A Comprehensive Guide: Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) vs. Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) in Salesforce
November 24, 2023
This article was written by Hua Ping Tan, Director of Delivery.
Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) has emerged as one of the latest additions to the market, sparking numerous questions from clients and partners since its introduction in early 2023. The nonprofit space has evolved over the years, with Salesforce.org initially operating almost independently from Salesforce.com. The Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) served as Salesforce.org’s primary offering for nonprofits, evolving through the contributions of nonprofit professionals to benefit the larger Salesforce community. With the release of Nonprofit Cloud’s Fundraising in mid-October 2023, NPC has nearly achieved feature parity with NPSP. This now prompts a crucial question: what are the implications for nonprofits considering a migration to the Salesforce platform using NPC?
Something that I know for sure is that Salesforce continually strives to optimize its platform and digitally transform clients through cutting-edge technology; examples include AI and other platform tools such as Omnistudio. Likewise, one of the newest features introduced through NPC is Data Cloud, a revolutionary way to integrate data from multiple sources and translate it into meaningful information for organizations. While I won’t delve into Data Cloud in this discussion, this highlights Salesforce’s ongoing commitment to developing the latest tools that will become accessible across their clouds.
So, does this mean our recommendation is for all new clients to use NPC? Well, the answer depends on a few factors. In my experience, the best approach is to find the solution most scalable and suited to the client’s needs. The solution may vary due to several considerations, with 3 factors standing out:
Factor 1: Client Requirements
There may be scenarios where requirements are better met by leveraging one solution over the other. While most requirements are met or improved upon in NPC, some features, such as Address Management (NCOA Verification and Insights Data Integrity), Batch Data Import, and Giving Levels, are currently exclusive to NPSP. Salesforce may choose to implement these within NPC in the future, but as usual, we recommend making purchasing and solution design decisions based on what is readily available in the market.
Factor 2: Third-Party Vendor (ISV) Compatibility
Building a Salesforce solution often requires partnering with vendors who have developed robust solutions to fill target gaps. Often, these solutions sit over the existing Salesforce architecture. As NPC leverages a different data model from NPSP, we recommend checking with the independent software vendor (ISV) to see whether
The change in data model has affected the compatibility of their solution with NPC
They have it on their roadmap to develop an NPC-compatible version.
This may impact products that sit on Salesforce functionality related to payments, addresses, or use of the household model. As a result, if there are must-have solutions that are not NPC-compatible, this may influence the client to leverage NPSP instead.
Factor 3: Implementation Partner NPC Experience
A lot of thought and care has been put into NPC, and there are many new functionalities to be gained by moving to NPC. However, these functionalities also come with new best practices and (potentially) added complexity. This is crucial to consider, as it’s not a simple switch over to NPC. Depending on the implementation partner and use case, leveraging NPSP may be more advantageous due to historical expertise and trust in their ability to build a quality solution. In addition, this decision depends on the client’s appetite to leverage the newest solution, as it can also come with general risks of being a first mover in the market. Regardless of the choice, both can yield effective results, and it’s important for all parties to weigh the challenges and benefits of embracing new technologies.
What if My Organization is Already Using NPSP?
Many are asking, ‘What are the implications if we’re already using NPSP?’ One thing I can say for certain: NPSP is not going away. Organizations can continue using their current platform without worrying about NPSP being deprecated - but if the client has the desire, it is possible to migrate from NPSP to NPC to leverage their latest functionalities. Yet, NPSP and NPC should be considered as two distinct solutions with different data models, especially when it comes to the Account-Contact Relationship Model and how its functionality is structured.
When having considering migrating to NPC, you’d want to be mindful of the key topics that would need to take place:
How the current solution in NPSP will be transformed using the new data model.
What new features in NPC can be leveraged and configured.
How to transform the data between the two data models.
At Belmar, we are committed to partnering with our clients to find the solution that works best for them, as well as considering the challenges and benefits that are untapped through pursuing new technologies. If you’re interested in discussing the topic of NPC or exploring whether this is the right technology for you, our team of experts are here to partner alongside you. Click on the button below to start your journey!
