We unequivocally condemn the racism and police violence against Black and Brown people in our society. George Floyd was murdered. Ahmaud Arbery was murdered. Breonna Taylor was murdered. These are not isolated incidents, but part of a system of white privilege, structural racism, police violence, and inequality in our country. This system must be radically reformed. We stand in solidarity with the Black community against racism and hate. Black Lives Matter.

And we stand with the change-making nonprofit organizations that are working on the front lines to remedy the damage caused by that system, and to fix what’s broken. We are committed to investing in the work that fosters true systemic social progress. As a social venture working for nonprofits, we support the changemakers and activists who are creating progress. We continue to focus on diversity within our company so that we better reflect the communities we serve. And we want to do more. We are eager to apply our expertise and time for pro bono projects. Please contact us so we can explore how we can work together for justice and equality.

Photo Credit: Black Lives Matter mural painted in yellow on 16th Street in Washington, D.C. by Mayor Muriel Bowser via Twitter.

The Nonprofit Cloud Spring 2020 Release, will be released in two parts: April 29 and May 27. This new release is by far the most innovative we’ve seen in years. Our team came together to provide insights about the new case management and program management module, based on our perspective as long-time members of the nonprofit Salesforce ecosystem. It’s our mission at Exponent Partners to deliver solutions that best serve the social sector.  Human and social services organizations have long suffered from the nonprofit ‘starvation cycle’, and with the coronavirus pandemic they are being thrust into the position of being the front lines for all the new and pre-existing societal problems. These nonprofits undergird our social safety net, and they require all of our help to be able to respond to the unprecedented level of need. It is great to see Salesforce.org join this effort with products like Nonprofit Cloud Case Management and also with innovation initiatives like Impact Labs. Salesforce.org adds an important voice for attention, resources, innovation, and scale.

Exploring the New Program Management Module

By Richard Saunders, Director of Product, Exponent Case Management

At Exponent Partners we have a long held vision of a more connected, results-focused social sector. Human services organizations are realizing that they cannot solve large, complex social problems on their own and at the same time funders are increasingly requiring proof of results.

Key to achieving this social sector vision are:

• Integrated Systems of Care and Service to facilitate collaboration and remove data silos, and
• An Impact Maturity Model to help nonprofits move effectively from data tracking to outcomes management

It is through this lens that we view the highly anticipated release of the Program Management Module as part of the Salesforce.org’s Spring ’20 product launch.

Program Management Module is a free, open source extension to the Nonprofit Success Pack that provides a starting point for human service organizations to begin defining and tracking data for their Programs and Services.

Nonprofit organizations now have a low cost, simple, platform-based solution for moving off of spreadsheets and paper and getting started with data tracking that is part of the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud.

Why is Program Management Module a great solution for organizations to get started with data tracking?

• Program and Service Definition. It provides a basic but flexible data model to define the Program and Services that your organization offers.
• Participant Level Data Tracking. It provides a data model to track the engagements of participants in those programs and record the services they receive so outputs can be reported.
• Program Cohorts enables grouping participants within programs.
• Bulk Data Capture. In order to facilitate smooth data entry, PMM provides easy to configure and use elements for service data capture. Supported service capture modes include capturing multiple services for a single participant or multiple for different participants at once.
• The Program Manager Homepage provides an overview of program activity.

With the Program Management Module and the Spring ‘20 release from Salesforce.org, it is clear that Salesforce is investing in solutions for the sector. This is a first step and there is still so much to do to achieve the vision of a more connected, results focused social sector. However, we are excited that Salesforce is now focusing on this area and we look forward to partnering to achieve the vision.

“The Salesforce platform has been a powerhouse of a product for more than a decade. Our customers rely on it’s core functionality every day to deliver on their missions. As one of the first developers of the Nonprofit Success Pack I’ve always seen the value of excellent products built on top of Salesforce to deliver on specific nonprofit needs. It’s so great to see Salesforce focusing on building on top of the core platform for this important sector.”

— Steve Andersen, Vice President of Professional Services

Getting Started with Case Management

By Josie Alleman, Product Manager, Exponent Case Managment 

Nonprofit Cloud Case Management allows organizations to get started with a data model that supports many of the fundamentals of human service case management for a single program. From collecting initial demographics and assessment scores to service planning, service delivery, incidents and case notes, Nonprofit Cloud Case Management is an easy to use and reliable way to track important information about clients. We are so happy to see another wonderful case management product in the Salesforce ecosystem so that human services organizations of all sizes and needs have a choice of reliable products to better serve their clients.

“We were very excited to be a part of the first feedback for these new offerings. It’s been so exciting to see the products improve and be released so my team can implement enhanced solutions for our human services clients who need them to serve their most at-risk constituents.”

— Jennifer Paquette, Human Services Practice Delivery Manager

Built on top of the Program Management Model, Salesforce’s Case Management functionality is a potential next step in tracking service delivery to not only report accurate service provision data, but also get insights on tracking client progress. Client Cases and enrollments are easy to manage with the Case Manager Home Page and Client Snapshot. Nonprofit Cloud Case Management fits the use case of a small to medium organization with a single program model – it is easy to configure and easy to use.

