The Salesforce<\/a> vs. Microsoft<\/a> competition continues to be a good thing for nonprofit organizations. While this month\u2019s big news regarding their competition was Salesforce\u2019s $27.7B acquisition of Slack<\/a>, there was a less dazzling, but perhaps equally interesting news item specific to nonprofits — Microsoft\u2019s announcement of Fundraising and Engagement for Dynamics 365 Sales<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics<\/a> have anchored their strategies in empowering the nonprofit sector (now more commonly referred to as the social impact sector) with free and discounted enterprise-scale platforms. For example:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a deeper look at how each company is working to help nonprofits.<\/p>\n Salesforce was a primary entrant into the nonprofit space over ten years ago and has made great strides in supporting nonprofits, specifically around constituent management, donor management and program management. In their ecosystem, other tools are available that augment a Salesforce solution like those that support volunteer management, online giving, event management and eCommerce.<\/strong><\/p>\n Due to Salesforce’s versatility, you can customize any solution, and it can support nonprofit organizations of all sizes and across every social impact sector. You can even customize Salesforce solutions for grant providing organizations like corporate, public and private foundations to manage the disbursement of grants and analyze the outcomes associated with those grants and grantees.<\/p>\n A common nonprofit business requirement is batch gift entry, processing a collection of gifts in multiple segments. Salesforce didn\u2019t support this need for some time, and until last year, processing collections required using third-party tools like Apsona. Upping the ante in their nonprofit solution offering, Salesforce addressed this gap by releasing their Nonprofit Cloud Batch Gift Entry. Effective for small to mid-sized nonprofits, it may also suffice for enterprise organizations, dependent upon their required complexities.<\/p>\n Microsoft\u2019s D365, on the other hand, is a relative newcomer to this space. They have always supported nonprofit organizations through Dynamics, but they required many customizations compared to the traditional, more narrowly focused software vendors such as Blackbaud. However, in 2018 Microsoft declared that 2020 would be their year to become \u201cthe player\u201d for supporting any size nonprofit organization. Strategically, this would be a logical extension of their existing suite of products already used by most nonprofits.<\/strong><\/p>\n Fast forward to 2020, and Microsoft\u2019s recent announcement continues to build its momentum as a \u201cmajor player\u201d in the nonprofit space. Sitting on top of D365, Fundraising and Engagement uses the Nonprofit Common Data Model, an open-source data platform used by D365 business applications, as does Microsoft\u2019s nonprofit starter suite of products called Microsoft\u2019s Nonprofit Accelerator\u00a0 Both Microsoft and Salesforce ecosystems have access to a plethora of third-party solutions that help \u201cfill gaps\u201d where unique constituent management, fund management, and other requirements become critical to nonprofit operations.<\/p>\n From an industry perspective, Microsoft\u2019s recent — and big — entrance in the last two years caught Salesforce\u2019s attention while also benefitting nonprofits indirectly in other ways. Other traditional, nonprofit CRM solutions like Blackbaud, iMIS and NetForum Enterprise have modified their service offerings considerably in response to these two titans battling it out for social impact prominence.<\/p>\n The technology evolution in this nonprofit ecosystem is transforming business models to offer a larger variety of commercially available solutions and products built in a more \u201copen integration friendly\u201d manner, which has been a major limitation of more traditional, proprietary \u201cclosed\u201d solutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n So, the long and short of it is both Microsoft Dynamics and Salesforce products are viable solutions, and both companies are investing heavily in social impact and sustainability. While Salesforce has received recognition as the nonprofit solution leader, Microsoft\u2019s recent nonprofit platform investments have made this competitive space even more interesting. The shape-shifting social impact tech world will keep evolving, as will our new \u201cBusiness Anywhere\u201d mindset for working.<\/p>\n\n
Salesforce Improvements for Nonprofits: Building on Salesforce Marketing Cloud<\/h2>\n
Microsoft\u2019s Introduction into the Nonprofit Space<\/h2>\n
Conclusion: More Solutions, Better Integration<\/h2>\n