Today’s nonprofits face growing challenges in managing their work and maximizing their impact. To keep their donors engaged and make the most of their resources, it is important to use digital tools, such as Salesforce Experience Cloud for nonprofits.
It will give nonprofits a great possibility to make an impact, as in this case they are four times more likely to reach their goals.
In this article, we’ll look at how to use Salesforce Experience Cloud for nonprofits to achieve your mission better.
Salesforce Experience Cloud is a comprehensive and secure platform specifically dedicated to building strong relationships.
Salesforce Experience Cloud for Nonprofits helps nonprofit organizations create and manage engaging online experiences for their stakeholders, engage with their communities, be more transparent, and create greater impact.
It gives nonprofit organizations the possibility to build branded portals, websites, and communities where donors, volunteers, staff, and beneficiaries can connect, collaborate, and access important resources.
As a result, nonprofit employees have a chance to easily manage donations, track engagement, share impact stories, and streamline operations while providing a personalized experience for each user group.
Salesforce Experience Cloud for nonprofits allows you to create personalized websites, online communities, and portals for building relationships with donors, volunteers, and stakeholders.
The platform offers ready-to-use templates, drag-and-drop tools, and can be integrated with other Salesforce products.
As a part of the Salesforce ecosystem, Experience Cloud for nonprofits has security, scalability, and regular updates, as well as special discounts for nonprofit organizations.
Let’s investigate in more detail why Experience Cloud is an optimal solution for nonprofits.
Experience Cloud for nonprofits has powerful tools to build stronger relationships with donors. Organizations can create personalized donor portals where supporters can view their giving history, update their contact information, manage recurring donations, conduct credit and debit card payments, adjust their giving amounts, and access their contribution records at any time. All this creates a transparent and trustworthy giving experience while simultaneously reducing the administrative burden on the nonprofit itself.
Experience Cloud for nonprofits can be used as a centralized hub for volunteer activities. Organizations can create dedicated spaces where volunteers will then browse available opportunities, sign up for shifts, and track their service hours.
The application process for volunteer programs becomes easier and more efficient, as potential volunteers can share their experiences, interests, and skills directly through the platform.
Experience Cloud enables nonprofits to manage multiple programs and initiatives from a single platform. Organizations can create separate communities or spaces for different programs, each with its own set of resources, participants, and goals.
In turn, program managers can track progress, generate reports, and review and analyze the results using customizable dashboards. This approach ensures better coordination and more efficient resource allocation across various initiatives.
Salesforce provides robust reporting and analytics capabilities as a part of the standard package. It is possible to set up, customize, and create custom reports and dashboards to track key metrics, monitor program performance, and measure impact.
The data from Experience Cloud for nonprofits can then be shared with stakeholders in a user-friendly way, as Salesforce also provides an ability to filter, group, and visualize data, which it easier to identify trends, challenges, and opportunities for improvement.
Experience Cloud allows you to create branded digital experiences that align with an organization’s identity. The platform has extensive customization options for creating sites that match the organization’s look and feel.
Nonprofits can design specific user journeys, control access levels, and create targeted content for different stakeholder groups. This level of customization ensures that the digital experience reflects the organization’s mission and values and matches its community.
Ascnedix provides Salesforce Experience Cloud customization and implementation services to make it fully tailored to your nonprofit’s needs.
Salesforce is an extremely versatile platform and there are multiple ways to use Salesforce Experience Cloud for nonprofits. Before we fully dive into the details of how this can be accomplished, let’s briefly overview how your nonprofit can benefit from Salesforce Experience Cloud:
| Site or portal idea | Customization possibilities |
|---|---|
| Donor Management Portal | Create a portal with personalized dashboards that show donation history, impact metrics, and recurring payment tools. Add features for ‘thank you’ notifications and automated tax receipt generation. |
| Volunteer Hub | Build a community hub for convenient volunteer management. Add features like shift scheduling, hour tracking, training resources, and reporting capabilities. |
| Program Participant Portal | Develop secure portals for beneficiaries to access services, submit applications, track assistance, and communicate with case managers. |
| Grant Management Portals | Create grant application submission tools, review processes, and post-award management, including reporting and milestone tracking. |
| Event Management Portal | Launch event registration and management systems for fundraisers, workshops, and awareness campaigns. |
| Community Engagement Platform | Develop interactive spaces for supporters to connect, share stories, and participate in discussions about causes and programs. |
A donor portal can act as the central hub for all donor interactions, creating an engaging interaction experience with your supporters.
