September 22, 2016 | Andrew Lawlor

At Dreamforce, Salesforce has unveiled the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), a powerful management system for charities and associations.

 

At Aptaria, we’re honored and excited to be an NPSP launch partner.

 

The Nonprofit Success Pack is a highly customizable starter platform. It will offer:

• A flexible database structure that you can modify for the needs of any organization
• The ability to oversee fundraising and programs from a single system
• Improved tracking tools and reports for maintaining relationships with donors and members

 

As a Salesforce.org Impact Partner, Aptaria has implemented Salesforce to help a range of nonprofits achieve their missions.

From our years of experience with Salesforce, we have 2 great tricks to share that will apply to the NPSP, as well.

 

The Power of 1 Rule

“I need to know how many people have donated to us this year.” Have you ever had a client make a request like this?

You could run a report on donations with contact roles.

But that will only give you the number of donations, not unique donors.

Of those donations, it’s likely that some donors have given multiple times.

 

To obtain a count of individual donors, you can use the Power of 1.

Here’s how it works:

1. Create a formula field with a “Type of Number” (set to no decimal places).
2. In the formula editor, enter the number 1 and save. (There’s no need to add this to the page layout.)
3. Add this new field to your report and sum it up.

 

Why does this work?

Whereas the report builder typically sums the number of records returned, a report following the Power of 1 rule will only add unique numbers.

Thus, the formula will return an accurate count of contacts.

 

Mass Edit via List View

Data manipulation is time-consuming.

When you pull a report, you need to update the data, export to CSV, change the information, fire up your DataLoader, map the fields to be updated, and press the “Go” button.

 

That’s 6 steps just to update 1 or 2 fields.

 

Fortunately, there’s a shortcut.

When I have to make a minor update to many records, the quickest and easiest way is to use the mass editor in a list view.

 

You still have to define your criteria, like you do when creating a report. However, after that, the changes take just 3 clicks—and you’re done.

The best part? No Data Loader.

 

To make a mass update within a list view:

1. Create your list view with the criteria you need. One important detail to note: if you leverage record types, the record type must be included as a filter.
2. Save your list view.
3. Check the boxes next to the records to be updated (or select all). The rows will become highlighted at this point.
4. Double-click in the vicinity of the field you’re trying to update. A box will pop up asking you to define the value of the field. It will also ask if you want to update just one record or all records selected.
5. Set your field value, choose “update all records,” and save.

 

We hope that these tips help you unlock the potential of Salesforce’s Nonprofit Success Pack.

 

Are you searching for a Salesforce nonprofit developer?

 

Aptaria can bring you the advantages of Salesforce’s latest tools and products.

 

Our deep knowledge of Salesforce’s options and features lets us tailor systems to each organization’s specific demands.

 

Contact us, or read some of our Salesforce case studies in the nonprofit sector.