Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud Winter ‘21 Release Highlights

Posted in: Blog

By: Zeina Saad

In Fall 2020, Salesforce announced its Nonprofit Cloud Winter ’21 Release, and if you are like me, you eagerly await the release notes from Salesforce. Perhaps you’ve cast your vote on ideas in the Ideas Exchange, on the top ranked ideas in the Prioritization Queue, or maybe you are hoping for that unicorn to solve an issue that you run into as the Salesforce administrator at your organization. This article explores my favorite highlights from the Winter ’21 Release like Dynamic Forms and updates to Flow.

Dynamic Forms 

One of this year’s highlights is the release of Dynamic forms, and spoiler alert – they are even better than I hoped. Years ago at Dreamforce, I asked a product manager if there were any plans to customize the display fields on a lightning component so that only certain people see a given field. With no plans in sight, I left slightly disappointed. However, with the Winter ’21 Release, but the day has come that this feature is now available.  

What does this mean? For all custom objects, you have the option to add a Record Detail component to customize the display when you edit a Lightning Record Page. In the past, the Record Detail would apply to all fields for that object for the assigned page layout. This did not allow for the option to dynamically display fields based on how a given user begins to fill out a form. By upgrading the component to a Dynamic Form, you are now able to select specific fields to put into the component. 

Dynamic Forms also allow for security filters to be added as well as conditional visibility on fields based on the dynamic data collection on previous fields. 

Though this feature is not available for native objects (yet), this enhancement is a huge step in improving the customization and user experience forms – mind-blowing! 

When to Use Dynamic Forms

Curious about how to leverage Dynamic Forms? Here are just a few use cases: 

Customizing Fields Based on Membership Type

In your organization, there are multiple levels of membership – e.g. platinum, gold, silver, etc. Naturally, you have a “Type” field in your front-end form and back-end membership object. Dynamic forms allow you to choose additional fields to display (or not to display) based on whether the type of membership that a user selects.  

Contact Details

When it does become available for native objects, there is a Contact record type of Client, but clients can include children and adults.  You want to display School, Grade and GPA fields only for clients under the age of 18.

Customizing Fields Based on Dollar Amount

Similar to the level of membership use case, opportunities or donations at certain dollar amounts may require additional information. Using Dynamic Forms, you can customize the display of fields based on the dollar amount of the given opportunity and/or donation. These fields will only be seen by a certain profile or person, and all of these requirements can be set by you using Dynamic Forms. 

Updates to Flow

Another exciting enhancement in this year’s release is the streamlined processes in Flow. You know that thing you’ve been hearing around about how Flow is getting all the development love and Process Builder isn’t….well, getting any love.  This release really feels like the writing on the wall for Process Builder. 

Triggering Events

Triggering events can now be directly incorporated into Flow, which bypasses the need utilize an extra Process Builder to build the record triggering criteria. Instead, you can build it directly into the Flow. When creating a new Flow, select the Record-Triggered Flow option. Select an object and the criteria that will launch the rest of the Flow and you’re golden – no further steps needed!

More Trigger Enhancements

You can also now trigger a Flow based on the deletion of a record, which means you can set an alert to fire when a record is deleted all within Flow. 

Finally, you can debug a Flow as a specific user in Sandbox. This is particularly helpful when troubleshooting errors (i.e. if one user is getting an error and another one is not). You now have the option to ‘Run flow as another user’ after selecting debug. Next, select the user and run to see what is happening with that flow. Again, only available in sandbox, not production orgs.

Auto-Layout Toggle

I’m also really loving the new Auto-Layout toggle at the top of the page. Give it a try to see some layout magic happen. This feature automatically connects elements to each other and handles layout. This simplifies the user experience and makes flow construction more consistent. 

As always, there is a lot to be excited about with Salesforce’s latest Nonprofit Cloud Release. With user feedback regularly being incorporated through votes on the Prioritization Queue and Idea Exchange, I find myself more eager than ever to dig into the notes of each of the annual three releases.  

For more information, visit Salesforce’s Trailhead to learn even more about the new features and further updates in the Salesforce Non-profit Cloud Winter 2021 release. 

Exponent Partners can help you make the most out of these enhancements and maximize the impact of your Salesforce experience. Contact us to schedule a consultation!

A Salesforce Career with Supermums and Exponent Partners

Posted in: Blog

By: Damaris Eustice

In early 2020, Exponent Partners became the first sponsor of the Supermums network in the United States. Founded in 2016 as a social enterprise, Supermums helps parents eager to re-enter the workplace by harnessing the Salesforce ecosystem for career opportunties. One of our participants in the inaugural U.S. cohort, Anita Lavey, successfully completed the program and found employment working with MuleSoft, a Salesforce company and leading integration platform. Having stepped away from working full time to raise her children and ready to return to the workforce, Lavey discovered the Supermums network and got hands-on experience with Exponent Partners. Now a few months into her new Salesforce career, we recently caught up with her and asked about her experience with the program.

