Resources for Food Banks

Table of Contents

Introduction

Today, food banks are facing unprecedented demand. Having a comprehensive CRM ecosystem is critical to meet the dramatic increase in volunteers, donors, and beneficiaries.

 

Many institutions face hurdles with outdated and fragmented technology systems that hinder operational efficiency and personalized appeals. By modernizing these systems and integrating sophisticated analytics and AI applications, advancement leaders can significantly improve donor data management and overall fundraising effectiveness.

 

Embracing these strategies will enable advancement leaders to navigate the pressures of reduced funding and increased demands, ultimately driving long-term success for their institutions. With a forward-thinking approach, they can transform challenges into opportunities and ensure their institutions thrive in the future.

When crisis hits, food banks see near-immediate surges in demand for services. Many have been at capacity for years, and their technology has failed to keep pace with the emerging needs of their constituents.

 

Download our guide today to learn how your food bank can optimize your current CRM, meet today’s demand for services, and prepare your technology foundation for the future.

 

Get the Guide >

How food banks are using Salesforce

Salesforce has a lot to offer food banks, across the organization.

For example:

• For programs, tracking geography, demographic information from children to seniors, and agency partner data can supercharge activity across programs.
• For volunteer management, tracking volunteer opportunities, schedules, and participation can help scale volunteer support up or down as demand for services changes.
• For fundraising departments, access to a more complete view of constituents, including their volunteer activities, can transform communications and ultimately raise more money for the organization.

 

Read the Blog >

Case study: Alameda County Community Food Bank

Challenge: Building a thoughtful technology plan

 

Solution: A strategic and multi-phased approach to digital transformation

 

Read Case Study >

Does your tech stack look like this?

Food banks are incredibly resourceful organizations. The work it takes to fulfill their missions of ending hunger typically involves a great deal of complex relationship and logistical management. Because they usually carry out their work on very thin budgets, what they accomplish is remarkable. 

For those reasons, it is not surprising to see food banks end up with a dizzying web of systems and data flow. Often the tools were customized at various points in the past to meet specific needs. Over time, as needs expand and evolve, tweaks are made here and there to keep things running department by department, but the picture starts to get muddy.

Read the Blog >

“Working with Heller to define our roadmap made it clear to the organization that we needed to change how we were thinking about our constituent data.”

— Elizabeth Whamond, Information Technology Director, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley

How to settle fights between programs and fundraising at your food bank

Gaining buy in for new CRM technology across multiple departments challenges even the nimblest organizations. For food banks, the needs and interests of program staff and the fundraising department require careful consideration, especially in cases where not everyone agrees on the best path forward. 

 

Balance the needs of each department by considering the factors that favor change or that make change more difficult within each.

Food Bank Accelerators

Case Study: Alameda County Community Food Bank

Technology Strategy and Partnership

For more than 35 years, Alameda County Community Food Bank (ACCFB) has passionately pursued a hunger-free community. Their vision: a community in which children, adults, and seniors of Alameda County, California do not worry about where their next meal is coming from.

Challenge: Building a thoughtful technology plan

The food bank wanted to create a technology plan to help them work more efficiently and effectively across the entire organization. Rather than solving each department’s technological changes in an isolated manner, they recognized that a more holistic and cross-departmental approach was needed.

The ACCFB team sought a technology partner that would help them design a technology strategy, implement that strategy in an intentional way, and support the process with change management. They also wanted to work with a partner that understands how food banks work and whose values align with theirs.

The Heller team’s deep understanding of technology and commitment to our organization, plus their experience working with other food banks, has made our work with them smooth and efficient. They appreciate our goals and challenges, and they built a relationship with our staff that felt like a true partnership.

Gina Schumacher

Salesforce Administrator, Alameda County Community Food Bank

Solution: A strategic and multi-phased approach to digital transformation

Assessment

ACCFB started its journey with Heller Consulting by going through a needs assessment. The assessment allowed the Heller team to understand the food bank’s unique business processes, and then tailor technology recommendations based on that understanding.

Overall technology strategy

The Heller team collaborated with ACCFB to develop a technology roadmap that aligned technology solutions with the organization’s goals. The solution included moving ACCFB from the Blackbaud CRM fundraising and customer relationship management (CRM) platform to a technology stack centered around Salesforce.

Accelerated Volunteers for Salesforce solution

The Heller team started with an accelerated implementation of the Volunteers for Salesforce solution to help ACCFB address an immediate need to engage, manage, and track more volunteers to support increased demand for services during the global pandemic. The solution included mapping of new processes within the new system and customized forms to handle both individual and group sign-ups.

Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) solution

Heller Consulting implemented Salesforce NPSP, configuring it to meet ACCFB’s specific needs. The Heller team also helped ACCFB to select and integrate Neon Fundraise with NPSP to support online fundraising activities, including their Virtual Food Drive. As part of this phase of the overall project, the Heller team guided ACCFB through decisions about terminology and configuration to ensure consistency across their new Salesforce-based solutions.

Marketing Cloud Account Engagement solution

Working with ACCFB, the Heller team implemented Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (formerly called Pardot), a marketing automation tool in the Salesforce ecosystem. The solution allows ACCFB to build sophisticated and automated email campaigns, fundraising appeals, and other marketing communications.