The portal’s functionality built on Experience Cloud for nonprofits can include
The volunteer management system can significantly streamline every aspect of volunteer engagement through a single comprehensive digital platform. The nonprofit team would have a chance to easily manage the volunteers and match them with relevant tasks, while volunteers get a chance to review the details of each project and decide which one they want to participate in.
Some of the key features you may want to include in your Experience Cloud for nonprofits may be:
Salesforce Experience Cloud can be used to transform the grant management system from a complex process into a streamlined, digital workflow. To accomplish this, you could implement the following features and tools:
The event management center can be created using Salesforce Experience Cloud for nonprofits as a solution for planning, executing, and evaluating both virtual and in-person events.
Event coordinators can create detailed event pages with custom registration forms, pricing tiers, and capacity limits. Additionally, the following features can be implemented:
The resource & knowledge center is one of the best ways to use Salesforce Experience Cloud for nonprofits (right after creating the donor management system). The knowledge hub would serve as a comprehensive digital library that unites all organizational knowledge and educational materials in one place, making them easily accessible.
The resources in the knowledge center can be organized by categories and keywords so that users can easily get relevant information. The platform supports various content types, including articles, videos, webinars, templates, and best practice guides.
Moreover, Experience Cloud could be customized to make some or all of the resources available to different kinds of users based on their roles, interests, or program participation.
It is also possible to build shared knowledge centers by implementing forums and encouraging knowledge sharing among community members and experts, as well as increasing engagement through setting up automated content notifications and updates.
To provide maximum transparency about their operations and most importantly the results and impact they make, nonprofits can utilize Salesforce Experience Cloud as a centralized solution for sharing their reports and tracking progress.
After defining the metrics and outcomes you want to track (such as attendance numbers or engagement rate), it is possible to use Salesforce Experience Cloud to create structured data collection forms that capture both quantitative and qualitative information about program activities, participant progress, and outcomes.
The platform then will be set up to aggregate this data and generate meaningful visualizations and reports, making it easy to identify trends and areas for improvement.
Nonprofit stakeholders always have something to say, as all of them are united by the mission they believe in. For this reason, a community engagement platform is an amazing idea, as it will provide all the stakeholders with a vibrant digital space where they can connect, collaborate, and contribute to your organization’s aim.
The platform based on Salesforce Experience Cloud for nonprofits can have multiple community spaces, each tailored to specific audience segments such as donors, volunteers, program participants, or staff. Your users can create profiles based on their involvement with the organization and connect with others who share similar interests or experiences on moderated discussion forums, interest groups, and through direct messaging.
Moreover, with an online Experience Cloud platform it is possible to manage content in your community, plan events, and boost overall engagement, as well as track community health and participation metrics in analytics tools.
Experience Cloud allows you to create a secure partner community where external organizations can collaborate with your nonprofit through authenticated, branded portals. Each partner organization can have its own login credentials and customized access levels based on partnership type and security requirements.
Key features of such a partner portal will include:
Before starting the build process, ensure you have the appropriate Salesforce edition with Experience Cloud licenses. The feature is available in Classic (not all orgs) and Lightning Salesforce Experiences, in Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions.
You would also need to gather the requirements to ensure all the desired business processes are covered in the portal. The best way to do so is to create a detailed document outlining your donor portal needs, including user roles, required features, and security considerations. Map out the expected user journey and identify which Salesforce objects you’ll need to expose to your donors.
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Begin in Salesforce Setup by enabling Experience Cloud for your organization. Navigate to Setup > Digital Experiences > Settings and enable the feature.
Create necessary user profiles for your donors, configuring appropriate object permissions and field-level security.
In this step, you can also set up a custom domain for your nonprofit, so that your site visitors see the branded content from the start. No worries – it is also possible to set up a custom domain later if you are not sure if you need it.