1. What was your favorite part of the Supermums program?

My favorite part of this group is the hands-on learning experience. I completed nearly 150 badges in the Salesforce Trailhead training program during the Supermums System Admin course, but Supermums also had additional weekly homework assignments where I actually applied my new skills to a real-world situation. This challenged me on another level and helped me feel much more confident in my Salesforce Administrator abilities. I could not have had my exceptional hands-on learning experience with Exponent Partners without the Supermums program. It is the most valuable way to learn Salesforce — and be the most confident in your abilities.

2. Can you describe the hands-on learning experience you had with Exponent Partners as a Supermum?

My project role was to work with the skilled consultants in a very large conversion project moving from Salesforce Classic to Lightning. There were over 100 custom objects and many conversion issues that needed to be documented, tested, and rewritten. I worked not only with the Salesforce Admins, but also with the development team using Jira and other software development tools. I updated User Acceptance tests, documented the install and validation process, helped redesign some user application screens and custom fields, and even uncovered some new issues as a result of my Salesforce user tests. I was a trusted member of the Salesforce team, using my new talents to help this customer be successful. It was fantastic.

3. Would you refer others to the program and why?

I would absolutely recommend this program! This is by far the best way to join the Salesforce Ohana and to use your skills in real-world applications, not just learn concepts in a classroom. All the instructors are extremely knowledgeable, with many real-world examples. The Exponent Partners consultants were very supportive and were eager to help me become a trusted part of their team. I think these are the key points of this program that you can NOT get anywhere else, and I feel so much more confident and ready to take on any Salesforce situation because of this experience and their continued support even after the class has ended.

4. How have you applied what you learned in your new Salesforce career?

This experience has been the best relaunch effort I have ever made. I have not only used all the technical Salesforce Admin skills from the course, but there is also a module on how to prepare your resume, your interview skills, and Linkedin. Through my hands-on experience with Exponent Partners, I have also re-explored my software development skills using Platform App Builder, Apex, and Jira, along with other development and documentation tools that I am using every day in my current role. I feel much more confident in my role today and that is all due to my experience with the Supermums course and hands on experience with Exponent Partners. I cannot express enough how grateful I am to them for this career opportunity.

5. Do you have any final advice for parents considering rejoining the workforce?

I have to be totally honest — there is no other way that I know of to get this kind of preparation and experience than to complete the Supermums courses. Heather Black has created an exceptional program to help those of us who have been away from the high-tech world for a number of years, to rejoin with confidence and opportunities. I had spent a number of years trying to find an organization that I felt was worthy of my trust and gave back to the community. That company is Salesforce. Their software is exceptional, it is no wonder so many companies rely upon Salesforce to bring them to the Cloud. There are so many job opportunities available in the Salesforce Ohana, and I completely trust the Supermums program. It is the best way to gain your best skills and experience for Salesforce. Believe in yourself, take this course and make your career goals happen.

Get Started Today

Learn more about whether a Salesforce career via Supermums is right for you by visiting their website and online community.  Already a Salesforce pro interested in how you can serve leading nonprofits in human services, philanthropy, and education? Check out the Exponent Partners open positions.

Case Management for Human Services Before and After COVID-19

Posted in: Blog

By: Josie Alleman

Human services organizations of all sizes rely heavily on case management to improve outcomes for their clients. As stated in the pre-pandemic Salesforce.org Nonprofit Trends Report, “demand for more nonprofit programs and services is rising, as the world is threatened by climate change, natural and human-made disasters, humanitarian crises, political chaos, food insecurity, and so much more.” Since COVID-19 has impacted communities globally, the need for case management to support increasing at-risk populations worldwide has only grown. Learn more about case management, the guiding principles of effective case management and how COVID-19 has impacted the practice on our new Exponent Case Management blog here. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Survey for Salesforce.org Partners

Posted in: Blog

By: Marisa Lopez, Melissa Hill Dees

This blog was originally published by Amplify. Exponent Partners is a sponsor of Amplify.

It is no secret that we have a lot of work to do to close the pay, promotion, and title disparity gaps in tech. The Salesforce.org ecosystem appears to be no exception.

But can we actually prove this? Where is the data? Where are the stats about the demographics of those in executive positions in the Salesforce.org ecosystem? Bingo! They don’t exist.

A sense of urgency to collect demographic data hit almost simultaneously among several stakeholder groups, including Amplify, the Salesforce.org Community Sprint, and the Salesforce.org Partner Advisory Equality Subcommittee. An organic, and joint, effort began to generate baseline data around the Salesforce.org ecosystem, beginning with partner firms in the US as a pilot.

About the Survey

We are gathering this data through a simple Google form, and hope that everyone working in the AMER Salesforce.org Partner Ecosystem will complete the 5-minute survey.

The intent is to extend the survey globally to partner firms around the world, and, in Phase 2, customers and (hopefully) Salesforce.org employees. Like many great initiatives in our space, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion survey is a community driven initiative, currently driven by the Salesforce Open Source Community.

Please follow this link to complete the form.

But the data will only be successful if the community comes together and individuals take the time to fill it out.

To be clear, the survey is not just for underrepresented people. It is for everyone to fill out. By completing this survey, you help us:

• Gain a better understanding of the demographic makeup of the Salesforce.org partner ecosystem.
• Pilot a ground-breaking global survey, beneficial to all those who currently or potentially work in this sector.
• Drive strategic initiatives across many organizations.
• Shed light on the inequities in our space and serve as a catalyst for solutions.

