8 Essential Factors for Selecting the Right Salesforce Partner for Your Nonprofit
Navigating the world of Salesforce implementation for nonprofits can be daunting, but choosing the right partner can make all the difference in your organization’s success. Here are the top eight things to look for when selecting a Salesforce SI for your nonprofit, with insights into how Exponent Partners embodies these qualities:
- Expertise and Experience: Look for a partner with robust qualifications and a demonstrated history of success in Salesforce implementation for nonprofits.
At Exponent Partners, we specialize in empowering organizations like yours in human services, education, and philanthropy. With over 160 Salesforce certifications, including specialized proficiency in Case Management, Program Management, and Grantmaking, our team brings a wealth of expertise and experience to every project. Additionally, we excel in Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Education Cloud, and most recently Nonprofit Cloud. We’ve been deeply entrenched in the nonprofit sector for over 19 years, cultivating a profound understanding of the needs and aspirations of organizations like yours. Our team brings decades of combined experience, with many of our staff having direct experience working within nonprofits, further enhancing our ability to serve you effectively.
- Alignment with Your Mission: Choose a partner whose mission aligns with yours and is dedicated to driving positive change in communities.
As a B Corp and California Benefits corporation, Exponent Partners is a social enterprise that is deeply committed to equipping nonprofits with the tools and systems needed to extract genuine value from their data and pave the way for sustainable futures.
- Tailored and Holistic Solutions: Your nonprofit organization likely needs special features, integrations, automation, or custom objects to meet its needs. Or you may even be in a place where you don’t know what you need. Seek a partner who deeply understands the unique needs of nonprofits and offers tailored solutions to address them.
Our expertise extends across a wide range of Salesforce solutions, allowing us to customize our services to meet the specific needs of nonprofits in education, human services, and philanthropy. Our commitment goes beyond mere Salesforce implementation; we support your entire information systems journey, from high-level planning to strategic roadmap development, implementation, and ongoing support.
- Ongoing Support and Collaboration: Opt for a partner who provides ongoing support and fosters collaboration throughout the implementation process and beyond.
At Exponent Partners, we believe in building long-term partnerships with our clients, offering continuous support and collaboration to navigate challenges, optimize processes, and leverage new features as your organization evolves. From Support to Managed Services, we are deeply invested in our client’s success for the long haul.
- Thought Leadership and Innovation: Look for a partner who demonstrates thought leadership and innovation, continuously exploring new ways to leverage technology for social good.
Exponent Partners is committed to staying ahead of the curve and driving innovation in the nonprofit sector, from cutting-edge Salesforce solutions to best practices and industry insights. We’re one of the first partners to implement the new Nonprofit Cloud and our consultants are consistently working on upskilling to meet the ever-evolving needs of the industry.
- Collaborative Approach: Choose a partner who prioritizes collaboration and engages you as much as you desire throughout the process.
At Exponent Partners, we adopt a hybrid approach, actively involving you in the design, development, and deployment of your system. Our unique methodology, consisting of Discovery, Design, Build, and Adopt phases, operates iteratively to maintain close alignment with your team and allows for ongoing enhancement of the system as the project progresses. From business process review, user stories, to design summaries and user testing, our approach is designed to optimize the implementation process for our clients and empower you to walk away with a transformational system that propels and amplifies the impact of your organization’s mission.
- Change Management and Project Governance: Look for a partner with a solid change management and project governance process to ensure project success.
Our approach includes inclusive stakeholder involvement, transparency, realistic estimates and schedules, proactive risk management, and a skilled team of professionals dedicated to your long-term success.
- Data Security & Compliance: Security is critical for nonprofits—for legal and ethical reasons. Ensure that your Salesforce Partner has experience meeting nonprofit organizations’ data security requirements and is up-to-date on privacy regulations. Your Partner should provide a clear plan on how they will protect the organization’s data as well as help you meet any applicable compliance standards.
Choosing the right Salesforce partner for your nonprofit is a decision that can have a profound impact on your organization’s ability to drive social change. By prioritizing expertise, alignment with your mission, tailored solutions, ongoing support, and collaboration, thought leadership and innovation, collaborative approach, robust project governance, and data security and compliance, you can ensure that your partnership with a Salesforce SI like Exponent Partners sets the stage for a journey towards radically better impact. Let’s work together to harness the power of technology for social good and create lasting change in our communities. Contact us for a consultation today!