Welcome to the HubCap

The HubCap is your monthly highlight reel of the most important product updates, best practices, events, and conversations posted to the Salesforce.org online community, the Power of Us Hub. Read through for curated success content that helps you meet your goals, engage with the community, and achieve more with Salesforce.

This month’s HubCap is coming out a bit later in the month than usual. By now, you have likely heard about Salesforce restrictions on travel and events in light of the escalating COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak around the world. Over the last few weeks, we have been closely monitoring the evolving situation to ensure we are taking every precaution. We’ve been trying to keep you all updated in real time, so see below for an overview of recent changes.

Alright, now, let’s take a look at the top highlights from the Salesforce.org community from February 2020, including product updates, important announcements and community milestones.

Shortcut to sections:

• Important Updates: COVID-19 Updates, & Spring ‘20 Release Info
• Extend Your Learning: Upcoming & Past Webinars, Blogs, Knowledge Articles
• Events: Past & Upcoming
• Hub Happenings: Updates from the Community Team

Let’s take a deep dive into what happened in February 2020.

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Important Updates

COVID-19 — For the Safety and Wellbeing of You & Those Around You

• New Topic Landing Page: Please follow the Topic #COVID-19 in the Hub and set your email notifications to “Every Post” to get the most updated information delivered to your inbox and engage in conversations about how to navigate this difficult time for your organization.
• Update from Marc Benioff: Our Latest Efforts to Help Those Affected
• Events: By now, you may have heard about Salesforce restrictions on travel and events in light of the escalating COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak around the world. Over the last few weeks, we have been closely monitoring the evolving situation to ensure we are taking every precaution.
• For events organized by Salesforce.org, if you are currently registered to attend an event in the month of March, you will receive additional communication via email regarding the status of the event, whether canceled or postponed.
• For events not organized by Salesforce.org, we will be following Salesforce mandated protocol around travel and event restrictions.
• Education Blog: COVID-19 Update from the Education Cloud Team
• Nonprofit Blog: COVID-19 Update from the Nonprofit Cloud Team
• Webinar: Running Your Mission in the Middle of the COVID-19 Outbreak

Pro Bono Program Reminder

• While your technology may not be top-of-mind for many of you, we want to make sure that IF your organization has a pressing need for some help with your Salesforce instance whether it be creating new reports and dashboards, building some process automation, or reviewing your data security, our Pro Bono Program is here to help.
• All nonprofit and education organizations with a live instance (not a trial) of Salesforce can apply. For more information, please go to: https://www.salesforce.org/volunteers/probono/
• We are working to expedite all pro bono requests during this critical time.

Spring ’20 Release

• Notes: Spring ’20 Release Notes
• Trailhead: Spring ’20 Release Highlights
• Webinar (AMER): AMER Recording from March 3
• Webinar (EMEA): Upcoming on March 26, Register here
• Ask Me Anything: review the questions asked in the Release Readiness Group
• Blog: Salesforce Spring ‘20 Release Features for Education Institutions
• Blog: A New NPSP Feature for Nonprofit Admins to Handle Soft Credits

Gift Entry Manager is now available in EMEA!

• Announced on Feb 26, 2020 – We are delighted to share that after gathering extensive feedback from EMEA Advancement customers and piloting GEM at The University of Portsmouth, GEM is live in EMEA! This means GEM has been localized (it has been translated into UK English, French, German and Spanish) and is approved for use in EMEA.
  
  What is GEM?

  Gift Entry Manager (GEM) supports the operational capabilities of the Advancement office. As gift processing is a foundational component of advancement and has existed in legacy advancement CRMs for years, GEM allows us to provide a more comprehensive advancement offering in the market and offers functionality for gift records management. See the full update in the Hub here.

