Salesforce.com for nonprofit CRM?
Nov 11th, 2004 by Jon Stahl
Sonny Cloward has some positive preliminary things to say about using Salesforce.com’s free 10-user nonprofit as a web-based database system for small nonprofits:
In short, I have recommended that CERF deploy Salesforce as its data management system. The rational for my recommendation is that Salesforce meets our basic and priority requirements:
Basic Contact/Relationship Management
Relationships: Between orgs/businesses and staff, individuals and family/friends, individuals and employer
Loan Processing: with Payment schedule
Donation Processing: with Pledge, Matching Gift and complicated GIK donations
Gift-in-Kind Brokering: creating a reciprocal connection between GIK donor and GIK beneficiary
Query and Reports: Intuitive report writer
Integration with other applications: Outlook (can access directly from Outlook), Excel, QuickBooks, any application.
I have no illusions that there are some kluggy things about the application when customizing it for nonprofit processes; it definitely would not work for all organizations. Additionally, edge CRM functions like email blasts, online donation processing, event management and e-commerce functions are not part of it’s functionality (unlike Kintera). However with an open API, integration of third party applications are possible to gain that functionality. I’m looking at Democracy in Action, which also has an open API, as a possible low cost edge CRM provider (In Jon Stahl’s words: “Pieces loosely joined.”)
