Soapbox Engage Blog

In our earlier post, we showed love to Lifetime Value as a tool for guiding fundraising success for your organization. We then shared a step-by-step recipe for extending the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack to calculate historical giving data for Contacts up to five years back as well as calculating a Contact's consecutive years of giving. In this how to recipe, we'll walk you through the final steps in calculating Gross Lifetime Value for your organization.

For a full overview of all steps in this series as well as a presentation of the strategy behind them, watch our 45-minute recorded webinar, Boost Donations with Data-Driven Fundraising: Lifetime Value and the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack.

In our previous post, we sang the praises of Lifetime Value as a powerful metric that can guide fundraising success for your organization. As we noted, to calculate Lifetime Value, you'll need to know your average donor lifespan, ideally for up to five years back. If you happen to be using the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack, you're well on your way to getting that number. In this how to recipe, we'll walk you through a few steps that surface this on the Contact record for easy calculation.

For a full overview of all steps in this series as well as a presentation of the strategy behind them, watch our power-packed 45-minute recorded webinar, Boost Donations with Data-Driven Fundraising: Lifetime Value and the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack.

A consistent string of beautiful spring days in DC. An evening celebrating progress towards equality. It's been a pretty good past week in the Salesforce non-profit world in Washington! Before I wrap up my wire story for tomorrow's newspaper, here's an evening edition of the PUB Crawl!

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

Return on Investment, Acquisition Rate, Conversion Rate, oh my! These and so many more fundraising statistics are helpful in their own way, dear nonprofit fundraiser, but so many can tempt one into simple snapshots of the past, leading to short-sightedness in the future. How can one avoid the temptation of the myopic and rejoice in clear-eyed, future-focused fundraising success?

Lifetime Value. (Cue angel choir).

Lifetime Value (LTV) transforms all of the donations you receive and the money spent acquiring them into a single, powerful number. That number can predict the future and, more importantly, grant the foresight to inform strategy so you can change that future, and raise more money at less cost to do more good.

But how does Lifetime Value help inform, and how do you find that powerful number for your own organization?

In our series of Salesforce how tos for increasing monthly gifts, we've detailed tactics you can implement within the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) to convert one-time donors to sustaining supporters. We presented recurring donation information directly on the Contact record using User Defined Rollups. We then used those new fields to create Levels that track recurring donor status and drive effective engagement strategy. And, most recently, we created User Defined Rollups and Levels that explicitly target one-time donors giving in the last 90 days as potential recurring donors. Today, we'll finalize the process by creating an Engagement Plan Template to be used for cultivating donors.

For a full overview of all steps in this series as well as a presentation of the strategy behind them, check out our recorded webinar Convert One-Time Donors to Sustaining Supporters: Strategy, Tactics, and the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack.

With the fantastic NPSP Sprint in Baltimore, and the Nonprofit Technology Conference in DC, It’s been a crazy past week. There's nothing better than sharing ideas and knowledge with members of our open source community, hitting the streets for 7am runs, staying awake into the late hours talking governor limits (all of that actually happened).

With more than 100 penguins now adopted in new homes, I'm able to refocus my energies back to the taps of knowledge here at the PUB Crawl. Grab a barstool and join me for a round of Salesforce news!

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

In recent posts, we've detailed step-by-step recipes anyone can use to turn their Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) instance into a monthly donor assembly plant. We've discussed using User Defined Rollups to display recurring donor data on the Contact. We provided details on how to create Levels that track recurring donor status and drive effective engagement strategy. Today, we'll bring both User Defined Rollups and Levels together to allow you to specifically cultivate recent one-time donors into recurring donors.

For a full overview of all steps in this series as well as a presentation of the strategy behind them, check out our recorded webinar Convert One-Time Donors to Sustaining Supporters: Strategy, Tactics, and the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack.

Between calisthenics in preparation for tomorrow's NPSP Community Sprint and the Nonprofit Technology Conference next week (look for our penguins and say hi!), I may have glanced at the gym's TV tuned to CNN. It looks like there's likely to be some strong headwinds coming towards many of our community's US-based organizations that receive federal funding. Ah, the joy of politics.

It's time to tighten those running shoelaces, amigos.

As gears in the nonprofit machine, we all need to bring our A-game, especially as we venture into uncertain times. So keep up the stretching routine, and substitute that workout drink with a glass of knowledge from the PUB Crawl to keep sharp. Let's dive in!

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

In our previous post, we provided a step-by-step recipe for extending the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) to present recurring donation information directly on the Contact record using User Defined Rollups. Today, we use those new fields to create Levels that track recurring donor status and drive effective engagement strategy.

For a full overview of all steps in this series as well as a presentation of the strategy behind them, check out our recorded webinar Convert One-Time Donors to Sustaining Supporters: Strategy, Tactics, and the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack.

I'm coming back down to earth after our Soapbox Engage annual retreat in Lake Tahoe. You can't help but leave an event like this without a sense of eternal optimism, and a feeling that all is right in the world, especially after days of brainstorming a better online world with a group of awesome folks. Letting off some steam by building a cave into a 15' wall of snow was pretty fun, too.

But then your flight back to DC gets canceled.

