Your Nonprofit Cloud Questions, Answered

Understanding the functionality of Salesforce's Nonprofit Cloud can be complex. Following our Adventure Webinar on the topic, many attendees still had questions about this new offering. In this post, we're answering your questions, including assessing features and migration challenges, understanding the compatibility of third-party apps, and exploring sandbox options. We'll also address common concerns regarding deadlines, app recommendations, and the functionality of specific features. 

Comparing Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) and Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) products will be specific to your organization's unique requirements. Our team is here to help you navigate this process, feel free to get in touch!

1. How would you recommend evaluating whether it’s best to stick with NPSP and other apps versus switching to NPC?

There are several factors to consider in evaluating whether NPSP or NPC is the right choice for your organization. Some of these factors will be dependent on your particular organization's needs. Some questions to consider are:

• Features: Are the program, case management, grantmaking, and fundraising features a good fit for your organization?
• Migration: Going from NPSP to NPC is an org migration. Do you have the staff time and budget to do this now or do you need more time to ramp those up?
• State of your current Salesforce instance: Do you have a lot of technical debt, clean up, etc. that needs to be addressed? Would an org switch be more beneficial than fixing what you have? This is particularly relevant for Salesforce instances that are 8 years or older.
• Integrations: Do you depend on 3rd party apps that may not be compatible with NPC yet? Keep in mind that there is a business API coming in February 2024 for NPC that will accelerate the number of apps compatible with the new offering, but we recommend checking directly with the vendors you work with. 

Keep in mind that these are just a few sample questions to spark your decision-making process. If you'd like to chat with us to discuss your specific needs, we're just a phone call (or email) away!

2. Is there a date when organizations using NPSP MUST switch to NPC?

There is no deadline to switch to NPC. NPSP will not be retired, it will just be in maintenance mode (no new functionality will be added in the future).

3. How quickly will existing nonprofit-specific apps be able to retool to work with the new NPC?

There is currently a list of over 22 apps that have self-reported that they are compatible with Nonprofit Cloud. This process will likely continue to roll out on an app-by-app basis.

4. How can we explore this cloud in a sandbox before making a decision?

You can sign up for a trial here - the trials are good for 30 days. Your best bet is the choice on the left with the purple Learning Org label. It has sample records, configurations, etc. that you can use to get a feel for how NPC works.

5. Why wouldn't Salesforce use the client-focused Care Plans for all Service Cloud cases?

Service Cloud cases can be used for a variety of scenarios so Care Plans might not be right for all of those. They are also a part of Industry Clouds and while you can use Service Cloud with an Industry Cloud; they are independent of each other. 

6. Can you confirm whether there are out-of-the-box reports with NPC?

There are no out-of-the-box report types with Nonprofit Cloud. You can easily get one of the trial orgs and, using a DevOps tool like Copado Essentials, move those report types and reports into your new client org with minimal effort. 

7. Will migration be complicated by the use of custom objects? Do we have to use the Household model?

Any org migration will be made more complex the more objects and data you need to migrate. Organizations should always evaluate each object for migration when planning. If you don’t use or want Households, you don’t have to use them in NPC, or you could just choose to use them where needed.

8. Which mass email/social media apps are recommended for Nonprofit Cloud?

We don’t have a specific recommendation, but what you’ll want to check with your particular app is whether it works with Person Accounts. Popular nonprofit marketing tools with native integrations like Pardot, Soapbox Engage, Campaign Monitor, or Emma all work with Person Accounts. For cases where you might be using an intermediate platform like Zapier, you would need to make sure you can map them correctly to Person Accounts. 

9. Is there a survey feature in the new Outcome Management tool?

Salesforce in general doesn’t have a great solution for surveying included out-of-the-box. Salesforce Surveys are an option, but they are fairly limited and you have to pay after the onetime allocation of 200 free sends. If you have or plan to have an Experience Cloud site, then screen flows are your friend here and can easily accomodate your surveys. If you aren’t using Experience Cloud, you can choose a form tool that integrates with Salesforce.

For NPC, you can build survey forms with OmniStudio’s OmniScript and use the OmniScript Out feature to place this on a website, but this is a fairly advanced, complex scenario. A form tool integrated to Salesforce is likely a better bet for most nonprofits.

10. Have many issues occurred during migrations to NPC so far?

There are few NPSP to NPC migrations yet as the product is new and the Fundraising features were just released in October 2023. 

11. Can a solution for tracking grants received by a nonprofit be built in NPC or will a separate app be required? 

Inbound grant tracking capability is included in the Fundraising features of NPC.

12. Does NPC's Program and Case Management replace NPSP's Program Management Module?

Nonprofit Cloud for Program and Case Management is the comparable feature in NPC to the Program Management Module in NPSP. They do have a similar data model and feature set. If you are familiar with the Program Management Module in NPSP, you will be comfortable with Program Management in NPC.

If you have additional questions or would like guidance tailored to your organization's specific needs, please don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to ensure your next technology move is strategically aligned with your mission and goals. Your success is our priority, and together, we can navigate the path toward a more efficient and impactful future.

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