Nature Québec in Canada works to promote biodiversity, protect natural ecosystems and species, encourage interaction with nature and fight for sustainable use of natural resources.
When they first joined the Engaging Networks family, they maintained their traditional database of record (DOR), ProDon, alongside Engaging Networks (their new eCRM). As time went on, they began to outgrow their DOR and needed a new solution – ideally one that integrated seamlessly with Engaging Networks.
Moving on from outdated systems
ProDon is a CRM that worked well for Nature Québec for many years. As it often happens, when you upgrade one tool, you begin to see the faults in your other tools. Once they moved to Engaging Networks, exporting and importing data from their eCRM to their DOR began to take its toll on the team.
Exporting and importing from one system to another presents multiple challenges.
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- Time: It takes for already stretched nonprofit teams to do a manual task like export/import.
- Data reformatting: Reformatting and de-duplication of data that can take additional time.
- Data loss: Sometimes you can’t manually extract and upload relevant data like email opens or form interactions that can be valuable to analyze across donor records.
- Time lag: There’s often a time lag between data updates that can cause headaches between other departments.
- Human error: Manual exports and imports present numerous opportunities for user error such as accidental reformatting issues or incorrect field mapping from one database to another.
So, what was a good solution for Nature Québec to avoid these problems and make the most of their data?
Selecting Salesforce to integrate with Engaging Networks
Nature Québec evaluated the DOR options that integrated well with Engaging Networks like Raiser’s Edge, ROI Solutions and Salesforce and chose Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack as their preferred option. The Engaging Networks team also provided a list of several Accredited Partners that could assist in the implementation of Salesforce, migration of data from ProDon and configuration of the connector to Engaging Networks.
Nature Québec chose to work with Zuri Group on this project. Zuri Group undertook the following solutions:
- Assess the current Database set-up and discuss future needs
- Make recommendations on how Salesforce should be configured
- Configured Salesforce and migrated data from ProDon
- Configured the connector from Engaging Networks to Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack
“With a little time and head space, most users with knowledge of Salesforce administration could configure the Engaging Networks Salesforce Connector.”
Molly Graham – Senior Consultant at Zuri Group
Once Salesforce was ready, the Zuri team embarked on integrating it with Engaging Networks’ proprietary Salesforce Connector.
Molly Graham, Certified Salesforce Administrator at Zuri Group, hadn’t used the Engaging Networks Salesforce Connector before so she began with the tutorials in the Engaging Networks Supportal and Academy to learn how to use and configure the connector to get started. She found it incredibly easy to use, noting that she was writing her own unique mapping rules by the end of the project. Overall, the Salesforce Connector was user-friendly and highly customizable.
Integration success story
“Zuri Group did a great job with our Engaging Networks-Salesforce integration. They tailored the project to meet our needs and provided robust training and documentation along the way. Kim and Molly were excellent in providing support to someone with little experience in database migration, always having clear explanations and efficient solutions. I felt very understood in our needs as a relatively small non-profit (which is not always the case with external consultants, often they are trying to push for customization or plans outside of our budget, etc.).”
Florence Séguin – Director of Philanthropy and Engagement at Nature Québec
While the Salesforce Connector is designed for anyone to easily configure, working with an Accredited Partner can bring expertise and speed to the process. Zuri Group was able to easily assess the current configuration, recommend a professional set-up on Salesforce and connect the eCRM to the DOR in short order. This allowed Nature Québec to focus on their work and not on learning to do something they’d only have to do once.
The integration between Engaging Networks and Salesforce allows the client to push email and form interactions to Salesforce Campaigns. This provides clients with a holistic view of donor and activist behavior. Deep reporting like this can offer insights into major donor prospects, recurring behavior and more.
Zuri Group created a variety of custom reports in Salesforce for the Nature Québec team to deep dive into their data. This, combined with Engaging Networks reporting, provides a robust picture of campaign success and potential.
As an added benefit, Nature Québec now has a better solution in Salesforce for grant management and easier access for accounting to reconcile donations.
Thank You to Our Friends
This case study was made possible in collaboration with Engaging Networks Accredited Partner, Zuri Group and our valued client Nature Québec. We take enormous pride in working globally with charities who are affecting real change and improving our world. Nature Québec works to promote biodiversity, protect natural ecosystems and species, encourage interaction with nature and fight for sustainable use of natural resources. You can learn more or donate here, or watch the short video (in French) below for a glimpse into their work.
