Thought Leadership

Ideas and strategies to help purpose-driven organizations create greater, lasting impact.

Latest Posts

To CRM or not to CRM: Is that the question?

To CRM or not to CRM: Is that the question?

When evaluating your needs and choosing to implement a CRM solution, I recommend starting by asking the five W’s: Who, What, Where, When and Why....
Custom Code: Are you ready?

Custom Code: Are you ready?

It is an interesting dichotomy that while writing custom code allows you to manipulate the system in very sophisticated ways, every bit of custom code that...
At Project's End: Separation Anxiety and User Adoption

At Project’s End: Separation Anxiety and User Adoption

Some of the biggest angst for my clients comes at the end of a project. Wrapping up an implementation brings all sorts of mixed feelings: pride...
12 Ways Dreamforce is Hard

12 Ways Dreamforce is Hard

Read 12 reasons why Dreamforce is hard to wait for. See you at Dreamforce 2013....
Best (of the Best) Practice with Salesforce

Best (of the Best) Practice with Salesforce

There’s a lot of talk about Best Practice in the nonprofit sector, and having consulted on projects large and small, I want to take moment to...
Better Living Through Training and Documentation

Better Living Through Training and Documentation

As a system administrator, it’s not only your job to ensure that reports are created, data is kept clean, and new fields and workflows are created....
Ensuring Training Success

Ensuring Training Success

Whether you arrange for training from a consultant, manage it yourself, or use some combination of the two, there are a few techniques you can employ...
Using Salesforce to Cultivate Donor Relationships

Using Salesforce to Cultivate Donor Relationships

From finding new donors, growing gifts from existing supporters, or managing the back-end fundraising efforts, Salesforce helps organizations establish and grow donor relationships in addition to...
Ready To Start With Your Implementation? Think Again

Ready To Start With Your Implementation? Think Again

You choose a platform, signed with an awesome implementation partner who can translate your needs into technology, and you are extremely excited to get started. Wait…...
The Power of US Hub

The Power of US Hub

Are you sometimes confused about where to go to get the answers you need in using Salesforce at your nonprofit? As you may have discovered there...
A large group of people posing for a group photo outdoors on a rooftop terrace.

Cloud for Good at Dreamforce 2015!

In case you weren't able to attend Dreamforce, or if you were in attendance and missed seeing us, don't worry! We've got pictures from our events...
Blue wavy cloud logo with text Cloud for Good.

Moving House: Steps for a Successful Data Migration

It doesn't matter if8ixn547AT you have 100 records or 1 million records, the data import phase of a project can seem like a daunting task. It's...
A smiling woman with glasses and a man wearing a blue suit covered in white clouds.

Nonprofit Starter Pack (NPSP) Data Importer Tool Deep Dive

Does the thought of migrating data make you want to run screaming? Is your organization using the NonProfit Starter Pack (NPSP)? Do you have data you...
Two pie charts showing Public Cloud Spending by Service Type and by Region, 2014.

Diversity at Dreamforce – A Promising Start, But Challenges Remain

Last week was Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual customer conference, which basically takes over the city of San Francisco for a week of keynotes, educational sessions and parties....
Blue wavy cloud logo with text Cloud for Good.

Declarative Lookup Rollup Summaries: An Admin’s Must-Have Tool

Rollup summaries are great things to have in your admin toolkit. With a rollup summary, you can summarize information about child records on a parent record...
Drawing of two hands, each holding a red heart shape.

A Recap of Dreamforce – Day 3

Thursday was Product Keynote day at Dreamforce ‘15 and the Cloud for Good team spread out to cover them all. The Cloud for Good team left...