With over 10 years of implementing case management solutions, we know that human services organizations are ever growing with multiple, complex data and outcome management needs. As Nonprofit Cloud Case Management is an excellent solution for organizations managing single programs, Exponent Case Management (ECM) is designed and built for larger organizations with multiple programs and funder requirements. ECM enables system administrators to configure comprehensive intake processes, longitudinal assessments, funder management, program fidelity navigation, and more. ECM’s solutions include preconfigured modules tailored to different human services sector programming with an outcomes management module to ensure organizations are on track to meet expected outcomes for their clients.

“From an architectural perspective, I’m thrilled that Salesforce is offering a foundation for program and services management that’s compatible with the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) data model. We talk to clients that have a wide range of human services requirements – from fairly straightforward to extremely complex – as well as those that have a desire to link their existing fundraising efforts in NPSP to the services they deliver in order to gain a full view of their efforts. While Exponent’s ECM product scales to support the very complex use cases, it’s wonderful that Salesforce is investing in human services and will continue to mature a product that enables any organizations to manage their programs and services on the Force.com platform.”

— Scott Mostrom, Senior Solution Architect

What’s Next? Long-awaited Fundraising Features added to NPSP

In addition to program and case management, the latest Nonprofit Cloud release has exciting new features for fundraising and donor management. Check out the blog by Lara Kimberley to learn more about her “Fundraising Favorites in the New Nonprofit Success Pack Release.” One of the best things about the Salesforce platform is the flexibility nonprofits can leverage to pick-and-choose features and add-on apps. With all this flexibility, comes complexity. We can help you navigate these new features and decide if, when, and how they can be implemented to ensure maximum impact. Contact us today to get started!

I think I speak for many of us when I say that the past two months have felt like a year. So perhaps you will not be shocked that it’s been nearly five years since the game-changing release of the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) 3.0. The previous August 2015 release included new functionality but—most importantly—it was the transition from a set of individual applications to a managed package with a clear vision that was truly transformational. There have been significant enhancements over the past five years, but nothing quite like what was released last week. As a Premium Salesforce Partner, Exponent Partners participated in the pilot programs for many of these new features. We had the opportunity to see and test the exciting new products and NPSP features and provide feedback to help shape their functionality.

Read the full release details and check out some of my favorite new features below.

Accounting Subledger

To clients migrating off of Raiser’s Edge or looking to more easily integrate Salesforce with their accounting systems the architecture, automation, and reporting are finally here for you! You will now be able to manage allocations at the payment level, automate credit and debit codes, and record adjustments and write-offs. Perhaps most valuably, you will be able to report on all these things in a way that will make sense to your accounting system.

The accounting subledger functionality requires licensing for production orgs but is available in sandboxes and developer orgs for testing purposes.

Enhanced Recurring Donations

NPSP Recurring Donations are a powerful tool for tracking a series of gifts given over time. However many organizations have found the scheduling of gift series and the management of future gifts challenging. Enter Enhanced Recurring Donations – now with more intuitive field labels, scheduling functionality, and clear differences between the types of recurring donations.

Enhanced Recurring Donations is available to all NPSP organizations but does require preparation work and roll-out planning. Read more about how to roll it out to your organization here.

Elevate

Elevate is a suite of online fundraising products. At the time of release, Elevate includes the following products:

Giving Pages allows you to easily create donation forms for your website, allowing your organization to accept both single and recurring online donations. Gifts made through Giving Pages are designed to flow seamlessly into the NPSP.

Payment Services is a payment processing solution that allows NPSP organizations to process payments via Giving Pages or your own web donation forms. Using Payment Services you will also be able to process payments directly within Salesforce.

Engagement Hub is an online platform for your donors and volunteers, creating a central hub for giving and volunteering activities.

Elevate requires licensing. Read more details about the Elevate platform.

Which Nonprofit Success Pack Features are Right for Your Organization?

One of the best things about the Salesforce platform is the flexibility nonprofits can leverage to pick-and-choose features and add-on apps. This ability to expand on top of a platform is why many oroganizations opt for Salesforce instead of a closed-box, standalone, point solution.

With all this flexibility, comes complexity. That’s where consultants like Exponent Partners are key to your success. You need a trusted advisor when evaluating adding additional features and  enhancing your existing Salesforce architecture. We can help you navigate these new features and decide if, when, and how they can be implemented to ensure maximum impact. Contact us today to get started!

Read more information about Nonprofit Cloud’s new program and case management features in the 2020 release.

Since the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a pandemic in March, hundreds of grantmakers and foundations launched funding efforts to provide relief. The philanthropy sector has an unprecedented opportunity to loosen the fetters of institutional processes to ramp up impact, to fund innovatively, and encourage projects that address structural issues that limit equity during this public health crisis and beyond. 

What a Difference a Year Makes 

In March of 2019, I attended the PEAK Grantmaking conference in Denver. It is one of my favorite gatherings to connect with and learn from peers in the philanthropy sector. One lunch talk featured Edgar Villanueva, Vice President of Programs and Advocacy at the Schott Foundation and author of Decolonizing Wealth: Indigenous Wisdom to Heal Divides and Restore Balance. 

The thought-provoking discussion asked the audience to consider viewing our philanthropic work with a “decolonization” lens, to ensure our efforts restore balance and empower underrepresented groups. Villanueva described how money is a form of medicine in that it has the ability to heal the wounds of communities suffering under generations of economic disadvantage and exploitation. The philanthropy sector has a unique responsibility and opportunity to “move the money to where the hurt is the worst,” Villanueva said. 

