This is a guest post from Janna Rawls of Cloud For Good.
Salesforce is a robust platform that is embraced by hundreds of nonprofits to provide a greater impact in their communities. It is much more than just a database. In this post, we will count down 10 ways that Salesforce integrations with other products help nonprofits bring more value to their constituents.
10. Integrate Your Email Marketing Efforts
There are many applications that assist your org with the delivery of messages to your donors and constituents. Enhance customer experience by integrating Salesforce with your email platform. When you integrate your CRM with an email marketing application, a record of these communications is saved on the contact record so everyone within your organization can see who received what message and when. Engaging your community with the right message at the right time, enhances the experience you are providing, leading to increased awareness about your organization’s mission and decreasing errors like duplicate emails or marketing the wrong initiatives to the wrong lead.
9. Connect Your Back End
Many nonprofits continue to do more with less. Integrating your accounting system or ERP with Salesforce allows for more transparency, less double data entry, and better reporting. Centralizing the information makes it easier to see what dollars are coming in, where they are allocated and how they are being used.
8. Automate Processes
Integrating multiple systems on your Salesforce platform removes the need for double data entry. Collect information and enter it once. Data that is entered will populate across multiple systems, reducing time spent on data entry and reducing the costs associated with bad data.
7. Raise MORE Funds
There are many fundraising apps you can integrate with Salesforce that will allow you to manage your online fundraising campaigns within Salesforce. See what campaigns are generating the most money and track how much individual donors are contributing. Every touchstone you have ever had with your donors is in one location, allowing you to work smarter and faster.
6. Robust Reporting
While Salesforce comes standard with many reports, sometimes, your Board of Directors needs information that isn’t always easy to collect with a standard report. Did you know there are applications to accomplish that? Integrate a reporting app with your Salesforce platform and pull reports quickly on custom fields, or include data from your integrations. For example, if your nonprofit uses Shopify, this can be integrated with Salesforce and Marketo to show you exactly how many funds were raised by specific email campaign. The reporting possibilities are endless!
5. Better File Management
Is your team constantly looking for a template? Do you feel like you have emailed the same thing over and over? With Salesforce integrations, you can connect your data and store files internally, reducing the time you spend tracking down the same information, over and over.
4. Collect and Track Payments
If you’re collecting funds online with a payment processor that you then need to enter or import into Salesforce, you can Integrate your Salesforce platform with a payment processor. This will reduce the risk of errors in your reporting (see No. 6 above) and payments can be recorded within your household accounts.
3. Manage Your Programs
Are you tracking course enrollments? Hosting classes? Integrate all of your program information onto your Salesforce platform. Doing so will allow you to see attendance, reach out to attendees and more effectively manage all aspects of the services you are providing.
2. Single Data Source
Most organizations use multiple systems to track data from multiple sources. Without integration, the need for duplicate data entry leads to data quality issues and countless hours of wasted time. When you integrate your systems, you can use Salesforce as your data hub. This saves you time and increases data quality by having a single place to enter and store data. An added bonus – your data will always be up to date across all of your systems! You can log into whichever system you need to view and the data you have entered will be reflected across all.
1. Transparency Across All Systems
Work smarter, not harder. Salesforce integrations help nonprofits focus more on their missions and have a larger impact on their communities. Focus less on your technology and more on the services you provide to your community.
Want to learn more about how you can get the most out of Salesforce? We had a joint webinar with Cloud for Good and Workato on integrating Salesforce with the top accounting apps. Watch:
View Salesforce integrations >
About the Author
Janna Rawls is the Marketing Coordinator at Cloud for Good, a Salesforce.Org Partner that works with nonprofit organizations to implement strategic Salesforce solutions. She has been using Salesforce for over nine years and loves sharing information about this platform. Janna is passionate about improving internal processes and working with the nonprofit community.
