Hey everyone! It's Stephanie
from Guiding Force Consulting and oftentimes I get the question is
Salesforce free for non-profits? So, I wanted to take a quick minute to break down
costs associated with a donor database system. So the answer in short is yes. Salesforce.org is
a very generous organization in that any eligible non-profit they will give you access to the
platform and 10 user licenses for free for life. So that is definitely a draw for people that
are looking to implement a new
system and I will tell you it is unlimited records! So, it's
not like some of the competitors that they charge you based on how many people are in your system.
Where does cost come in? Cost comes in with your Salesforce implementation. So getting your system
set up and customized, configured, having it very specific to your organization's needs is
where you're going to find cost. Once you have it implemented, if you have staff that are
trained well you should be off and running without addi
tional Salesforce support needed. Sometimes
organizations will want to bring on a certified administrator either on their staff or as an
independent contractor so they can just help with needs as they come up. They can help make sure
new staff are trained, they can help Implement new customizations and automations, they can
answer questions when somebody's getting an error message - it's basically like your own personal
customer support system. But that is completely optional! So, if you ha
ve staff that are well
versed in Salesforce, you don't have to hire anyone ongoing that can assist with your platform.
The other space where cost comes in is if you have specific integrations that you want to connect
to your Salesforce system. For example, if you want to be able to process credit card payments
right in Salesforce that's an integration that you would pay a third-party software to integrate
in your system. If you have event management tools and you want to integrate those wit
h your system
so they talk to one another - you can do that. That's typically a third-party organization and
there's cost associated. If you want to implement other programs sometimes they're free. For
example, MailChimp and Constant Contact are free, Slack is free, there's a bunch of free tools just
as there are paid tools. It really is dependent on your organization's needs and what your goals
are. So, talk with your implementation partner and learn a bit about what you need and what your
budget should look like. But one of my favorite things about Salesforce is it can be very, very
low cost to very small non-profits and it can have robust tools and systems available at a
very meager budget. So, as you're doing your shopping just take in those considerations that
you'll have some upfront costs and the cost for the long term are very a la carte based on your
needs. Hopefully this helps you in your shopping adventure when it comes to finding a perfect
donor database that fit
s your organization!
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