The survey will be open through November 6, 2020. The Open Source Community plans to share aggregated and analyzed data in December 2020.

Please note that survey response data will be aggregated and analyzed across the full Salesforce.org partner ecosystem. The submission is anonymous; we are not tracking any personally identifiable data. No personal information will be captured, stored, or shared, as part of this survey. Please ensure you are not providing any personal information such as name, company or email address as you complete this survey.

Resources

Please  share the link with your Salesforce.org Partner friends, colleagues, and network. We’ve included sample Twitter and LinkedIn messages for you to cut and paste at the bottom of this post.

LinkedIn Announcement

Salesforce.org Partners! Please help drive the strategic DEI initiatives in the @SalesforceOrg space. Fill out this 5-minute survey Diversity, Equity & Inclusion survey. Join the movement to drive strategic DEI Initiatives in our vibrant community. Pls RT! bit.ly/sfdo-DEI-survey
@SFDOPartners @AmplifyNGO @SalesforceOrg

Tweet

Help drive the strategic DEI initiatives in the @SalesforceOrg space. Fill out this 5-minute survey Diversity, Equity & Inclusion survey. Join the movement to drive strategic DEI Initiatives in our vibrant community. Pls RT! bit.ly/sfdo-DEI-survey
@SFDOPartners @AmplifyNGO @SalesforceOrg

Perceived DEI Challenges in the Salesforce.org Ecosystem and Proposed Solutions

Amplify recently presented a framework at the Salesforce.org Partner Summit in a session titled Amplify Action! to close the Pay, Promotion and Title Disparity Gap.

The framework out lines challenges and proposed solutions detailed below.

Challenges

• Lack of intersectional framework for DEI efforts
• Lack of minority (URM) owned/led businesses
• Lack of BIPOC and other underrepresented people in leadership; “Glass wall” to entry for BIPOC and other URM
• Barriers to inclusion & advancement for BIPOC & other URM
• Well intentioned allies not knowing how to make a difference
• Lack of sustained and institutional funding for DEI efforts
• Lack of coordination and prolonged strategic focus of DEI efforts will result in limited progress

Solutions

• Conscience commitment to intersectional DEI efforts
• Financial Investment, tools/training, mentoring
• Equity efforts around hiring and advancement or companies/ orgs/hiring managers and for URMs. Affinity groups for URM. Education and coaching for partners and others in the ecosystem.
• Disrupt “culture fit” mentality. Mentoring and training for URM.
• Sustained coordinated training and cohorts.
• Start with data collection and gap analysis. Develop a framework for cooperation and coordinated strategic planning.
• Well defined and sustained coordination efforts across organizations to achieve real change in the ecosystem.

Watch this 25 minute presentatione to learn more details about the framework.

 

Feature Photo Credit: The Engagement Party at Dreamforce 2019 – Photo courtesy of Rebecca Wilkowski Photography.

Salesforce is like a Home Remodel for Your Data and Processes

Posted in: Blog

By: Skye Tyler

I’ve had the pleasure of working from home for over five years; long before COVID-19 thrust many to transition to remote or virtual work. During my years as a consultant and member of the Salesforce Ohana, I have often referred to Salesforce as a “home” for my client’s data and critical business processes. But it wasn’t until recently, when I purchased an older home with some quirky features, that I realized just how apt the metaphor is for a system admin inheriting an existing Salesforce account. Just like house hunting, it’s very unlikely that you’ll find a home with every single feature you want, and even less likely that an inherited Salesforce org is perfectly built out for maximum efficiency. Let me give you the Salesforce realtor’s walk-through of three considerations.

Cosmetic Upgrades for Users

While some may argue that appearance is superficial and shouldn’t be a compelling enough reason to choose a home, or make org changes, don’t discount the importance of pleasing features. You may love the floorplan of a place, but if you despise the color of the walls you’re not likely to spend a lot of time in that room. Even small frustrations can erode a user’s desire to adopt Salesforce or make your home life less than enjoyable.

Painting walls, upgrading light fixtures, and adding inspiring decor can make your home more welcoming. Similarly, updating the theme and branding, updating to inclusive language, and building in celebrations for accomplishments can make using Salesforce a more enjoyable experience for your users. Take stock of whether commonly used items are easily accessible. Creating custom apps with useful homepages and critical tabs ensures your users have what they need to do their job right at their fingertips.

Reliable Security is a Must

When I bought my house the exterior doors all had double-keyed deadbolts. This means that to unlock the deadbolt you needed to insert a key, even if you were inside the house. Years ago this was considered a way to prevent burglars from breaking a window and reaching in to open the deadbolt, but it’s now considered a dangerous safety hazard. Also, this house had been a rental property for several years, so who knows how many spare keys were still floating around from past tenants!

One of the very first things I did after moving in was to replace and upgrade all my exterior locks. In Salesforce, the equivalent is ensuring users have to change their passwords on a regular basis, avoiding shared login credentials, and immediately deactivating users that should no longer have access.

