The Salesforce Winter ’25 release brings exciting updates to Nonprofit Cloud, introducing new features and enhancing existing tools to empower nonprofit organizations. From improved fundraising and marketing capabilities to advanced program management and grantmaking enhancements, this release offers a comprehensive suite of updates designed to streamline operations and boost efficiency. Let’s dive into the key highlights and explore how these changes can benefit your nonprofit organization.
Key Highlights of the Winter ’25 Release for Salesforce for Nonprofits:
- Enhanced functionality to generate and download lists of donors from bulk acknowledgment batches
- Customized donor briefs for targeted outreach and personalized engagement
- Ability to manage multiple addresses for person accounts, including seasonal and historical address tracking
- Addition of Provider Management to the Program Management suite, featuring customizable criteria-based searching
- Streamlined grantmaking processes with enhanced review workspaces, configurable progress reports, and flow-based form support
We encourage you to review these highlights and the release notes thoroughly and explore the new features to see how they can benefit your team and clients.
Release Timeline + Key Dates
The Salesforce Winter ’25 release will be rolled out according to the following schedule:
- Pre-release Preview: Available from September 8, 2024
- Sandbox Preview: Starts rolling out on September 15, 2024
- Production Release: Phased rollout from October 5 to October 12, 2024
Key Dates:
- September 8, 2024: Pre-release org available for testing
- September 15, 2024: Sandbox preview begins
- October 5, 2024: Start of production org rollouts
- October 12, 2024: All instances updated to Winter ’25
Important: Specific release dates for individual instances will be available approximately 3-4 weeks before the start of the release window. Clients should check their Salesforce Trust page for exact dates applicable to their instances.
Action Items:
- Review release notes and plan for new feature adoption
- Test critical functionality in sandbox environments
- Prepare end users for any significant changes
- Schedule any necessary downtime or maintenance around your specific release date
For more detailed information on the release schedule, please visit: Salesforce Winter ’25 Release Date + Preview Information.
Fundraising and Marketing Enhancements
Donor Briefs
Overview: The donor profile in Nonprofit Cloud is designed to help key staff members quickly familiarize themselves with essential information before important meetings. Administrators can customize templates to include insights into donor demographics, giving history, and engagement levels. By sharing this summary via email or print, stakeholders can prepare effectively and engage in informed discussions about donor relationships and strategies.
Feature Details: This is a new quick action on the donor profile that utilizes the document generation functionality available in Nonprofit Cloud. You can create and customize templates for when the user clicks the quick action button. The donor brief will be generated as a PDF and saved in the Notes and Attachments section of the donor profile.
Resources:
Donor Brief Release Notes
Create Donor Brief Documentation
Plative Perspective: Setting up the document generation functionality and templates requires some expertise and time. Once established, it will assist Major Gifts Officers and others in quickly getting to know important stakeholders. This functionality can be particularly useful for customizing pitches to specific donors based on the available data.
Risks and Considerations: This process requires the configuration of DocGen, and you will need to add the template(s) to the Design Document Template app. While the setup may take some time, it should require little ongoing maintenance, apart from any updates the team may want to implement for the templates. Keep in mind that the document is generated and stored in the Notes & Attachments related list, which operates differently from the Files related list, offering less functionality and versatility.
Multiple Address Management
Overview: The new address synchronization feature for Nonprofit Cloud is designed to simplify the management of donor addresses. Administrators can activate automatic mailing address synchronization and customize settings to include seasonal and historical addresses, ensuring that the most relevant information is easily accessible. By leveraging this functionality, stakeholders can maintain accurate donor profiles and effectively track primary and undeliverable addresses.
Feature Details: The multiple address functionality is currently only available for Person Accounts and syncs the mailing address with a Contact Point Address. This feature enables users to track whether an address is primary or undeliverable, making this information easily accessible on the donor profile.
Resources:
Sync Person Account Mailing and Contact Point Addresses Release Notes
Manage Constituent Addresses Documentation
Plative Perspective: This is a helpful first step towards managing multiple constituent addresses. However, there are key limitations to keep in mind when implementing this change. This feature is currently only available for Person Accounts, meaning that tracking multiple addresses for Business Accounts is not yet supported. Additionally, there is no automation for seasonal addresses to update the primary address based on specific dates.
Risks and Considerations: Administrators should first clone and activate the record-triggered flow to sync the addresses before enabling the feature in Fundraising Settings. Please note that this functionality is currently only compatible with Person Accounts, and there is no automation for seasonal addresses at this time. While Salesforce may introduce this capability in future releases, it is not available in the current version. Additionally, multiple addresses are not supported through the BP API at this time.
