Improving the Nonprofit Starter Pack

A couple weeks ago two NPower database consultants, V and Laura, took a trip to San Francisco to participate in the Salesforce Developer Sprint. The Sprint brings together a small group of developers for the purpose of improving the Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack (NPSP). As a variation of a standard Salesforce CRM database, the NPSP includes additional features a nonprofit organization would need to manage their relationships, track donations, and administer programs. It is currently in use by over 2,500 nonprofits worldwide. Because of its wide-spread use, improving the NPSP results in sector-wide impact by increasing the efficiency of thousands of organizations and contributing immeasurably to the betterment of our communities.

This year’s Developer Sprint group included a large contingent from Seattle (in addition to the two NPower staffers, local nonprofit Groundwire sent a couple representatives), staff from both the Salesforce.com company and Salesforce.com Foundation, and staff from Facebook and Exponent Partners. The work done by these volunteer developers is an essential component to keeping the NPSP up-to-date and ready to respond to the changing needs of nonprofit organizations. The small staff at the Salesforce Foundation rely on time with this team to brainstorm strategic and innovative ways to improve the system, and determine how to put those improvements into practice.

This year’s team worked on about five different projects. V’s team focused on batched entry of data, developing a generic screen that would allow nonprofit staffers to enter large amounts of information in a shorter amount of time. That might mean being able to enter several donations at a time (for example, from a special event) without having to navigate to each individual’s contact screen to make the entries. This improvement could save hundreds of hours over the course of a year, freeing up staff to focus on more important aspects of their organization’s mission. And that is just one of the many exciting changes in the hopper.

Of course, being a member of NPower means that you know when to take a break and have a little fun. V and Laura were able to get out and enjoy San Francisco while they were there, eating good food and enjoying a beer or two. Thanks to the generosity of the Salesforce Foundation, the developer group was treated to dinner and drinks at a couple well-known local establishments including Osha Thai and the R & G Lounge. Overall, the trip was a success. To quote Laura, “There’s nothing more fun for geeks than sitting in a room full of geeks working on geeky stuff!”

Look for more information on updates to the Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack in the not-too-distant future. If you want a more technical explanation of what went down at the Sprint, check out this blog post from Salesforce.com Foundation Solutions Architect Steve Andersen. If you want to learn more about how a Salesforce database can help your organization work more effectively toward meeting your mission, check out our training calendar for the Salesforce Foundations training class.

- Mandi Moshay