Salesforce Inc. said today that its dedicated Nonprofit Cloud platform is the latest product in its portfolio to benefit from an infusion of generative artificial intelligence.
In a new update, the company is introducing AI-powered tools to help nonprofits improve their operational efficiency, personalize donor engagement and discover more funding sources. Among the new features are AI-generated personalized gift proposals and succinct summaries of program success, grants, donor histories and more, the company said.
In addition, Salesforce unveiled an entirely new product called Data Cloud for Nonprofits, which is designed to help nonprofit organizations unify and harmonize their data, so as to provide a more complete view of donors, volunteers and program participants.
Salesforce debuted Nonprofit Cloud last year, introducing it as a customized version of its iconic customer relationship management platform. It provides all of the essential features found in the standard Salesforce CRM, together with specialist tools for nonprofit organizations.
Some of those specialized features include donor management capabilities, enabling nonprofits to create robust donor profiles that can aid in their outreach efforts. The platform also provides fundraising tools for organizations to process online donations, track corporate sponsorships and monitor the success of their fundraising campaigns. In addition, there are tools for keeping track of enrollment, attendance, participation and outcomes of nonprofits’ programs.
AI-generated outreach and summaries
With today’s update, Nonprofit Cloud integrates Salesforce’s Einstein 1 generative AI platform to provide a range of AI-powered tools that can improve the efficiency of their operations. For instance, the new fundraising gift proposals tools uses generative AI to craft personalized proposals based on the organization’s own data, such as what causes and programs a specific donor has supported in the past, and their previous interactions with the nonprofit. The idea is to reduce the time it takes for nonprofits to reach out to donors for financial support.
Meanwhile, Salesforce said the new Einstein Summaries feature will unlock a ton of value for nonprofits, helping them better understand the success of individual programs, improve their engagement with key donors, and simplify the grant review process by summarizing extensive applications into a single page.
As for Data Cloud for Nonprofits, it merges structured and unstructured data from different sources, such as Excel spreadsheets, donor databases, volunteer data sources and elsewhere, into a unified model. With this, nonprofits will be able to create more complete views of every stakeholder, including donors, volunteers and program participants. In turn, Salesforce said, this will help nonprofits to better understand how their programs are performing and the effectiveness of their fundraising efforts.
Nonprofits looking to leverage AI
According to Salesforce, nonprofits are crying out for such a platform. It cites the sixth edition of its annual Nonprofit Trends Report, which reveals an increasing desire among such organizations to diversify their fundraising strategies and reduce operational costs.
Lori Freeman, vice president and global general manager of nonprofit at Salesforce, said every nonprofit is looking to provide the best possible experience to its donors, volunteers and staff, as well as the people they serve.
“They have a lot to accomplish with limited resources,” she said. “Salesforce is helping nonprofits boost productivity by augmenting staff with AI, use data more effectively to build deeper relationships with their stakeholders, and ultimately, raise the funds needed to meet their mission.”
Salesforce said the new Data Cloud for Nonprofits platform is available starting today to Nonprofit Cloud Einstein 1 Sales or Service Edition customers, while the generative AI-powered fundraising gift proposals and summaries features will go live in the fall.
Some early adopters have already gotten their hands on the new capabilities though, and they say they’re impressed.
Julie Fleshman, chief executive of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, which aims to improve the lives of people affected by pancreatic cancer, said her organization has used Nonprofit Cloud to streamline its clinical trial finder and physician database initiatives with great success.
“Salesforce is helping us advance our mission,” she said. “[It is] making it easier to connect people who have been affected by pancreatic cancer with the right healthcare providers who specialize in pancreatic cancer treatment and the appropriate clinical trials.”