MonkeyPod vs. Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud

How does MonkeyPod match up against Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud? Good question.

While Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud offers lots of functionality, it is built on top of the existing Salesforce infrastructure, which was designed for for-profit businesses. MonkeyPod, on the other hand, was designed from the ground-up to meet the unique needs of nonprofits. It is a fully integrated platform and isn’t priced to nickel and dime you at every turn. We like to think our system is easier to use and a lot more affordable, but you be the judge.

Let’s compare the features below:

Constituent Relationship Management (CRM)

MonkeyPod Relationships is your CRM for all of your relationships -- donors, vendors, staff, board members, volunteers, you name it. You can do some amazing things with MonkeyPod Relationships:

• Create custom attributes that reflect the information that is important to your organization
• See the web of connections between your constituents
• Create donor and customer records automatically when recording transactions
• Track a donor's progress from cold prospect to die-hard supporter using moves management and funnels
• Use location-based searches to invite people to events
• One-click import your CRM records into email marketing for easy list management and campaign building

Because MonkeyPod Relationships is integrated with the rest of the platform, there is no need for duplicate data entry or reconciliations between databases. Fundraising and finance staff have access to the same information in real-time.

Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack includes all of the functionality you would expect in a CRM and is advertised as free. But you’ll need a Sales + Service Subscription or a Platform Subscription to get started. And you won’t have a CRM that integrates with all of your other systems. So be ready for more data entry, reconciliation, requests for access, and management headaches.

Fundraising

Our clients love MonkeyPod Fundraising. And we think it’s easy to see why. You can create an unlimited number of branded, online fundraising pages. You can give your donors the option of donating once or on a recurring basis. MonkeyPod easily handles partially-deductible donations. And with every donation, donors are automatically added to MonkeyPod Relationships CRM, receipts are automatically sent, and your books are automatically updated -- all without any manual data entry or human intervention. Say goodbye to double data entry and wondering which numbers are up-to-date. And if all that doesn’t wow you, because MonkeyPod integrates with Stripe for payment processing, credit card payments are transferred automatically to your bank account.

Salesforce Elevate integrates with their Nonprofit Success Pack and allows you to set up Giving Pages. But it caps you at 5,000 payment transactions. If you need more, you have to buy them in increments of 1,000. That’s in addition to the $5,000 per year price tag.

Nonprofit Accounting

We know accounting may not be your thing, but MonkeyPod Accounting will make your life easier, guaranteed. Besides having all of your financial activity recorded and organized in one place, MonkeyPod Accounting gives you the power to:

• Use a real nonprofit chart of accounts with built-in safeguards to enforce nonprofit accounting rules
• Track spending by functional categories and allocate shared expenses according to management estimates
• Upload and store receipts, bills, invoices or other documentation for audit time
• Auto-import transactions around the clock by connecting with online banking
• Track revenue and expenses by location, project, or whatever category makes sense to you
• Generate nonprofit-specific reports, like Statement of Activities, Statement of Financial Position, and Statement of Functional Expenses
• Track and report on general operating or restricted grants, and auto-release funds when making approved expenditures

And because MonkeyPod Accounting integrates with the rest of the platform, there is no siloing of information. When transactions are recorded, they are automatically reflected in the other parts of MonkeyPod.

Salesforce Accounting Subledger includes lots of the basic features that should be included in a nonprofit accounting system. But it will prepare your fundraising information for an accounting system that you must purchase separately, like QuickBooks. (Read more about how MonkeyPod compares against QuickBooks.) And at the Starter level ($2,500/year) you are capped at 15,000 journal entries (more can be purchased in increments of 1,000), can’t define your accounting periods, and can’t generate debits and credits. You can get more functionality if you upgrade to the Growth level, but it’ll cost you $25,000/year.

MonkeyPod accounting? Included in the price of your regular subscription.

Email Marketing

MonkeyPod Email Marketing offers full-featured, integrated email marketing. Unlike many of the email marketing platforms that cap your subscribers, in MonkeyPod you can create and manage unlimited email lists and subscribers at no additional cost. When creating campaigns, you can add subscribers from MonkeyPod Relationships (your CRM records) with a single click.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud integrates with their Nonprofit Success Pack and offers email marketing as well as help with content creation. But you are limited to 10,000 contacts and 5 users. While those limits may not be a problem for smaller organizations, the $500 per month price tag certainly could be.

With MonkeyPod, email marketing is included in your subscription.

Grants Management

Full disclosure, this is a bit of an apples to oranges comparison since MonkeyPod and Salesforce approach grants management very differently. The MonkeyPod Grant Tracker App is designed to help nonprofits manage all of their grant proposals and applications. It is available to any MonkeyPod subscriber for a reasonable price.

Salesforce Grants Management is designed for foundations and grantmakers to share funding opportunities

Support 

It is easy to overlook support as a key factor in your buying decision. But we believe that how a company treats you after you have made a purchase is where they show their true colors. At MonkeyPod, we are committed to supporting you through your journey and growth as an organization. Our support includes technical and management support across multiple channels, and is priced reasonably for such a hands-on, responsive service.

Cost Summary 

Is your organization new or small? Check out MonkeyPod's special pricing for nonprofits with annual budgets under $100,000.