Fast forward to March of 2020, and the PEAK conference planned in Seattle was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. In the months to follow, many marginalized communities across the nation are reeling from the fallout with higher rates of illnesses and deaths among the most vulnerable in our society. The Coronavirus pandemic has illuminated and exacerbated the socioeconomic and racial disparities that have long existed in our society. If the philanthropy sector’s purpose is to promote the welfare of others, now is the time to step up and heed Villanueva’s call to action.

Villanueva’s Decolonizing Wealth Project (@DecolonizWealth) is leading by example by launching a rapid response fund to provide emergency support for the most vulnerable Native American families and communities impacted by COVID-19 in partnership with Native Americans in Philanthropy and the National Urban Indian Family Coalition. Using the Giving Circle platform Grapevine, the Native American Community Response Fund supports Native-led nonprofits in the spirit of solidarity, not charity. Also,  our friends at the NDN Collective continue their core mission serving the Native American community with an expanded COVID-19 response.

Getting Vision and Funds to the Frontlines

Candid Compilation of Funding for Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Candid, the organization formed when GuideStar and Foundation Center joined forces,  operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge about philanthropy at every level, and provide under-resourced nonprofit organizations with the tools they need to better fulfill their missions.

Candid has created a comprehensive online resource that compiles pandemic related grants information from across the sector for nonprofits seeking funding for response and relief efforts. Nearly 500 funders and their COVID-19 related grants are tracked by Candid. Visit their website to learn more. 

Families and Workers Fund 

Last week an alliance of grant makers and individual donors committed $7.1 million to launch the Families and Workers Fund, a new fund dedicated to serving the workers, families, and communities most devastated by the economic and health crises resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Ford Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Open Society Foundations, the JPB Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Amalgamated Foundation contributed to help make grants for emergencies and for advocacy efforts to push for long-term policy efforts to reshape labor regulation. 

Doubling Their 2020 Giving

As COVID-19 has done an incredible job of revealing long-term structural inequities, foundations are responding to the opportunity to fund social justice. Libra Foundation is doing just that. They have doubled their giving from $25 million to $50 million for 2020. Their first round of grants is slated to give $22 million to social justice organizations.

Finding A Solution to the Testing Problem

The Rockefeller Foundation, led by Dr. Raj Shah, is introducing an ambitious and radical plan to access and network capacity to increase testing to 30 million Americans a week. The plan calls for tripling the current 1 million test per week in 6-8 weeks and increasing it ten-fold within 6 months. The Rockefeller Foundation is providing funding for their vision where they “… envision an America where everyone who needs a test can get one.”  #MeetingThisMoment

Additional Resources for Philanthropy Sector Professionals  

Still On(line)! PEAK 2020: Courage in Practice

PEAK Grantmaking is a community of 3,500 grants management professionals who lead the way in advancing equitable, effective practices. The 2020 conference originally planned for Seattle has shifted to an online series called PEAK 2020: Courage in Practice. The month-long virtual conference includes learning and networking opportunities starts May 5th with a Kick-off Happy Hour. Plus, PEAK recently launched a new COVID-19 Connect hub for members that contains the latest resources and invites members to share how their foundation is responding to the crisis and supporting grantees.

Not Only Money: Hewlett Foundation Nonprofit Resources

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, dedicated to advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world, recently published a thorough list of COVID-19 Nonprofit Resources that stretch beyond funds. Their compilation includes non-financial resources including guidance for board members, crisis management advice for leaders, and more. 

Do you know of other ways the philanthropic community is responding to the pandemic that I haven’t mentioned in this blog? Email me and let’s help each other spread the word.

Salesforce app makers and professional services organizations dedicated to the nonprofit sector are creating new ways to help their nonprofit clients adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Salesforce Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) are offering new licensing discounts on top of existing nonprofit discounts or extended trial periods, essentially providing your nonprofit with a free use period during this initial stage of COVID-19 pandemic response. In addition to our own offerings, we’ve informally compiled options from other Salesforce app vendors that we think would benefit nonprofits and human services organizations coping with the Coronavirus outbreak.

Before diving in, it’s important to keep in mind the implications for your organization don’t begin and and end with the click of an install button. At Exponent Partners, we regularly help our customers select and implement third party apps best suited to meet their needs—it’s a process involving people as well as products. For example, if your organization may not need the product or service after the trial period, you will need to manage the cancellation terms as well as the change process with your staff who have come to expect the product or service. If we can help you navigate app selection, user adoption, and change management during COVID-19, contact us to get started.

(Note: Covid-related offers in the Salesforce marketplace are rapidly evolving at a fast pace. We will strive to keep the information current and accurate. If you have an addition or revision to this blog that you’d like to share, email me.)

1. Digital Signature

Conga Sign

Conga makes a number of different apps that our nonprofit clients benefit from, including Conga Composer and Conga Grid. Anticipating nonprofits moving to a more virtual model of program work will benefit from an electronic signature capability, they are now offering Conga Sign for free use during a very long trial period. If you decide to use it beyond the extended trial period you will also find it is typically much less expensive than the more well known electronic signature options.

