Salesforce Integration for Nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations using Salesforce have a powerful and flexible tool at their disposal to track constituent information, manage campaign income, and generate intelligence needed to make smart decisions.  In addition to the CRM capabilities that Salesforce provides, Nonprofit organizations also need purpose-built fundraising and advocacy tools. 

That is why we have integrated the Salsa Engage platform with Salesforce.  Available on the Salesforce AppExchange, Salsa Engage provides nonprofits with email marketing, fundraising, advocacy, and peer-to-peer event functionality.  This article focuses on the integration features nonprofit Salesforce users should be looking for.

Learn more about Salsa Engage functionality.  Note that Salsa also offers Salsa CRM for those nonprofit organizations not using Salesforce

Integration Overview

Salsa's approach to our integration with Salesforce was to provide a simple, easy-to-use integration that does not require technical expertise to set up or use.  We also wanted to provide a sophisticated toolset to allow users with more advanced needs to completely control the integration between Engage and Salesforce.   Whether or not you choose Salsa Engage to meet your fundraising and advocacy needs, consider the following when looking at integrated solutions for your Salesforce system.

6 Important Salesforce Integration Features

• Bi-Directional Integration: Integrated solutions may provide one-way integrations or bi-directional integrations.  One-way integrations allow you to collect data in one system and move it to another, but not the reverse.  Bi-directional integrations, such as that provided by Salsa Engage, allow information to flow in both directions.   Moreover, best-in-breed bi-directional integrations will automatically keep the two systems in sync. Salsa's integration tracks deletions, merges, and field updates -- ensuring the latest and most accurate data is available in both systems.
• User-Managed Settings: Integrations with Salesforce can often be complex, requiring an experienced Salesforce administrator or consultant to manage them.  A well-designed integration, however, can provide significant flexibility and control that can be managed by non-technical users.  For example, Engage for Salesforce provides a number of user-managed settings in one place.  Options for setting record defaults, field update rules, and sync scheduling are together and in a user-friendly interface.
• Standard and Custom Field Mappings: Strong integrations allow for user-definable field-mappings, but will also provide standard integrations that can quickly and easily be put in place.  Engage for Salesforce pre-configures standard mappings and provides user-friendly options for mapping.
• Use of Standard Salesforce Objects: Applications that integrate to Salesforce and rely heavily on custom Salesforce objects can complicate reporting and limit your ability to use other applications..  We made sure that Engage integrates with standard Salesforce objects, such as contacts and campaigns, so that organizations can take full advantage of built-in Salesforce reporting, dashboards, and roll-up features.
• Smart Content Matching ("de-duping"): Integrated systems inevitably create duplicate records that need to be resolved.  Engage for Salesforce takes full advantage of the powerful contact matching features found in Salesforce to proactively identify and prevent duplicates.
• Direct Integrations found on the Salesforce AppExchange: Applications that are on the Salesforce AppExchange meet Salesforce's rigorous standards for security and efficiency.  In addition, applications like Salsa Engage take advantage of the existing Salesforce API, which means that no middleware or additional software is required.

Whether you are integrating your Salesforce system with Salsa Engage or another tool, be sure to fully evaluate the way in which the applications are integrated!