Agentforce Nonprofit vs. Custom: Choosing the Right Salesforce Path

When it comes to Salesforce, it can be tough to decide between Agentforce Nonprofit (AFNP) and a Custom solution. Both options are powerful tools that can elevate an organization’s mission and impact while simplifying workflows and streamlining processes. While there’s no one size fits all approach that will work for each use case, knowing the pros and cons of each option will help you choose the right-fit solution that supports the unique needs of your organization and team.

What is Agentforce Nonprofit?

Launched in 2023 and initially branded as Nonprofit Cloud, Agentforce Nonprofit is a powerful tool that aligns nonprofits with other Salesforce industry solutions, such as Financial Services, Healthcare, Manufacturing, and Consumer Goods.

The AFNP route is well-suited for organizations that need to run multiple programs like fundraising, program management, case management, and grant disbursement.

Built on the Core platform, AFNP utilizes “Industry Common Features”, a set of tools developed by Salesforce and used across all of the industry clouds. Together these features support relationship management, client engagement and automate complex workflows, to name just a few of the many benefits.

AFNP aligns organizations with the innovation path of Salesforce, and offers flexibility to scale programs as organizational needs evolve. It is also a newer offering, so there are still bugs that are getting worked out. Similar to other Salesforce solutions, Agentforce Nonprofit requires strong in-house admin expertise or a consultant that can provide outsourced administrative support.

How Does a Custom Salesforce Solution Compare to Agentforce Nonprofit?

A Custom solution is the “solo innovator route”. Built on the base Salesforce Platform, a Custom solution can be tailored to meet an organization’s exact specifications.

With a custom solution, there’s not a lot of prebuilt architecture to contend with, and organizations are able to design the system to meet their needs, as opposed to matching your processes to a pre-built system.

We hesitate to make the bold statement that the Custom route is simpler than AFNP, but it is true that this route removes all the extra stuff that many organizations won’t need, especially if they’re only running a couple programs and don’t need a lot of additional tools and functionality.

With a custom solution, your system matches your process and workflows, and does not rely on decisions made by Salesforce around what solutions to continue supporting and which ones to sunset. While it’s not likely that Salesforce will stop supporting AFNP in the near future, it is still a possibility, based on the typical product turnover process at Salesforce.

As with AFNP, going the Custom route still requires that you have an in-house or outsourced managed administrative services staff person to steward and support the systems. Whether you choose to go with AFNP or Custom, both will benefit from ongoing governance support, including staffing roles for Salesforce Administrator and Power Users, and having clearly defined processes for making system enhancements.

While both options are similar in terms of implementation costs, the AFNP route is more expensive in terms of licensing costs and offers a steeper learning curve. Lastly, if you choose the Custom option and want to move to AFNP at some point in the future, it will require a whole new implementation.

How to Decide Which Salesforce Route is the Right Fit?

While budget and internal staff capacity are important points to take into account when considering AFNP vs. a Custom route, at the end of the day the biggest factor that will help you choose the right-fit solution is clarity on your organizational needs and which tool will best meet those specifications.

If AFNP seems like it will support your team’s needs and you value innovation and the extra tools and features available through AFNP, then the extra cost and complexity may be a better option. On the other hand, if you value simplicity and the freedom to design the system to match how your team works, then the Custom route may be a more attractive solution to consider.

Both Agentforce Nonprofit and a Custom Salesforce solution have unique pros and cons, and there is no right or wrong route. Consider what your unique needs are, take into account factors such as budget and staffing capacity, and gather as much information as you can to help guide the decision.

Before making a final decision and buying software, we always recommend that folks engage a consultant to perform a thorough Discovery that includes a complete audit of all systems and processes. Contact us for more information about our Discovery services, and for a more in-depth look at Agentforce Nonprofit, and to read a case study on one of the early adopters of the system, check out our recent piece: Is Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud Right for Your Organization.