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Extend Your Learning

Webinars – Past

Next Step Webinar Series: Build on the Nonprofit Fundamentals

After completing Get Started: Salesforce Fundamentals for Nonprofits webinar series, we encourage you to continue learning with this weekly series. The topics we’ll cover are basic components of Salesforce for nonprofits and essential to your success. These are:

• Feb 6 – Week 1: Sending email through Salesforce, Slides & Trailmix
• Feb 13 – Week 2: Campaigns for fundraising and more, Slides & Trailmix
• Feb 20 – Week 3: Activity Management, Slides & Trailmix
• Feb 27 – Week 4: Reports and dashboards, Slides & Recommended Trail

Get Started with Fundraising Webinar Series

Fundraising is the heart of NPSP but every nonprofit is unique. In this 4-week series we’ll show you how NPSP can help solve some of the most common challenges in nonprofit fundraising.
• Feb 12 – Week 1: Accounting for Your Income
• Feb 19 – Week 2: Money that Comes in Over Time
• Feb 26 – Week 3: Donation Attribution and Soft Credits
• Mar 4 – Week 4: Reports and Dashboards for Fundraising

One-off webinars

• NGO Connect (NGOC) to Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) Informational Session
• How Harvard Extension Scaled a Unified Advising Model

View all recordings on the Salesforce.org YouTube Channel

Webinars – Upcoming

Next Steps: Build on the Fundamentals for Nonprofits Register for the series

• March 30 – Week 1: Sending Email through Salesforce
• April 6 – Week 2: Campaigns for Fundraising and More
• April 13 – Week 3: Managing Activities
• April 20 – Week 4: Reports and Dashboards

NEW SERIES: Get Started: Fundamentals for Education Webinar Series Register for the series

This webinar series is for beginning Salesforce admins and users who work in education. Attendees will learn the basics of Salesforce CRM, Education Cloud, EDA, and discover the resources available to help them get started. This is a precursor webinar series to the “Get Started” Solution line webinars.

• Mar 4 – Week 1: Planning for Success
• Mar 11 – Week 2: Introduction to Education Cloud
• Mar 18 – Week 3: Meed Education Data Architecture (EDA)
• Mar 25 – Week 4: Reports and Dashboards

See all upcoming webinars in the MindShare group in the Hub.

Research Reports

• Nonprofit Trends Report, & blog: Announcing the Latest Nonprofit Trends Report
• Connected Student Report, & blog: New Research Identifies Top Higher Education Trends
• Maximise Your Impact by Discovering the Full Potential of CRM for Nonprofits

Product Documentation

• Updated: NPSP Customizable Rollups Overview

Blogs

• Meet the 2020 Higher Ed Advisory Council
• Salesforce Spring ‘20 Release Features for Education Institutions
• Announcing the First Group of Salesforce.org Impact Labs Fellows
• Announcing 2020 Higher Ed Summit Award Finalists: Vote Now!
• 8 Steps to Protect Your Student and Alumni Data
• Using a Design Thinking Approach to Create Meaningful Constituent Experiences

Trailhead

• NEW: Build a Connected Campus with Education Cloud

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Events

Please check event websites often for updates on any cancelations or changes due to COVID-19 Coronavirus. Information is changing quickly. If you have specific questions, please email [email protected]. Please continue to monitor the Hub for updated communication.

Past Events

Feb 29, 2020 – Albanian Dreamin’ 2020. The 1st Albanian Dreamin’ Salesforce Community Conference!

Upcoming Events

Dreamin’ Events — these events are run by community members, not Salesforce. Please check event websites often for updates on any cancelations or changes due to COVID-19 Coronavirus. Information is changing quickly.

• View all Community Conferences and updates HERE

March 17-18, 2020: DOT org NYC – POSTPONED

• We’ve decided to postpone DOT org New York initially planned for March 17-18. We were so looking forward to connecting with our nonprofit trailblazers and we look forward to seeing you at other events in the future.
• Refunds: Your registration fee will be automatically refunded. No further action is needed. Please allow 7-10 business days for refund to process. See more information here.

March 30 – April 1, 2020: Open Source Community Sprint in Atlanta, GA – In-person is cancelled, now VIRTUAL March 31st – April 1st

• The in-person Open Source Community Sprint in Atlanta, GA has been canceled due to travel restrictions around the COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak.
• It will now take place in a virtual format Tuesday March 31st to Wednesday April 1st, check out the FAQ and register here!
• Join us in the Open Source Commons & Community Sprint group to learn more about our planned virtual Community Sprint instead.

Higher Ed Summit – Going digital!