Solution for ACCFB food recovery program

The Heller team worked with ACCFB to implement the Salesforce Program Management Module to help streamline ACCFB’s food recovery program in which food donors (such as grocery stores that donate food) work with partner agencies (such as churches that distribute food). As a facilitator between these two entities, ACCFB matches donors with agencies, provides scheduling support, and tracks food safety compliance. The solution integrates with the Ceres food bank software system that ACCFB uses, which ties in the pounds of food distributed, giving ACCFB a complete view of their food recovery program in one place and allowing them to report on it effectively.

Change management support

With Heller Consulting’s change management approach, ACCFB felt supported throughout the organization’s digital transformation. ACCFB staff members and Heller team members built a strong relationship, and Heller’s deep knowledge of ACCFB’s business processes helped get the right staff members involved at the right stages of the project.

Result: Integrated technology solutions that support ACCFB’s goals

ACCFB has successfully moved to a new technology ecosystem that aligns with the organization’s long-term goals. With the Salesforce platform at the core, the solutions work together to streamline processes and improve the effectiveness of fundraising, marketing, and program efforts.

It now has a more complete view of individuals who interact with the organization that, for example, allows the development team to market to volunteers and allows volunteer directors to see when volunteers have also made food or monetary donations. It can also now report more accurately and extensively on volunteer interactions, partnerships, food distributions, and more.

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Let’s look at some key ideas and tips for keeping data clean and ready to use in your Raiser’s Edge system.

The benefits of cleaning up your data in Raiser’s Edge

It’s hard to overstate the importance of cleaning up data in your Raiser’s Edge system. Here are some key benefits of getting your data in shape:

• Greater accuracy – As staff members and volunteers have come and gone, your organization may have tracked data inconsistently in Raiser’s Edge. Over time, you might have started tracking the same types of information in different fields. Or you might have tracked different things in the same data field. You might also have duplicate data.By cleaning and organizing your Raiser’s Edge data, your data will be more accurate. With more accurate data, reporting as well as personalized and automated communications across your entire organization will be more accurate.
• Better performance – Only when your data is clean and organized will you truly be able to see what Raiser’s Edge do. It’s a powerful fundraising platform, and you will likely find that it’s easier to use, runs faster, and delivers better overall results when your data is in top shape.

Discover tips for saving time and improving the accuracy of your organization’s gift processing: Read the article, Improving Gift Processing for Raiser’s Edge Users

• Optimization of data across the organization – There are more opportunities than ever to use your Raiser’s Edge data across your organization’s technology ecosystem. When you can trust the vital data that’s in your Raiser’s Edge system, you can better use it within your integrated technology stack to do things like uncover new business insights, incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), and perform predictive analytics.
• Being better prepared for the future – Having your data in good shape now will put you in a better position to make technology changes in the future. For example, if you decide to move to a new fundraising or customer relationship management (CRM) system in coming years, the data migration process will be much faster and easier if your data is clean and well-organized.

Four steps to cleaning and organizing your data in Raiser’s Edge

You might think of cleaning your data as simply deduplicating records, but there needs to be more to it. The data in your Raiser’s Edge system is used across your organization for various purposes. So, it’s critically important to take a holistic approach to cleaning and organizing it.

Here are four key steps to cleaning and organizing your Raiser’s Edge data:

1. Be clear about what you want from your data.

Start by getting a strong understanding of how your organization uses data in your Raiser’s Edge system and what users across the organization are trying to achieve with the data. For example, what reports do users across your organization need to run? How is constituent data used for marketing campaigns and fundraising appeals? How are various funds tracked in the system?

2. Review your data structure.

Assess your data structure in Raiser’s Edge to make sure that it aligns with and supports your organization’s data processes and goals. Look at your Attributes, Constituents, Campaigns, Appeals, Funds, and other key data types in the system to make sure that the data codes align with your organization’s processes.

Keep in mind that this step will require time and the right people involved for decision making. Not only will you need to think carefully about implications of any changes to your data structure, but you will also need people with knowledge and authority at your organization to assess and approve any changes. This group might include Raiser’s Edge administrators, data analyst team members, and stakeholders from key functions across the organization.

3. Create clear documentation for data standards.

Write or update your data standards documentation to reflect your data structure. The documentation should set out clear guidelines for data structure, definitions of data codes, how data should be entered and used, and what processes are in place for identifying and handling duplicate and inaccurate data. Use this documentation for training new staff members and helping the entire organization stay more consistent with data management.

4. Set up a process for regular housekeeping.

Keeping your data clean is not a one-time project. Establish a regular (for example, quarterly) process for deduplicating data and checking/correcting data inconsistencies.

Keep in mind that one of the benefits of Raiser’s Edge is that it includes powerful and user-friendly tools for data deduplication, code cleanup, and global data changes that do not require a lot of technical skills to use. The key is to clearly define your data guidelines, and then use these data management tools regularly to keep your data aligned with your standards.

Take the next step with your Raiser’s Edge data

If your nonprofit would like help with cleaning, organizing, and optimizing your Raiser’s Edge data, the Heller Consulting team is ready to assist. In addition to working with Blackbaud products, our team has expertise with products from Salesforce, Microsoft, and other key technologies for nonprofits. We can help you select the right mix of tools and help you to ensure they are working optimally for your organization.

Contact us today to learn more and get started.

