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So all that process got me to the decision to use Salesforce.com for CRM consulting.

Huh? Salesforce.com? What the…well, here’s the transcript:

Me: So we’ve chosen Salesforce.com as our CRM platform. Any questions?

Helen Thomas: Isn’t Salesforce.com a CRM tool for corporations? Why would you choose a platform like this over ones that are more clearly suited to the unique needs of nonprofits? I looked at it online and it sure doesn’t seem like a fit.

Me: That’s a great question, Helen. First let me say that there are a number of platforms out there that allow nonprofits to manage donors and other constituents. These are good products that target the specific needs of nonprofits well. In our search for a platform we realized that those platforms didn’t meet our requirements for a platform. In short, they lacked the flexibility that we need in a platform.

Helen Thomas: Flexibility can mean anything. Could you make some substantive comments on the matter?

Me: Well, I won’t comment on an ongoing platform selection process. But I will say this: Salesforce.com is an enterprise software application that has been built specificially to tackle a wide range of business models. This is what I mean by flexibility–they have constructed it not to address our specific nonprofit needs, but as a framework that can be modified to meet all sorts of unknown needs.

Helen Thomas: Does it handle donations? Householding? Soft credits? Membership? Planned giving? Thank you letters?

Me: It can do all that. Some things better than others right now. Householding is a bit of a workaround. But that’s the wrong term. Most things are a workaround, because that’s the nature of a flexible framework–you create your own way to solve problems. So, Householding is less than ideal workflow. Soft credits are handled really well. Donations are easily handled, and you can do future forecasting, and moves management. Membership is easy, planned giving is a bit harder. Thank you letters are very, very slick using 2 click mail merging with Word.

Salesforce.com doesn’t do a great job showing nonprofits that it’s a fit. They have a nonprofit demo that you can see. Go to Salesforce.com and log in with user: demo@501c3.org password: nonprofittemplate. That will give you a better sense that it can meet the needs of nonprofits. We’re starting to think about what we can to do help nonprofits make an informed decision about Salesforcec.com. More on that later.

Helen Thomas: Isn’t the whole point with nonprofits is that we don’t want everyone to keep reinventing the wheel? A flexible framework implies that you start with a blank slate and you have to create these workflows. That sounds like a step backward.

Me: CRM always has to be customized. Anyone who claims they can give you a CRM that will meet your needs without customization should not be believed, much less used as a confidential source for front page New York Times articles. Salesforce.com requires the customizations we’ve talked about to work well for a nonprofit. Once we make those customizations, we add them to our bag of tricks. Next time a nonprofit comes along and says, “I need an annual membership cycle,” we can implement it very quickly for them. And we’ll share our bag of tricks with anyone who wants to use it.

Helen Thomas: Moving to the topic of cost. Is this expensive? What are the ongoing costs for a nonprofit?

Me: In the cost area, I’m going to give you some figures that are estimates. These should not be construed as hard budget numbers. But let me give you ballpark. Cost to set up Salesforce.com for a nonprofit will probably range between $4,000 and $8,000 depending on a number of factors. This includes our sitting down with a nonprofit and helping them identify the work that they do and how that fits into a databse. Membership cycles, donor management process, mass communications, event management, and volunteer managment are all examples of work that might need to be fit into Salesforce.com. We’ll help the nonprofit decide the best way to make sure all the work around each process is supported by the CRM system. After that, we’ll customize Salesforce.com to match those needs. Then, we’ll get data from the many sources where it now lives (donor managment system, Outlook, Excel spreadsheets, etc.) and put it into Salesforce.com. Then we’ll train the nonprofit to use the system with specific focus on completing the tasks we identified earlier.

So that’s the setup cost. Ongoing cost is nothing a month. $0. Salesforce.com donates 10 user licenses to just about any group with a charitable purpose. It’s an amazing donation program. The retail value of a 10 user donation is $15,000/year, and they’ve currently given to at least 400 nonprofits.

Helen Thomas: What about IT costs? Enterprise applications are hard for nonprofits to support.

Me: That’s the beauty of Salesforce.com–it’s hosted. There are no IT costs associated with the platform. You just have to be able to administrative duties like adding users, resetting passwords and the like. You can even add fields and change drop down lists. One area where many nonprofits struggle is in generating the reports they need from their data. Salesforce.com has a reporting wizard that allows groups to easily create reports, eliminating the need for a programmer to create reports for you. If you ever want to make significant changes to the system, you may have to hire a consultant to help out.

Helen Thomas: So it’s a patronage model. And you’re asking nonprofits to put their most sensative data in the hands of a corporation who, as well intentioned as they may be, could end the donation program anytime they choose. Isn’t that irresponsible?

Me: Helen, I think you’re selling nonprofits short–that’s a decision that each nonprofit is more than capable to make for itself. The donation program is renewable every 12 months, and yes, Salesforce.com can end the donation at any time. To date, they have never turned down a renewal request from a nonprofit customer. But as they say, past performance is not an indication of future gain–nonprofits need to be aware of the risks associated with the program, and make a decision to use or not use Salesforce.com in an informed way. Like I said, we’re working on making that as easy as possible.

Helen Thomas: That’s a pretty big drawback of the platform. In a recent article you said you were looking for an “open source platform on which to build a movement”. How do you reconcile that desire with this choice of a proprietary platform at the whim of Salesforce.com?

Me: Well, first I’d like to say that Salesforce.com is a leader in corporate philanthropy. It is very rare that a corporation will donate a service. They are often happy to donate products, which have very little cost associated with them. But services are expensive to provide. I am confident that Salesforce.com is committed to continuing this donation into the future. Of course, I can’t guaranteed that.

On your second point, about movement building, you’re right. This choice doesn’t give us the technology platform that we are looking for on which to build the movement. That technology platform doesn’t exist yet, someday it will be there (we’ve got our eye on some platforms that could evolve to become The One), but today it’s not there yet. We’ll keep looking for that platform, and even try to help it come into existence.

Salesforce.com is ready for prime time. It’s a great application, that is very usable. Getting nonprofits using Salesforce.com right now does something that I will argue is at least as important as finding the right platform–it will allow nonprofits to change the way they work, and become more customer-centric. Salesforce.com as CRM will support changing the way the movement works, to becoming more of service to our constituents. When the right platform comes around, we’ll have groups that are effective at constituent engagment, and used to the boost that good technology can give them. I’m really excited for that day to come, and excited to make this step along that path.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005 at 11:29 am and is filed under CRM, Technology. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.