Is Salesforce too big for small nonprofits?
Is Salesforce too big for small nonprofits?
This is a question that has been coming up more often recently - "Is Salesforce too big for what we need?" And it’s not really surprising given the constant buzz around this powerful and ever-growing platform. To sum up some of the concerns we are hearing:
“Salesforce is no doubt impressive with very deep and broad out of the box features BUT only a fraction of it seems relevant for us”
“We can’t relate to the huge companies that are used as examples to promote products and success stories – we want to hear how it has benefited organisations just like us”
“We don’t have any plans to scale and quite frankly are more concerned about short term survival in the current climate than a roadmap of development”
Our answer to these questions
As a Salesforce consulting partner that has specialised in supporting nonprofits of all sizes for over 12 years, we completely understand these perceptions. BUT our answer to the question “is Salesforce too big for us?” is No, absolutely not! Let me explain why.
We know that smaller nonprofits are looking for a solution that:
- guarantees compliance and security criteria
- is simple to use and not overwhelming
- empowers internal teams to be self-sufficient
- helps save time, increase efficiency and impact
- is cost-effective and offers clear value
Salesforce can definitely tick all of these boxes - in the right hands.
We have seen this time and time again having designed and built solutions for over a hundred nonprofits (many of whom are very small).
It is a fact that Salesforce is extremely feature-rich, an ever-growing ecosystem of specialist products with a myriad of options. And when you are comparing it to other solutions, it can get confusing because the cost models are completely different and so it’s like comparing apples with pears.
BUT the reason why so many nonprofits continue to choose Salesforce is because in amongst all the ‘noise’, there are ready-made features and modules that ARE extremely relevant to you. The ethos behind their Power of Us programme (that offers 10 user licences free of charge to qualifying nonprofits) still stands.
Irrespective of your size, your mission, your growth aspirations, you can benefit from the same cutting-edge tech as some of the world’s biggest companies at a fraction of the cost – even if you don’t need to use everything it offers!
So let me address those original concerns specifically…
“Only a fraction of Salesforce seems relevant for us”
You really do only need to see and use the bits that are relevant to you – the rest can be out of sight, either parked in case you need it later or never seen again!
What it offers is a level of flexibility that you just don’t get with most off the shelf products that have been around a while – so you don’t have to compromise and change the way you work to fit the system.
"We want to hear how it has benefited organisations just like us"
We completely agree and we can share lots of stories of smaller nonprofits who have transformed the way they work with Salesforce. They probably had the same concerns as you but are now seeing the benefits.
“We don’t have any plans to scale and quite frankly are more concerned about short term survival in the current climate than a roadmap of development”
Absolutely, which is why at Hyphen8 we aim to keep it simple for you. We can focus on delivering a solution that addresses what you need right now, cost-effectively and successfully bringing your people along the journey. Many of our solutions are module-based so you are not starting from scratch and we can train or support your users to fit with their skill levels and capacity.
At Hyphen8 we have a strong social purpose and one of our key values is to make a difference. We strongly believe that Salesforce IS the right choice for smaller nonprofits - even if you do only use the tip of the iceberg.
