Salesforce.org Joins NetHope as a Founding Partner of The Center for the Digital Nonprofit

By: Allyson Fryhoff, Chief Strategic Engagement Officer, Salesforce.org and Lauren Woodman, Chief Executive Officer, NetHope

Humanitarian organizations on the front lines of the world’s toughest challenges deserve the best technology to drive greater impact. However, they are dealing with reduced funding and capacities at a time when the need for their services is in greater demand. Technology, particularly digital technology, can solve for that gap, enabling organizations to operate more efficiently and at scale.

To further that vision, Salesforce.org is joining NetHope as a founding partner of The Center for the Digital Nonprofit (The Center). The Center brings together the expertise of the technology sector and the on-the-ground experience of global nonprofits to create a network of committed, forward-looking humanitarians who can apply digital solutions to real world challenges. 

Why partner and why now?

This commitment to being a founding partner of The Center for the Digital Nonprofit is a natural next step in the Salesforce.org partnership with NetHope, which dates back to 2011. Salesforce.org has partnered with NetHope to support digital skills and capacity building, including sponsoring the annual NetHope Global Summit, co-sponsoring The Digital Nonprofit Skills (DNS) Assessment white paper, and joining the Impact Cloud coalition. Salesforce.org has also supported NetHope’s vital emergency response work, including Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.

More than half of NetHope’s members have already been making use of Salesforce technology to advance their missions for many years. NetHope member NGOs have also been contributing their real-world experiences to help shape Salesforce.org open source solutions and data models like the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP). Salesforce.org’s support of The Center aims to provide further support to the NetHope community and the greater social impact sector to use technology to make progress faster on the Sustainable Development Goals.  

Both NetHope and Salesforce.org are aligned in their common vision to help organizations achieve their missions and measure their impact using data-driven insights and real-time reports, rather than anecdotes alone. This partnership will expand both organizations’ ability to further that commitment. Salesforce.org will be working with NetHope and its members to support the needs of its Data Management and CRM Working Group, and to create a NetHope-based community for impact measurement.

NetHope’s Lee Anne Caylor, Jean-Louis Ecochard and Fredrik Winsnes celebrate Salesforce as a new Center for the Digital Nonprofit Founding Partner. Source: NetHope

Technology Built for Impact

 
With the same technology used by the for-profit world contextualized for social impact and purpose-built applications, nonprofits can scale to meet the evolving needs of beneficiaries like displaced populations, refugees, and those impacted by natural disasters. 

With 45,000 nonprofit and education institutions using Salesforce.org technology and 57 NetHope members around the world, we’ve learned a common blueprint for success that we want to share with communities that are making huge strides in global development. Organizations like NetHope members Catholic Relief Services (CRS), CARE, and PATH are paving the way for new solutions and a new constituent experience.

CRS Financial Diaries Interview. Source: Henry Tenenbaum, 2016/Catholic Relief Services

For example, with support from Salesforce and its partner TaroWorks, CRS implemented a monitoring and evaluation solution for its financial services programming in Zambia. Financial researchers in the field equipped with digital tools instead of pen and paper were then able to effectively build a body of evidence around the effectiveness of cash programming efforts for over 270 households. CRS’s impact journey continues, having recently completed design work on a new impact measurement solution that will allow the organization to measure not just the impact it is having in the field but also its global influence as it relates to the Sustainable Development Goals. After the new impact measurement program is implemented in 2020, CRS will be able to further ensure its own accountability to results and continually improve its programs and practices for maximum impact.

A Resource for Effective Transformation

By engaging with NetHope members through The Center for the Digital Nonprofit, Salesforce.org intends to help nonprofits responsibly transform their operational cultures to use data to measure their impact and effectiveness. 

The Center will foster relationships between NetHope member NGOs and will also work with members to better connect with their donors. We aim to help donors understand why investing in technology is investing in impact.

Together, Salesforce.org and NetHope are working to ensure that all humanitarian, development and conservation nonprofits have the resources, technology, and capacities they need to effectively and responsibly harness the power of technology in their work.

Learn more about resources for humanitarian organizations in these blogs:

• Protecting the Humanitarian Mission with the Cloud

• Delivering Humanitarian Impact with the SDGs

• 4 Reasons to Choose Salesforce for Humanitarian Organizations