The post How to Keep Your Nonprofit’s Data Clean and Optimized in Raiser’s Edge appeared first on Heller Consulting.

But you might be thinking, “We’ve already made a big investment in Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) and other Salesforce products. Should we invest in the Nonprofit Cloud? And if so, how much and when?”

These are reasonable and important questions to ask. But the answers will be different for every organization based on current technology investments, organizational goals, and long-term technology strategies.

Tips for when you’re considering the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud for your nonprofit

Based on our knowledge of Salesforce and experience working with nonprofits on their technology plans, here are some ideas to help you make the right choices about the Nonprofit Cloud for your organization.

1. It’s important to weigh your “pushes” and “pulls”

When you’re considering any technology change, be sure to think about the pushes and pulls for making the move. A push to think about a technology change might be experiencing challenges with your existing software or vendor. A pull might be the desire to take advantage of features and functionality that can help you accomplish new things and/or work more efficiently.

So, as you think about if you should make an investment in the Nonprofit Cloud, ask yourself if the problems you’re having with your existing software are worth the time and effort of moving to a new solution. Also, ask yourself if the benefits of new features and functionality in the Nonprofit Cloud outweigh the effort and cost of a new technology implementation.

2. You don’t have to make an all-or-nothing decision

There’s a lot of buzz about the Nonprofit Cloud. But keep in mind that there is more than one way to invest in Salesforce technology, and it’s important to choose the solution, or combination of solutions, that’s best for your organization.

For example, you might be using NPSP for fundraising and another non-Salesforce product for program management. If the program management solution isn’t working well for your organization, then you might consider moving to the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud for Program Management to take advantage of the latest program management capabilities from Salesforce while staying with your NPSP investment for the time being.

Another example: You might have a complex and growing fundraising program and find that it’s worth moving from NPSP to take advantage of the advanced fundraising functionality available in the Nonprofit Cloud.

You might have requirements that make a different set of Salesforce solutions other than the Nonprofit Cloud better suited for your nonprofit.

The key point here is that moving all of your technology to Nonprofit Cloud isn’t the only option. There are multiple Salesforce solutions available to help nonprofits reach their goals and meet their technology needs.

3. Start thinking about Nonprofit Cloud now

This might seem like a contradiction to the previous point about not assuming you need to move to Nonprofit Cloud. However, the truth is that Salesforce is focusing time and innovation efforts on Nonprofit Cloud. So, if you are using NPSP and want to continue to benefit from Salesforce’s ongoing innovations and new features, it’s a good idea to start developing a plan for when and how an implementation of Nonprofit Cloud will fit into your organization’s technology strategy.

That doesn’t mean that you need to rush out and move from NPSP to the Nonprofit Cloud today. But your technology choices today can have broader implications in the future. So, be sure to have a comprehensive technology plan in place that addresses your organization’s needs and goals not just today, but also for the next three to five years, and consider at what points it might make sense to add the Nonprofit Cloud to the mix.

Learn more about Salesforce solutions for nonprofits

If your organization uses or is considering a move to Salesforce, there’s a lot to think about. It’s a good idea to stay current on the latest offerings from Salesforce and start to plan now how they will fit into your organization’s technology strategy.

You can learn more helpful tips and ideas in our guide, The Basics of Salesforce Solutions for Nonprofits.

Our team here at Heller Consulting is also ready to help you determine what mix of Salesforce solutions might be the right fit for your needs. If they are the right fit, we can also help you to develop a business case and roadmap as well as implement and support the solutions. Contact us to find out more and get started.

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Microsoft is moving toward the retirement of the Fundraising and Engagement solution for nonprofits. Launched in 2020, Fundraising and Engagement is a solution built on top of the Nonprofit Common Data Model and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales.

As a Microsoft partner, we know that many nonprofits will want to understand what this change means for the sector – especially for organizations currently using or considering investing in Microsoft solutions built for nonprofits.

Here are some questions and answers to help you understand more about this recent change and how we recommend moving forward as you make technology decisions for your nonprofit.

Is Microsoft still a good technology choice for nonprofits?

It is. Keep in mind that 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, and the change with Fundraising and Engagement does not change the fundamentals that make Microsoft a strong technology choice for many nonprofits.

Microsoft’s investments in solutions for the nonprofit sector include making strategic updates to their suite of solutions for nonprofits. At the same time, AI is fundamentally changing the way Microsoft develops their platform, which is the foundation for Microsoft solutions across all industries. Retiring Fundraising and Engagement is part of these strategic updates.

How does the retirement of Fundraising and Engagement impact the sector?

We understand that the retirement of this product will directly impact some organizations in the near term, and we are working directly with our affected clients. While change can be unsettling, we also see that this change will set up Microsoft to better serve nonprofits in the long term.

We see the decision to retire Fundraising and Engagement as similar to the shift Salesforce made in rolling out the new Nonprofit Cloud. It’s an industry trend away from platform providers creating their own managed packages (like NPSP), or products, for specific industries that are built on top of the core platform. Instead, there is a focus on the core platform technology itself, with accelerators and/or templates that help independent software vendors (ISVs) and other solution providers to quickly build industry-specific solutions that include all of the innovations the platform offers.