• After careful consideration, we’ve decided there will be no physical event for Higher Ed Summit 2020. Instead, we will reimagine Higher Ed Summit as a free virtual experience and deliver a full program of inspiring sessions and educational content. We look forward to gathering our global community to explore the future of education together.
• Higher Ed Summit 2020 Award Finalists were announced! See the full blog post here: Announcing 2020 Higher Ed Summit Award Finalists: Vote Now!

June 9 – 10, 2020: TrailheaDX. Save the date!

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Community Happenings

It’s International Women’s Month! This month, we are celebrating two new Hub Heroes — two standout women from the Power of Us Hub — get to know them here:

Hub Heroes

Amy Bucciferro, Senior Project Manager at Arkus Inc. Twitter: @ifitfloats

Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?
Community makes my work possible. It gives me the confidence that I’m doing the right thing for organizations I work with and the pleasure of being part of something that helps more people than I would ever touch on my own. I work with organizations of all sizes in adopting Salesforce. It is great when I can continue to work with an organization for a long time, but what I really want is for them to be able to own and manage this technology on their own.

Also, the genuine sense that we are all in this together is a continuous motivator. In the toughest moments, when something seems unsolvable, I know that there are probably dozens of other people trying to solve almost the same thing, and I have a way to find them. And if I figure out some tough thing on my own, there is somewhere bigger than just me or my clients or my company where that can go and share it. The community is there to help us all do our best and to appreciate and support each other. I am always happy to do what I can to keep that going.

Is there one moment that stands out about your time in the Hub?
A couple of years ago I was working with a client that really pushed the boundaries of the NPSP architecture, which resulted in me uncovering some behavior I did not quite expect. Stumped, I posted the issue to the Hub. To my surprise and delight, I quickly got an answer–I had found a bug. And the best part; it was resolved within a couple of release cycles. The impact is real, we build this together! Some version of this story has repeated a number of times, whatever issue I stumble upon it is rare that I cannot quickly crowdsource a satisfactory answer from the Hub.

Anything else you would like to share about your Salesforce journey?
As someone fascinated most of all by people, I never imagined myself in a technical career. But technology is about people–supporting their work, understanding their hopes and fears–and I feel especially fortunate to work with technology that supports the missions of organizations that care for other people on many important levels.

If you could instantly become an expert at something, what would it be and why?
I want the superpower to look at any code, app, integration, etc. and instantly understand what exactly it is doing and why.

Jillian Adkins, Communications & Administrative Associate at Hilltop Artists in Residence

Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?
I always wish I had more time to “hang out” in the Hub to answer and ask questions and join discussions. It’s an awesome feeling when you help someone learn how to do something or solve a problem they’ve encountered, especially when you’ve been the recipient of similar help in the past as I have. Everyone brings a unique perspective and inspiring ideas to the table.

I’m in Cuba as I write this, and nowhere have I seen such a beautiful, friendly community where everyone supports one another – it’s like the Hub, but in real day-to-day life. Without the Hub community, the NPSP (and all the .org products) wouldn’t be nearly as amazing and useful as they are, and I wouldn’t have near the Salesforce knowledge that I have.

Is there one moment that stands out about your time in the Hub?
My first NPSP Day was full of interesting discussions, meeting fellow Hubbers in person, and people helping one another. I learned a lot, including that I have some helpful how-to’s to share with this community.

Anything else you would like to share about your Salesforce journey?
I couldn’t ask for a better journey. A volunteer position seven years ago opened my eyes to the many benefits of, and uses for, Salesforce for nonprofits. Now, I get to work with many different nonprofits using Salesforce, and I love it. It doesn’t feel like work, which is wonderful.

If you could instantly become an expert at something, what would it be and why?
I would love to become an expert at growing and preparing all our food from scratch. Managing a self-sustaining farm of sorts.

… and that’s a wrap! Phew, that was a long one!

Take Me to the Hub

We want your feedback! Hop in the Hub and post to Hub Feedback and let us know your thoughts!

From, Your Salesforce.org Community Team

The Power of Us Hub is an online community for Salesforce.org customers, certified partners and staff. The Hub is a place for you to get answers, build your Salesforce skills, share your expertise & connect with others in the nonprofit, higher ed & K-12 sectors who are using Salesforce!