Salesforce Elevate: Everything You Need To Know
If you work for a nonprofit and you love technology and data, chances are you’ve used Salesforce’s suite of nonprofit solutions.
Salesforce in a for-profit setting can be, well, a real force. But in a nonprofit context, Salesforce makes donor acquisition, fundraising, and data-collection seamless.
We know the power of Salesforce – especially for nonprofits.
This is why we were so excited when we heard that Salesforce is coming out with a new nonprofit solution.
Salesforces calls its new solution Elevate.
In anticipation of this new product, and because we love Salesforce so much, we wanted to put together a robust article that tells you everything you need to know about the upcoming Elevate.
Below are some of the most interesting and helpful questions related to Salesforce Elevate.
What is Salesforce Elevate?
According to the Salesforce website, “Salesforce Elevate is a suite of integrated offerings for the nonprofit and education sectors that gives organizations a new way to convert visitors into committed advocates.”
In laymen’s terms, it’s Salesforce tailored to nonprofits and education industries.
In for-profit industries, Salesforce is used predominantly as an all-in-one marketing and technology solution. But the needs of the nonprofit and education sectors differ quite dramatically from most for-profit businesses.
So, Salesforce, seeing a need in the market, developed its Elevate solution.
The unique thing about designing a website with these sections in mind is that you can move these content blocks around in different arrangements. Like chords on a guitar, you can rearrange the sections and still create something beautiful and effective.
Here we’ll give you some quick tips on the sections of StoryBrand website design.
What are Salesforce Elevate’s “integrated solutions”?
There are three main products that makeup Salesforce Elevate.
Those products are:
- Payment Services
- Giving Pages
- Engagement Hub
- Philanthropy Cloud for Causes
Payment Services is an integrated payment processing capability that can be combined with your web donation form or Giving Pages.
Giving Pages are customizable and mobile-friendly forms that can accept single or recurring donations. This product is especially powerful when combined with Payment Services.
Engagement Hub allows nonprofits to engage with supporters and it provides custom recommendations for that supporter (such as campaigns they might be interested in or volunteering events).
Philanthropy Cloud for Causes allows employers to reach new donor bases and engage their employees enrolled in Salesforce’s Philanthropy Cloud. Put simply, it’s an administrative dashboard to manage employees who choose to run donation/volunteering campaigns for your nonprofit.
Finally, all these products within Salesforce Elevate can be integrated with the Salesforce CRM. This can give your nonprofit insightful data on where donors are coming from, how much they’re donating, and overall management of the relationship. It’s truly an end-to-end solution for nonprofits and educational institutions.
What Can I Use Salesforce Elevate For?
If you’re nonprofit is already using the Salesforce CRM, then there is quite a bit you can do with Salesforce Elevate. Even if you don’t use Salesforce’s CRM, Elevate can still be beneficial to your organization.
If you need a payment processing solution or you’re sick of paying processing fees of 5%, then Payment Services will be of significant use to you.
If you need a mobile-friendly donation form that is on-brand, then Giving Pages can help you out. We often find that this is a huge part missing from a nonprofit’s donation acquisition strategy. Nonprofits don’t know where to direct donors to or the form they have is off-brand or ineffective on mobile. You won’t have those problems with Giving Pages.
If you’re looking to tailor your fundraising campaigns to specific donors, perhaps even on autopilot, then Engagement Hub will be your savior.
If you’d like to reach the networks of your employees with fundraising and volunteer campaigns, then Philanthropy Cloud will serve you well.
Again, all of these products integrate with other Salesforce offerings, so, if you’ve already bought into their ecosystem, this will save you a lot of time in the long run. If you use another platform for forms or payment processing, then you’re just a few integrations away from running congruent campaigns.
What is the Cost of Salesforce Elevate?
At this time, Salesforce hasn’t released pricing information for Salesforce Elevate.
You can, however, reach out to their sales team for more information on the eventual pricing of the platform.
If you hear about their pricing options before we do, let us know on Twitter. We’re just as eager to know as you are!
Who Should Use Salesforce Elevate?
If you run a nonprofit or on the marketing team of a nonprofit, then you should consider using Salesforce Elevate. Additionally, if you are the president/principal of an educational institution, you should consider Elevate.
The Elevate platform was designed with nonprofits and educational institutions in mind. Tailored to the unique needs of both sectors, the Elevate platform could take your organization to the next level when it comes to donor or constituent management.
Alternatively, Salesforce Elevate might be a workable solution for a larger church. Churches and nonprofits often have similar needs. If you run a church and have invested in Salesforce Elevate, can you let us know how it’s working for you? We’d love to know.
When Will Salesforce Release Elevate?
At the time of this writing (August 2020), Salesforces states it will release Elevate and make it available to U.S. based customers in summer 2020.
Check back in on this section periodically as we will update you as soon as we hear of an official release date.
Why Should I Invest in Salesforce Elevate?
To put it simply, if you work in the nonprofit or education industries, you should invest in Salesforce Elevate for a few reasons:
Donor/ constituent management
Donor acquisition, management, and retention can make or break a nonprofit… Seriously. If there is a tool that will help streamline these tasks, then it will save you time and money. It will make it easier for you to make money too.
Donor/ constituent engagement
There is nothing more frustrating for a donor then dealing with a messed-up donation portal. Making this process easier for both the donor and the organization increases trust amongst the two. This means donors are more likely to give to your organization and tell others about it.
Scalability and security
Processing monetary transactions, especially on the internet, requires security. It’s standard for nonprofits in 2020. It will also cause donors to trust your organization more. A secure and stable platform that houses data also allows you to scale from 10 donors to 10,000 donors. In addition to donor acquisition, scalability could be the key to taking your nonprofit to the next level.
In Summary
Salesforce Elevate is a platform tailored to the specific needs of organizations in the nonprofit and education industries and is set to be released in summer 2020.
Four products make up the Elevate solution: Payment Services, Giving Pages, Engagement Hub, and Philanthropy Cloud for Causes. Which, together with the Salesforce CRM, make for an efficient and effective suite of products for nonprofits and educational organizations.
If you run a nonprofit or educational institution, you’ll want to consider adding Salesforce Elevate to your list of tools because of its donor management and engagement functionalities as well as its ease of scale and the overall security of the platform.
Didn’t see an answer to your Salesforce Elevate question? Tweet at us on Twitter with your question and we’ll add it.
If there’s information on Salesforce Elevate, we will provide it here.