In this case the good news is that, unlike with the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, the data model at Microsoft is not changing for nonprofits. The Nonprofit Common Data Model (NCDM) remains. We know that while the change will impact some specific functionalities available, if you are considering Microsoft solutions or if you’re already building a technology ecosystem around Microsoft, this news should not stop you from investing in technology innovation at your nonprofit.

The shift from Microsoft will allow nonprofits to benefit from enhancements to Microsoft’s core platform including innovative AI capabilities. So, while on the surface it might seem like a reduction in investment in solutions for the sector, it’s really a strategic move that will help industries, including nonprofits, adopt new technologies, like AI, more quickly.

What do we do if our nonprofit is currently using Fundraising and Engagement?

Between July 15, 2024 and December 31, 2026, you can continue to use Fundraising and Engagement, apply security updates as they are made available from Microsoft, and receive technical support from Microsoft. After December 31, 2026, Microsoft will no longer implement security updates for Fundraising and Engagement, and there will be no further technical support for the solution.

To ensure you have a successful path forward, Heller Consulting is ready to help you identify the future configuration of Dynamics 365 Sales needed to meet your specific requirements.

What if our nonprofit is considering a move to Microsoft solutions for nonprofits?

The pace of technology innovation continues to accelerate, making nonprofit technology decisions more complex. In this environment, it can be tempting to delay technology decisions so that you can wait for the market to stabilize.

But if you wait, technology will only continue to evolve. If your nonprofit has a strategic business objective that needs the support of a technology solution, it’s in your best interest to move forward.

In short, we don’t believe the news from Microsoft should stop you from making a change if your current technology is not meeting your needs. There are still many paths forward on the Microsoft platform that will help nonprofits grow and scale their fundraising and operations.

Our team here at Heller Consulting is ready to help you determine what mix of solutions is the right fit for your needs. We can also help you to develop a business case and roadmap as well as implement and support the solutions. Contact us to find out more and get started.

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To help nonprofits on their fundraising journeys, RKD Group released a new field guide that offers nonprofits concrete recommendations based on the data from GivingTuesday’s GivingPulse report.

This quarter’s report extracts useful insights that relate to the theme of connection—linking community, cause, and individual.

Community at the Heart of Giving

Local giving continues to outshine national and international donations, a trend that underscores the importance of community in philanthropy. Nonprofits are encouraged to harness this power by aligning their missions with the local context and making their impact felt where it matters most. For national and international organizations, the challenge lies in localizing their narratives to resonate with donors’ sense of place and belonging.

Where can technology help?

Technology plays a pivotal role in empowering nonprofits to localize their narratives and align their missions with local contexts. By leveraging digital tools, organizations can tailor their stories to resonate with the community’s unique values and needs. Advanced analytics and marketing automation platforms enable nonprofits to create personalized experiences that not only reflect local priorities but also amplify their impact where it matters most.

Cause: The Core of Connection

Connecting to a cause is complex, depending on the when, what, how, and where of asking. Nonprofits must listen to their donors’ cues, adjusting their methods to create a feeling of immediacy and compassion. A constant digital media presence is vital, showing the mission and attracting donors with powerful stories.

Where can technology help?

Strong technology platforms can help nonprofits uncover audience insights and segment messages based on audience interests. For example, Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows organizations to personalize messages and send communications out based on some constituent action that you define. For example, if a constituent engages with a story, a pre-configured email can be sent that aligns with that story and encourages a donation.

Personal Touch: The Most Direct Form of Giving

The trend of giving directly to individuals in need is gaining momentum, reflecting donors’ desire to make a tangible difference in someone’s life. Nonprofits must adapt by sharing authentic stories that highlight the individuals benefiting from their work. Leveraging supporters to share personal experiences can bridge the gap between the organization and the impact, making every contribution feel personal and immediate.

Where can technology help?

Powerful CRM systems like Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud are developing ways to track outcomes, meaning nonprofits will have greater insights into how fundraising dollars are impacting individual programs.

Strategic Recommendations for Nonprofits

The Field Guide offers a suite of recommendations to help nonprofits navigate these insights:

• Embrace the power of community by understanding what it means to your donors and localizing your impact.
• Pay close attention to donor behavior and preferences, using data to inform your communication strategies.
• Share authentic stories that put the people you help at the forefront, fostering a personal connection with your donors.

As we look ahead, the GivingPulse stands as a testament to the enduring power of generosity and the importance of connection in driving philanthropic efforts forward. By embracing the insights from RKD Group’s field guide, nonprofits can strengthen their bonds with donors and amplify their impact in the communities they serve.

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However, there are things you can start doing today to save time and improve the accuracy of your organization’s gift processing.

Let’s explore some key ideas and tips for improving gift processing using the widely-used fundraising platform, Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT.

Key considerations when processing gifts using Raiser’s Edge

Gift processing starts with receiving gift information from multiple data sources and entering them uniformly into your Raiser’s Edge system. Gifts must be entered accurately and attributed to the channel in which they were received, with the correct campaign, fund, appeal, and package codes, so that you can measure the success of your fundraising campaigns and reconcile with your Finance department.

Organizations use various approaches to speed up gift data entry. For example, some configure certain default information so that they can save some time when they are using batch gift entry functionality to enter a stack of paper checks from a campaign. Some hire a third-party vendor to complete check processing and speed data entry on their behalf,  sending a data file back to the organization to upload into Raiser’s Edge.

