Salesforce.com Dreamforce Discount for Nonprofit Users

If you're not already familiar with the popular online customer relationship management (CRM) tool, Salesforce.com, you should get to know it. The software as a service (cloud) tool allows extraordinary levels of relationship tracking and management for companies and nonprofits worldwide. A few years back, the Salesforce Foundation started offering their services for free to nonprofits.

I was working at a small, but well-connected nonprofit at the time and we were an early adopter of Salesforce when it was very corporately modeled. Within a couple of years, Salesforce started offering a "nonprofit dashboard" which helped make the lingo a little more digestible for those of us looking for new members and to track existing supporters and donors, rather than the more standard "leads and opportunities" their system supported for corporate sales and support offices. Since then, they've made it even easier for nonprofits to embrace their donation by offering discounts on tutorials, online and in-person trainings, free weekly webinars on acquiring the donated license, and a bevy of resources to get started.

I've now worked with Salesforce in-depth at two nonprofits and have to say that it has every bell and whistle you could ever want (and maybe more than your organization might need), but most importantly for budget-conscious nonprofits, it's free.

Two years ago, I had the opportunity to attend the annual Dreamforce conference of Salesforce gurus, users, salespeople, and add-on application vendors. I had the opportunity to "speed date" with a Salesforce support person to help me troubleshoot how to get my database more customized and participate in nonprofit and social service sessions. It was a great experience and helped me learn new ways to adapt the database and my data to better suit our specific needs.

It's that time of year again and the next Dreamforce.com is around the corner, taking place in San Francisco's Moscone Center from November 17-20. The regular cost of registration is up to $1200 per person, but they're offering limited space for nonprofit attendees for only $199.

The conference, in my opinion, is best suited for people who already have a donated Salesforce license and want to learn how to improve and maximize their use. If you're just getting started with Salesforce or interested in acquiring a donated license, check out the resources above and join the discussion about it in our forums.