Up until a year and a half ago, nonprofits using Salesforce had only one choice. They would start with Salesforce, and then install the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). Today more than 50,000 nonprofits actively use it.
Then Salesforce introduced the Nonprofit Cloud (NPC). This edition provides nonprofit functionality built on the core platform. Features like fundraising and program management are simply enabled.
In concept, NPC makes sense. You want most things to be built on the core platform. You can also leverage components designed for other industries (Health Cloud or Education Cloud for example).
The challenge comes when doing actual implementation. At ground level, there are some legitimate concerns about using NPC. I’ve written about them in April: An update on NPSP vs NPC
So while Salesforce highly recommends NPC for all new implementations, I believe that’s not always in the best interest of nonprofits.
And I’m not alone with this sentiment. Here are some results from a recent comprehensive survey:
- NPC is more complex to build, requiring about 50% more time. This also makes it more complex for the end users.
- Salesforce agencies mostly have a mixed feeling about NPC, and there’s a greater number of them that have a more negative opinion than positive one
- 71% of Salesforce agencies will still build new implementations on NPSP, showing a hesitancy to use NPC.
If you want to read more about the survey, checkout Survey Results: Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud Adoption and Sentiment
The takeaway
The general impression I have is this: NPC may be a good choice for very large nonprofits. And that’s a strong “may”. But for small to large nonprofits, NPSP is probably still the best choice.