An Open Question For Salesforce

First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation for Salesforce's contributions to the nonprofit sector. Salesforce's entrance into the industry occurred at a crucial time, just when there were concerns about Blackbaud's potential dominance. Subsequently, other players joined the market, leading to a diverse array of CRM options for nonprofits and fostering a thriving ecosystem.

However, recent Salesforce announcements have me concerned for current and prospective nonprofit customers.

Why should medium and large nonprofits stay on or choose the Salesforce platform?

Part of a platform's purpose is to help safeguard an organization against obsolescence resulting from technological advancements. Salesforce has previously stated that they would not replicate Blackbaud's approach, which forced customers to transition from TA to BBCRM. However given recent events, I find it tough to understand how Salesforce is helping nonprofits protect their investment.

Upon reviewing Salesforce's recent announcement, my primary observation is not the new platform's impressive potential but rather the sense that Salesforce may be pushing obsolescence once more. Unfortunately, this is not the first time.

Numerous nonprofits have already been forced to move from Salesforce NGOC to Salesforce NPSP, which proved financially and operationally challenging. With Salesforce's latest announcement, many of these organizations face another significant investment as they will have to transition from NPSP to the newly announced Nonprofit Cloud. It seems clear that what will be initially released will be effectively an incomplete beta version, and a fully functional product is still several years away; this development should cause concern for nonprofits with ongoing Salesforce projects.

I am seeking clarification on why nonprofits should continue to invest in the Salesforce platform. It seems reasonable to assume that after Salesforce unveils its new fundraising functionality in the fall, there will be minimal updates to NPSP's features. This is effectively what happened with NGOC.

Each dollar spent on an NPSP implementation may need to be spent again when NPSP becomes outdated due to a lack of attention, compelling organizations to make the switch. Furthermore, it is unclear how much the annual licensing costs will increase, though I expect them to increase significantly.

This doesnt even factor in all of the vendors that will have to rebuild their Salesforce add-ons and integrations and all of the implementation partners (and it is a very strong network of partners) that will have to rebuild all of their productivity aids.

Considering these factors, why would a nonprofit opt for Salesforce when alternative solutions like ROI Solutions, Virtuous, Microsoft, EveryAction, and others are available?

I welcome feedback and sincerely hope that my concerns are misplaced.

#npsp #nonprofittechnology #CRM #salesforce