For new HomeKeeper users at Nonprofit organizations, the following article describes the two free Salesforce types you can choose from when acquiring your permanent Salesforce instance. Explore key features, pricing models, technical capabilities, and strategic implementation considerations for mission-driven organizations.

Introduction

When you acquire Salesforce for the first time, you will need to choose which “Edition” you want: the Non-Profit Cloud Edition or the Enterprise Edition with the Non-Profit Success Pack.

Both come with the 10 free licenses as donated through the Power of Us program, but have significant differences in features, how they're implemented, and long term costs once you use up the 10 free licenses. This guide reviews both options and how it impacts new and existing HomeKeeper users.

What is Nonprofit Cloud (NPC)?

Nonprofit Cloud (NPC) is a brand-new Salesforce Edition. This means that, to adopt it, you need a brand new Salesforce instance with the Nonprofit Cloud Edition. So, if you are new to Salesforce, no problem! Your new Salesforce instance will be Nonprofit Cloud (versus Sales/Service Cloud). However, if you already have Salesforce, you cannot install Nonprofit Cloud in your instance, and you would have to start fresh.

As promised by the Salesforce team, it is a unifier of products within the core data structure – meaning only one managed app gets installed, everything is included out-of-the-box, and it is ready to be configured, including (as of January 2024):

• Digital-First Fundraising Strategy & Gift Management
• Marketing-focused relationships, life events tracking
• Program and Case Management
• Outcomes, Impacts & Logic Model

Pricing Comparison

What does Non-Profit Cloud cost compared to the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) with the Enterprise Edition? 

We love this blog (free like a puppy, not free like a beer), which has crowd-sourced pricing information to make things more transparent. We created this nifty chart that compares the two:

Key Takeaways:

• 10 Free Licenses on Both! So, if you are a very small org that won’t go past 10, NPC is pretty safe.
• After the 10th License, NPC costs accelerate much faster at $720/user versus $495/user with NPSP.
• NPC introduces the Person Account model, which differs from Household or Individual accounts. It tracks relationships and service access on the Account versus the Contact.
• NPC created a new distinct data structure for Gift Management (individual donors) from Fundraising & Grant pursuits (still Opportunities).
• NPC also created different interface areas by persona – fundraisers, program managers, etc.
• Finally, the configuration pathways are very different. NPC has program areas defined by the data model, whereas NPSP allows more modular flexibility as you can install the features individually, in phases.
   

What Should My Organization Choose?

Overall, it’s tied to an assessment of capacity. At HomeKeeper, our primary goal is to ensure your successful, sustainable implementation.

First, there are some concerns with NPC. 

1. It is new to Salesforce and even newer to consultants. Marketing/fundraising, no problem! Mapping logic models and outcomes, on the other hand, is often new territory for consultants primarily focused on tech. 
2. While we value Salesforce's initiative on standardizing outcomes, impacts, and logic models, HomeKeeper was built on the promise of combining program management with social impact and industry-standard impact metrics. NPC's impact metrics may not align with organization—or industry-specific goals.

Two important questions you will want to ask yourselves:

1. Are you an organization about to jump in with limited tech resources, budgets, and staffing capacity? NPSP has a tried-and-true path of minimal cost, with defined phases and change management, and can be customized to achieve what NPC delivers.
    
2. Are you an organization with a strategic desire to unify all of your technology and business, with dedicated internal staff to oversee the SF implementation over 2-5 years, with a lot of complexity and unknowns, but the promise of a unified future? NPC is the vision for implementers to show how nonprofit organizations can accomplish that very thing.

What Does This Mean for New HomeKeeper Participating Organizations?

Salesforce Account Executives are encouraging the adoption of NPC, and with more features alongside the 10 free licenses, it’s an attractive proposition. We are concerned with the complexity of implementations given that it is such a new product, at least in the short term, while the partner community gets accustomed to this new product. But we’re taking steps now to ensure that HomeKeeper will work with both NPC and NPSP for the foreseeable future:

Short Term:

• We know now that HomeKeeper can co-exist seamlessly in an NPC instance – installation was complete and successful!
• We’re looking at Person Accounts and how our Services, Counseling/Education, Property, and other core records can sit alongside NPC in the Person Account views. 
• We’re looking at Opportunities and ensuring our Allocations and Payments function smoothly.

Mid-Long Term:

Our Development team is exploring the possibility of mapping HomeKeeper to core NPC functions such as:

• Outcomes
• Program Management
• Outbound Funds

What Does This Mean for Existing HomeKeeper Participating Organizations?

Over the past ten or so years, Salesforce has significantly improved its systems, interfaces, and features. On several occasions, it has enforced transitions to new features (like multi-factor authentication). On other occasions, it has made empty threats (like eliminating Classic). The Salesforce team has been upfront about the fact that they plan to maintain support for existing products, and we don’t have any reason to think otherwise.

The migration to a new Salesforce instance is a significant undertaking. For organizations that have been around for over 10 years and have substantial technical debt, transitioning may make sense. However, this is a long, detailed process. It will require significant expertise and includes many moving parts for an active organization. While Salesforce is assisting with this temporarily, eventually it will be up to the partner community (third-party consultants, advisors, etc.).

As such, we don’t anticipate existing organizations wanting to transition immediately, until support for existing applications becomes unmanageable or new features are prominent and of high/immediate value.