Soapbox Engage Blog

Today marks the third anniversary of this newsletter, and I'm so happy you've read this far and haven't already sent it to your spam filter. But seriously, it's been fun reading all the great knowledge shared by the Salesforce non-profit community, and trying to make it just a little more understandable.

Today is also a few days after Dreamforce, which was my 9th year of the craziness that is the world's largest non-profit conference...wrapped up in what I think was a US national park tourist convention. So much information shared, I could spend the next 10 PUB Crawls just talking about it. But...

I've got our largest NPSP Day DC ever happening in 10 hours!

Thanks for giving me a chance to share what I find in our community's hive mind, and for continuing to prove that the knowledge knows no boundaries. Our community's open contribution of ideas and questions reminds me that when we set our collective vision further towards the future, we're destined for big, status quo changing things.

While I do last minute preparations to make sure the captain's hat fit just right for tomorrow, let's dive into last week's knowledge shared from the Power of Us Hub, shall we?

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Dreamforce is upon us, and as a native of the Bay Area, it's good to be back. After a rejuvenating few days at the Goat Farm Foundation retreat, my batteries are full and ready for some epic discussions.

Which reminds me...someone asked me, "how about gathering PUB Crawl readers at Dreamforce to discuss what we've seen at sessions and keynotes?" Sounds like a good idea to me!

On Wednesday, 12pm - 1pm, right outside the Westin St Francis Hotel in Union Square, take your lunch outside for an hour of meeting new friends and sharing opinions at the first ever PUB Crawlin'-palooza.

To find everyone, exit the Westin St Francis hotel, walk across the street to Union Square, and head to the north side of the square (on the right side of the photo above). Look for a 3-foot tall inflatable penguin. And me.

Let's spark some conversation!

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With so many new ways to start connecting your website’s online experience with Salesforce, there’s one really important thing to know: the spammers have already begun their attack on your Salesforce account.

Eeeek! How do we protect your Salesforce account from these nefarious hackers? Roll up your virtual sleeves, because we’re going to get ready to build a shield of protection for your Salesforce org.

It’s time to build a honey pot!

There’s an endless opportunity to reach out to your community through email marketing, but limited hours in the day to do it. How do you increase your engagement levels without increasing the level of effort needed to do it?

Most people think that in order to have an automated email marketing system with Salesforce, you need to spend a lot of money on a big complex marketing tool. Not true! Built right into Salesforce is something called “timed workflows”, which is a gem of a functionality you can use to send emails without ever needing to click a send button.

How? Read on my friend!

In our last thrilling episode, we demystified online payment processing with Salesforce. Done and done! Now, it’s time to chat about how we’re going to help you convert more bystanders into donors...and hopefully evangelists.

Let’s get ready to talk forms!

I often tell organizations to “think beyond the donate button.” The problem is that few visitors are going to come to your website for the first time and say, “I can’t wait to give this organization some money!” Okay, maybe some will, but let’s assume that’s the minority of your visitors.

In one of my earlier posts, we discussed ladders of engagement. These are paths of engagement, moving bystanders to evangelists through a process of simple steps. Now, it’s time to put these ladders to work!

In our last post, we learned about the power of Leads. That’s great for contact data collection, but what about collecting moolah? Benjamins. Cheddar. Dough.

Let’s get more money into your bank account!

The world of online payments can be confusing by itself, without even thinking about how this would integrate with Salesforce. I want to help you understand exactly what’s going on, and how you can make life easy for your donors and staff to raise money for your organization.

I’m going outline how online payments work with Salesforce, step by step, so you can make sure you can find a system that works best for your needs.

In our last post, we flexed the right-side of our brains. Now it’s time to hit the weights on the left-side and learn about the world of supporter nurturing, Leads, and data cleanliness.

I know what you’re thinking. “What the heck are Leads? I’m not running a cold call sales center, I’m working at a non-profit and we want to raise money not sell cars.”

