I bet some of you have been wondering why I hate new Nonprofit Cloud (NPC). I'm not sure anyone has ever asked me directly with exactly this wording of the question, but I've definitely had people ask me a question in the same genre.
No doubt I've written pretty harshly about NPC, directly, in the Emperor's New Clouds, and less directly, in posts on extension objects, person accounts, and even Salesforce's business strategy. I tend to be pretty transparent about what I think.
But I don't hate Nonprofit Cloud. I mostly don't care about it. I don't think it's a product/service/offering that is going to affect my business or the day-to-day operations of my clients, small nonprofits.
A Car Analogy
I'm reaching for a car analogy to make this clear: I have about as much interest in Nonprofit Cloud as I have in Maclarens. That is to say, very little.
For my whole life, my family has owned relatively practical and affordable vehicles. Toyota Camrys, Honda Civics and Accords... Not the absolute cheapest on the market, for sure, but not much in the way of vehicular splurges.
[Sure, there has been some fun in the mix. My first car was a sweet 1967 Olds 442 convertible that my uncle loaned me long-term. And I bought a Celica convertible in my twenties that I drove until taking my mom's hand-me-down beige 1998 Toyota Camry in 2006 to fit two kids. I drove that one until 2022 (and my children are still driving it). Two years ago I bought a Polestar 2 electric vehicle. That was pricey, but I paid the extra for the sake of the environment.]
To go back to the analogy: The cars I drove are ones most Americans would be pretty familiar with. If I think about "the car market," I'm thinking about regular vehicles. I may hate the fact that Americans drive large trucks and SUVs, paying extra and keeping fuel economy down. And I don't love that when I go to purchase a car there are fewer sedan options and fewer good fuel economy options than there should be. But that is the extent of how much I think about "the car market."
When my son brings up things like Maclarens, Bentleys, even Porsches, I don't have any interest. Luxury and super luxury cars just aren't something I think about. I'd probably feel differently about Maclarens if there was some kind of program subsidizing them for low income car buyers. (Then I'd be incensed that people were being handed a car that was going to bankrupt them in fuel and maintenance costs.)
How I Feel About NPC
How I feel about luxury cars is how I feel about NPC: It just isn't relevant to me.
When I think and talk about "the Salesforce ecosystem" or "the Salesforce platform" I'm considering the features and functions that most organizations use. Anything behind the Industries barrier is too niche or too expensive for any of my clients and for the majority of other admins and users out there.
You Can Feel How You Want
I've also gotten pushback from consultants that are working with NPC. They let me know I'm too harsh or too negative and that they're using it with their clients. That's fine. To be clear, those are two very different assertions:
If I'm too harsh or too negative, I'm open to hearing the ways in which my analysis of the features or functions is wrong. For the most part, other consultants have not pushed back on those things. In fact, they pretty much all tell me I'm spot on.
And of course there are consultants using Nonprofit Cloud for their clients. But those are much larger clients than I have, larger than 90% of the market. I've said repeatedly that this might be viable for large organizations. I don't think I've heard from anyone that they're implementing for a small or medium client and finding that it makes sense. They may be doing it, but they're having to build workarounds and figure things out in all the ways that I've pointed at.
Can it be done? I'm sure it can.
Will it be expensive? Yes.
Will the client be happy and use the system long term, recommending it to their peers? Only time will tell.