A nonprofit uses Salesforce for fundraising and managing its educational programs.

To provide real-time insights into membership data stored in a proprietary system, the nonprofit should use Salesforce Connect to store this information in External Objects:

Salesforce Connect:

Salesforce Connect allows Salesforce to integrate with external data sources in real-time without the need to import the data into Salesforce.

It uses External Objects to represent the data from the external system, making it accessible within Salesforce like any other object.

Implementing Salesforce Connect:

Set up an external data source connection in Salesforce to the proprietary membership management system.

Define External Objects for the membership data, such as member status, renewal dates, and other relevant data points.

Create relationships between External Objects and standard Salesforce objects (e.g., Contacts, Accounts) to link donor and membership information.

Real-Time Insights:

Use reports and dashboards to display membership data alongside fundraising and program data.

Ensure that membership data is updated in real-time, providing accurate and timely insights.

By utilizing Salesforce Connect and External Objects, the nonprofit can achieve real-time visibility into its membership data without duplicating data storage.