Good security also means inspecting your entry points: doors, windows, garage, basement. Your Salesforce entry points include allowed IP addresses, myDomain, and single-sign on or two-factor authentication settings. It’s a good idea to monitor who is accessing your account and how. Monitoring reports of login activity is like having a motion sensor light on your driveway, or a doorbell camera: you can see who’s hanging around even if you’re not watching in real time.

Invest in Structure Maintenance and Improvements When Needed

Unlike appearance, updating the structure of a home or Salesforce org is a little more involved than page layouts or apps.

I’m a pretty handy person and I love tackling do-it-yourself projects. My house has a decent sized one-car garage, but one of the previous owners over the past 56 years built a weird little room into the side of the garage. The water heater was installed there, and so were some very narrow little shelves and industrial carpeting on a raised floor. I’m sure it made sense and was very useful to whomever built it. But it did NOT work for how I needed to use the space.

So I knocked out the wall, tore up some of the raised flooring, patched all the holes in the drywall and installed new shelves and mounts for my tools and toys. Now I have a space that is organized and efficient, and will likely be more useful for my future needs, or buyers if I ever sell.

I recently had a client that had several different process builders that all were part of a single business process. They had evolved and expanded over the years as needs had changed. When I started working with them, they had a new requirement to be able to loop through the records created by the various process builders and create a new record ONLY if it had not already been created.

Those process builders were akin to my garage-room: they were built for a reason, served their purpose, but were no longer the best option. Together we rebuilt those assorted process builders as a single Flow, using constants and formulas to improve maintenance and expandability.

In both examples these structural updates were time-consuming, required learning some new skills and tools, and being really thoughtful about future-proofing. But in the end, the results were worth the effort!

Tools of the Trade

In real estate, the big factor is “location, location, location” but when it comes to Salesforce I would say it’s “configuration, configuration, configuration.” As an administrator inheriting an existing Salesforce account, you won’t always know why something was built a certain way. But there are many ways, small and large, that you can make your Salesforce account feel like Home Sweet Home.

Is your organization’s Salesforce in need of renovations but you don’t know where to begin? We can help! Contact us to get started.

Streamline Your Compliance Data with the new HMIS Module

Posted in: Blog

By: Josie Alleman

Federally funded housing programs across the country have one thing in common: they must report Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) compliant data to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Whether you are a single program organization solely focused on families experiencing homelessness or a multi-program agency where only one part of your programming provides supportive services to homeless individuals, managing your HMIS data for regularly reporting to HUD requires added overhead and in some cases duplicative data entry. To streamline the process for homeless service agencies, we designed the Exponent Case Management (ECM) HMIS Module.  The HMIS Module ensures your compliance data aligns and integrates with your case management system.

What is the HMIS Module?

The HMIS Module is a pre-configured version of ECM that includes all fields needed for accurate and compliant HMIS reporting as well as managing your homelessness services case management programs. From affordable and transitional housing programs to emergency shelters, the HMIS module is a comprehensive starting point for your housing programs. By accelerating your system implementation with out-of-the-box HMIS compatibility, your staff can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time focused on providing excellent services to your clients.

 

The HMIS Module supports case management services at all stages of your program:

• Outreach and referral: Collaborate with local agencies to help serve most underserved clients as fast as possible by utilizing the VI-SPDAT and Referrals Functionality.
• Intake and enrollment: Collect HMIS project start data and enrollment information all in one place with the pre-configured Intake as well as assessing needs with the Arizona Self-Sufficiency Matrix.
• Housing coordination: Assign beds and units efficiently and track bed nights easily using the Housing Facility Functionality and Bed Night Services.
• Service planning: Identify and prioritize goals with the preconfigured Service Plan targeting the low-scoring domains in the Arizona Self-Sufficiency Matrix (ASSM).
• Individual and group services: Ensure clients are receiving needed services to achieve their goals set in their service plans with preconfigured Individual and Group Service Entry.
• Program Exit and Follow-up: Collect all necessary data for successful project completion with the Exit Assessment.

In addition, the HMIS Module supports accurate and efficient HMIS data collections and reporting:

• HMIS Assessments including universal, program specific, and federal partner data elements at all assessment events
• HMIS specific services including HOPWA, RHY, PATH and SSVF
• Project descriptor data elements
• Pre-built Quality Assurance reports for efficient HMIS data monitoring
• Easy exports of HMIS data

The HMIS Module is Designed for Every Role

The module is designed for all the stakeholders of your organization’s housing program.

Agency Leaders and Program Directors 

The module provides accurate and reliable HMIS reporting at a lower cost. Because all of your HMIS required fields are built into the model along with supporting functionality for accurate HMIS reporting, your staff does not have to spend the time figuring out how to enter HMIS data. Instead use the module as a best practices starting point to configure the rest of your programming. Leadership also benefits from the security and reliability of trusted SF platform: not only can you do all your case management and HMIS data management in ECM, but you know that you have an stable platform with Salesforce. Leaders gain measurable outcome and impact data, thanks in part to the pre-configured outcome reports (e.g. average score of the ASSM over time).

