Welcome to the Family NGO Connect!

My wife and I are the very new and very proud parents of a gorgeous baby girl, Anika. Born on June 7, 2014, she’s been an amazing (and exhausting) joy. As a father, I’m sorry, but I need to introduce Anika to the world … And as one of the many proud parents of the Nonprofit Starter Pack (NPSP), a community supported application, I’m excited to introduce a new sister to the family, NGO Connect.

Meet Anika!

There’s amazing excitement about NGO Connect. The Salesforce.org is now delivering a packaged application designed for enterprise class fundraising and engagement. We’ve heard time and again from many in the nonprofit and NGO community that you need an enterprise solution like NGO Connect and we are delivering on those requests. We are in production with NGO Connect at some of the largest NGOs in the world like Girl Scouts of the USA, International Rescue Committee and Sierra Club, and we value them as both partners as well as customers. NGO Connect is about one thing and one thing only — making our customers and partners more successful.

At the same time, the majority of our customers are on the community supported application NPSP. In July we released the NPSPv3. That upgrade represented the largest investment to date in the NPSP and provided a significant lift in terms of functionality, and more importantly it enables thousands of organizations to deliver more impact. We hope this is a demonstration of our commitment to the NPSP. We love NPSP.

Now, I only have one child… and my father always told me that I was his favorite. Somehow though, I have a sneaking suspicion he told my sister that she was his favorite as well.

Oh, and NGO Connect!

This is how we at the Foundation feel about NGO Connect and the NPSP. They are both our favorite. They are different and serve different needs. We love them both differently but equally. One is not “better” than the other; rather, they are different and unique in their own ways, bringing different kinds of value to our customers. Our teams have been working in earnest on both NGO Connect and on the NPSP for the last six months, and there’s much more to come.

We are also committed to serving the global sector and organizations of all shapes and sizes. When we looked at what it would take to satisfy the most demanding customers for enterprise features we realized that it would be faster and our customers would be better served in adding a new product vs. trying to extend the NPSP to serve that diverse set of needs. I think the NGO Connect solution is a huge leap forward for enterprise customers and we are just getting started.

I also know the nonprofit space has seen nonprofit technology providers “simplify” their portfolios by eliminating solutions. We’re not doing this. Its not our strategy, its someone else’s strategy. We’re adding more options, not reducing options. We’re on a mission: to help nonprofits deliver on their mission … and providing NGO Connect along with the NPSP will enable us to help more of you deliver on your mission!

Leading a development team is much like being a father … You seemingly never stop worrying about your kids. My work kids are the NPSP and NGO Connect. They are both awesome in their own ways and I hope you get to love them both the same way I do: equally my favorites.

If you want to learn more about Nonprofit Starter Pack v3.0, please check out the NPSP Chatter group in the Power of Us HUB. To learn more about NGO Connect, join us for a special webinar on September 30, 2014.

Kevin Bromer is Director of Product Development