Nonprofits are always looking for ways to do more with less. Those using Salesforce can achieve that by putting apps from Salesforce AppExchange to work. This customer relationship management (CRM) system does much more than what comes out of the box.
The valuable thing about AppExchange is that the apps are designed especially for use with Salesforce. They've also passed Salesforce's strict security reviews.
You can browse apps by categories, including one for nonprofits, which features more than 60 apps developed for nonprofit organizations. Be sure to check out the other categories, too, as many can enhance Salesforce for nonprofits.
Associations can accept online donations and process payments using Click and Pledge Donor Management. C&P accepts major credit and debit cards, and EFT payments. You can set it up to handle automatic recurring donations and accept multiple currencies.
C&P has Contact Matching in settings to help prevent duplicate contact records. It offers email templates for sending program notifications, receipts, event registration confirmation, and invoices. The app includes patron analytics for tracking donor spending habits to identify the most valuable donors and to target those influential individuals.
Click and Pledge Donor Management on AppExchange
MemberNation is an association management system (AMS) built entirely on the Salesforce CRM platform. Incorporating AMS with CRM makes it possible for organizations to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and data about their programs, services, and products.
You can view all member interactions in a single screen and monitor for at-risk members. All events can be managed within Salesforce through MemberNation, including customizable registration pages and selling memberships during registration. It contains a variety of other modules that can be customized with point-and-click without doing any coding.
Fonteva MemberNation on AppExchange
A geo-location app, Geopointe allows you to add geography to your processes. Salesforce geographic data can be turned into a visual aid using maps. You can plan, optimize, save, and share a route, and then import it into your calendar. If you need to make geographic assignments, you can add layers with an internal shape library.
Its demographics tool can compare your data with U.S. Census data to find areas based on income, cultural diversity, or population density. Geopointe's visualization and filtering capabilities can analyze Salesforce data to provide a big picture overview of geographic information.
Geopointe on AppExchange
Organizations using Outlook can record emails, create new contacts, and sync content to Salesforce with LinkPoint Connect. This Salesforce-Outlook integration cuts manual data entry and errors by automatically adding information to Salesforce. It can also record inbound and outbound emails in Salesforce, so you have a record of all communications.
Users can view Salesforce data in real-time from within Microsoft Outlook. This eliminates the need to switch back and forth between the two systems. The add-in works with Office 365, and Outlook 2010, 2013, and 2016. LinkPoint Connect supports Salesforce Pardot marketing automation.
What would you say if you knew there was a marketing tool with an open rate of 98%? You'd grab it, right? That marketing tool is SMS marketing. Salesforce does not come with a native text messaging tool, but not to worry: Open SMS Pro SMS app for Salesforce adds this feature to the CRM.
This app adds text messaging capabilities to Salesforce, so you can chat with customers and prospects via SMS. You can also turn SMS into a new channel for automating marketing campaigns.
When sales responds to a lead within 5 minutes, its chances of becoming a qualified lead goes up 21 times more than a response that takes 30 minutes according to InsideSales.com research. Workflow notifications can send SMS messages to the team to ensure fast follow-ups. The app also allows the organization to have two-way conversations via SMS, all within Salesforce.
Open SMS Pro on AppExchange
One of the most important audiences for most nonprofit organizations is the volunteers. Many organizations tend to use a separate system to manage volunteers, jobs, signups, shifts, and hours. However, this becomes cumbersome, and some tools may not have the ability to track volunteers in multiple roles, continuing positions, or on special projects.
Volunteers for Salesforce tracks everything in one system and provides valuable data such as volunteer hours by date and volunteers by status. It includes a tool for finding volunteer by availability and skills. You can also set up a schedule for recurring volunteer jobs and a shift calendar. Best of all, it's free.
Volunteers for Salesforce on AppExchange
As you browse these apps, be sure to check out the reviews. Not only do you want to look at the ratings, but also the content of the reviews. Some may say "Great app," which doesn't tell you much. If you have questions, ask them by replying to a customer's review.
Check for any prerequisites as some are dependent on other apps or systems. Keep in mind that apps, tabs, and objects may count toward an organization's limits. Salesforce has a "no limits" designation to let you know about apps that don't count toward those limits. Be on the lookout for apps marked this way.
If you're using Salesforce Lightning experience, verify the app is Lightning-ready. For any app that catches your eye and isn't free, contact the developer and ask about discount pricing for nonprofits.
What are your top apps on AppExchange? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Can't find an app that does everything you want it to do? Maybe you'd like to create your own, which you can learn how in this three-part series on how to develop your Salesforce App for AppExchange. Or for help with developing Salesforce apps, contact us at nonprofits@appshark.com.