Experts Talk series of webinars – starts on June 6
I got a notice from Click & Pledge today about a series of webinars they are hosting all about using Salesforce.
The series runs through to October, and registration is free. They have teamed up with Idealist Consulting, Exponent Partners, Cloud for Good, Now IT Matters, 501c3 Technologists, and Groundwire, who are giving the presentations – so it should be an awesome line-up of speakers, with some valuable information to share.
Full details here: http://www.clickandpledge.com/ExpertsTalk/
Click & Pledge provide a payment processing application that is fully integrated into Salesforce (if any of you received donations during Seattle Foundation’s GiveBIG day, you’ll have used a Click & Pledge account). You don’t need to be a CnP customer to sign up for the webinars, but you’ll probably get some marketing emails from them if you do 
Next User Group meeting – Wed May 23 at NPower
We’re going “beyond the basics” at the Nonprofit Salesforce User Group meeting this month. Karen Fitton, from Friends of the Orphans US, and Jessie Rymph, from Schools Out Washington, are going to share how their organizations have adapted and customized Salesforce to meet their specific needs.
If anyone else would like to join the demo, and tell us what they’ve been working on, please let Brad know (brad AT 907pine.com). Otherwise, come and join us to get some inspiration for next steps with your Salesforce instance!
We’re at the NPower offices this month. The meeting is scheduled from 9:00 to 10:00 am; join us from 8:45 for coffee and introductions.
NPower Northwest is at 403 23rd Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98144
(Cross street is Jackson. Parking available on the surrounding streets; buses 48, 14, 8 or 27)
See you on Wednesday,
Brad & Caroline
PS: The initial batch of $150 Dreamforce registrations for nonprofits sold out within 24 hours! The Foundation is now offering a $300 registration – see http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/dreamforce for more details.
May meeting date
We’ll be moving the May User Group meeting to the fourth Wednesday (5/23). Brad is in San Francisco next week, and the third week crept up on us quickly because of moving last month! More details to follow shortly.
Also, a couple of you have been asking about Dreamforce registrations. You might have got a recent mail about the pre-registration price, but this was sent to all customers. I’m assured by the Foundation that there will be nonprofit discounts as usual, and we’re expecting them to be announced next week when registration opens.
Summer 12 Release
Natalie Regier (who leads the Nebraska User Group) posted the following article to Chatter for UG leaders to share with their members. It’s a summary of some of the core features that will be coming to Salesforce in the Summer 12 Release. http://www.arkusinc.com/archive/2012/summer-12-hard-core
In a geek-ish kind of way, I can’t wait to be able to “reparent child records”, but that’s because I manage an instance with ticket orders where I have to do that frequently, and up to now I’ve had to delete the order (with its related tickets) each time and recreate the whole thing with the new contact, so yippeeeee! and roll on Summer!
At the end of the article is a link to a Summer 12 Release Notes Rapid Reaction, which also has some useful information.
Summer 12 will be coming to a Salesforce instance near you on the first or second weekend in June – and we’ll take a look at the June meeting.
Recurring Donations in the NPSP
Kevin Bromer from the Salesforce Foundation presented a webinar to introduce the new version of Recurring Donations in the NPSP. This object now allows you to create open-ended donations with custom installment periods, and a whole host of other refinements. Kevin explains all about the settings and how to edit a series of donations when the donor changes their mind, plus there is an overview of Payments included as a response to a question (about 5 minutes from the end). Enjoy!
Next User Group Meeting on Tuesday, April 24 – come and Chatter!
STOP PRESS: We’re lucky to have Sheri Bernard joining us on Tuesday – she is a Senior Technical Writer on Chatter for Salesforce – if you have read the Chatter Admin guide you have seen her work. This is a great opportunity to get your questions about Chatter answered from someone who really knows the product – so please come and join in the conversation!
Oh boy, it’s a week into April already, and I haven’t posted since the last meeting. Sorry everyone!
Here is the advance notice of our next User Group meeting (email will go out by the end of the week). As discussed at the last session, we are avoiding Spring Break in the Seattle school district and helping out our April hosts. So the next meeting will be on Tuesday, April 24… and our gracious hosts will be the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, who are at 2601 4th Ave Suite 310 (downtown Seattle – not on the island!!).
The meeting will run from 9:00 to 10:00 am. Come at 8:45 for coffee and introductions.
The main topic of conversation will be Chatter, plus some tips on Profiles and User Roles, Groups and Sharing (which all relate back to Chatter as well). I was lucky enough to end up in a discussion group with Steve Andersen about Chatter at the Nonprofit Technology Conference last week, and I will bring some of his wisdom to share with the group, but there will be other speakers as well.
Mark your calendars and see you on the 24th. If you don’t use Chatter yet, still come along – we’re going to test out some ideas to see if we can find ways to use it effectively in our organizations.
Best,
Caroline.
Social Impact Salon at NTC
The Salesforce Foundation and Exponent Partners hosted a Social Impact Salon at the Nonprofit Technology Conference on April 4th. The videos from the panel sessions are posted now on the Salesforce Foundation’s youtube channel (this link takes you to the first session and you should see the other two on the right: The ABCs of data in Education and Bridging the Human Services Data Gap)
Here’s the panel on Building a Social Impact Data Ecosystem -