Case Managers 

Case managers want to focus on client care not data entry. ECM’s intuitive interface makes the system easy to navigate and master. Social workers on your team will appreciate that the case management and HMIS data is captured all in one place. Plus, ECM’s pre-built intake and assessment forms are all configured with required HMIS fields needed at program start along with inbound basic fields like referral information. Out-of-the-box HMIS assessments (e.g. Self-Sufficiency Matrix and VI-SPDAT) for each event and each funding type are included.

Program Clients 

The HMIS Module was designed to ensure a quality experience on the part of your program participants as well. With a 360 degree view of your client that is visible to designated staff, the client only has to tell their housing story one time. Services and referrals can begin sooner and the client experiences a better quality of service.

See the HMIS Module in Action

Watch a pre-recorded on demand webinar featuring the module to explore:

• Relevant features and capabilities of ECM’s HMIS Module
• How ECM’s HMIS Module can inspire programmatic improvements
• What to expect when moving your agency to ECM and using the HMIS Module

Interested in a general demonstration of ECM? We host a webinar every other week. Sign-up for the general ECM demo today!

5 Steps for Salesforce Admins To Manage Critical Updates and Alerts

Posted in: Blog

By: Peter Bender

Salesforce has three major releases every year, during which they push out new features and fixes. You’ll likely see a lot of information about these via email, in the trailblazer and power-of-us communities, and in the release notes. Significant changes are generally scheduled and announced ahead of time, and for some features admins have to enable them as needed once they are available. Other changes require more attention. These updates can’t be automatically enabled because they may impact how your system works in meaningful ways, but they are required eventually because of their importance. Salesforce approaches these types of changes through Critical Updates and Security Alerts. This blog offers best practices for managing updates and alerts using five key steps.

NOTE: The Release Date for Summer ’20 was originally scheduled for June. Due to COVID-19 the release was delayed to a staggered roll-out culminating on July 17-18 (for the latest updates read more).

As Salesforce admin, you should be receiving email notifications about Critical Updates and Security Alerts. You can also find them in your Salesforce org (just search in setup). Regularly reviewing the impact of Critical Updates and Security Alerts is a key task for system admins. These are necessary changes. But Salesforce hasn’t automatically rolled out the update because they believe it impacts how your system functions in a way that could require action from you first. Critical Updates have a title, a description, and a date on which they will automatically activate, and Security Alerts have even more information. Your task is to evaluate the impact, make adjustments if needed, and enable it, preferably before it becomes forced upon you. Follow these five steps to ensure your success.

Step 1. Identify in Advance

Identify Critical Updates well before they expire, so that you have time to deal with them among everything else on your busy schedule. Ensure you are getting Salesforce admin emails so that you see formal announcements. Also, keep an eye on any third-party product newsletter emails, since vendors will generally be proactive in telling you when there is an impact to what you have bought from them. Vendor blogs can be helpful that way as well. Release notes for the thrice-yearly major releases will include details on new and often pre-existing Critical Updates, too.

Step 2. Evaluate the Risks

Read through the description to determine the impact for your system. Some are going to be quite technical and may require research or assistance from your consulting partner.  Other updates you may immediately recognize as significant for you. If you have a pretty simple instance, without a lot of automation or customization, then the risk of enabling such changes is often minimal.

If you aren’t sure of the impact to you, search for the Critical Update or Security Alert in the Trailblazer Community groups to find what your fellow Salesforce admins and consultants are saying about it. If you have an example of something that you aren’t sure whether it is impacted, post a question in the online comunity and use a tag like “Critical Updates” so others will see it more easily.

If your online research in the Salesforce user community has not addressed your concerns, then it is time to reach out to a consultant like Exponent Partners for advice before proceeding. 

Step 3. Test for Use Cases

Ultimately you’ll need to test some of the updates, and occasionally you may need to make changes to your Salesforce org. Be sure to do this well ahead of the date on it will be automatically (and irrevocably) enabled. The more complex your system is the more a Critical Update can affect it and the harder it will be to both detect a problem and determine its source.

If you can identify the places where the impact will be felt, set aside time to enable it in a sandbox where you can make changes and test. If you aren’t sure whether or where the impact might be, consider enabling it in a sandbox that is in regular use for something like user training. From there you can monitor its effects from typical use but problems won’t affect your production processes and data. 

Regression testing or the need to regularly test typical activity for unintended changes, is a great argument for having a documented set of use cases on hand. Your list can be short or quite detailed, depending on the complexity and breadth of the system. Start with a simple spreadsheet with columns for role, action, expected result, and testing status. The list will help ensure you won’t forget something, and you or anyone else can efficiently test whether a change has impacted something your users typically do. Documenting use cases is also very helpful when you or an implementation partner need to roll out new development or test the major releases.

Similar to the previous step in the process, if you find problems that you can’t resolve, look to the communities, contact your consulting support team or open a case with Salesforce. If the impact may be with a third-party product or service, contact the third party application developers for their advice as well.

If during your evaluation, you determined the risk is low for your organization, you can enable directly in production without testing in a sandbox environment, but it is not recommended.

Step 4. Enable Updates

Regardless of the deployment approach you’ve taken, enable the Critical Updates well before the scheduled activation date. This ensures that you have time to recognize and address related problems and you can disable it if necessary while fixing them.

