Law 1: Commitment
Repeat after me: IF IT’S NOT IN SALESFORCE THEN IT DOES NOT EXIST.
It’s that simple. SalesForce, especially for nonprofit organizations, can be an incredibly powerful and valuable system. This means, however, that other systems must go away, reporting systems must get consolidated, and people must have the expectation that relevant information must find its way into SalesForce.
Have you ever asked yourself “When should I actually think about firing this employee?” I seem to recall success expert Brian Tracy’s recommendation that this should occur the first time the question arises. I definitely don’t endorse that notion, but waiting too long can subject your organization or department to what I call the Brenda Syndrome.
Membership is one of those features of the Nonprofit Starter Pack that seems to be shrouded in mystery. Sure, you’ve read the getting started guide and you have all the fields on your screens, but how do you actually manage your membership lifecycle using the NPSP?
The key is understanding that the NPSP is relatively passive out of the box – when you create a new membership donation, and enter dates in the Membership Start and Membership End date fields and choose a Membership Level and Membership Origin, those dates and selections will get copied up to the contact’s record. But they won’t get carried over into next year’s membership update automatically.
The Massachusetts Legislature recently approved a new sales tax on computer services. While the local business community has reacted with shock and vowed to have it repealed, the nonprofit community seems to have reacted with a collective shrug. After all, nonprofits are exempt from the tax, so why should they care?
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