I totally understand, and if you’re not already using Leads in Salesforce, I’m here to blow your mind. Ready? Nearly every organization I’ve met can, and should, use Leads. Leads are not about sales. They’re about folks with whom you want to build a relationship but you haven’t qualified yet to determine if a relationship is mutually valuable.

You’re a learning machine, and in my last post I shared a ton of information about how to make the most of Salesforce Campaigns. Let’s cool the learning jets for a moment, and take a turn down the road of inspiration.

If you’re an organization on a tight budget, you probably don’t have the resources to hire a marketing strategy firm or a creative design agency to help you think outside the box to capture the attention of the world.

That’s why in this post I’ll show you website integration examples that convert more visitors, drawn from experience with organizations that made deep investments of time and testing...so you don’t have to!

Let’s dive in!

In our last post, we learned about online ladders of engagement, and how simply building online goal paths can lead to increased conversions.

Now it’s time for me to share the insider knowledge of using Salesforce to actually make those conversions happen. Think of it as your personal campaign to tool up on everything you need to encourage the world to join your mission.

Best yet, in this post we have a secret that can save your organization 50% on your cost to use Salesforce!

We want you to know the fast and simple ways you can use Salesforce to help your organization bring in more money, increase your newsletter sign-ups, and have a happier community of supporters.

Let’s get this party started!

To get started, you need to understand the bedrock of all online marketing for organizations using Salesforce: ladders of engagement. Why? Because Salesforce is just a tool. To really move the needle on engagement, we need to build a unique path to success that works right for your community.

The countdown clock is keeping track of the Time (capitalized on purpose...check your local news source for "Benioff") before the kick-off to Dreamforce next week, and I for one am, let's say, somewhat-kinda-ready.

If I've learned anything from Mr. Benioff, it's realizing that reaching a zen state is probably good for everyone's health. So, as a little pre-Dreamforce focusing opportunity, I took a chance to think among the giant Sierra Nevada mountains this past week, while also catching up on a little Trailhead and Salesforce knowledge.

And, as you recall last week, I'll be making a little meetup announcement for friends of the PUB Crawl right near the Nonprofit Zone at Dreamforce next week. Check your PUB Crawl newsletter early next Monday for more details! Here's to one last week before the chaos in SF begins.

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

If you don't live in San Francisco, you might not have that it's-Dreamforce-season sense quite yet. Reports from readers in the City by the Bay include the sights of Dreamforce beginning to blanket downtown San Francisco.

For all you PUB Crawlers, membership has its privileges. I have a special gift for all PUB Crawl subscribers (and their friends that become subscribers) at Dreamforce. I'll share more in next week's message, but let's just say that if you're like me and need a bit topped-up caffeine fix to stay awake during Dreamforce, I'll have a remedy.

Wherever today might find you, roll-up your sleeves, and get ready to dive into this week's dose of Salesforce community-delivered knowledge!

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

Whether the leaves are already turning and the temperatures are cooling or you’re still blasting the AC, it’s time to acknowledge that we are entering the final season of the year...and we don’t mean back-to-school. September officially kicks off the sprint toward the holiday and end-of-year giving season for nonprofits, which for many organizations begins now with the ever-growing and uber-successful #GivingTuesday (on November 27 this year).

In 2017, the sixth annual #GivingTuesday raised $274 million for nonprofits, a 50% increase over 2016. And in general, one third of annual giving occurs in December, and 11-12% of that happens in the final three days of the year. So it’s pretty clear that this is where the money is at -- and where your focus should be right now.

But whether you’ve got your campaign plan all nailed out or you’re just getting started (it’s okay, many nonprofits don’t even get started planning for EOY until October), we want to know -- how will prioritize your donors? Have you taken a look at your data to determine the best donor prospects that will help you achieve your holiday/EOY goals?

