The new e-book Amplify Program Impact: 7 Trailblazer Strategies for Success with Salesforce shares the challenges and solutions facing many organisations looking to deliver best-in-class programs and services and what this means from a technology perspective. It highlights the importance of taking a digital-first approach, knowing that interruption is not an option for the beneficiaries and communities served by nonprofit organisations.
This piece examines seven familiar challenges, shares suggested solutions, and highlights the stories of nonprofits who are using Salesforce to tackle many of these challenges.
1. A Complete and Real-Time View
Whatever the size of an organisation, managing information and keeping track of inputs and outputs is crucial to ensure that the programs and services you design reach the users who need them. Salesforce, when used for program management, helps move away from siloed data and duplication of work. It acts as a single database that is customisable, can track program information all in one place, and will allow you to get a complete and real-time view more easily.
Similarly, Salesforce Long-Term Case Management can be used by human services organisations to provide high-quality, hands-on services with tools and features that help to streamline processes.
Thomas Pocklington Trust, whose mission is to support blind and partially sighted people of all ages to live the life they want to lead, uses Salesforce Long-Term Case Management to better manage their cases and programs and elevate the level of service they provide to users.
2. Expanding Your Reach
You’re ready to scale your impact – but are your IT systems ready? Don’t let IT limitations get in the way of your organisation’s growth. The Salesforce platform allows for the flexibility you need with access to data from anywhere and real-time collaboration for staff.
Self-Help Africa needed a single source of truth to more effectively manage and measure their programs and services and, crucially, demonstrate the value of their programs to donors. Since implementing Salesforce in 2008, they have grown their revenue from €7 million to €20 million annually.
3. Going Paperless and Mobile
Making the move from paper to become digital- and mobile-first is a business imperative to eliminate inaccuracies and inefficiencies, and become more environmentally sustainable. Whether you’re eliminating paper forms and having data directly submitted to Salesforce or collecting information offline and having it sync when back online, these features provide opportunities to start the transition from paper to digital.
Camfed, an international nonprofit organisation supporting girls in Sub-Saharan Africa to go to school, uses Salesforce to collect data more easily.
4. Aligning Across Affiliates
Affiliation models differ from organisation to organisation, but alignment tends to be a recurring challenge. To help affiliates work together more easily, common data models ensure everyone is reporting data back to the central office in the same way, and tools like Tableau CRM allow for data visualisation and insights. Experience Cloud lets affiliates share files and collaborate while maintaining the required levels of data privacy.
The Fire Fighters Charity offers specialist, lifelong support to all Fire and Rescue Service personnel around the pillars of mental, physical, and social wellbeing. They have partnered with Salesforce to replace disparate systems and ensure a single source of record exists for both their fundraisers and beneficiaries while remaining focused on outcomes that lead to real impact.
5. Working Smarter Together
Partner-based models for nonprofits enable organisations to scale their reach, but can also bring operational challenges. Keeping everyone happy is no mean feat, but thanks to Experience Cloud, you can better manage partner relationships. This can range from providing resources to collaborating directly with your staff.
An example of this type of collaboration is Gavi and their partners, who launched COVAX, a global alliance to deliver COVID-19 vaccines. A country portal allowed nations to apply for vaccine support and report on the performance of their programs, which ultimately allowed for more data-informed decisions.
6. Connecting with the Right Constituents
Recruiting and engaging program participants is a key part of any organisation’s mission. But how do you effectively capture the attention of potential participants when there’s so much noise online? Salesforce marketing tools offer a range of ways to connect with constituents, from email to social media.
National Citizen Service (NCS) is the flagship youth empowerment programme for 16- and 17-year-olds in England and Northern Ireland. They use personalised journeys and communications to interact with young people and their parents and are engaging more effectively with new prospects and existing audiences, which has led to sign-ups increasing by 25% over three years.
8. Reporting on Impact
Tracking and measuring outcomes is the raison d’etre of most organisations, and out-of-the-box reporting comes standard with Salesforce, so nonprofits can more easily share their impact without having to sift through spreadsheets and filing cabinets while trying to marry disparate data sources. These reports track any type of program data, and the ease of use after minimal training enables both technical and non-technical staff members to generate impact updates.
Women Win supports women and girls in exercising their rights through sport. Through their use of Salesforce, they have transitioned from financial and narrative reporting to using interactive dashboards and data analysis to demonstrate their impact.
Your Journey is Only Beginning
The seven challenges and solutions shared in this blog are familiar to many organisations. But with the right technology in place, you have so many opportunities to overcome these roadblocks and deliver on the promise of your mission for the communities and constituents who depend on you.
Download the full report for more insights like the ones highlighted above.
About the Author
Gemma Hogan
EMEA Senior Campaign Lead at Salesforce.org
The post How 7 Nonprofit Organisations Amplify Their Program Impact appeared first on Salesforce.org.