No matter what your organization’s approach might be, the challenge is still about sorting through the volumes of gifts you receive from various channels and entering them into Raiser’s Edge as quickly and accurately as possible. And there’s almost always room for improvement.

The good news is that even small improvements can add up over time!

Five tips for improving gift processing using Raiser’s Edge

Here are five effective ways to save time and improve the accuracy of your gift processing using Raiser’s Edge:

1. Clean up the data in your system.

No matter how efficient your gift entry processes might be, your gift processing will ultimately suffer if you have messy data already in your system. Cleaning the data you already have will help to speed up the gift entry process by reducing the need to reconcile duplicate constituent records. It will also help to ensure that campaigns, appeals, packages, funds, and other data points are used consistently.Start by deduplicating as many records as possible. Then, review your data coding structure (dropdowns/picklists) to make sure it aligns with how your development and accounting teams currently track donations. Another helpful approach is to review your data entry standards to make sure you are tracking data consistently in Raiser’s Edge for things like Attributes and Constituent Codes.

2. Ask your vendor to reformat your data files.

If you work with a third-party vendor, you might find that you must often reformat the gift data files they provide to you before you can upload them into your Raiser’s Edge system. If so, then ask the vendor to work with you to align their data files with your data standards and conventions. Investing time in this now can save your staff much more time in the coming months and years.

3. Reconfigure your donation forms.

Review your online donation forms to ensure that data is captured and mapped accurately to better align with the data standards and conventions in your Raiser’s Edge database. This approach can reduce the amount of manual intervention needed to enter gift data properly.

4. Use data integration software to automate manual data processes.

Use data integration software, such as Omatic, to make your work easier. This kind of software can help you to reduce manual tasks, such as record matching. It can help you merge your data, enhance data quality, and simplify processes. For Raiser’s Edge users, you can link data from any source and create a single point of entry for all data going into Raiser’s Edge NXT.

5. Analyze your entire gift processing approach.

When you started using Raiser’s Edge, you might have had well-defined data entry processes and standards. But over time, employees and volunteers come and go, and your organization might have begun to track and manage data inconsistently. The longer you’ve been using your system, the more likely this is the case.Taking a step back to analyze your entire gift processing approach – from the processes you use to the way your Raiser’s Edge database is structured – can help you uncover opportunities to improve data accuracy, reduce manual work, and save time that is better spent on other activities. For example, the Heller Consulting team worked with Greater Chicago Food Depository to help them assess their gift processing approaches and find specific ways for them to increase the percentage of gifts processed without manual intervention and ultimately allow staff members to shift their time to more strategic activities.

Learn more about improving gift processing with Raiser’s Edge

Our team here at Heller Consulting is ready to help you improve your organization’s gift processing. We can help you assess challenges associated with your gift processing in Raiser’s Edge and identify specific tools and approaches to help you save time and improve accuracy of gift data entry and more. Contact us to learn more and get started.

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A great place to start is to understand the Copilot AI functionality that is accessible across the Microsoft environment.

Let’s take a closer look at Microsoft Copilot, how nonprofits can put it to use, and how you can prepare to take advantage of AI tools.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Microsoft Copilot is artificial intelligence functionality that works across all Microsoft products, including Outlook, Teams, Dynamics, and the Power platform. As a versatile AI assistant, it is designed to enhance your productivity by automating a variety of tasks and processes.

For instance, Microsoft Copilot can assist you in a wide range of activities, from composing a heartfelt thank you letter to creating visually compelling images. It can also write sophisticated code for a web page or perform in-depth analysis of your data, transforming it into actionable insights. In short, it can help you do more and do it faster.

One of the key benefits of opting for Microsoft Copilot AI over other AI tools, such as ChatGPT, is the robust security framework that Microsoft has established. This framework is meticulously designed to safeguard against potential risks, particularly when handling sensitive information. By preventing the need to upload confidential data to external third-party applications, which may fall outside your organization’s secure technology infrastructure, Microsoft Copilot ensures that your data remains protected within a trusted environment.

Another advantage of using Microsoft Copilot is that it supports no/low-code usage. So, for example, you can use natural-language prompts (versus needing to use code or special language) to initiate AI tasks. This user-friendly approach standardizes technology, enabling your workforce to leverage advanced tech capabilities without requiring extensive technical expertise. As a result, your team can become more technologically proficient and innovative, even if they do not possess a background in IT.

How can nonprofits use Microsoft Copilot?

Because Microsoft Copilot can be used for so many different purposes, it helps to have more context around how it can be used in a nonprofit setting. For example, consider how nonprofits can use Copilot functionality in Fundraising and Engagement, the customer relationship management (CRM) solution in Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit that is tailored to nonprofits.

Using Copilot functionality in Fundraising and Engagement, you can do things like:

• Analyze donor behavior and preferences
• Identify potential donors
• Create personalized engagement strategies

Here’s a more specific example of how a nonprofit can use Copilot functionality in Fundraising and Engagement: A “likelihood to donate” feature is an AI-powered donor propensity model that’s built into Fundraising and Engagement. It uses AI to find behavioral trends and demographic insights from a nonprofit’s Fundraising and Engagement data to help predict current and future giving opportunities for each donor. This forecast helps nonprofits to create new segments of donors so that they can tailor their outreach to them based on their likelihood to give.