If the answer is “no,” or even “maybe?” then it’s time to figure that out now before you get too much farther. Given how chaotic this time of year can be, and how much effort goes into EOY campaigns, it’s essential that you use your resources effectively, and data is your friend in this case. While we’re not saying that you shouldn’t prepare messaging and campaign materials for your entire supporter list and the general public, we are saying that you should put a considerate amount of research, creativity, and development into crafting the best appeals for your strongest prospects.

What do we mean by this? We’ve outlined a few donor segments to explore within your mind palace, er, database, to help you hone in on the ones most likely to help you get to the finish line by the end of the year.

In the US, the end of summer is typically noted by today's Labor Day. Of course, rarely does DC weather give you the idea that summer is ending when a clear evening is still nearly 90F under the full moon.

From my looks of my inbox, it seems like kids have gone back to school, and parents are definitely back in the action at the office. So as we get ready to wrap up the season of vacationing, let's hop back on the knowledge bandwagon and saddle up for another round of Salesforce knowledge.

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, there's still some great opportunities to take a little time off the virtual trail, and hop outdoors onto the dirt trail. Before the NPSP Day tour picks up again, I've had a chance to clear my head a bit on the hiking paths of some of the great US National Parks, which considering the craziness that is US current affairs, seems to be a great centering exercise for me.

Before we dive into this week's round of Salesforce knowledge, take a deep breath, hold it for a moment, and let out that task-focused stressed. Feel better? Awesome. Let's dig in!

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The Montana non-profit Salesforce community came through yet again for an amazing NPSP Day Bozeman last week. The distance folks travel up there to come to a community gathering like this warms my open source heart!

While I'm still dusting off my shoes from some good hiking in the great outdoors of Yellowstone after the NPSP Day, let's dive into some highlights from last week's community discussions, shall we?

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Another end of the week, another long road trip for me. This time, just a quick scoot across the country on the open road. DC to California, with a lot of rolling hills in between. One of those great times to clear one's mind to good ideas, and catch-up on all those audiobooks you haven't listened to yet.

For those of you northern hemisphere friends getting the last bits of summer in (I can't believe I'm saying that), enjoy! Grab yourself a beverage, and enjoy this week's PUB Crawl.

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

I don't know about you, but after the success of the community sprint last week in Denver, it seems like the Hub has come out of a summer slumber with a roar. More ideas, more discussions, more energy!

Digesting all the ideas coming out of the recent NPSP Days and sprint, and an open mind after some great hikes in the southwest, I'll trek across the US on the open road later this week. I'm eager for any audio books you recommend (just hit reply)!

Just as soon as I hit the West Coast, it's right back to Montana for next week's NPSP Day Bozeman! Until next week, roll down the windows, turn up the radio, and let the open road fill your mind with new ideas to share with the community. Here's your weekly round of knowledge!

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!

“Umm, yeahhhh, I’m gonna need you to run that report...by tomorrow.” No, it’s not just a riff on a line from that cult classic, Office Space. It’s probably something you’ve heard from your boss or said as the boss more than once if you work at a nonprofit. Because let’s face it, while nonprofits aren’t businesses, the numbers do matter, and fundraisers and communicators need data to back up the way we operate, show value, and illustrate impact.

A quick stretch of back-to-back NPSP Days in Portland and San Francisco flew by last week, propelled by some of the best doughnuts the Pacific Northwest had to offer (that's Blue Star, for you non-locals). We've now officially turned the corner into the third year for these two cities, and it's exciting to see these unconferences evolve as the community changes shape.

Talking of change, a ton of it is about to happen this week in Denver, with the Salesforce.org open source community sprints. While our NPSP Days are focused more on knowledge sharing and training, these sprints are an opportunity for the community to develop the resources and code needed to support organizations around the world using HEDA and the NPSP.

While I'm way out here in Washington DC, I tip my captain's hat to the fine folks rallying together in Denver. May the open source spirit carry you across the sprinting finish line!

Don't forget, you can have the goodness of the PUB Crawl delivered into your inbox each Monday morning by subscribing today!