I often get asked – what is the Non-Profit Starter Pack (NPSP) for Salesforce CRM and do I need it?
In a nutshell, the Nonprofit starter pack is a series of five add-on packages that are added to the Salesforce CRM platform. One way to compare this is to having a PC with Windows operating system and having the Microsoft Office added to it. In this comparison, the Salesforce CRM provides the platform (windows operating system) and the Microsoft Office is equivalent to the add-on packages included in the Nonprofit starter pack.
The Nonprofit starter pack open sourced software package with developer contributions. And the best part of this deal is that Salesforce offers ten free licenses for free for non profit organisations. Read on to find out more.
The standard Salesforce CRM primarily deals with business-to-business type organisations and not individuals which is often the case for many Not-for-profit organisations. The NPSP addresses this by extending the existing data model and enabling a number of extensions that provide functionality to address specific not-for-profit needs.
The Nonprofit starter pack is an essential baseline for many NFP’s. However I have noticed that corporates or membership based organisations that deal with individuals as well as businesses can get some great benefits from installing one or more of the modules.
5 Modules To Install According To Your Needs
Each of the modules can be installed from the AppExchange. The modules included are:
- Contacts & Organisations
Enables the recording of Individuals (vs. Accounts and Contacts) and allows for donation (Opportunity) rollups apply to individuals.
- Households Allows the grouping of Contacts by their household (place where they live). Enables for sending out single mail-out to household and provides ability to see common phone and address details across household.
- Affiliations Track relationships between contacts and organisation (Accounts). Provides the ability to see employment history and relationships with other organisations (eg. Being on the board of multiple organisations)
- Relationships. Connect two contacts with each other. Mark the relationship and current status.
- Recurring Donations Quickly create a schedule of donations (Opportunities) at the Account or Contact level. Enables forecasting of pledge donations.
How To Get The Nonprofit Starter Pack
To get the NPSP, you can sign up for a trial account and apply for a grant of 10 free licenses from http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/tryitnow.
If you already have the Enterprise Edition or Higher of Salesforce CRM, then you can install the individual packages from https://appexchange.salesforce.com/industry/nonprofits or click links in package component details below. If installing the packages individually, please follow the post install instructions as failing to do so may mean the package will not work as desired.
Payments2Us has specific functionality to work seamlessly with the NPSP. When using the two packages together, the NPSP memberships and payment objects are not normally used and are hidden.
More Info On The NPSP
:
- See more details on the Salesforce Foundation, the Not for profit starter pack and applying for donated licenses at: http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/nonprofitstarterpack
- Support and knowledge articles are available at the foundation community hub at: http://powerofus.salesforcefoundation.org/publogin (requires salesforce username and password – only available for organisations that have been granted foundation licenses.
- Overview slide deck http://www.slideshare.net/salesforcefoundation/overview-of-the-nonprofit-starter-pack
- Youtube overview of the NPSP is available at: Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCfXkKOQbXM
- Attend your local Salesforce Non profit Usergroup meeting – join up at: https://success.salesforce.com/userGroups
Keep an eye out of future blog updates as we will be going into the NPSP modules in more detail.