Summer of Salesforce – An opportunity for Non Profits to get things done and get more volunteers by Barb Dietz

So….  What is the Summer of Salesforce?

 

If you have ever asked the question….  How can I help our local Nonprofit organizations that use Salesforce – then the Summer of Salesforce may interest you.

 

As a Nonprofit Trailblazer community leader in Dallas, I also participated in other local trailblazer groups such as our Admin group, the Women In Tech group and I even dabbled in the local Developer group a few times.   Our local Trailblazer Community leaders are a tight-knit group and we try to share across groups to widen the reach we have in our community.   I noticed on several occasions our local Salesforce community members would continue to ask the question….  “How can I help out our local Nonprofits?”.  I could see the interest from all the groups and I knew as the Nonprofit group leader that there was a need from the Nonprofit side as well.

 

The next logical step was to figure out how to tackle this project to serve both the needs of the Nonprofit groups and the desires of the local Salesforce professionals to help.  Hence, the program the Summer of Salesforce was born.

 

The main objective of the program is to pair Salesforce professionals with the Nonprofit organizations using Salesforce to provide them some pro bono assistance, over the summer months, on their own schedules.   A way to give back to the local community Nonprofits.  As the program is evolving, we also found that with the abundance of volunteers, we could help more than just the local Nonprofits by pairing more than one volunteer with each Nonprofit.  We were able to pair up more seasoned volunteers with less experienced volunteers to provide the Nonprofit with some extra help while also providing some hands-on experience to the less seasoned Salesforce volunteers.

 

We used our local Trailblazer communities and social media to reach out and seek local Nonprofits and volunteers that would be interested in participating.  We ask the Nonprofit organizations and the volunteers interested in helping to complete an application, with focused questions that help to pair them up together.  From there, we evaluate the applications and pair the volunteers with the Nonprofit organizations.

 

To start the program off, we host a Kick-Off meeting to discuss the guidelines and expectations of the program, cover some basics about NPSP and introduce the pairings to each other for some get to know each other time.   From there the pairings go off and set their own schedules to work together over the course of the program (typically 8 – 10 weeks over the summer months).  We follow along and communicate on a regular basis, checking in to see how things are going.  We also had a local Salesforce Consultant host Office Hours to provide support to the volunteers, as needed.  During the program we survey the participants at regular intervals, to collect feedback and help assure that things are on track.

 

The conclusion of the program includes a Wrap-Up gathering, where we can share the experiences about what worked well, where we can improve and celebrate the successes!

 

The program has been a Win, Win, Win for all:

  • A Win for the Nonprofits as they get some needed assistance
  • A Win for the volunteers as they are provided an opportunity to Give Back to our local community
  • A Win for the volunteers as they also are able to gain experience and learn

 

If you are interested in more details about the Summer of Salesforce program for your area, feel free to contact me – I’d love to share the model and experiences with others that would want to start up the program in their local community.

Barb Dietz

I started my journey with Salesforce as an accidental admin and  I have been working in the Salesforce Ecosystem for just over 5 years.  I am passionate about the Trailblazer Communities and I love the #Ohana.  I Co-Lead the Dallas Nonprofit Trailblazer community and am also a member of the Event Planning Committee for Texas Dreamin’. I am 4x Salesforce certified and currently work at NTT DATA Services as a Salesforce Business Analyst. If you are interested in emailing Barb, please click here to email her directly on questions or you can also post your comments below.

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/bdietz972

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbdietz

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Author: buyan47

Hi there! My name is Buyan Thyagarajan. I am a Salesforce consultant specializing in Higher Education, Manufacturing and Marketing Automation. My blogs will help you to maximize your Salesforce CRM investments, prevent problems beforehand and make the right decisions. If you need to talk to me right away, you can email me at buyan47@gmail.com or call me at 302-438-4097

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