How do I know if Salesforce is the right CRM for our nonprofit?

Even though we work almost exclusively with Salesforce, the Idealist Consulting team will be the first to tell you if it’s not appropriate for you. It’s not in anyone’s interest to go through the hard work of setting up a CRM if certain puzzle pieces aren’t in place.\

So, here is how to tell if Salesforce is the right CRM for you.

You want one system for it all

The Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack has developed into an enormously powerful tool. Five years ago Salesforce might have been limited on the nonprofit front, but today it is the only solution that can facilitate program management, membership, donor management, and can integrate with a huge range of apps from donation processors to mass email solutions.

You don’t mind seeking out your own support

Salesforce is not for those who want a “plug-and-play” experience of installing a CRM and using it immediately on day 1: to really shine, it takes customizing and should be treated like a living creature that evolves with your company over time. Your staff should be curious and interested to seek out knowledge by engaging with the broader Salesforce community of nonprofits through the Hub, Trailhead, and more.

You have realistic expectations

A knowledge article on the Power of Us Hub states that the most significant challenge for nonprofits starting out on Salesforce was that they hadn't clearly understood what they were getting into. “It can do anything you want it to do, but you have to decide what that is.”

A key part of setting goals for your CRM implementation is involving the right people from your organization in the decision-making process: check out our post for our recommendations on who these people are and what they should be prepared to commit.

You care about industry innovators and leaders

Salesforce has been a leader in Gartner and Forbes innovator reports for nine years running, and is widely considered to be at the cutting edge of CRM technology for everyone from nonprofits to enterprise-level companies (heck, 150,000 Dreamforce attendees can’t be wrong, right?). For you, this means that they’re not going anywhere, and there is a huge community that forces them to continually push the envelope to evolve their product.

You care about cost

I’m listing this last because while Salesforce.org does donate 10 licenses to nonprofits through the Power of Us Program, we say this makes Salesforce “free like a puppy”: you still need to train and feed it (usually with consultant support), and this costs money.

As written on the Power of Us Hub, clarify the why before you move to Salesforce: “If the answer only goes as deep as "we get 10 free licenses with Salesforce", you may be in for a rough ride. Here’s a better example: We want to become a more "data-driven" organization, and better understand where we're doing well and where we're coming up short. Therefore we need to invest in our ability to track and report our data, so it can help us improve our programs and our impact overall.”

Don’t choose Salesforce because it’s free, but if you’ve already committed to it, the initial free licenses might help you nail the final sell to your boss.

The takeaway

If you’re turned off by these criteria, don’t worry: there are dozens of other CRMs out there, and Idealware has a treasure trove of information to help you research this (hint: start with this post).

No matter which CRM you choose, there are certain items like organizational goals and budget that you need to define before you make this investment. Check out this post for more tips on that front.

Ready to pitch Salesforce to your boss?

Start with following our steps in our How to Create a CRM Budget whitepaper to show that you’re ready to rock this new investment.

Download the whitepaper