Key Takeaways: Salesforce to Blackbaud, Eh? Webinar

On July 13, Belmar Consulting Group in partnership with Salesforce held a Blackbaud to Salesforce, Eh? webinar that lead nearly 100 attendees through the journey of migrating from Blackbaud to Salesforce from the perspective of two organizations (The Mustard Seed & CNIB) who've been there and done it! The webinar was hosted by Sterrin Bird, Salesforce Nonprofit Advisor and she was joined by Karl Feltmate (Senior Manager, Stewardship and Donor Retention at The Mustard Seed) and Frank Lombardo ( Vice President of IT and Digital Ecosystems at Canadian National Institute for the Blind). Below are some of the highlights from their candid discussion:

What were some key reasons to consider switching from Blackbaud to Salesforce?

Future Trends: As Frank mentioned during the webinar, one of the key reasons he switched to Salesforce was due to researching other organizations that look like CNIB and observing what they were doing and where they were going. They were also in the process of digitizing everything and moving to the Cloud, so moving to Salesforce was technology that could handle CNIB’s new needs.

Salesforce Support and Security: From Frank’s experience, he noted how he was able to contact Salesforce with ease whenever there were issues or when they needed certain things to change. For Karl, their organization was in the midst of a transition after using Raiser’s Edge for 10 years, so the free Trailhead training tutorials that Salesforce offers was a huge bonus and deciding factor. Salesforce also utilizes Multifactor Authentication (MFA), which is an effective way to increase protection for user accounts against common threats like phishing attacks, credential stuffing, and account takeovers. With customer trust being of the highest priority at Salesforce, all customers are required to use MFA when accessing Salesforce products.

Built for Nonprofits: Salesforce has the Power of Us (P10) Program which gives eligible nonprofits access to 10 free subscriptions and discounts on products and Salesforce services. The features that accompany P10 were greatly beneficial for both Frank and Karl. Some features gave them the ability to pull their own reports and add integrations. In Karl’s words, “We have a 30,000 plus volunteer database, and so the ability to integrate the volunteers into that same constituent base and see a holistic picture of a constituent, was something that everybody dreamed of.”

How do I approach migrating to a new system without putting a pause to my organization’s activities?

Dedicate a Task Force: It isn’t sustainable to have your current employees add these transformational tasks onto their day-to-day duties, so getting someone who’s job description is to facilitate this change can be make or break the migration. The Mustard Seed brought in an analyst who had strong Salesforce experience, and they ended up keeping this person for 5 years because he drove business transformation and the health of the system! If you don’t have the resources to add an extra employee, find a change champion within your organization who isn’t afraid of technology. It can become a great professional development opportunity for that person on the team and create a sense of ownership.

How do I know if my organization is ready?

Put Your Organization First: In Frank’s perspective, “There is no ideal time, many nonprofit organizations don’t invest in themselves. If you’re a sales organization, you are going to sacrifice yourself to make your numbers. If you are a service organization, you are going to sacrifice yourself to keep your customers happy. I personally believe that organizations have to invest in themselves otherwise somewhere down the road, and there are a lot of companies that suffer from this, they will start to fail. If you need to make the transition, it doesn't matter if it’s 6 months out, or even a year out. It's like booking a vacation. Even though it may not be at an opportune time, that is an investment in myself and organizations must do the exact same thing.”

Evaluate Your Processes: One of the signs to look out for are if you are using processes that were created at the very start of your organization that aren’t applicable today. For example, you may have used filing cabinets to store all important documents back then, but is that still the best way? The opportunity to go through an evaluation is also the opportunity to see what you need to keep and what you throw away. You don’t need to repeat what you’re doing currently again in Salesforce, so take advantage of this time and review what is really necessary for your business. At the end of the day, you want to be able to work with your team to build a system that will help you raise more money for your cause.

If you’re interested in learning more about migrating your organization from Blackbaud or any other CRM to Salesforce, check out the full webinar recording on our Youtube channel here.