Cloudy’s Top 10: Resources for Nonprofits using Salesforce – Part 2

Last week Cloudy presented 5 Amazing Resources for Nonprofits using Salesforce. Here are five more don’t-miss ideas to support you on your Salesforce journey:

6) User Groups: Salesforce sponsors hundreds of volunteer-led User Groups all over the world. This is community at its best, as fellow-users gather to teach each other and solve problems together. You can find a listing of all the regional Nonprofit User Groups here. If there is not a nonprofit-specific User Group in your region, there may be a “general” Salesforce user group, which would still be a great community resource for you!

If there is no User Group in your area, consider starting one! Salesforce.org has an amazing team who is eager to help you start a group, provide teaching materials, and sponsor costs for meeting spaces and food. 

7) Office Hours: these virtual events are a great way to get free, quick, targeted help from experts for your questions. It can also be valuable to listen in and learn from the questions others are asking!

• Salesforce.org hosts HUB Community office hours on a weekly basis. You don’t need to register for these open Q&A sessions. Click here for more information.
• Redpath hosts monthly Office Hours, with one of our nonprofit experts on the line. We post upcoming Office Hours on our home page! Have questions now? Contact Us.

8) Salesforce Events: Salesforce hosts numerous events and conferences every year, with each one featuring keynote speakers, breakout sessions, hands-on training, and networking events.

• The biggest event is Dreamforce: held each fall in San Francisco – about 150,000 Salesforce users, developers, consultants, and admins take over the city for a learning bonanza. Cloudy encourages every organization to invest in sending someone to Dreamforce now and then; there is really no other way to learn so much, so fast, for your organization. Note that there is a robust “Nonprofit Track” and discounted tickets for nonprofit users!
• Trailhead Live & Salesforce World Tours: There are many other regional events every year, and most of them are FREE. Many also feature breakout sessions and resources for nonprofits.
•  NPSP Day events are held every few months at locations around the world. These are generally 1-day, low-cost conferences, focused on exactly what you want to learn about the Nonprofit Success Pack. Check to see if there is an NPSP day coming to your area, and if there is not, request one!

9) Salesforce Support: Many new admins are not aware that as a Salesforce customer (even if your licenses are free!) you have access to Salesforce technical support.

• Click on “Help & Training” and “Create a Case”.  
• Expect a 48 hour response time for basic support.
• Premium Support is available as an upgrade ($).
• (Note that the Help & Training also links to many other resources!)

10) Salesforce Partners: Working with a certified Salesforce Partner is your best bet to guarantee that your Salesforce implementation is successful. Certified Partners have undergone rigorous training, testing, and certification in order to be Salesforce’s right hand in ensuring customer success. Redpath Consulting Group has a dedicated team of Nonprofit Consultants who are experts in the NPSP, nonprofit business processes, and foundations.  We can help you with implementation, training, data migration, reporting, customization, coding, integration, and more! If you would like to talk to one of our consultants about your organization’s needs, Contact Us.