In these trying times, nonprofit organizations and educational institutions have been particularly challenged. As COVID-19 (Coronavirus) spreads around the world, it has been bringing to halt schools, jobs, events, and more. Many organizations are bracing for the impact of this new reality and scrambling to keep afloat.
Nonprofits are suffering sustained staff and volunteer absence, cancellation of programs or events causing reduced revenue in a time when there is an increase in demand for services/support from their clients and communities.
Educational institutions are also struggling to keep the pace with their students’ learning, disruptions in internal assessments, and the cancellation of public assessments for qualifications or their replacement by an inferior alternative. This disruption is also affecting families: home schooling is a shock to both parents’ productivity and children’s social life and learning.
Photo by Kat Yukawa on Unsplash.
We at Empirical believe that the best way to overcome these challenges is by leveraging the technology at our disposal to help maintain trusted and lasting relationships with customers, supporters, and beneficiaries by delivering the experiences they deserve in changing times.
That’s why we wanted to share these programs, services and resources offered by Salesforce.org that educational institutions and nonprofits could take advantage of to help them to accomplish their mission in these troubling times.
Salesforce.org Licenses: The Power of Us program
The Power of Us program gives eligible Nonprofits and Education Institutions access to 10 Salesforce Enterprise Edition licenses (+ big discounts on additional licenses and services they purchase), 6 developer sandboxes, 1 configuration sandbox, 2,000 custom objects and unlimited tabs/apps, discounts on Salesforce training and events. It also includes access to Nonprofit and Higher Education specific events and webinars and discounts in the AppExchange on participating Apps and Consulting Partners.
Your organization must be recognized as a charitable, nonprofit, or nongovernmental organization in the country you are located. Nonprofit, public charity, foundation, K-12 or higher education institutions or systems are eligible for the Power of Us program. For more information about eligibility you can check the Power of Us Eligibility Guidelines.
Follow the Power of Us guidelines if you want to apply: For organizations located in the U.S. or Canada click here. If your organization is located outside the U.S. and Canada, click here.
As you will find in the guidelines, you must have an active trial which will become your permanent Salesforce Org to get started with the Power of Us program. Depending on which type of organization you are, you can apply for the Nonprofit Success Pack, the Education Data Architecture, or the K-12 Architecture Kit.
NONPROFIT SUCCESS PACK (NPSP)
In order to enable nonprofits to optimize fundraising and improve donor retention through the power of data, Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) adapts Salesforce to suit the needs of nonprofits. It adds pre-built components for constituent and donor management, equipped out of the box to help nonprofits manage and conduct fundraising more effectively. These capabilities can be extended with Salesforce integrations and AppExchange apps.
Be sure to check out this feature comparison between the NPSP enabled Enterprise Edition Sales Cloud and the regular one.
To apply for NPSP, go to this page and fill out the form to start a 30 day trial of Lightning Enterprise Edition. From the moment you start the trial you will have 30 days to complete the Power of Us application.
Pricing and comparison with regular orgs:
EDUCATION DATA ARCHITECTURE (EDA)
The EDA provides a common data model that supports the entire K-20 student journey. This open-source architecture can be found on GitHub, and it has been developed in collaboration with Salesforce’s education partners and customer community.
The EDA product includes pre-built standard objects that model student relationships with advisors and family members as well as affiliations to courses, extracurricular activities, and more. Institutions can save resources and time customizing Salesforce for education.
To apply for EDA, go to this page and fill out the form to start a 30 day trial of Lightning Enterprise Edition. From the moment you start the trial you will have 30 days to complete the Power of Us application.
Pricing and comparison with regular orgs:
K-12 ARCHITECTURE KIT
Similar to EDA, K-12 Architecture Kit provides schools with pre-built objects and page layouts based on a data model aligned to the Ed-Fi Alliance data standard designed to track student relationships with educators, staff, and family members as well as their participation in classes and other programs.
Create new groups for teams, Set up automatic alerts. Enable secure, asynchronous notes and messaging, and more.
To apply for K-12 Architecture Kit, go to this page and fill out the form to start a 30 day trial of Lightning Enterprise Edition. From the moment you start the trial you will have 30 days to complete the Power of Us application.
Pro Bono Program
The Pro Bono Program matches non profits and higher education institutions with expert Salesforce employee volunteers to help them with their projects, providing the support they need for a successful Salesforce implementation.
To apply, organizations need a live instance (not a trial) of Salesforce and go to the Pro Bono Program Application page. Keep in mind that the program guidelines require a project that can be completed within a modest timeframe and doesn’t include third-party application set up, among other conditions. You will find more information in the application page.
Resources
POWER OF US HUB
If you have started a trial of the Power of Us program or if you are a current Salesforce.org customer, you are already a member of the Power of Us Hub.
The Power of Us Hub is Salesforce’s online community where you can ask questions and find answers, join and create groups, collaborate, share resources, and connect with people from the nonprofit, higher education or K-12 user community. You will also have access to documentation about the NPSP, EDA and K-12 products.
Check out Salesforce’s Get Started in the Power of Us Hub if you are already a member.
SUCCESS SERVICES
Salesforce’s Success Services provide Salesforce.org customers with Advisory Services, Strategic Services, Premier Success Plans, Fundraising Services, and more. For more information about these services visit the Success Services page.
TRAILHEAD
Trailhead is one of Empirical’s favorite online learning platforms. Anyone can use it for free, and it offers a gamified and practical learning experience. You can create your own training org for learners to play with the whole Salesforce experience first-hand without fear of breaking anything, coupled with many short to long term projects broke down into learning modules.
You can learn how to use Salesforce’s features to get the most out of the CRM solution, as well as in-demand skills like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning essentials, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and more. You can even earn resume-worthy credentials by proving your skills and connect to opportunities in the Trailblazer Community for mentorship and even finding jobs.
You can get started and try it for free here.
EVENTS, WEBINARS AND PODCASTS
Salesforce.org podcasts and webinars on demand cover many topics related to their industries, like preparing students for jobs, working with AI in higher education, how nonprofits can adapt to change during COVID-19, and many more.
Remember that you can also book a time with us for help. We at Empirical are also pleased to offer nonprofit pricing in support of our clients, now and always.
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