Gift Commitment Soft Credits
Overview: Previously, Nonprofit Cloud only allowed the addition of soft credits to a Gift Transaction record after it was created. This new functionality enables users to add soft credit records to a Gift Commitment, allowing related Gift Transactions to inherit these credits when they are created according to the schedule.
Feature Details: Salesforce introduced a new object called Gift Default Soft Credit to manage this process. This object operates alongside the Gift Commitment Schedule record and is not applicable for non-scheduled Gift Commitments. Gift Transactions will be generated with a corresponding Gift Soft Credit(s) record based on the Gift Default Soft Credit(s).
Resources:
Capture Soft Credits on a Gift Commitment Release Notes
Capture Giving Influence with Soft Credits Documentation
Plative Perspective: This new feature is beneficial for pledges, recurring gifts, and other types of Gift Commitments for which a donor should receive soft credit. It’s important to note that this functionality only automates the creation of the Gift Transaction’s Gift Soft Credit record if it is scheduled. If it is not scheduled, the process will still need to be done manually.
Risks and Considerations: This functionality is not supported in Gift Entry. The Gift Default Soft Credit can only be created on the Gift Commitment record. When a Gift Transaction is created through the Gift Commitment Schedule, it inherits this functionality. However, if the Gift Default Soft Credit is updated after the related Gift Transaction and Gift Soft Credit records are created, those changes will not apply retroactively. Additionally, opportunities with soft credits added to Gift Commitment records are not currently available.
Gift Commitment Projected Revenue Rollups
Overview: Additional rollup fields on the Gift Commitment offer users a clear view of projected revenue at various time frames based on the Gift Commitment Schedule. These rollups can be found on the Gift Commitment record, Donor Giving Summary, and Outreach Summary components.
Feature Details: This update features the new rollup fields and their corresponding Data Processing Engine Definitions for calculating these values. These high-level revenue projections aim to facilitate data-driven decision-making by providing insights into the total for the current month, current year, current quarter, and next year.
Resources:
Track and Credit Pledges as Revenue Release Notes
Gift and Donor Trends Show as Rollups Documentation
Plative Perspective: These additional fields can assist organizations and development staff in projecting anticipated revenue based on actual donor commitments.
Risks and Considerations: Administrators should add these fields to the relevant components and make adjustments to the Gift Commitment page layout as necessary. These values depend on the Gift Commitment Schedule and are not compatible without it.
Bulk Source Codes
Overview: Users can now easily add multiple Outreach Source Codes to a Campaign simultaneously. This new functionality features a tabular data entry format, allowing for quick and easy record creation directly on the Campaign.
Feature Details: A new component in the Campaign allows users to enter separate Outreach Source Codes as rows in a table, streamlining data entry. Users can add up to 200 Outreach Source Codes using this feature, and administrators can customize the available and required columns for users to fill out.
Resources:
Bulk Create Outreach Source Codes Release Notes
Create Outreach Source Codes Documentation
Plative Perspective: This tool will streamline the process of creating and linking multiple communication channels to a single Campaign. The new functionality enhances the user experience and simplifies the organization of a large number of Outreach Source Codes simultaneously.
Risks and Considerations: Administrators have the ability to customize the fields that are viewable and required in the bulk entry tool. Please note that this new feature is compatible with a maximum of 200 Outreach Source Code records.
Bulk Acknowledgement Generation Donor List
Overview: Salesforce enhanced the bulk acknowledgment letter generation process to help users easily create and export a list of donors for whom the system generated letters.
Feature Details: Users can now easily check a box to generate the report list when creating acknowledgment letters. They also have the option to update the status of whether the tax receipt has been sent. Additionally, users can export the donor report to create mail merges and print labels for mailing the acknowledgment letters.
Resources:
Update the Tax Receipt Status and Generate a Donor Report Release Notes
Gift Acknowledgements and Tax Receipts Documentation
Plative Perspective: This functionality is beneficial for users who need to generate acknowledgment letters for printing and mailing. It allows them to easily export the list of donors and related information, making it simple to create labels and send them out.
Risks and Considerations: Administrators should ensure that the Tax Receipt Status field is included in the Gift Transaction page layout. When the box is checked to generate the list of donors, Salesforce automatically creates and links the report with these donors to the Document Generation Query Result record, along with the generated documents. Please note that this storage location cannot be updated at this time.
Gift Entry External ID
Overview: Administrators can now add an external ID field for users to utilize and search within the Gift Entry Tool. This involves creating a custom field designated as an external, unique ID field and incorporating it into the Fundraising Settings as the external ID for Gift Entry.
