, manage, and scale their volunteer operations, planning, and applications efficiently from start to finish.
- Activity Management: Enhance the organization and setup of volunteer activities, shifts, roles, locations, events, and more, all within Nonprofit Cloud.
- Applications Management: Collect, manage, and review volunteer applications and information to ensure the best fit for an organization’s needs.
- Capacity Planning and Attendance Tracking: Assign the number and type of volunteers needed for each activity to ensure volunteers feel valued and useful, and check volunteers in and out with start and end times.
- Reminders and Follow-Up: Automate key communications, such as shift reminders and post-event thank-you notes, to ensure that volunteers show up on the day and keep them engaged afterwards.
Understand and Strengthen Volunteer Relationships
Nonprofit teams can utilize Volunteer Management features to gain a deeper understanding of their volunteers, including how they have engaged and interacted with the organization over time, as well as their interests, skills, and availability. This information can help nonprofits build deeper relationships with volunteers, provide them with relevant, matching opportunities that meet the needs of their organization, and make volunteers feel valued and recognized for their service and time.
- Volunteer Engagement and History: Gain a comprehensive view of a volunteer’s activities and interaction with an organization across time. Track and see total hours volunteered, first and last volunteer activity, and more.
- Availability, Locations, and Skills: Understand where and when a volunteer is available and confirm and validate their skills to ensure they are the best person for the role.
Mobilizing Volunteers with a Self-Service Portal
Nonprofits can mobilize volunteers with a self-service portal powered by Experience Cloud. This is a great example of how Salesforce is providing new capabilities that were previously very limited, even with V4S. Volunteers can manage their profiles, sign up for opportunities, and track their hours and impact in the portal. At the same time, internal staff can collect participant information, manage applications, publish opportunities, and send information to ensure that volunteer initiatives are successful and impactful.
- Volunteer Opportunities: Share available volunteer shifts and roles that match volunteers’ skills and interests to organizational needs with Experience Cloud.
- Registration: Simplifies the signup and registration process for volunteer opportunities, lowering barriers to entry.
- Training: Reduce internal workload by providing volunteers with training resources, ensuring they have the necessary information and tools to be successful at their volunteering sites.
- Share Impact: Keep volunteers informed about how their volunteer contributions have made a difference and impact on an organization and their community with Tableau.
Enhanced Support with Agentforce
Agentforce significantly enhances volunteer support in Volunteer Management for Nonprofit Cloud by providing a range of features that utilize AI agents designed to streamline and improve the volunteer experience.
- Volunteer Support: Enable real-time support for volunteers through Salesforce’s agentic AI. Agents can answer questions outside of business hours and resolve issues such as updating volunteer contact info or changing a shift.
- Volunteer Matching: Agents can suggest relevant, matching volunteer opportunities using AI-powered logic, which provides volunteers with a starting point for making a final decision.
- Onboarding: Agents manage onboarding experiences with ease and guide new volunteers to the right roles based on their interests and availability.
Why Volunteer Management for Nonprofit Cloud Matters
At Cloud for Good, we’ve helped hundreds of nonprofits extend the power of Salesforce, manage fundraising, programs, and community engagement. Time and again, I’ve heard from clients that volunteer management often feels disconnected – handled in a spreadsheet, through third-party apps, or not managed at all.
The arrival of a native Volunteer Management solution transforms that experience. It enables nonprofits to manage volunteer engagement as part of a holistic constituent relationship strategy – driving greater efficiency, deeper insights, and ultimately, more mission impact.
Salesforce’s investment in Volunteer Management for Nonprofit Cloud is more than a new feature. It’s a signal that the needs of nonprofits are being heard – and being met with enterprise-grade solutions built on a platform that scales.
Final Thoughts
From NPSP and V4S to a truly native volunteer experience in Nonprofit Cloud, Salesforce has come a long way. The new Volunteer Management capabilities represent a leap forward in how nonprofits can recruit, engage, retain, and convert volunteers. If your organization is ready to reimagine volunteer management and connect those efforts to your broader mission, this is the moment to act.