Enabling them one at a time can be a good idea, with days or weeks between, so that if a problem occurs you’ll know which Critical Update potentially caused it. Otherwise, if you already have a release cycle for other improvements, incorporate these into it.

Do not ignore updates because at some point on or soon after the activation date it will be enabled for you and you won’t have the ability to disable the change.

Step 5. Stay Proactive

In reality, many Critical Updates and Security Alerts won’t have a significant impact on your system, but it is still a best practice to be proactive about them. If your organization is risk-averse or complex, you’ll need to assess more carefully. Treat Critical Updates and Security Alerts as mini-maintenance releases that require a methodical approach toward deployment. 

Are you not sure which Critical Updates will negatively impact your organization? Contact us today! We’re here to help.

Black Lives Matter

Posted in: Blog

By: Rem Hoffmann

We unequivocally condemn the racism and police violence against Black and Brown people in our society. George Floyd was murdered. Ahmaud Arbery was murdered. Breonna Taylor was murdered. These are not isolated incidents, but part of a system of white privilege, structural racism, police violence, and inequality in our country. This system must be radically reformed. We stand in solidarity with the Black community against racism and hate. Black Lives Matter.

And we stand with the change-making nonprofit organizations that are working on the front lines to remedy the damage caused by that system, and to fix what’s broken. We are committed to investing in the work that fosters true systemic social progress. As a social venture working for nonprofits, we support the changemakers and activists who are creating progress. We continue to focus on diversity within our company so that we better reflect the communities we serve. And we want to do more. We are eager to apply our expertise and time for pro bono projects. Please contact us so we can explore how we can work together for justice and equality.

Photo Credit: Black Lives Matter mural painted in yellow on 16th Street in Washington, D.C. by Mayor Muriel Bowser via Twitter.

Nonprofit Cloud’s Case Management and Program Management Module

Posted in: Blog

By: Rem Hoffmann

The Nonprofit Cloud Spring 2020 Release, will be released in two parts: April 29 and May 27. This new release is by far the most innovative we’ve seen in years. Our team came together to provide insights about the new case management and program management module, based on our perspective as long-time members of the nonprofit Salesforce ecosystem. It’s our mission at Exponent Partners to deliver solutions that best serve the social sector.  Human and social services organizations have long suffered from the nonprofit ‘starvation cycle’, and with the coronavirus pandemic they are being thrust into the position of being the front lines for all the new and pre-existing societal problems. These nonprofits undergird our social safety net, and they require all of our help to be able to respond to the unprecedented level of need. It is great to see Salesforce.org join this effort with products like Nonprofit Cloud Case Management and also with innovation initiatives like Impact Labs. Salesforce.org adds an important voice for attention, resources, innovation, and scale.

Exploring the New Program Management Module

By Richard Saunders, Director of Product, Exponent Case Management

At Exponent Partners we have a long held vision of a more connected, results-focused social sector. Human services organizations are realizing that they cannot solve large, complex social problems on their own and at the same time funders are increasingly requiring proof of results.

Key to achieving this social sector vision are:

• Integrated Systems of Care and Service to facilitate collaboration and remove data silos, and
• An Impact Maturity Model to help nonprofits move effectively from data tracking to outcomes management

It is through this lens that we view the highly anticipated release of the Program Management Module as part of the Salesforce.org’s Spring ’20 product launch.

Program Management Module is a free, open source extension to the Nonprofit Success Pack that provides a starting point for human service organizations to begin defining and tracking data for their Programs and Services.

Nonprofit organizations now have a low cost, simple, platform-based solution for moving off of spreadsheets and paper and getting started with data tracking that is part of the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud.

 

Why is Program Management Module a great solution for organizations to get started with data tracking?

• Program and Service Definition. It provides a basic but flexible data model to define the Program and Services that your organization offers.
• Participant Level Data Tracking. It provides a data model to track the engagements of participants in those programs and record the services they receive so outputs can be reported.
• Program Cohorts enables grouping participants within programs.
• Bulk Data Capture. In order to facilitate smooth data entry, PMM provides easy to configure and use elements for service data capture. Supported service capture modes include capturing multiple services for a single participant or multiple for different participants at once.
• The Program Manager Homepage provides an overview of program activity.

With the Program Management Module and the Spring ‘20 release from Salesforce.org, it is clear that Salesforce is investing in solutions for the sector. This is a first step and there is still so much to do to achieve the vision of a more connected, results focused social sector. However, we are excited that Salesforce is now focusing on this area and we look forward to partnering to achieve the vision.

“The Salesforce platform has been a powerhouse of a product for more than a decade. Our customers rely on it’s core functionality every day to deliver on their missions. As one of the first developers of the Nonprofit Success Pack I’ve always seen the value of excellent products built on top of Salesforce to deliver on specific nonprofit needs. It’s so great to see Salesforce focusing on building on top of the core platform for this important sector.”