Extended Free Trial of Digital Signature app for Salesforce.org Nonprofits:

• For verified nonprofits, new to Conga Sign
• Get a free extended trial of Conga Sign for Salesforce
• Trial must be downloaded by 6/1/2020 and end 9/30/2020

Read the Conga Sign user documentation.to learn more about how the tool works and check out the Appexchange listing.

2. Text Messaging

When you are no longer able to meet in-person with the people you support, what are your choices for continuing to provide support? For nonprofits providing direct service to people the obvious adaptation for staying in touch is to move more interactions to text messaging. Fortunately, there are many options for adding text messaging to Salesforce.

Mogli SMS

When we decided to figure out how to get text messaging into the hands of our clients so they can continue their work we reached out to the folks at Mogli. Mogli SMS is a Salesforce-native text messaging app whose origins are in addressing the needs of nonprofits. They are now offering nonprofits heavily discounted introductory packages and extended trials. Email Mogli directly to get more information about their COVID-19 related packages.

Twilio

When you peel back the covers on most of the internet companies you will find Twilio being used somewhere. They provide backbone services for sending text messages and more to a lot of companies. They are also very committed to the nonprofit sector with some very generous allocations of free messages. In support of organizations responding to COVID-19 they are offering deeper discounds nad more product donations for eligible nonprofits. Visit the Twilio website to learn more.

3. Population Impact Assessment

Socialsuite

Socialsuite is a company that has built a Salesforce-native app for collecting and measuring impact data. In response to the global epidemic they leveraged Salesforce Communities to provide a standalone version of their app with an expert-informed survey for assessing the impact of COVID-19 on a client population over time. It is entirely free to use. Watch this video to get a sense for whether this tool would benefit your organization. Read more about Socialsuite’s COVID-19 Social Impact Assessment on their website.

Nonprofit and human services organizations are at the front lines of both the impact and the response to this unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. You need support and increased capacity to cope with the spikes in demand as well as the impact of the virus on your teams and operations. Front-line social safety net organizations need enhanced systems and data in order to respond. We understand how to build solutions for your organization’s social impact. Leveraging the power of the Salesforce platform, we build systems, tools, and processes so that agencies and funders can transform their data into actionable insights. In that spirit, we are offering new services and resources for organizations that are at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our goal is to provide you with on-demand Salesforce expertise that supports your organization’s program continuity and surge capabilities. Exponent Partners is committed to helping the nonprofit sector adapt rapidly to COVID-19. We’re now offering new rate information and consulting packages to help see you through this period of adjustment.

Lower Consulting Rates Now through June 30th

State by state, each community is undergoing its own response to COVID-19. Your region may be emerging from a period of social distancing and sheltering-in-place or experiencing other forms of disruption from daily routines. Nonprofits are feeling challenged in different ways. To provide some relief, Exponent Partners will roll back to 2019 hour rates across all roles and services. It is one small part we can play during this turbulent transition period.

Which Service Offering is Right for You?

We’ve heard for the nonprofit community that some of the most pressing needs right now may include:

• New dashboards and reports as your organization pivots
• Data cleaning and integrity to support decision-making
• Updates to your grant process to support faster processing
• Additions to your Exponent Case Management solution to support program changes or new funders
• System administrator support
• New user training and adoption
• Salesforce integration with new third party applications

To address these challenges, we are offering the following consulting packages to help your organization.

Expert Access Services

Get Specialized Consulting for Short-term Fixed Price Projects

The goal of this service offering is to dive-in and get started as quickly as possible after an initial discovery assessment and priority-setting sessions. You will work one-on-one with a dedicated consultant to tailor the engagement’s scope to your specific needs. Using a streamlined and collaborative implementation approach, your consultant will then design and implement solutions in a cost-effective and timely manner.

• Senior Consultant. We recommend you start with a Senior Consultant for the majority of your Salesforce needs. Whether you require new functionality to be implemented or tweaks to your existing system, our Senior Consultants can help you launch new efforts or adapt current services to COVID-19 related changes.
• Solutions Architect. If you are facing a new level of complexity across your agency and current system. You may benefit from the guidance of a Solutions Architect.
• Data Specialist. Many health and human services organizations now have a new layer of data to track related to a COVID-19 diagnosis or eligibility for a new COVID-19 related service. Consider working with one of our expert Data Specialists to design a process for new data importing, tracking, and reporting.

You will have access to one of our experts for a predefined number of Salesforce consulting hours to be used over a set period of time. These engagements are packaged as 40 hours over 4 weeks, 60 hours over 6 weeks, or 80 hours over 8 weeks. Contact us to determine which package is right for you.

Month-to-Month Managed Services

Benefit from a Virtual System Administrator and More

Some organizations cannot provide their users with access to an in-house system administrator when it may be most critical, especially due to COVID-19 impacts. Exponent Partners can provide your nonprofit with a flexible and affordable approach with this Virtual System Administrator offering.

You will benefit from 32 hours per week of a dedicated consultant at a reduced rate for a savings up to 15% from standard hourly costs. This offering is also based on a month-to-month commitment and designed to support your organization during the immediate or long term.

