Salesforce for Associations and Non-profits

We have been building custom information systems for non-profits and associations for over 15 years.  One of our primary considerations on projects is an analysis of total cost of ownership for an organization over the life of the software.  This includes looking at security vulnerabilities, training new programmers, and the hours of custom development work needed to continue to build new features in the future. We have found that while Salesforce isn’t the cheapest software solution, it is by far the most powerful and flexible system on the market, and when you consider overall total cost of ownership, many times the investment is worth it.

Salesforce is the largest Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system on the market with over 20% market share. The company has also committed to giving away 1% of the their licenses, 1% of their time and 1% of their profit. This generosity has led them to be the largest donor management software on the market as non-profits can receive 10 free Salesforce licenses (which retail for $18,000/year).

When looking at software to manage your organization, Salesforce is an impressive option to consider for the following reasons:

• Functionality. With just a little training your team will be able to make changes that were never possible before such as adding fields, customizing forms, setting up dashboards and creating reports. Salesforce calls this customizing with “clicks” not “code”. The power of clicks is that your staff can quickly become administrators of the system and create custom solutions that automate workflows and collect data without having to write a line of code.
• Extendability. When we are implementing solutions for clients, being limited in customizability is one of the aspects we consider most. The last thing we want is for you to start using a nice brand new system only to realize there is something else you need it to do. With many software systems, there is a lack of extendability. Salesforce is unique in that it gives us virtually unlimited flexibility to extend functionality that is compiled to the cloud and fully integrated within their platform.
• Ecosystem. Salesforce has an extensive ecosystem of add-on software in what they call the App Exchange. These are apps that sit on top of Salesforce that allow you to do virtually anything you need to handle unique requirements. Further, with 1.5 million registered developers, you will never get stuck trying to find someone that can help you manage and extend your Salesforce investment.
• Scale. Size matters when spending money on technology. You want to make sure your system will last well into the future and that you won’t get stuck with obsolete software or a dying ecosystem. As the largest cloud software provider in the world, Salesforce has the scope needed to ensure your software investment lasts. They continue to grow and adapt as technology changes by releasing three software updates a year, automatically giving you new features without having to pay for them.