— Steve Andersen, Vice President of Professional Services

Getting Started with Case Management

By Josie Alleman, Product Manager, Exponent Case Managment 

Nonprofit Cloud Case Management allows organizations to get started with a data model that supports many of the fundamentals of human service case management for a single program. From collecting initial demographics and assessment scores to service planning, service delivery, incidents and case notes, Nonprofit Cloud Case Management is an easy to use and reliable way to track important information about clients. We are so happy to see another wonderful case management product in the Salesforce ecosystem so that human services organizations of all sizes and needs have a choice of reliable products to better serve their clients.

“We were very excited to be a part of the first feedback for these new offerings. It’s been so exciting to see the products improve and be released so my team can implement enhanced solutions for our human services clients who need them to serve their most at-risk constituents.”

— Jennifer Paquette, Human Services Practice Delivery Manager

Built on top of the Program Management Model, Salesforce’s Case Management functionality is a potential next step in tracking service delivery to not only report accurate service provision data, but also get insights on tracking client progress. Client Cases and enrollments are easy to manage with the Case Manager Home Page and Client Snapshot. Nonprofit Cloud Case Management fits the use case of a small to medium organization with a single program model – it is easy to configure and easy to use.

With over 10 years of implementing case management solutions, we know that human services organizations are ever growing with multiple, complex data and outcome management needs. As Nonprofit Cloud Case Management is an excellent solution for organizations managing single programs, Exponent Case Management (ECM) is designed and built for larger organizations with multiple programs and funder requirements. ECM enables system administrators to configure comprehensive intake processes, longitudinal assessments, funder management, program fidelity navigation, and more. ECM’s solutions include preconfigured modules tailored to different human services sector programming with an outcomes management module to ensure organizations are on track to meet expected outcomes for their clients.

“From an architectural perspective, I’m thrilled that Salesforce is offering a foundation for program and services management that’s compatible with the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) data model. We talk to clients that have a wide range of human services requirements – from fairly straightforward to extremely complex – as well as those that have a desire to link their existing fundraising efforts in NPSP to the services they deliver in order to gain a full view of their efforts. While Exponent’s ECM product scales to support the very complex use cases, it’s wonderful that Salesforce is investing in human services and will continue to mature a product that enables any organizations to manage their programs and services on the Force.com platform.”

— Scott Mostrom, Senior Solution Architect

What’s Next? Long-awaited Fundraising Features added to NPSP

In addition to program and case management, the latest Nonprofit Cloud release has exciting new features for fundraising and donor management. Check out the blog by Lara Kimberley to learn more about her “Fundraising Favorites in the New Nonprofit Success Pack Release.” One of the best things about the Salesforce platform is the flexibility nonprofits can leverage to pick-and-choose features and add-on apps. With all this flexibility, comes complexity. We can help you navigate these new features and decide if, when, and how they can be implemented to ensure maximum impact. Contact us today to get started!

Fundraising Favorites in the Nonprofit Success Pack Release

Posted in: Blog

By: Lara Hoke Kimberley

I think I speak for many of us when I say that the past two months have felt like a year. So perhaps you will not be shocked that it’s been nearly five years since the game-changing release of the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) 3.0. The previous August 2015 release included new functionality but—most importantly—it was the transition from a set of individual applications to a managed package with a clear vision that was truly transformational. There have been significant enhancements over the past five years, but nothing quite like what was released last week. As a Premium Salesforce Partner, Exponent Partners participated in the pilot programs for many of these new features. We had the opportunity to see and test the exciting new products and NPSP features and provide feedback to help shape their functionality.

Read the full release details and check out some of my favorite new features below.

Accounting Subledger

To clients migrating off of Raiser’s Edge or looking to more easily integrate Salesforce with their accounting systems the architecture, automation, and reporting are finally here for you! You will now be able to manage allocations at the payment level, automate credit and debit codes, and record adjustments and write-offs. Perhaps most valuably, you will be able to report on all these things in a way that will make sense to your accounting system.

The accounting subledger functionality requires licensing for production orgs but is available in sandboxes and developer orgs for testing purposes.

Enhanced Recurring Donations

NPSP Recurring Donations are a powerful tool for tracking a series of gifts given over time. However many organizations have found the scheduling of gift series and the management of future gifts challenging. Enter Enhanced Recurring Donations – now with more intuitive field labels, scheduling functionality, and clear differences between the types of recurring donations.

Enhanced Recurring Donations is available to all NPSP organizations but does require preparation work and roll-out planning. Read more about how to roll it out to your organization here.

Elevate

Elevate is a suite of online fundraising products. At the time of release, Elevate includes the following products:

Giving Pages allows you to easily create donation forms for your website, allowing your organization to accept both single and recurring online donations. Gifts made through Giving Pages are designed to flow seamlessly into the NPSP.

Payment Services is a payment processing solution that allows NPSP organizations to process payments via Giving Pages or your own web donation forms. Using Payment Services you will also be able to process payments directly within Salesforce.

Engagement Hub is an online platform for your donors and volunteers, creating a central hub for giving and volunteering activities.

Elevate requires licensing. Read more details about the Elevate platform.

Which Nonprofit Success Pack Features are Right for Your Organization?

One of the best things about the Salesforce platform is the flexibility nonprofits can leverage to pick-and-choose features and add-on apps. This ability to expand on top of a platform is why many oroganizations opt for Salesforce instead of a closed-box, standalone, point solution.

