The California Volunteers Fund (CV Fund) made a strategic choice to adopt Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) for Fundraising to enhance their donation and inbound funding management. As a younger nonprofit dedicated to addressing community challenges through partnerships and service, they recognized the need for a more efficient CRM system.
CV Fund partnered with Vera Solutions in December 2023 to implement Salesforce NPC for Fundraising, kicking off in February 2024. The project was implemented over the course of 22 weeks with strong collaboration between CV Fund staff and Vera consultants in the US and Brazil. The system went live in May 2024.
CV Fund's Success Using Salesforce NPC for Fundraising
1. CRM: CV Fund needed a CRM system to automate tasks and reduce data management headaches. NPC for Fundraising changed how they worked, saving them time through built-in automations.
2. Events Tracking: NPC for Fundraising takes event tracking beyond basic task management, giving CVF a complete view of its events with detailed schedules and data analysis.
3. Fundraising: CV Fund can now efficiently monitor opportunities, follow commitments, manage gifts, and track transactions, greatly improving individual and institutional fundraising.
4. Grant Management: NPC for Fundraising allowed CV Fund to track and manage grant applications and payments accurately through the Payments feature, streamlining financial and operational workflows.
“We deeply appreciate Vera Solutions for their exceptional responsiveness and clear explanations throughout our collaboration. Their collaborative approach and guidance made them feel like an integral part of our team at CV Fund.”
– CV Fund Stakeholder
The client’s new solution provides a streamlined CRM system, smoother processes for institutional fundraising, inbound grant, and event management, dashboard insights for future fundraising strategies, and the ability to replace outdated tools. We asked the project team a few questions about what it’s like to implement Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising.
Thinking About the Project, What Went Well?
This implementation of NPC for Fundraising was a significant milestone for us, especially as our first time working with the new product. The client’s use case naturally aligned with the features and components of NPC for Fundraising, including guided flows for managing gift designations, gift entries, and commitment schedules. What truly stood out was our strong working relationship with CV Fund — we grew closer to being colleagues rather than just external consultants.
How Was the Client Engagement?
This project was one of our favorites due to the high level of client engagement. The CV Fund team did an excellent job of communicating their fundraising process, stakeholders, and organizational and system goals, which helped facilitate a smooth design, development, configuration, and testing process. “This was my first time working with NPC for Fundraising objects and many of the common components now available like Interest Tags, Action Plans, and the ARC. I enjoyed learning more about how the gift-related objects worked,” shared Kai. “CV Fund was always very responsive, open, and proactive throughout the project. This made the workflow quite easy and allowed flexibility where needed,” expressed Isabella.
What Would You Change Next Time?
Every project faces some challenges, but by working through them, we gain valuable insights. One key takeaway is that it’s important to think about not just short-term goals and quick wins, but also how decisions will impact the organization in the future. “At the start of the project, it’s crucial to identify the expected client workload and its impact on their daily operations to avoid implementation during their busy periods,” shared Alan.
How Is NPC for Fundraising Helping CV Fund?
When CV Fund started using NPC for Fundraising, it made huge differences in their fundraising processes. The Events Tracking feature helps them ensure donors get timely updates, while also helping manage campaigns and see how well they reached out to people using Salesforce Campaigns. With help from Salesforce NPC, CV Fund has started running successful campaigns, managing resources better, and monitoring outreach effectiveness using detailed reports.
Were There Any Unforeseen Challenges?
Since NPC for Fundraising is new, there are some compatibility challenges with existing managed packages. However, this allowed us as consultants to be creative in finding solutions, ensuring everything stayed on track. If you’re considering Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud for Fundraising: try the free trial org to explore its features, get all the information and licensing you need upfront, use Salesforce resources and Trailhead, and choose a Salesforce partner with a strong technical team.
Why Choose Vera Solutions?
With over 14 years of experience working with nonprofits, Vera Solutions has been a leader in developing fundraising, portfolio and program management, impact measurement, and grant management solutions on the Salesforce Platform. Over $12 billion of programs, grants, and projects advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals are managed using Vera’s flagship product, Amp Impact.
We also offer a large pool of highly skilled and experienced Salesforce Consultants, with over 300 active Salesforce certifications, experience successfully delivering over 1,000 projects in the social sector, and a dedicated team located across 5 continents, covering more than 14 languages.