How schools are innovating with Salesforce
Salesforce is a future-facing platform, meaning it constantly evolves to provide users with the latest CRM technology. To help understand how Salesforce can transform your school, we’ll explore a range of innovative use cases:
Integrating donor, alumni, and family portals
Two-way communication is essential when connecting with donors, alumni, and family members. Leading advancement teams are leveraging customized systems to do just that (and many use the help of an expert Salesforce implementation team to custom-build the ideal solution).
While many schools provide online accounts for students, alumni, and donors, Salesforce takes these portals to the next level. These portals allow donors and alumni to update basic information, share their interests and communications preferences, and easily find information they’re seeking. This solution is a win-win, helping stakeholders feel closer to your school while providing your advancement team with valuable data for donor outreach.
Here’s a practical example of the power of a Salesforce portal:
- Educational institutions enable donors to log in to the portal and access tax receipts for their donations.
- The portal captures information about donors and alumni, such as their levels of engagement with the institution, providing data for creating targeted fundraising and marketing campaigns.
Using a unified online space for fundraising and events
Some educational institutions that adopt Salesforce build integrated advancement portals using Experience Cloud and Education Cloud. The combined power of these portals lets alumni and donors complete multiple actions in one secure, branded space, such as:
- Make a gift and direct it to specific funds
- Register for events
- Update their contact information
- Access giving histories or tax receipts
The result is an online experience that feels seamless for both your advancement team and your stakeholders. Because Salesforce provides these capabilities out of the box and can be further customized with its integratable Clouds, institutions can create sophisticated donor and alumni experiences far more efficiently than if they attempted to custom-build similar solutions from scratch.
Leveraging product updates and community
Salesforce provides product updates and upgrades three times each year (Spring, Summer, and Winter). This automatic update cadence allows schools to benefit from the latest technology without the disruption or cost of major system overhauls.
In addition to automatic updates, ensure you stay on top of other news coming out of the Salesforce ecosystem. Keep an eye on their AppExchange listings and regularly visit the Trailblazer Community, which is full of fellow Salesforce users troubleshooting and sharing tips. For even deeper insights, leverage Trailhead, Salesforce’s comprehensive learning platform that offers digestible training exercises in a fun, gamified environment.
Optimizing change management and implementation strategy
Change management (the process of implementing a new program, software solution, or other widespread initiative) is essential for schools wanting to evolve with minimal disruption and maximum team buy-in. Change management involves creating a detailed implementation plan, training your advancement team, and collecting data to measure progress.
However, change management can cause more harm than good if not planned or executed correctly. : In order to implement Salesforce successfully, Heller Consulting brings a change management framework and methodology to ensure successful technology adoption.
Let’s say your school is trying to implement a new SIS. You could implement the following change management best practices:
- Tracking project progress. Create custom Salesforce dashboards for your projects to ensure you’re on track for a timely completion. For example, you might track data migration stages or staff onboarding sessions.
- Coordinating cross-team responsibilities. Salesforce’s task management features allow you to tailor your workflows. In our example, this could mean assigning logistical tech functions to the IT services team, whereas advancement team members are tasked with answering stakeholder questions.
- Gathering feedback. Collecting and acting on feedback in real time is crucial for achieving the best result possible. Deploy surveys during your SIS rollout every week to pinpoint trends that speak to larger implementation issues.
This approach works for all types of projects, not just software implementation! Before using Salesforce for your next change management initiative, ensure you have the tools and processes in place that will support your specific goals and project.
