When Salesforce announced Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) in March 2023, it did not come the fanfare typical of new Salesforce products. It was not showcased at Dreamforce, or any other major event, with the bells and whistles typical of a Salesforce headline or announcement. It came through a blog post by Lori Freeman, VP and GM of Salesforce for Nonprofits, making the case for a unified approach for programs, fundraising, engagement, and outcomes. Absent any technical details, it sounded like Nonprofit Cloud was just a repackaging and reselling of existing offerings to fit the business case that organizations always ask for – one system for everything, please!

After attending Nonprofit Dreamin’ in Chicago, the questions started pouring in. Is HomeKeeper going to be compatible with Nonprofit Cloud? Are we worried about duplication of features? We got our hands on the product via trial and started digging for answers!

What is Nonprofit Cloud?

Nonprofit Cloud is a brand-new Salesforce Edition. This means that, to adopt it, you need a brand new Salesforce instance with the Nonprofit Cloud Edition. So, if you are new to Salesforce, no problem! Your new Salesforce instance will be Nonprofit Cloud (versus Sales/Service Cloud). However, if you already have Salesforce, you cannot install Nonprofit Cloud in your instance and you would have to start fresh (which, for some organizations, may not be such a bad idea).

As promised by Lori Freeman and her team, it is a unifier of products within the core data structure – meaning only one managed app gets installed, everything is out-of-the-box and it is ready to be configured, including (as of January 2024):

• Digital-First Fundraising Strategy & Gift Management
• Marketing-focused relationships, life events tracking
• Program and Case Management
• Outcomes, Impacts & Logic Model

How much does Nonprofit Cloud cost?

More directly — what does it cost compared to the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP)? We love this blog (free like a puppy, not free like a beer), which has crowd-sourced pricing information to make things more transparent. We created this nifty chart that compares the two:

Key Takeaways:

• 10 Free Licenses on Both! So, if you are a very small org that won’t go past 10, NPC is pretty safe.
• After the 10^th License, NPC costs accelerate much faster at $720/user versus $495/user with NPSP.
• NPC eliminates the Platform License tier, which some HomeKeeper users can access to scale.
• NPC introduces the Person Account model, which differs from Household or Individual accounts. It tracks relationships and service access on the Account versus the Contact.
• NPC created a new distinct data structure for Gift Management (individual donors) from Fundraising & Grant pursuits (still Opportunities).
• NPC also created different interface areas by persona – fundraisers, program managers, etc.
• Finally, the configuration pathways are very different. NPC has program areas defined by the data model, whereas NPSP allows more modular flexibility as you can install the features individually, in phases.

What does this mean for existing HomeKeeper Participating Organizations?

Over the past ten or so years, Salesforce has significantly improved its systems, interfaces, and features. On several occasions, it has enforced transitions to new features (like multi-factor authentication).On other occasions, it has made empty threats (like eliminating Classic). Lori Freeman and her team have been upfront about the fact that they plan to maintain support for existing products, and we don’t have any reason to think otherwise.

The migration to a new Salesforce instance is a significant undertaking. Several organizations, especially those that have been around for over 10 years, who have substantial technical debt, and transitioning may make sense. However, this is a long, detailed process requiring significant expertise, and including many moving parts for an active organization. While Salesforce is assisting with this temporarily, eventually it will be up to the partner community (third-party consultant, advisors, etc.).

As such, we don’t anticipate existing organizations wanting to transition immediately, until support for existing applications becomes unmanageable or new features are prominent and of high/immediate value.

What does this mean for new HomeKeeper Participating Organizations?

For organizations new to Salesforce, however, this is a different situation. Salesforce Account Executives are encouraging the adoption of NPC, and with more features alongside the 10 free licenses, it’s an attractive proposition. We are concerned with the complexity of implementations given that it is such a new product, at least in the short term while the partner community gets accustomed to this new product. But we’re taking steps now to ensure that HomeKeeper will work with both NPC and NPSP for the foreseeable future:

Short Term:

• We know now that HomeKeeper can co-exist seamlessly in an NPC instance – installation was complete and successful!
• We’re looking at Person Accounts and how our Services, Counseling/Education, Property, and other core records can sit alongside NPC in the Person Account views.
• We’re looking at Opportunities and ensuring our Allocations and Payments function smoothly.

Mid-Long Term:

• Mapping HomeKeeper to core NPC functions:
  • Outcomes
  • Program Management
  • Outbound Funds

What should my organization go with?

The critical question our community will ask for is a recommendation. Overall, it’s tied to an assessment of capacity. At HomeKeeper, our primary goal is to ensure you have a successful, sustainable implementation.

We have mentioned some concerns with NPC – that it is new to Salesforce and even newer to consultants. Marketing/fundraising, no problem! Mapping logic models and outcomes, on the other hand, is often new territory for consultants primarily focused on tech. While we value having Salesforce take initiative on standardizing outcomes, impacts, and logic models, HomeKeeper was built on the promise of combining program management with social impact – having clearly defined a data standard, as well as  industry standard, impact metrics.

Two important questions you will want to ask yourselves:

1. Are you an organization about to jump in with limited tech resources, budgets, and staffing capacity?
   NPSP has a tried-and-true path of minimal cost, with defined phases and change management.
2. Are you an organization with a strategic desire to unify all of your technology and business, with dedicated internal staff to oversee the SF implementation over 2-5 years, with a lot of complexity and unknowns, but the promise of a unified future?
   NPC is the vision for implementers to show how nonprofit organizations can accomplish that very thing.

By Pahniti (Tom) Tosuksri, Director of Product Management – HomeKeeper