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Let's be clear: For nonprofits Salesforce is "free."
It's free like a puppy. Not free like a beer.
If you work for a Nonprofit or Educational Organization you've come to the place to learn how to use Salesforce wisely, effectively, and cheaply.
🌈 Design For User Success: Add Interest through Color
Suggested tools and ideas to add visual interest to your Salesforce pages by taking color into consideration.
Michael Kolodner
Jun 5, 20243 min read
Design for User Success: Field Placement
Key principles of field placement and page design to enhance user experience and efficiency in Salesforce.
Michael Kolodner
May 22, 20246 min read
Extension Objects: There’s Nothing to Like
Extension Objects are the "on core" place to put fields that really belong on objects like accounts and contacts. They are a problem.
Michael Kolodner
Apr 24, 202410 min read
Deeply Skeptical About Person Accounts
Despite being the official solution for dealing with individuals on Salesforce, Person Accounts are difficult to use.
Michael Kolodner
Mar 27, 20246 min read
Thing I Learned: Email Encoding Has Changed
Salesforce's default email encoding has switched to UTF-8 (unicode). Make sure you update yourself and all existing users.
Michael Kolodner
Feb 28, 20242 min read
Things You Don’t Need: Premier Success
Nonprofits do not need to pay for Premier Success. Save your money to give your admin professional development.
Michael Kolodner
Dec 20, 20235 min read
In Praise of "Clicks not Code"
The fact that Salesforce is easy to build and automate without code is a gift that has built community and careers.
Michael Kolodner
Nov 21, 20233 min read
Platform Events — My New Favorite Tool
An introduction to Platform Events and the cool things I've found to do with them.
Michael Kolodner
Oct 25, 202310 min read
Spoiler Alert: AEs are Salespeople
The sales incentives at Salesforce do not always result in the best outcomes for nonprofits. Buyer beware!
Michael Kolodner
Oct 11, 20238 min read
Free Things I Always Install: Unofficial SF
UnofficialSF is a treasure trove of flow extensions, code snippets, and more. There are some tools I always know I'll need and others I keep
Michael Kolodner
Aug 30, 20233 min read
Free Things I Always Install: DLRS
I always install DLRS into new orgs or existing ones. It's just a great tool that can solve so many needs!
Michael Kolodner
Aug 16, 20231 min read
Free Things I Always Install: Lightning Messaging Utility
Lightning Messaging Utility from Salesforce Labs is a handy tool for displaying messages that fit the Salesforce design pattern.
Michael Kolodner
Jul 19, 20233 min read
Apsona: The Golden App for Bulk Data Operations
Apsona for Salesforce is my favorite app. I consider it so important that I require my clients to install it.
Michael Kolodner
Jun 27, 20234 min read
Rollup to Relationship: A Cool DLRS Trick
A rollup summary trick to create a direct relationship to the last child record.
Michael Kolodner
Jun 14, 20233 min read
FormAssembly’s Price Increase
FormAssembly is raising their pricing. A lot. It still might be worthwhile for nonprofits.
Michael Kolodner
May 31, 20235 min read
Always Build in a Sandbox. (Except When You Don't. Or can't.)
We always say you should never build in production. But I say sometimes it makes sense.
Michael Kolodner
Apr 26, 20235 min read
Setting Up the Free Integration Users
A step-by-step guide to using the free Salesforce integration user licenses.
Michael Kolodner
Apr 12, 202312 min read
Tools I Love: DLRS (the Declarative Lookup Rollup Summary tool)
DLRS, the Declarative Lookup Rollup Summary Tool, gives your rollup summary fields superpowers.
Michael Kolodner
Mar 29, 20236 min read
Naming Convention Flows
How to make text-named records have consistent and useful names.
Michael Kolodner
Feb 15, 20235 min read
One Form To Rule Them All
Use a single webform for many uses with URL parameters and save yourself time.
Michael Kolodner
Feb 1, 20233 min read
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