Your Salesforce org will probably be one of the most important tool you use at your charity. It is therefore very important that it is managed correctly and regularly. Many charities ask us if it’s worth getting a volunteer to help out with the management of their org and if we think this is a good idea. In this article we will answer this question by discussing what risks or benefits could be involved.
How wrong can it go?
Having a Salesforce at your organisation is like owning a Lamborghini. You wouldn’t let a learner driver or someone without a licence drive one or a back street mechanic to repair one, so why should you let someone who may not hold the relevant certifications and experience make changes to your Salesforce org? This being said, there are some areas where a volunteer can definitely add value and this is something we will discuss in more detail below. You may come across a rare gem who is fully certified, experienced and happy to help free of charge, in which case this might be someone who you may be able to bring in with more confidence. If you do decide to let an unqualified volunteer near your org, here are some of the things that can go wrong:
- Poorly built automation can incorrectly alter your data
- Poorly built configuration with create technical debt which will cost more money in the future to resolve
- Poorly built configuration might reduce user adoption and can act as a barrier to users being comfortable with the platform
- Your Salesforce configuration may not be according to best practices and standards.
- Your data can be misused by the volunteer and fall into the wrong hands.
How a volunteer can help
We understand that volunteers are an instrumental part of a charity’s success. There are multiple areas where a volunteer can definitely help with your salesforce implementation:
- Gathering and documenting solution requirements.
- Documenting charity processes on a tool like Lucidchart or Microsoft Visio.
- Creating training materials like user manuals and videos.
- Creating other documents and resources (like a data dictionary).
- Cleaning data.
- Creating Reports & Dashboards.
- Creating and updating records.
- Creating new users and resetting passwords.
- Creating List Views.
If you do decide to give a volunteer access to your data we recommend that you get a signed data protection policy/agreement with the volunteer and if you are planning to give access to the Salesforce org you assign them a profile with access to only the data and permissions they need.
Where you should seek expert help
There are some areas where only experts should be involved:
- Configuration changes to fields, objects and layouts
- Security/permission changes
- Validation Rules, Approval Processes
- System Automation
- Data migration
- Data model changes
- Integrations
- Creating Report Types
Conclusion
There are many areas where a volunteer can help add value to your Salesforce Implementation and if you find one that can help with the items listed above, we definitely recommend bringing them in to reduce the cost of your implementation.
You may also come across an experienced volunteer who is willing to give back and help free of charge. In this case we recommend verifying that the volunteer is experienced and holds the relevant certifications (in particular Salesforce Administrator & Nonprofit Cloud Consultant) before letting them work on the more technical areas.
Otherwise, we definitely recommend using a trusted consultancy or trained professional, it may save you more money in the long run!