With all this flexibility, comes complexity. That’s where consultants like Exponent Partners are key to your success. You need a trusted advisor when evaluating adding additional features and  enhancing your existing Salesforce architecture. We can help you navigate these new features and decide if, when, and how they can be implemented to ensure maximum impact. Contact us today to get started!

Read more information about Nonprofit Cloud’s new program and case management features in the 2020 release.

COVID-19: Philanthropy’s Moment of Truth

Posted in: Blog

By: Pamela Fitch

Since the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic in March, hundreds of grantmakers and foundations launched funding efforts to provide relief. The philanthropy sector has an unprecedented opportunity to loosen the fetters of institutional processes to ramp up impact, to fund innovatively, and encourage projects that address structural issues that limit equity during this public health crisis and beyond. 

What a Difference a Year Makes 

In March of 2019, I attended the PEAK Grantmaking conference in Denver. It is one of my favorite gatherings to connect with and learn from peers in the philanthropy sector. One lunch talk featured Edgar Villanueva, Vice President of Programs and Advocacy at the Schott Foundation and author of Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance. 

The thought-provoking discussion asked the audience to consider viewing our philanthropic work with a “decolonization” lens, to ensure our efforts restore balance and empower underrepresented groups. Villanueva described how money is a form of medicine in that it has the ability to heal the wounds of communities suffering under generations of economic disadvantage and exploitation. The philanthropy sector has a unique responsibility and opportunity to “move the money to where the hurt is the worst,” Villanueva said. 

Fast forward to March of 2020, and the PEAK conference planned in Seattle was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. In the months to follow, many marginalized communities across the nation are reeling from the fallout with higher rates of illnesses and deaths among the most vulnerable in our society. The Coronavirus pandemic has illuminated and exacerbated the socioeconomic and racial disparities that have long existed in our society. If the philanthropy sector’s purpose is to promote the welfare of others, now is the time to step up and heed Villanueva’s call to action.

Villanueva’s Decolonizing Wealth Project (@DecolonizWealth) is leading by example by launching a rapid response fund to provide emergency support for the most vulnerable Native American families and communities impacted by COVID-19 in partnership with Native Americans in Philanthropy and the National Urban Indian Family Coalition. Using the Giving Circle platform Grapevine, the Native American Community Response Fund supports Native-led nonprofits in the spirit of solidarity, not charity. Also,  our friends at the NDN Collective continue their core mission serving the Native American community with an expanded COVID-19 response.

Getting Vision and Funds to the Frontlines

Candid Compilation of Funding for Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Candid, the organization formed when GuideStar and Foundation Center joined forces,  operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge about philanthropy at every level, and provide under-resourced nonprofit organizations with the tools they need to better fulfill their missions.

Candid has created a comprehensive online resource that compiles pandemic related grants information from across the sector for nonprofits seeking funding for response and relief efforts. Nearly 500 funders and their COVID-19 related grants are tracked by Candid. Visit their website to learn more. 

 

Families and Workers Fund 

Last week an alliance of grant makers and individual donors committed $7.1 million to launch the Families and Workers Fund, a new fund dedicated to serving the workers, families, and communities most devastated by the economic and health crises resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ford Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Open Society Foundations, the JPB Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Amalgamated Foundation contributed to help make grants for emergencies and for advocacy efforts to push for long-term policy efforts to reshape labor regulation. 

Doubling Their 2020 Giving

As COVID-19 has done an incredible job of revealing long-term structural inequities, foundations are responding to the opportunity to fund social justice. Libra Foundation is doing just that. They have doubled their giving from $25 million to $50 million for 2020. Their first round of grants is slated to give $22 million to social justice organizations.

Finding A Solution to the Testing Problem

The Rockefeller Foundation, led by Dr. Raj Shah, is introducing an ambitious and radical plan to access and network capacity to increase testing to 30 million Americans a week. The plan calls for tripling the current 1 million test per week in 6-8 weeks and increasing it ten-fold within 6 months. The Rockefeller Foundation is providing funding for their vision where they “… envision an America where everyone who needs a test can get one.”  #MeetingThisMoment

Additional Resources for Philanthropy Sector Professionals  

Still On(line)! PEAK 2020: Courage in Practice

PEAK Grantmaking is a community of 3,500 grants management professionals who lead the way in advancing equitable, effective practices. The 2020 conference originally planned for Seattle has shifted to an online series called PEAK 2020: Courage in Practice. The month-long virtual conference includes learning and networking opportunities starts May 5th with a Kick-off Happy Hour. Plus, PEAK recently launched a new COVID-19 Connect hub for members that contains the latest resources and invites members to share how their foundation is responding to the crisis and supporting grantees.

Not Only Money: Hewlett Foundation Nonprofit Resources

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, dedicated to advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world, recently published a thorough list of COVID-19 Nonprofit Resources that stretch beyond funds. Their compilation includes non-financial resources including guidance for board members, crisis management advice for leaders, and more. 

Do you know of other ways the philanthropic community is responding to the pandemic that I haven’t mentioned in this blog? Email me and let’s help each other spread the word.