Automating Membership Renewals with MACDC

Solving a Common Nonprofit Pain Point with Salesforce

Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations (MACDC) is a statewide association that supports the work of their 88 members through advocacy, capacity building trainings, technical assistance, and work that strengthens the entire sector. MACDC takes on an ambitious amount of work for a relatively lean staff. 501Partners worked with MACDC to implement Salesforce and automate membership renewals to give staff more time to focus on impact.

Prior to working with 501Partners, MACDC prepared membership renewal notices manually and sent them through the mail. Preparing these mailings was laborious and time intensive, as was tracking who had paid/not paid and sending out reminder invoices.

We helped MACDC create a solution using the automations of Salesforce, augmented with two additional apps: FormAssembly and WebMerge. FormAssembly is an online form tool that can bring information directly into Salesforce with its sophisticated integration.  WebMerge is a mail-merging tool that can be used to pull Salesforce data into any kind of format—PDF, Word Document, Excel, PPT, etc.

The Result:  MACDC now uses Salesforce to quickly send invoices, reminders, and easily report on what dues are collected and what renewals are still pending.

Our Process

We started by mapping MACDC’s business processes, then set up the FormAssembly and Webmerge apps in Salesforce with the appropriate customizations and automations.

Step 1: Map Business Processes

Note: This step was a key component to successfully architect the perfect solution. MACDC thoughtfully walked us through their needs and pain points.  

Step 2: FormAssembly

a) We configured a FormAssembly form to calculate dues based on type of membership and size of organization. It also collects MACDC’s required documentation (for example, IRS tax form 941) and allows MACDC to collect updated contact information so information remains current in Salesforce.

b) Next, an email template was set in Salesforce that linked to the FormAssembly form.

Step 3: WebMerge

We used WebMerge to create an invoice template that populated the appropriate fields from the opportunity for each member. WebMerge offers a built-in invoice template that can be used, making this easy to do.

As part of configuring this process, we set up a Process Builder to automate the reminders.

https://support.WebMerge.me/hc/en-us/articles/213187183-Automatically-Generate-Docs-with-Process-Builder

Takeaway

The combination of Salesforce with WebMerge and FormAssembly provided the solution MACDC needed. Thinking of automating your membership renewal process? Take a look at our blog post about when to automate in Salesforce or contact us to schedule a quick introductory phone call.

Stefanie's photo

Stefanie Archer

Senior Salesforce Consultant

Stefanie has been involved with local nonprofits for the last 20 years, providing her familiarity with the needs of nonprofits in the Boston area. She has been working with nonprofits as a Salesforce consultant since 2013, and is a Certified Salesforce Administrator and Consultant. With over ten years of experience in professional organizing and creating information and project management systems, Stefanie has expertise in building customized organizational systems for individuals, nonprofits and small businesses. She has provided numerous trainings for individuals and groups on a variety of topics over the last 15 years.

Stefanie holds an MBA in Nonprofit Management from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

Elyse Bartlett

Author Elyse Bartlett

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