Building for Success in a Complex Environment
Nonprofits are complex. Most organizations that we work with have at least the following core functions (and more) that require many products and solutions to support their work: mission delivery, fundraising or advancement, marketing and communications, finance, and human resources. Technology implementations have high stakes, and the success of a project is often determined before it even gets off the ground.
The most successful implementations have a thoughtful planning component which includes evaluation and selection of their technology. Having a clear vision up front, especially when covering multiple functional areas, can elevate the overall success of a technology implementation project, regardless of what tools you are implementing.
At Heller, we work with organizations to ensure their technology implementations are set up for success. We advise on ways to define expectations and establish clear goals, so that the implementation can meet the organization's needs and achieve desired outcomes.
Ecosystem is the New CRM
Selecting software is no longer just about selecting a single product to replace another. Today, it’s about aligning technology with organizational goals and selecting a mix of tools that work together to achieve the mission more effectively, even if not all software products are implemented immediately.
Gone are the days of the CRM system as a “single source of truth” with a “360-degree view of your data.” Some nonprofits are actively choosing a CRM approach because of particular business considerations, but forward-thinking organizations are considering their goals and selecting an ecosystem of technologies that fit their specific needs.
The optimal approach is to build your ecosystem on a strong foundational layer that allows for the integration of various functional areas through pre-built applications, direct API connections, and custom configurations.
Salesforce for Nonprofits and Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit are two powerful and secure enterprise-level technologies that support this approach. Platforms also offer development tools to build deeper customizations.
However, transitioning to an ecosystem approach means managing multiple vendor partnerships and requiring more sophisticated expertise for configuration and maintenance. Organizations without in-house expertise should consider managed services to ensure success. Additionally, personalizing constituents' experience still requires bringing information from different systems together, which can be achieved through data warehouses, data lakes, or customer data platforms (CDPs).
The Story of Two Giants: Salesforce & Microsoft
Microsoft: The Tipping Point. We have been discussing Microsoft’s development of nonprofit offerings for some time, but it was in the past year that the nonprofit market’s appetite for Microsoft reached the tipping point. Microsoft is a world-class, highly secure technology option that provides significant discounts for nonprofits, remains invested in the nonprofit sector, and is a leader in artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. We often recommend that nonprofits build their technology stacks on Microsoft when it is the right fit.
Salesforce: What’s Next? Salesforce.org has established a strong presence in the nonprofit market over the years. However, as organizations evaluate their technology options, some may be proactively seeking alternatives. The past year has brought challenges for the company and the integration of Salesforce.org, the nonprofit arm, into the larger commercial organization is expected to continue to have an impact on the nonprofit sector in 2023. And in early 2023, Salesforce announced a vision for a new Nonprofit Cloud. The new Nonprofit Cloud will provide a new offering for nonprofits to consider when examining if Salesforce is the right fit for their organizations.
In the course of the year, Blackbaud has made some incremental changes to some of its products and retains some of its legacy clients, but we are also continuing to see users of Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge migrating to Salesforce.
Technology Assessments and the RFP Process
Ecosystems are continuing to become more sophisticated and there are many options to choose from amongst tools, apps, and customizations. Nonprofits are increasingly seeing the value of working with our team through a technology assessment, a broader approach, to bring into focus what an organization is trying to accomplish. The RFP can be a deliberative part of a technology assessment, but sometimes the RFP cannot do all the work.
A technology assessment is a more holistic way to think about your technology strategy, focusing on the organization’s goals and objectives rather than evaluating individual software products. This is a collaborative and in depth-process that considers various technology approaches to achieve organizational goals, works through the implications and tradeoffs of different combinations of software solutions, and develops a technology ecosystem strategy with the right mix of tools. The assessment gives you clarity on what you want from new technology and allows you to approach the marketplace in a way that gives you meaningful information. At times, organizations have opted to forgo the RFP process altogether. Instead, they have direct conversations with technology providers. On the flip side, other organizations can focus the RFP on the content that is most important to them after going through a technology assessment.
While we do not endorse any specific products, Heller experts do share their opinions based on more than 25 years of experience in helping nonprofits select, implement, and use the software. Organizations benefit from our experience and guidance in navigating the complex landscape of technology options.