Virtual System Administration

• Security and user management
• Reports
• Conga templates
• Third-Party AppExchange solution evaluation and implementation
• Data quality control and duplicate management
• User training and support
• New data object and field creation
• Automation

Offer also includes:

• Dedicated staff resource
• Access to entire Exponent Partners team as needed
• Weekly status reports

If your organization would benefit from discounted system administration, contact us to get started.

Exponent Case Management Accelerators

Built on the Salesforce platform, Exponent Case Management (ECM) allows you to directly connect your program data to your impact with funder and performance reporting at your fingertips. Exponent Partners offers accelerators designed to enable organizations to implement ECM on a faster timeline.

Workforce Development Accelerator

Implement or Adapt Your Employment Programs Faster

The employment landscape has been forever changed by cataclysmic events related to COVID-19 self-quarantine and shelter-in-place requirements. As a record number of people are now facing temporary or long-term unemployment, your organization may be springing into action to adapt current workforce development programs or create new virtual service models.

The Workforce Development Accelerator is a pre-configured version of ECM that supports every stage of your employment program. It encourages best practices such as removing individual employment barriers to ensure job readiness, placement and retention services, and effective employer engagement. From intake and assessment to employment planning, service tracking, and reporting, the Workforce Development Accelerator has you covered.

Homelessness Services Accelerator

Standardize Your Housing Program Data for HMIS Compliance

The Homelessness Services Accelerator is intended to standardize the way that your program data is collected in ECM to meet Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS) reporting requirements.

HMIS is a local information technology system used to collect client-level data for organizations to reduce and prevent homelessness ensure delivery of comprehensive, high-quality services to persons who are homeless, and create permanent housing opportunities for very low income and long-term homeless persons.

The Accelerator includes pre-built intake forms, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other program specific assessments, service plans, service entry, and bed nights.

Stay tuned for details on the Homelessness Services Accelerator webinar coming soon.

It’s Easy to Get Started

With a few clicks on your part, we will spring into action. Contact us about these new rapid response offerings and you’ll be contacted by your Account Executive within 1 business day to discuss details on pricing and timelines. Together, we can help your nonprofit emerge stronger than ever.

In this time of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we want you to know that we are here to help in any way we can, including Salesforce support. Many of you are transitioning to remote work for the first time, cancelling events that provide needed funding, and working to find ways to continue serving your clients in the midst of the chaos. All of this is happening while you are also working to keep yourself and your family healthy and safe.

At Exponent Partners, we truly care about your success. We believe that the best way to get through a crisis is to pull together. For all customers with current Customer Success Support plans, we are extending your Unlimited ‘How-to’ Support contracts for six weeks at no additional cost. This is being handled automatically and there is no need for you to take any further steps to request the extension.

If your organization is not actively engaged with Exponent Partners for a Customer Success plan, we will provide eligible nonprofits with free Unlimited ‘How-To’ Support from now through April 30, 2020. To get started, please contact us to request to speak with your Account Executive.

What’s included with this Salesforce Support offer?

Unlimited ‘How-To’ Knowledge and Guidance

The foundation of all Customer Success plans, this offering is the first tier of technical support offered by Exponent Partners. You can submit an unlimited number of “how-to” requests over the web or via email and receive a personalized response within the same business day. Our team will craft customized answers to your questions in the form of step-by-step instructions on how to best complete a task, links to related resource articles in the Nonprofit Success Center, and/or short demonstration videos. Customer Success Specialists will also respond by web video conference to clarify an answer when needed.

We are offering qualifying organizations this Customer Success plan without charge between now and April 30, 2020 to help the nonprofit sector weather the COVID-19 crisis.

About Premium Customer Success Plans and Managed Services

Hands-on Enhancements with Premium Support

What if your request requires a complicated response and more time-intensive guidance? Then your needs have evolved to the Hands-On Enhancements tier of Premium Support. Billed in hours, this tier is ideal if you need Support Services Engineers to troubleshoot complex issues, configure new page layouts, create new formula fields, and/or design new reports for your program and leadership staff. This Customer Success plan includes quarterly check-in meetings, the help of Customer Success Specialists when you need them, and discounted access to Exponent Partners Consultants and Developers on other teams if required.

Customized Customer Success Trainings

In addition to all the benefits described above, Premium Support Customer Success plans also include regularly scheduled training webinars and demos that occur every other month (alternating with Exponent Case Manager User Group webinars). These Premium Support live demos and training webinars are designed and delivered by Exponent Partners Consultants on topics and themes specifically requested by customers like you. We regularly develop new curriculum that is most relevant to your needs. This approach helps customers like you evolve with the system and grow more self-sufficient over time.

Managed Services for Salesforce Administration

Our Customer Success team offers a managed services package that includes a dedicated staff member who provides up to 20 hours per week in system administration for your organization. For a flat fee, your nonprofit can enjoy the benefits of a fully-loaded Salesforce administrator without the risks. Rather than waste precious budget resources recruiting an internal hire, you’ll gain access to our firm’s full roster of Salesforce experts with niche skill sets in Einstein Analytics, Exponent Case Management, and other third party applications. Read more about Managed Services.

Note: Premium Support, Customer Success Trainings, and Managed Services are not included in this offer.

Contact us to learn more about which Customer Success support plan is right for your organization.