Just when I thought reality was hitting me over the head with a post-retreat wakeup call, I've been able to take the extra time to meet with fantastic Salesforce non-profiteers in San Francisco, spent time seeing a new puppy, and enjoy what those in SF are currently calling a "oh my goodness, it's actually sunny!!!" day. Not bad, not bad at all.

From our team of eternal optimists to yours, go get 'em. Here's your weekly dose of Salesforce knowledge!

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

To effectively nurture sustaining donors, you want more than smart strategy. You need to get the most from a quality constituent relationship management system (CRM) to aid in the effort. In the first of a series of posts, we offer specific step-by-step recipes for extending the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) to be a sustaining donor cultivation powerhouse. Today, we dive into how you can use the NPSP and its User Defined Rollups to present recurring donation information directly on the Contact record.

For a full overview of all steps in this series as well as a presentation of the strategy behind them, check out our recorded webinar Convert One-Time Donors to Sustaining Supporters: Strategy, Tactics, and the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack.

March is shaping up to be an exciting month in our non-profit Salesforce community. A huge addition of new reports added to the NPSP, the NPSP Community Sprint in Baltimore, the Nonprofit Technology Conference in DC...and who knows what we might hear on the Twitters!

To keep you pointed in the right direction, grab your explorer hat, pick up this compass, and follow me through the Salesforce world in this week's PUB Crawl!

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

We have a mantra that guides the development of our online engagement apps when integrating with Salesforce: stay true to the core. We do everything we can to leverage the functionality and data model inherent in Salesforce and the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), only creating something new when necessary. This mantra means that Soapbox's integrations are designed to work with Recurring Donations, Opportunities/Donations, Payments, Campaigns, each NPSP Account model and a host of other elements that comprise Salesforce and the Nonprofit Success Pack. It also means that data winds up where the NPSP expects it to wind up.

There are a lot of reasons why we do this. And, with the release of NPSP Version 3.90, there are 71 more!

An amazing team of nonprofit experts in the Salesforce.org community just dropped 67 new Reports and 4 new Dashboards into the NPSP. They cover a dizzying array of common nonprofit scenarios across an insane number of aspects of the NPSP. And, since Soapbox places data where it's expected, they immediately empower our users to get even more out of Salesforce with their reporting and data analytics might.

Charitable donations are at record highs in the United States these days. The trend started in 2015, strengthened in 2016, and hit fever pitch with the election and inauguration. Sustainability of this historically high giving is in doubt, however, and savvy nonprofits are strategizing how they can both capture the moment and do so in a way that sustains them through uncertain times ahead.

Chief among these strategies should be a laser focus on amping up monthly donations that can keep on keeping on even if times get tough. But how?

With the temperature hitting 70F this week in DC, I'm starting to question the wisdom of ol' Punxsutawney Phil, who I spoke so glowingly about a few weeks ago. Come on Phil! Nonetheless, I will find a way to persevere and prepare for the early overtaking of DC by cheery blossom tourists. Also, if I must, I have a feeling this means nice lunchtime walks through Dupont Circle...burrito in tow.

My advice to you: if you're finding the weather to be unusually warm this season, make whatever you're drinking this morning on the rocks (a simple airport iced coffee for me today), and dive deep into this week’s Salesforce knowledge!

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

2017 is quickly flying by! Are you finding your nonprofit in need of a solid year-round fundraising strategy to ensure that your organization meets its mission? Never fear! It's not too late to plan for making this year your best fundraising year yet!

In this webinar given on January 12, 2017, veteran fundraiser and Professional Services Manager, Marisa Taylor, shares tips, tricks, and ideas for building your nonprofit fundraising calendar to transform planning into reality so you can engage and mobilize donors.

As many of us celebrate Valentine's Day, I can't think of a better way to show that special someone just how much you care about them...than by sharing the warmth of Salesforce knowledge. So push that bouquet of flowers aside, put down that box of chocolates, and enjoy some community goodness.

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

With the political sea change brought about by the new Trump administration, we're working with nonprofits to best understand what these new realities mean for their missions, their constituents, and their fundraising efforts. The following is a collection of what we're reading, what we're writing and speaking, and what tools are at nonprofits' disposal to ensure they're best prepared for the challenge.

We'll be updating this list periodically as we find relevant content. Have something you'd like to suggest? Email me at tim[at]picnet[dot]net.

The U.S. is experiencing a political sea change with the coming of the Trump administration. Folks are animated. They’re marching. They’re signing. They’re protesting. And they’re donating. They are looking for ways in which to channel strong feelings about the way the world is changing, seemingly by the minute. And, in part, they are turning to trusted nonprofits as a part of that answer. What does it all mean for your nonprofit and its mission?

In this webinar given on February 9, 2017, we dive into statistics, strategy and tactics you can use to calibrate your compass and make your nonprofit more seaworthy in these turbulent times.

Tears of joy have been shed, thank you's have been exhausted, and the confetti has fallen. And that's just the reactions from the Super Bowl party I hosted last night! No matter whose side you were on last night (including the "I just watched the commercials" side), I can't think of a better way to relax today than with a healthy round of knowledge at the PUB Crawl.

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!