Nonprofits at Dreamforce ‘16: Highlights of the Week

Another Dreamforce has come and gone, and we think this was the best one yet! People came from all over the globe to work together and discuss the future of technology’s role in making the world a better place. It was incredible to see all of these innovators and trailblazers in one nonprofit space learning, sharing, and collaborating.

It would be impossible to list all of the amazing moments that happened last week in our collective quest to make impact, but I’ve put together a list of some of our favorite highlights from the week.

Here we go!

1. We celebrated the Nonprofit Success Pack

NPSP, which formerly stood for the Nonprofit Starter Pack and was launched in 2008, is now officially known as the Nonprofit Success Pack. And this evolution was one of the biggest highlights from our week at Dreamforce. Why the change? NPSP gives nonprofits of any size the flexibility and scale to achieve goals that certainly go beyond “starter” level ambitions. NPSP is the foundation for the Connected Nonprofit. It has been used to great success by customers not only engaging in fundraising, but program management, marketing, membership management, and so many other mission critical areas. And our community was so excited by NPSP that any session that featured it at Dreamforce ‘16 was packed.

2. There were so many incredible sessions!

Can you believe that there were over 60 sessions dedicated to nonprofit causes and topics this year? That’s incredible! Speakers from so many of our valued customers, partners, and employees gave talks that addressed everything from program management to fundraising to gamification. In fact, in the Power of Us Theater, Chris Eales from BrightGen built a working fundraising page in 15 minutes! That session, like so many others, were standing room only.

3. New friendships and connections were made at the Community Cascade and lounges.

This year, we were happy to host the Community Cascade, a waterfall inside of the Salesforce.org Lodge! Okay, maybe it wasn’t a real waterfall, but the connections made at its base — and at the various lounges located throughout the lodge — were very real. Our partners and customers held meetups around specific topics, from LGBTQIA to veterans, that allowed members of our community to bond and collaborate in powerful ways.

Stay Connected in the Power of Us Hub

4. We explored new trails on Trailhead.

Trailhead is our beloved tool that helps you get up to speed on Salesforce, enabling you to learn what you need to learn when you need to learn it. At Dreamforce this past week, we celebrated the release of our newest trail for nonprofits, “Manage Volunteers for Nonprofits.”. A huge thanks to Dianna Stockdale and our friends at EarthCorps who volunteered their time and experience to help make this trail. At DF, we had a dedicated space right at the heart of the Salesforce.org Lodge that allowed attendees to complete a module within the trail. Modules include everything from volunteer registration to website integration. If you missed the opportunity to complete the modules at Dreamforce, fear not! You can do the trail from the comfort of your own laptop.

5. There was a lot of swag.

When I say a lot, I mean A LOT. There were buttons and stickers and t-shirts and blankets everywhere. Hopefully you left some space in your suitcase to take it all home! But the swag I was most excited about was the Cause pins. This year, we introduced Causes so that people could identify the issues and topics they hold closest to their hearts. And by having our Cause pins, we allowed them to literally do just that. Our Causes include everything from Environment & Animals to Health & Wellness to International Development & Disaster Relief. This year, our Dreamforce sessions were even categorized by Cause to help you in your quest to see the talks that mattered most to you.

At the end of the day, last week was about community and working together. I’m a proud member of this community, and the momentum we are building toward real impact has already got me excited for DF17! It was so good to see so many of our customers, partners and employees come together and strengthen our commitment to the causes we carry close to our hearts.