Thought Leadership

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

Latest Posts

Explore by Topic:

  • Industry

  • Topic / Function

  • Product / Service

Salesforce Administrators and Puppies - Cloud for Good

Salesforce Administrators and Puppies

Too often, in my experience, I’ve had clients treat a Salesforce implementation as a discrete moment in time: “We wanted Salesforce, we got Salesforce, we have
The Future is Now: Taking your Chatter Publisher Actions Mobile - Cloud for Good

The Future is Now: Taking your Chatter Publisher Actions Mobile

Chatter Publisher Publisher actions allow you to perform simple tasks such as creating child records from within the record’s Chatter feed. Read more about publisher.
To CRM or not to CRM: Is that the question? - Cloud for Good

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? - Cloud for Good

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 - Cloud for Good

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 - Cloud for Good

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 - Cloud for Good

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 - Cloud for Good

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 - Cloud for Good

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 - Cloud for Good

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

Latest Posts

Make it Flatter with Chatter: 5 Ways to Break Down Organizational Silos

Make it Flatter with Chatter: 5 Ways to Break Down Organizational Silos

Breaking down organizational silos sounds easy. Any Internet search will yield articles with advice, most of which boils down to improving your communication: Share information widely;
Avoiding Growing Pains Through Good Governance

Avoiding Growing Pains Through Good Governance

When working with Salesforce.com (or any system for that matter), following the principles of good governance can make life easier for administrators and users alike by
What You Should Do Before an Enterprise-Wide CRM Implementation - Cloud for Good

What You Should Do Before an Enterprise-Wide CRM Implementation

Implementing a constituent relationship management (CRM) application can be a difficult project for organizations with multiple large complex departments. An assessment of the organization's CRM strategy,
Recovering from Dreamforce - Cloud for Good

Recovering from Dreamforce

Dreamforce 2013 is over. In theory, you've bodily recovered from the walking, talking, learning, and partying. Now what? How can you best leverage all the stuff
Thank You Letters: Leveraging Donation Split & Conga Composer - Cloud for Good

Thank You Letters: Leveraging Donation Split & Conga Composer

How are you currently generating thank you letters for your donations? More importantly, how can you generate a thank you letter from a donor that has
The Ethical Consultant - Cloud for Good

The Ethical Consultant

I got into a discussion with a client recently about ethical consulting. I’ve had this discussion with colleagues, co-workers, friends and mentors through the years, but
Going to Dreamforce? Let's Meet! -Cloud for Good

Going to Dreamforce? Let’s Meet!

Are you going to Dreamforce? Let's schedule a time to meet!
Don't Be a Fish Out of Water: Preparing for a Salesforce Migration - Cloud for Good

Don’t Be a Fish Out of Water: Preparing for a Salesforce Migration

Each Salesforce organization is housed at one of Salesforce’s data centers. Salesforce calls these groupings of clients instances and it is a good practice as a

Winter ’14 Release: My Favorite Features for Nonprofits

Check out Trish Perkins top new features in the Salesforce Winter '14 release.
Icon of a person with a backpack looking at a sign or map.

Audit Trail – A Hidden Gem

The Audit Trail helps you track the recent Setup changes that you and other administrators have made to your organization. Learn more.
Oh, What a Journey! A Closer Look at the Exact Target Marketing Cloud Journey Builder

Oh, What a Journey! A Closer Look at the Exact Target Marketing Cloud Journey Builder

If you’re like me and went to both ExactTarget Connections in Indianapolis as well as Dreamforce in San Francisco back to back, you’re probably nursing a
Invest in Your Salesforce Administrator

Invest in Your Salesforce Administrator

It took 11 years, but salesforce.com finally created an “Admin Zone” at their annual Dreamforce conference. They have a Developer Zone for the coders, a Foundation
Cloud for Good Shortlisted for the 2014-15 Cloud Awards Program

Cloud for Good Shortlisted for the 2014-15 Cloud Awards Program

Cloud for Good has been shortlisted in the 2014-2015 Cloud Awards Program in the category Cloud Consultancy / SI of the Year.
Getting the WHOLE Team On Board: Lessons Learned About Change Management

Getting the WHOLE Team On Board: Lessons Learned About Change Management

The system has been customized, all packages have been installed, all custom fields have been configured, data migration completed, even training has been scheduled. But there
5 Things to Consider When You Integrate Quickbooks and Salesforce

5 Things to Consider When You Integrate Quickbooks and Salesforce

Written by Cloud for Good Team Salesforce and Quickbooks are two of the preeminent cloud apps globally with large, passionate customer communities. Given the large installed

User Adoption: Naming Your Salesforce

User Adoption: Naming Your Salesforce

Naming software and software releases is a fairly common practice now. Operating systems are no longer just numbers they are Cheetah, Jaguar, Mountain Lion, Ice Cream