Resources:
Match Donors with External ID in Gift Entry Release Notes
Additional Information in “Turn On Fundraising” Documentation
Risks and Considerations: This functionality supports only one field for this purpose. It is designed to identify existing donors who were not created during the current Gift Entry process. Please note that enabling this feature may lead to slower loading times.
Program and Case Management Enhancements
Provider Management
Overview: Salesforce introduced the Provider Management functionality and data model from the Health Cloud infrastructure to support nonprofits in managing their provider networks and to simplify the referral process. This includes a customizable provider search to find providers based on the organization’s unique business needs.
Feature Details: Several new objects, fields, and enhanced functionality create the foundation for Provider Management in Nonprofit Cloud. This enables users to build and monitor a network of third-party providers and services, connecting program participants with valuable specialized services.
Resources:
Provider Management is Now Available for Nonprofit Cloud Release Notes
Provider Management in Public Sector Solutions Documentation
Plative Perspective: This will be a valuable tool for nonprofit organizations that frequently collaborate with external partners to create comprehensive case plans and services for participants in need. Administrators should be aware that configuring this tool will require time and expertise, particularly because there are no existing nonprofit templates for criteria-based searching.
Risks and Considerations: Administrators need to assign appropriate permission set licenses for users to access this functionality. Since Provide Management originated in Health Cloud, administrators may want to update the labels of objects and fields to align with their organization. There are not currently any nonprofit templates for criteria-based searching or provider portal Experience Cloud templates.
Approval Process Functionality
Several objects in Program Management within Nonprofit Cloud can now be utilized with approval processes. Approval processes are now available for the following objects:
- Public Complaint
- Complaint Case
- Complaint Participant
- Case Participant
- Care Plan
- Care Plan Template
- Care Plan Template Goal
- Care Plan Template Benefit
- Benefit Assignment
- Benefit Disbursement
- Goal Definition
- Goal Assignment
Additional Enhancements
The recent updates include the consolidation of advanced program management permission sets to streamline access and minimize confusion caused by previously having two separate sets. Additionally, the documentation for case management and program management has been enhanced to provide more comprehensive information in a single location.
Grantmaking Enhancements
Reviewer Workspace
Salesforce enhanced and simplified the portal reviewer experience in this release. Application reviewers can now access everything they need on a single screen to review the application details and provide their feedback.
Resources:
Review Submitted Applications from a Single Page Release Notes
Review and Manage Grant Applications Documentation
Progress Reports
Grantees can now conveniently submit their progress reports through the grantee portal. To set this up, administrators will need to complete a few steps, including setting up Omniscripts, Flexcards, or Flows to manage the process.
Resources:
View Progress Reports for Updates on Applications Release Notes
Set Up Progress Reports Documentation
Support for Flow-Based Forms
Administrators can now utilize flow-based forms in Nonprofit Cloud for Grantmaking for simpler use cases. This enhancement provides greater flexibility to use Flows or Omniscripts as needed and can be applied to sections of the grant applications, progress reports, and gathering reviewer feedback.
Resources:
Use Flow-Based Forms in Grantmaking Release Notes
Create a Flow That Launches a Grant Application Documentation
Einstein AI for Nonprofits
Generative AI in Beta
Salesforce has introduced four new generative AI capabilities leveraging Einstein Generative AI in beta for this release. These items will be available starting the week of October 21, 2024. These features aim to provide helpful summaries for Nonprofit Cloud, specifically for Program Management and Grantmaking. The beta items include:
- Creating a summary of a Program and its Benefits
- Summarizing notes for a quick catch-up
- Generating a streamlined version of the grant application for board review
- Creating a funding award summary
Resources:
Quickly Create a Summary of a Program and Its Benefits with Einstein (Beta) Release Notes
Catch Up On Notes by Using Einstein (Beta) Release Notes
Generate a Specialized Version of a Grant Application for Board Review (Beta) Release Notes
Create a Funding Award Summary with Einstein (Beta) Release Notes
Feature Retirements
Elevate Retirement
Starting October 1, 2024, Salesforce will retire the Elevate family of products. This includes the Elevate Power of Us Editions, Elevate Advanced Edition, and all related add-ons.
FoundationConnect Retirement
The final opportunity to renew foundationConnect subscriptions is January 31, 2025. Salesforce plans to retire and deactivate this product on January 31, 2026.
The Salesforce Winter ’25 release offers nonprofits a powerful set of tools to enhance operations and streamline processes. If you have any questions or need guidance on how these updates might impact your organization, the Plative team is here to help. Get in touch to explore how we can support your nonprofit in making the most of these new features.