Another example: Fundraising and Engagement is often used with Microsoft Customer Insights, a marketing solution that helps manage audience segmentation, email communications, and campaigns. Using Copilot with these two solutions, nonprofits can describe the type of audience segment and email communication they would like to create and send, and based on the information they feed into Copilot, Copilot can suggest specific recommendations, such as campaigns and donation opportunities that each donor would be interested in based on the donor’s profile.

Three tips to prepare your nonprofit for AI adoption

No matter what tools your nonprofit decides to use, to get the most out of AI, it’s critically important to first pay attention to your data and your staff’s use of AI. Here are three practical tips to help you prepare for adopting any AI tool in your organization:

1. Consider your data quality. AI is only as accurate as the data that feeds it. If your organization has unreliable data, then you can’t count on AI to work well. So, if you have duplicate, inaccurate, or outdated data, it’s time to clean it up. It’s also time to develop or update a data governance strategy to help ensure your data stays in good order.
2. Develop AI guidelines. When you begin using any new technology like AI, it’s important to set up guidelines for how your organization will use it. Create an initial AI policy that provides your staff with guidance on using AI. It should include guardrails that help ensure its use is consistent with your organization’s technology, security, and privacy policies. You can continue to update your AI policy as your organization evolves.
3. Plan for staff training. As with any new technology, your organization will get the most out of AI if your staff knows how to use it optimally. Be sure to allow time for training that helps your staff understand how the AI tools work, what they can do, and the impact of the tools on various processes across the organization.

Learn more about AI for your nonprofit

The breadth of AI tools and capabilities available today might seem overwhelming, but they offer tremendous productivity benefits – ultimately saving your staff time that can be better spent on work that directly impacts your mission.

You can learn more about Microsoft Copilot through their digital skilling hub.

Our team here at Heller Consulting is also ready to help. We offer an AI Preparedness Assessment for Nonprofits to help guide you through responsible AI adoption. We’re ready to help you assess challenges associated with AI, uncover opportunities for strategic use of AI, and develop an AI strategy and roadmap. Contact us to learn more and get started.

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In short, there’s a stack of technology sitting in your office that’s probably being underutilized. So, why not put it to work?

Why use the technology your nonprofit already has

There are multiple reasons to use the technology you already have. For example: 

• You get more out of the investment you’ve already made, versus spending money on redundant functionality.
   
• The learning curve is lower if you use a feature in software, you’re already familiar with, so you can be up and running that much faster.
   
• Your staff will have a better overall experience if they don’t have yet another tool to learn and need to log into, which will help to decrease staff burnout.
   
• Your technology stack will be less complex if you don’t add a bunch of new tools that take up time with integration and maintenance. 

So, even if a point tool is free, there are other costs involved with adding new technology. 

Examples of functionality in technology you might already have

We mentioned Microsoft and Google because they include a lot of productivity functionality that are the types of tools nonprofits often acquire. Here are just a few examples: 

Microsoft 

• Use the Scheduling Poll feature to find a good time to schedule your meetings for everyone involved. This can be a viable alternative to tools such as Calendly and Doodle.
   
• Use the process mapping tool, Visio, which is free with a Microsoft 365 subscription, that helps you create step-by-step visualizations of your organization’s processes to help you document workflows and find areas for improvement.
   
• Use the screen recording tool in Stream, which is also free with a Microsoft 365 subscription, to make a video of yourself thanking a donor, and then send a link of the video to the donor.
   
• Use the notetaking functionality that’s part of the Microsoft Copilot artificial intelligence features in Microsoft to produce transcripts and summaries of meetings. 

Google 

• Google has similar scheduling functionality available within the new Google calendar called Appointment Schedule.

• Google, like Microsoft, has a data visualization tool (Looker Studio) that gives you visual representations of your data for added insights. 

• Google allows you to create applications using AppSheet without writing any code and works from the data you have stored in Google Sheets and other tools.  

• You can also create whole websites using Google Sites, either for your constituents or just for your employees, like an intranet 

These are just a few examples of the many capabilities of Microsoft and Google. Other software vendors, including Salesforce, offer an extremely wide range of tools and functionality – many of which are free within your existing products or available at a low cost.  

Get the most out of your nonprofit’s current technology

Keep in mind that we’re not suggesting you never buy a point tool. What we are saying is that you can often do what you need to do with tools you already have.  

So, take the time to check first before you purchase a new product. One effective approach is to go to the website of your current technology vendors and look at what functionality is available. Often, you can also see what’s available when you’re logged into your account (usually via a web browser). 

If you’d like more ideas and inspiration, listen to the Nonprofit Radio podcast, where we recently spoke with Tony Martignetti about how to get the most from your nonprofit’s current technology.  

Our team at Heller Consulting is ready to help, too. If you have a question about getting more out of your current technology, contact us today.    

The post Get More Out of Your Nonprofit’s Current Technology appeared first on Heller Consulting.

That’s what Salesforce Data Cloud aims to address.

What is Salesforce Data Cloud?

Data Cloud is a data platform. It unifies your nonprofit’s data so that departments across your organization have a single, complete view of your data. Data Cloud creates this holistic view of your constituent data by turning your volumes of disconnected data into one trusted data model that’s easy to access and understand. It allows you to collect data from multiple systems – even non-Salesforce systems – and then model it in a way that makes sense for your organization.