Most of us have heard about the general benefits of working remotely. A recent article by analytics and management consulting company Gallup states that remote work improves business outcomes and it is a benefit “that the most talented employees desire.” The Harvard Business Review also published research that working remotely can increase employee productivity, positively impact morale, and even decrease overhead costs for organizations. As the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) took a more serious turn in the United States, the benefits to a remote work environment in light of these public health concerns were amplified.

In recent weeks, many organizations that were not geared towards a remote work business model suddenly found themselves scrambling to put together remote work HR policies, set up virtual communication protocols, and assess IT systems. Once the concerns over COVID-19 subside, these organizations may return to the way they operated before—pulling employees back into the daily grind of commuting to a central, shared office.  But should they?  Exponent Partners believes that the benefits of working remotely stretch beyond addressing concerns like COVID-19.

We’re Here for You

Remote work has always been core to our DNA. Founded in 2005, Exponent Partners is a social enterprise that exclusively serves nonprofits with over fifty team members who work virtually from their home offices across the United States. We believe technology for social change can enable organizations to improve their performance and advance their mission. We want the organizations that nurture our communities, protect our planet, and safeguard our human rights to have access to the best possible tools and knowledge to help them make our world a better place.

Remote work saves our clients money and allows us to deliver our products and services more efficiently. Leveraging the best technology and online collaboration tools for our customers’ benefit is baked into our mission. As an early BCorporation we are proud to be part of a movement to improve how companies contribute to society. We believe that working remotely by default benefits our employees, clients, and communities.

Remote Work Benefits and Tips

The Forbes article  “Remote to the Rescue, How Virtual Jobs Are Saving the World” by Laurel Ferrar describes how working remotely has an immediate and positive impact on society in four key areas:

1. Economic Development. When employees are geographically dispersed so is their impact on communities, industry innovation and the global economy.
2. Environmental Sustainability. Remote jobs create less waste and shorter commutes, which means lighter carbon footprints. 
3. Diversity and Inclusion. Equal remote work earns equal opportunity. Period. 
4. Work-Life Satisfaction.  Flexible workforces are safer emotionally, socially, physically, and mentally. 

Ferrar states that “remote work isn’t about convenience, it’s about change. Virtual jobs aren’t indulging humanity, they’re allowing it to heal and thrive.”

These benefits align with our own core values at Exponent Partners. We believe that our remote work allows us to live our core values and positively impact our communities. As Talent Manager at Exponent Partners, I can testify that our virtual work model provides us with access to a wider pool of candidates that we would not necessarily have access to if our recruitment was tied to one geographic location. Plus, I personally appreciate not having to commute long distances as it provides me with more time to spend with my family.

However, remote work comes with its challenges.  To help employees and employers combat some of those challenges, we’ve come up with a list of tips that can assist everyone from the accidental remote worker to the skilled virtual employee.  Tips for effective remote work:

• Use video! Video chat tools like Zoom, GoToMeeting and Google Hangouts are a great way to hold video meetings and feel connected without losing the nonverbal, visual cues that can enhance a conversation.  Use video whenever possible. Video meetings are great to use when working through issues or problems as a team.
• Find and use the right tools for your team and your work. Technology has come a long way. Instant messaging such as Slack, Google Hangouts and Microsoft Teams allow for real-time conversation and can improve team communication. Likewise, document storage and creation tools like Dropbox, Google, Microsoft Office and project management tools like Basecamp, Jira and Teamwork all help teams come together for real-time collaboration. Use technology for personal learning as well- online courses or virtual lunch-and-learn meetings are great ways to engage virtual workers in professional development.
• Be prepared for hiccups.  Make sure you have contingency plans – if you lose internet connection can you use your phone as a hotspot? Or perhaps you have some of your work apps on your phone (Zoom, Slack, etc.) for those moments of outage.
• Don’t forget to connect as humans. Creating space not only for work talk but also for folks to be themselves and share photos of pets, kids and vacation pictures is important. Schedule virtual coffees to get to know your coworkers.

COVID-19 and Work Policy Adjustments

As the instances of COVID-19 continue to rise, all indicators point toward this being a longer-term public health effort to slow, contain, and hopefully ultimately eliminate it. We are fortunate in that our remote work environment allowed us to respond to this concern quickly, and with little impact on our daily operations.  However, we have a civic duty to take this threat seriously and respond with caution.

Exponent Partners CEO, Rem Hoffmann, states that “we as a company, as individuals, and as a community have real things that we can do to support that effort.” To that end, Exponent Partners has adjusted the following policies effective immediately:

• Long-distance travel. The goal is to dramatically curtail the chances of transmission that come with air, train, bus, or other long-distance travel. During this time, we will not be asking our team to travel long-distance for work.
• Group meetings and events. We will work to move any upcoming group meetings from in-person gatherings to virtual meetings. Collaborating via online meetings is standard operating procedure for Exponent Partners but we regularly travel to meet in person with our clients or contribute to conferences. This policy adjustment in response to COVID-19 applies to any type of meeting, whether it’s with our customers in the conduct of our work, marketing and sales meetings with potential clients, presenting at upcoming conferences, or meetings internal to Exponent Partners.

Dedicated to Our Community

We are making these policy choices in order to be responsible and prudent and to support all the efforts to protect our staff, our clients, and our communities. While these preparations are important on an individual level, we truly believe that the steps we take collectively will have a positive impact on our society. This is especially true for those communities and individuals who are more susceptible to infection and are counting on others to take appropriate action.