Set up sharing rules to control data access and visibility, aand dd administrator and moderator roles.
Move on to Digital Experiences in Setup and click ‘New’ to create your site. Choose the Customer Service template, which is basically a universal foundation for all the Salesforce portals. Configure basic site settings including your domain name, site administrator, and guest user access settings. Remember to select a customer service-focused template that aligns with your nonprofit needs.
Examples of Templates | Salesforce Experience Cloud for Nonprofits
The next step in setting up Salesforce Experience Cloud for nonprofits is using Experience Builder to establish your portal’s fundamental structure. You would need to create essential pages including:
At this stage, you will customize the required objects for your portal and handle the required data. You’ll need to set up the Salesforce objects and fields that will be exposed in your portal, typically including Opportunities (for donations), Contacts, and custom objects for specific program tracking. Remember to create record detail pages that show donation information in a user-friendly format, so that they are easily accessible to everyone.
Experience Cloud for Nonprofits allows you to implement comprehensive security measures including
Ways to Set Up Permissions in Experience Cloud for Nonprofits
We recommend integrating a widely used payment system into your Experience cloud for nonprofits to streamline the giving experience for donors. Implementing it would require setting up secure donation forms linked to payment processors like Stripe or PayPal. Once configured, your system will automatically handle payment confirmations and generate tax receipts for donors.
Apply your organization’s branding through Experience Builder’s theme customization options. You can choose from ready-made templates or create your own theme by adjusting the required elements, for instance, the size and color of your headers and footers, the navigation menu, or the fonts and colors for active text. Remember to create a cohesive visual experience that aligns with your main website and your nonprofit branding.
Example of a Branded Portal on Salesforce Experience Cloud
Configure communication channels within the portal:
Conduct thorough testing of all portal functions:
Prepare for launch by creating user documentation and support materials. If possible and there are enough resources, it is also advisable to set up a dedicated training program for staff who will manage the portal. Finally, create a launch communication plan for existing donors and review all security settings one final time before going live.
After launching your donor portal, it is vital to implement ongoing monitoring and maintenance procedures, such as
Remember to continuously gather user feedback and make iterative improvements to enhance the donor experience over time. Regular updates and maintenance will ensure your portal remains effective and secure.
While Salesforce Experience Cloud for nonprofits provides a powerful platform for creating engaging digital experiences, expert guidance is often needed to ensure that the potential and resources are used in the best possible way.
As a certified Salesforce consultant specializing in customizing the platform to meet the exact need of your business, Ascendix can help you transform your vision into reality.
Our team of Salesforce experts will help you:
Ready to enhance your digital presence with Salesforce Experience Cloud?
Contact us for a free consultation to discuss how we can help you leverage technology to further your mission.
A digital experience platform (aka DXP) is an integrated software framework that is used for managing personalized digital experiences across multiple channels. A digital experiences platform combines features used for content management, data analytics, and engagement tools. DXPs help organizations increase engagement and deliver consistent, personalized content and services across all company’s websites, mobile apps, and other digital touchpoints.
Salesforce Experience Cloud is a leading digital experience platform that can be used for fundraisers and donors. Experience Cloud for nonprofits can be tailored for donation management, constituent relationship management, and engagement increase. The platform integrates seamlessly with Salesforce’s Sales and Nonprofit Cloud, providing a unified solution for donor tracking and engagement, fundraising campaigns, and impact reporting.
Salesforce Experience Cloud is a prime example of a digital experience platform (DXP). Other notable DXPs include Adobe Experience Platform, Sitecore, and Liferay. These platforms offer various features like content management, personalization, analytics, and multi-channel delivery capabilities.
Salesforce’s Experience Cloud with a possible integration of Nonprofit Cloud is widely considered the best platform for nonprofit organizations. The platform provides specialized nonprofit management tools, donor relationship management, fundraising capabilities, grant management, and program management features. Its possibilities of impact measurement and community engagement, along with scalability and security, make it an ideal choice for nonprofit organizations of all sizes.
Yana is a professional in Salesforce consultancy services. She shares valuable insights about Salesforce products and services, helping businesses choose the best solution for their operations.
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