Data Cloud can be used with Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) or the new Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud. Keep in mind, though, that it is not included with those solutions and must be purchased separately. Also, NPSP and Nonprofit Cloud use different data models, so it’s important to look into the implications of using Data Cloud with your nonprofit’s specific technology stack.

How can nonprofits use Salesforce Data Cloud?

Salesforce has built multiple connections into Data Cloud that allow you to unify data from many common systems, including customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, fundraising, peer-to-peer fundraising, and other systems. You can also create custom connections using APIs.

Once you have configured Data Cloud to generate a set of unified profiles based on rules that you define, you can segment those profiles and make them available to various systems to do things like:

• Personalize marketing and fundraising campaigns
• Activate tailored constituent journeys
• Drive process automations
• Power data analytics
• Support accurate artificial intelligence (AI)

How does Salesforce Data Cloud work?

A typical Data Cloud project involves the following steps:

• Connect – Set up your data sources so that Data Cloud knows which systems to link to. These might include anything from your CRM system to your marketing and fundraising systems to your mobile apps.
• Harmonize – This step involves mapping your various data fields to the data model within Data Cloud. With this step, Data Cloud includes a tool that makes it easy to see the data that’s being brought into the system.
• Unify – Here is where you set up the matching rules that determine how records will combine into unified profiles. In addition, you can configure reconciliation rules to control how Data Cloud will handle scenarios when records for the same contact in different systems do not match exactly.
• Analyze and predict – In this step, you digest your data and create audience segments to use, for example, with your marketing or fundraising activities.
• Act – With this final step, you take some action with your segmented unified profiles. For example, you might send an audience to Salesforce Marketing Cloud or another marketing tool for a targeted marketing campaign.

It’s important to note that the data pulled into Data Cloud is stored outside of Salesforce, so you will not be at risk of using up all of your Salesforce data storage capacity.

Learn more about Salesforce Data Cloud

Salesforce has provided multiple ways to learn more about Data Cloud. They provide a free version of Data Cloud that you can experiment with to see how it works. Salesforce also offers multiple training resources, including Unlock Your Data with Data Cloud.

Our team at Heller Consulting is here to help, too. We stay current on the latest offerings from Salesforce and are ready to help you determine what mix of Salesforce solutions might be the right fit for your needs. If they are the right fit, we can also help you to develop a business case and roadmap as well as implement and support the solutions. Contact us today to learn more and get started.

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Takeaways from the 2024 Nonprofit Digital Investments Report

The survey that fed this report covered nonprofits with varying missions, staff sizes, and budget ranges. While the report includes multiple aspects of technology investments at nonprofits, here are four big takeaways that stood out to me – especially as they relate to what we’re seeing here at Heller Consulting:

1. Nonprofits recognize the need to be strategic about their technology investments.

Nearly two-thirds of respondents indicated that their general organization budget contributes “significantly” to their nonprofit’s technology budget – by far the largest contributor. With funding coming from their own general budget, it’s not too surprising that nearly 40% of respondents include technology planning explicitly in their strategic plans and 33% include it generally. It makes sense that organizations would want strategically plan their tech spending when tech funding is coming out of the general budget.

That’s one reason the Heller Consulting team highly recommends intentional strategic technology planning. We’ve found that nonprofits get more out of their technology investments when they define their goals, establish a clear technology vision, and create a roadmap that pinpoints the right technologies to bring that vision to life.

Discover tips and insights on strategic technology planning. Read the interactive guide, The Nonprofit’s Guide to Making Strategic Digital Tech Decisions

2. Nonprofits could be getting more out of their technology investments.

Training is roughly only 1% of nonprofit technology budgets as a whole. This finding suggests a big opportunity for nonprofits to get more out of their technology investments by ensuring staff members are trained to use their organization’s technology optimally.

Here at Heller Consulting, we emphasize the importance of change management in technology initiatives to prepare organizations for successful launch and adoption of new technology. And training is a critically important part of change management.

Download the Full Report: 2024 Nonprofit Digital Investments Report

3. Organizations are recognizing the need to focus on data.

A look at technology investments over time shows that data and data systems are the highest focus for nonprofits in 2023 – 2024, with security coming in a close second.

It’s encouraging to see this focus on data for current technology investments. Clean, accessible data has always been important for personalized marketing campaigns, donor cultivation, accurate reporting, and more. Today, it’s even more important as nonprofits begin using artificial intelligence (AI) – after all, AI tools are only as good as the data that goes into them.

4. Efficiency is the most significant priority for nonprofits’ technology investment decisions.

Respondents ranked improving inefficient processes and saving time for staff as the top significant influences on technology decisions.

Again, this is encouraging. While making strategic investments in technology is vitally important for any nonprofit, one of the biggest bangs for the buck is to include business process improvement as part of a technology implementation. Doing so helps to ensure that technology investments help staff members do their jobs more efficiently – giving them more time for high-value work, such as donor cultivation, service delivery, and high-touch activities in other mission-critical areas.

5. Organizations rarely report on their technology investments to external stakeholders.

As mentioned above, organizations are mostly relying on finding budget for technology investments within their general operating budgets. They are also rarely reporting on technology investment spending to outside funders, donors, and other stakeholders. This means that many outside parties are unaware – they don’t realize how much investment a nonprofits need to be digitally innovative.