We know that other organizations are doing the same in light of these recent health concerns, but we urge other organizations and CEOs to think strategically about whether remote work is possible beyond COVID-19.  Maybe this isn’t a short-term solution to COVID-19, but the beginning of a change to the way companies operate that can have a huge, long-lasting, postive impact to our society.

If you’re interested in learning more about our values and joining our remote team, connect with me on LinkedIn.

Founded as a social enterprise in 2016 by Heather Black, Supermums is passionate about helping parents harness the Salesforce ecosystem for career opportunities. Over 140 trainees have joined the Supermums workforce development program to find flexible, well-paid employment while parenting.  Exponent Partners is proud to sponsor the first cohort of Supermums trainees in the United States. Our Customer Success team will provide mentoring and first-hand experience serving nonprofits on the Salesforce platform.

A previous Vice President of Business Development at Exponent Partners, raised two sons as a working, single parent. She explained the value of workforce development programs with a supportive peer network, “As a super mom myself, I know how important it is to have work experience and when you do a program like this, you want to tell others.” As a premium Salesforce.org implementation partner in the United States, Exponent Partners provides a great launch pad for the trainees in the program. Susan added, “Our organization does about 200 Salesforce implementation projects a year so we’re really excited to have Supermums engaged with us. We can’t wait!”

Supermums Journey to a Salesforce Career Path

“Salesforce provides endless career progression and flexibility,” said Heather. “Thanks to my Salesforce skills, I was able to keep working while travelling around the world for four months and to relocate to start a family. I wanted to shout out and make mums aware of the flexible working opportunities and well-paid careers that are available within the Salesforce ecosystem.”

The program includes multiple training courses and leverages the Salesforce online training platform, Trailhead. Supermums offers a unique blend of instruction, self-study, mentorship, and more.

Social Enterprises United for the Sector

Founded in 2005, Exponent Partners shares roots with Supermums as a social enterprise. As one of the first certified B Corps in the State of Californiam, Exponent Partners has an established, mission-driven business model. Our social mission to amplify nonprofit impact is powered by our belief that the right technology can transform an organization’s relationship to their data. We are committed to developing the tools needed to support successful outcomes in the social sector such as our Exponent Case Management Workforce Development Accelerator, designed for implementing programs like Supermums using Salesforce.

Beginning this spring, ten new Supermums will begin their journey with Exponent Partners towards confidence, skills and work experience. Our team will be providing instruction and imparting best practices. We are excited to support these Supermums as they apply what they have learned to a new career as Salesforce administrators or consultants.

Join the Online Community

Interested in joining Supermums as a volunteer, mentor, or trainee? Check out the growing network online. Supermums has internationally diverse trainees and engaged volunteers from over 9 different countries. Since the program’s founding, more than 100 companies have engaged by volunteering, recruiting, or sponsoring Supermums. The program has a global following across our social media platforms. We invite you to join the Facebook Group and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Photos courtesy of Supermums.org

For large multi-service nonprofits, one of the benefits of using an agency-wide system is the ability to see and analyze all of your program data in one place. Beyond a count of unique participants served, an agency-wide database helps you track longitudinal data and change over time. With a whole agency platform like Salesforce, you can see how entire families interact with your organization and the services you provide, giving you a better sense of your organization’s true impact in a community. But importing large quantities of data from multiple sources into Salesforce in a traditional way can be challenging and time-consuming.

The Challenge

You’ve made the decision to implement Salesforce across all programs in your organization. The problem is, many programs in your organization use funder mandated databases; others have no database at all. You don’t want to burden staff with double data entry, but not all funder mandated databases allow integration with other systems. You are concerned about the adoption of Salesforce and data quality if information remains siloed in different systems, especially if Salesforce is not the single source of truth for your participant data. So how do you get data from funder mandated databases into Salesforce?

The process usually involves extracting data from the source, cleaning and deduplicating it, aligning all fields with what you have in Salesforce, matching participants in your data source to existing participants, importing the data into multiple objects in Salesforce, and finally auditing the incoming data to check for duplicates. Not to mention that funder mandated databases are often updated, changing the format of any data you extract. From our personal experience, we know that this traditional import process could take weeks, if not months.

The Solution

To tackle this issue, Exponent Partners created a custom, scalable data import solution that processes incoming data from different sources. There are three major steps:

1. Export/Acquire data from sources into CSV files. This will differ for each source. Some may have pre-formatted reports you can easily run anytime, while for others you may have to request a file from the system owner. This solution is source-agnostic, giving you the flexibility to get around the sometimes intractable issues of systems outside of your control.
2. Import the data to Salesforce. Using whatever data loader with which you are comfortable, import all records into a single custom “staging” object. We used the free Jitterbit Data Loader for Salesforce and created reusable mappings of fields for our customer’s typical file formats. But this is really just a matter of matching up the source and destination fields, which can be as easy as dragging & dropping the “First Name” field from one place to the other. The import itself should be painless and quick.
3. Process the data. This is where the magic happens! Up until this point, it really has just been moving data into a common location as easily as possible, without worrying about data quality or different types of data in your data sources. Now that all the data is there, it takes just a few clicks to say “GO” and automation will do the rest!

