Salesforce.com for Nonprofits: Recommended Administrator Training

If you’re just getting started with implementing Salesforce for your non-profit, and you’re a first-time administrator to this product (or any database), it’s best that you orient yourself with some basic pre-recorded training.

I recommend watching 3…and a half (more on that later) training sessions.

  1. Salesforce.com for Non-Profits (7 minutes)
  2. Salesforce Fundamentals (13 minutes. This gives you an introduction to the product’s basic vocabulary. It’s not a 100% match to the Non-Profit Edition, but you should grasp the underlying principles and terminology behind Salesforce.com.)
  3. Admin Fundamentals: Setup (20 minutes)
  4. Admin Fundamentals: Customize (less than 1 hour) *

* The “half” training is (4) above. I think this video is very thorough for an administrator familiar with database concepts and who’s ready to go and customize the heck out of the application. For a newbie, it’s overkill, not because it’s too technical, but because your processes may not need to be so complex. I’d recommend you watch the slides & demos related to the following topics:

  • Customizing the Home Page
  • Modifying Standard Picklists and adding Dependent Picklists
  • Creating Custom Fields
  • Optional Display of Home Page Components
  • Customize Home Tab
  • maybe Workflow if your business process warrants a standard set of Tasks to occur whenever some step is completed (like assigning a Task to Stephanie, the Executive Director, to write a thank-you letter and place a call every time a Donations comes in of $5000-7500).

That’s it for you to get up to speed with basic information. All these features are there to help if your processes demand it, but if you haven’t quite figured out the process yet, take your time getting familiar with the product and don’t act like a kid in the candy store.

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