Learn more about how nonprofits are funding and prioritizing technology projects.

This article includes just some of the findings from the report. Get the full 2024 Nonprofit Digital Investments Report to read more data and insights about nonprofit technology investments.

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The challenges and opportunities of data management for nonprofits

Data is the lifeblood of any nonprofit organization. It helps you understand your constituents, measure your impact, and optimize your strategies. However, data management can also be a challenge for many nonprofits. Some of the common pain points include:

• Lack of collaboration and data silos across departments
• Data duplication and inconsistency
• Poor constituent experience and engagement
• Missed opportunities for data-driven decision making and AI initiatives
• Data security and compliance risks

To overcome these challenges and unlock the full potential of your data, you need a robust and flexible data management platform that can integrate with your Blackbaud system and other data sources and provide you with the tools and insights you need to take your fundraising and marketing to the next level.

How Microsoft Power Platform can help you extend your Blackbaud system

Microsoft Power Platform is a suite of low-code or no-code tools that enable you to build custom solutions that solve your unique business challenges. With Power Platform, you can create apps, workflows, reports, and chatbots that connect to your Blackbaud data and other data sources and empower your team members to innovate and collaborate. Microsoft Power Platform consists of five key products: Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, and Power Pages.

• Power Apps: Build web and mobile apps that run on any device and access your Blackbaud data and other data sources through the Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT certified connector. You can use Power Apps to create web portals, board reports, business processes, and data capture solutions that extend your Blackbaud system.
• Power Automate: Create automated workflows that connect your Blackbaud system and other applications and services. You can use Power Automate to streamline repetitive tasks, such as communication, data collection, and approval processes.
• Power BI: Analyze and visualize your Blackbaud data and other data sources and share insights through interactive dashboards and reports. You can use Power BI to track key performance indicators, such as donor acquisition, retention, and revenue, and use AI Builder to add AI capabilities, such as sentiment analysis, text recognition, or prediction.
• Power Virtual Agents: Create and deploy conversational agents that can answer common questions, provide information, or perform tasks. You can use Power Virtual Agents to enhance your constituent service, engagement, and feedback.
• Power Pages: Build websites that use the same shared data stored in Microsoft Dataverse that you use for building apps, workflows, chatbots, reports, and analytics with other Power Platform components. You can use Power Pages to create landing pages, microsites, or online forms that integrate with your Blackbaud system.

How Microsoft Power BI can help you analyze and visualize your Blackbaud data

Microsoft Power BI is a business analytics service that delivers insights for analyzing data. It can share those insights through data visualizations, which make up reports and dashboards to enable fast, informed decisions. Power BI can help you with:

• Analytics: Use software tools to track key performance indicators, such as donor acquisition rates, retention rates, and fundraising revenue. This can help nonprofits make data-driven decisions and optimize their fundraising strategies.
• Notifications across teams: Automatically send notifications of gifts in real-time or digests of donor activity.
• Dashboards: Build and share data insights across systems, without manually building spreadsheets.

Power BI can connect to your Blackbaud data sources, as well as other cloud or on-premises data sources, such as Salesforce, Office 365, Twitter, Dropbox, Google services, and more. You can also use AI Builder to add AI capabilities to your Power BI reports and dashboards, such as sentiment analysis, text recognition, or prediction.

How Microsoft Customer Insights can help you unify and segment your Blackbaud data

Microsoft Customer Insights is a customer data platform that helps you unify and enrich your constituent data from multiple sources and create sophisticated profiles and segments for use in marketing. Customer Insights can help you with:

• Data unification and segmentation: Connect to multiple data sources, such as your fundraising CRM, online fundraising software, ecommerce system, volunteer management system, and more. Use sophisticated mapping and matching rules to create unified constituent profiles with demographic and activity data. Use an intuitive interface to build complex segments based on your criteria.
• Journeys: Use the segments from Customer Insights to deliver complex, multi-channel journeys across email, SMS, and other channels. Personalize your communications and optimize your campaigns with analytics and AI.

Your Raiser’s Edge data can serve as a critical data source for constituent and donation activity data feeding into constituent profiles. When combined with your data from other systems, you can create a unified view of your donors and supporters and enhance your data utilization for strategic decisions.

How to get started with Microsoft tools for your Blackbaud system

If you are interested in learning more about how you can boost your fundraising and marketing with Microsoft’s power ecosystem, we can help you. At Heller Consulting, we have over 27 years of experience supporting Blackbaud products. We are also a partner of Microsoft Tech for Social Impact and have more than fifteen years of strategy and implementation experience on Salesforce. We can help you with:

• Developing a technology strategy that aligns with your business goals. We focus on what you are trying to solve from a business perspective, then identify the technology from there, rather than selecting a technology and trying to shoehorn your business process into it.
• Integrating Blackbaud with Microsoft tools. We can help you set up the connectors, automations, and reports that you need to extend your Blackbaud system with Microsoft Power Platform, Power BI, and Customer Insights.
• Scaling data usage and operations. We can help you improve your data quality, security, and governance, and leverage best practices for fundraising marketing analytics and AI.

If you want to take advantage of these powerful Microsoft tools today without having to migrate your entire donor database, contact us today. We would love to hear from you and help you achieve your fundraising and marketing goals.

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