Here are some of the best features of the processing system:

• Asynchronous – You don’t need to hang around. The system will notify you when processing has completed.
• User-Friendly – If any particular record produced an error, that will be logged for your review. If it is a simple data problem, like “Ethnicity” has an unexpected value, just fix it and click to continue processing the record when you are ready. No data corruption or loss! In addition, you can process data as often as you like, without fear of creating bad data, because the system keeps track of where you were in the process and can recognize duplicates.
• Configurable Options – We created a way for a non-technical, non-admin staff member to configure options telling the system how to process each kind of record. Maybe clients from a particular source need to have open cases for different programs based on some field specific to that system, or some should be ignored and not processed at all. No problem!
• Data Cleansing – Every system has its own way of tracking demographics or programs. The processing step has one place you can look at for translating all of those “Ethnicity” values from the various source system values to the actual ones you want to use consistently in your reporting across all systems. Importing the same people from two separate source systems? No problem! This solution finds matching records in a variety of ways to prevent duplication, letting you get a reliable count of unique clients, households, and cases. We even plugged in an address verification solution to standardize messy addresses, making them more reliable, more likely to match each other, and even USPS compliant.
• Clicks-Not-Code Customizable – This system uses only platform native declarative features, such as Flow and Process Builder, and no apex code. That means an experienced admin can make fixes or adjustments without hiring a software developer, lowering your TCO. The operations are “componentized”, so that individual pieces can be updated and tested separately, with version numbers and comments.

With this solution, your organization will now have access to data from multiple sources all right in Salesforce, giving you the ability to create the reports and dashboards you need to measure impact.

Contact Exponent Partners today to learn more about this custom data import solution and register for the next webinar featuring Exponent Case Management (ECM). Designed for large human services agencies and nonprofits, ECM is ideal for case workers, program managers, and agency leaders, the application is a fully-featured, customizable solution with intake, assessment, service tracking, case records, outcomes reporting, referral tracking, and more.

Whether your organization’s entire mission is workforce development, or only one program your organization offers, finding the right data collection method can be a challenge. Exponent Case Management (ECM) now includes a Workforce Development Module designed to meet your specific needs. The Workforce Development Module is a well-researched, pre-configured version of ECM that supports every stage of your employment program.

During day-to-day operations, case managers, job developers, and course instructors need a system to support their many data tracking needs. Your case managers have to juggle important tasks: multiple reporting mandates, ongoing employer engagement, employment verifications, and more. They work hard to help job seekers gain needed credentials, remove employment barriers, and find the best qualified workforce for participating employers. Using a data system like ECM that can manage all aspects of your workforce development programming is a game changer.

What is the Workforce Development Module?

The Workforce Development Module is a pre-configured ECM template that ensures your programs are implemented using sector-wide standards. Common reports for operational efficiency and funder requirements—such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) performance measures—are included with the module. The module benefits staff at every level of the organization from career coaches and business developers to program managers and executives. The module includes the following:

Job Coaching and Case Management

The Workforce Development Module supports every aspect—from program intake to becoming job search ready. Job coaches understand the participant’s journey to ensure the right services are being provided at the right time. The module provides a complete WIOA-friendly intake including basic demographics, employment history, education history, job interests, skills, credentials, employment barriers, and income assessment.

Pre-configured service plans are available to address all the employment barriers identified in the needs assessment. Individual and group service entries are captured to not only document each service and class, but also record case notes, billing information, and credentials attained. Additional assessments are included to ensure job readiness addressing both soft and technical skills.

Job Placement and Retention

The Workforce Development Module allows your program to collect job orders, search for job matches, and record placement and retention data with minimal system administrator set-up. We know that different funders have different definitions of successful placement milestones, so the module includes ECM’s flexible placement milestone functionality. Users can choose the milestone definition per placement and ECM does the rest – scheduling future retention checks. Additionally, the module provides comprehensive retention check data collection including wage verification, advancement information, and job satisfaction.

Employer Engagement

Strong employment programs not only focus on removing barriers to employment for individuals, but also on being a partner with the local business community. Building lasting relationships with employers is crucial to ensuring your program participant success. Your organization needs the ability to easily track referrals and ensure participants are qualified and properly matched with required skills and credentials. You can manage employer leads and partnerships with ECM’s Workforce Development Module to seamlessly integrate participant services with employer services. The template provides key employer information including industry codes, employer engagement scales, and basic relationship management fields so that your job development staff can ramp up quickly.

Dashboards and Reports

In addition to data entry, the module provides several out of the box dashboards and reports helping organizations with funder requirements, such as WIOA performance measures, as well as day to day operations. Dashboards for program managers, job developers, and job coaches are included, focusing on upcoming tasks, employer engagement levels, and placement and retention rates. Individual participant reports are available as well including assessment scores over time for job search readiness, work readiness, aptitude scores, and more.

See the Workforce Development Module in Action

Watch a pre-recorded webinar on demand to explore:

• Relevant features and capabilities of ECM’s Workforce Development Module
• How ECM’s Workforce Development Module can inspire programmatic improvements
• What to expect when moving your agency to ECM and using the Workforce Development Module

Interested in a general demonstration of ECM? We host a webinar every other week. Sign-up for the general ECM demo today!