Technological tools are now available for dozens of administrative processes, including volunteer management. One of the best tools is Volunteers for Salesforce (V4S), which enables nonprofits to incorporate a number of volunteer tracking processes on its cloud-based system. More than 40,000 nonprofits are now taking advantage of Salesforce donations and discounts to streamline their processes!
Volunteers 4 Salesforce is free to any nonprofit user. However, it is more effective if used in combination with volunteer management software because V4S allows storage of volunteer data in your Salesforce instance, but still requires you to record that data in Salesforce by hand. Golden automates all the collection of that data directly into Volunteers for Salesforce, so you don’t have to do any data entry manually. One of the best software systems out there is Golden, the go-to resource for nonprofit giants like the United Way and Habitat for Humanity to create beautiful websites and mobile apps for your organization to publish volunteer opportunities, recruit, retain, track impact data, and more related to your volunteer program - whether it’s a grassroots initiative or a global program.
Not only does Golden integrate data with Salesforce, but it helps you do so in meaningful ways that increase the efficacy of volunteer management. At the same time, it makes the process simpler. All you need to do is fully understand the implications and spend a few minutes setting it up.
Volunteers for Salesforce (V4S) is an open-source tool developed in 2007, worked into the Salesforce nonprofit suite of services, and is free to qualifying organizations. It helps digitize and automate different administrative processes, such as:
Salesforce is a powerful tool, but its focus is on customer relationship management (CRM). Volunteers 4 Salesforce helps nonprofits keep data integrated, but it lacks certain features.
The easiest way to think of Salesforce is as a central place for all of your data to live, so it can automate other processes you may have such as fundraising, data visualization, and marketing communication, but none of those processes will yield meaningful results unless the data powering them is timely, complete, and accurate. Automation will give you high quality data instantly, and will also give you all your time back that you would have sent entering it in by hand to Salesforce.
Golden’s integration fills the gaps in those service areas and makes Salesforce tools easier to use. It also helps nonprofits take greater advantage of the data from the CRM in Salesforce to maximize recruitment potential and improve front-facing details of the volunteer management process.
You can save 90% or more of nonprofit administrative time on volunteer management since Golden is compatible with Salesforce. Time-saving is found in the following ways:
At the same time, you receive a much stronger interface to work with and recruit volunteers.
Golden is the top-recommended volunteer management solution by Salesforce, System Implementers (“SI’s”), and independent parties, alike.
Golden is the top-level Independent Service Provider (“ISV”) for Salesforce, meaning it has gone through several years of product, security, technology, and business planning review by Salesforce’s internal team and external partner community.
Golden’s Salesforce Integration has been built natively with APEX code (Salesforce’s own programming language), and Lightning-ready user interface (Salesforce’s own design language), so that it looks and works seamlessly within the Salesforce environment, is easy to find and install, and can be configured by anyone with administrative permissions - not just programmers.
Golden handles use cases that would otherwise be impossible, such as support for hierarchical organizations with chapters and programs, multinational regulatory compliance, branded products, Single Sign-on (“SSO”), payment processing, robust user profiling, multi-channel notification delivery, volunteering with the #1 rated iOS and Android apps, and much more.
Golden supports many of the most demanding Salesforce users on the planet, including UNICEF, the State of California, and Remote Area Medical.
What Golden does is automate the data collection itself.
Information entered into Golden is seamlessly integrated with a nonprofit’s Salesforce data, and vice versa in some instances. Every time a volunteer enters data into Golden, Golden links the information to an existing Salesforce contact or creates one.
Also, a nonprofit can import lists, records, and some other data from Salesforce for initial data sets later on to Golden Groups. For example, if new volunteer data is collected through your website, you can push their contact information and hours to your volunteer event or group set up on Golden.
Limited time offer! For a limited time, organizations can access a free demo of our advanced volunteer management software.
Once the integration is complete, Golden automatically syncs contact information, volunteer opportunities and time slots, and attendance status with completed hours.
You can set up even more advanced features, mapping particular data points to different destinations within Salesforce.
Since Golden is compatible with Salesforce, the process is simple and will only take a few minutes of your time.
Make sure you are subscribed to Golden’s professional plans.
Go to AppExchange, find Golden Volunteer Application, and install it.
You will need to assign a user so that they have permission to integrate data. You can optionally assign more users for Golden from within your team to allow permissions for more people to access the data.
Ensure the integration settings are as you like in the Settings tab of the Golden application. It allows for customization based on your needs. You can skip this step if you do not need to customize the process.
Now all you need to do is connect your Golden account with Salesforce. Log into your organization on Golden’s dashboard and select the integrations tab. When you click “integrate” next to the Salesforce icon, you’ll need to authenticate the transaction by signing in as the primary user (step 2).
Golden will do the rest!
Now that you have your data integrated, you want to make use of it to maximize your volunteer management system. Here are some top ways you can take advantage of technological integration within your processes.
If you’re wondering any of the following questions, you are not alone!
Can Salesforce track volunteers? Salesforce will help you track your volunteers, but it requires a good amount of data entry. This is why a tool like Golden is helpful to use in concert with Salesforce.
How do nonprofits manage volunteers with Salesforce? Salesforce is a cloud-based tool, so you can access it from anywhere in the world on a computer or mobile phone with an Internet connection.
Volunteer management is time-consuming and often not rewarding! Yet nonprofits need to keep up with their systems to assure that they have the best help available.
Salesforce is a powerful CRM agent, but it works even better with a little bit of help from a smarter, integrated tech platform. This is why you need Golden.
Golden is compatible with Salesforce and improves the value of your data to new levels. With Golden, data becomes your friend instead of an administrative nightmare, because it is completely automated. You will be able to develop nuanced impact reports while successfully recruiting and retaining your volunteer base.