If your organization currently uses NPSP, you may wonder whether to migrate to NPC.
Before diving into the process, it’s important to note that moving to NPC isn’t an immediate necessity. The decision depends on various factors, including your organization’s size, goals, and capacity to handle the transition.
For those who have decided to migrate, this guide provides an overview of key considerations and a high-level process to help ensure a smoother transition.
Since each migration will vary based on your existing org structure, data, and NPC’s evolving features, a thorough planning phase is essential.
Before You Begin
Salesforce will most likely provision an entirely new org rather than modify the current org. This has implications for data and metadata transfer.
If you used a trial org to do any configuration work that you want to move to the provisioned org, that won’t transfer automatically. If needed, you can package custom work you’ve done in a trial org and migrate that to the new org.
If you receive free licenses under the Power of Us program for NPSP, you’ll have to work with Salesforce to transfer that discount to your new org.
Plan
"In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable." ― Dwight D. Eisenhower
Audit… Well, Everything
Take the time to go over everything in your organization with a fine tooth comb. Take inventory of everything and decide what should transfer, what shouldn’t, or what needs to change.
If you haven’t already, determine the number of users and types of licenses you’ll need. Map old license types and their features to new ones and determine who needs those licenses.
If you have users with a platform license, determine what kind of license they’ll need once you migrate. This may also involve some permission and sharing work.
Custom Work
Pay particular attention to any custom or added configurations and determine whether those should migrate. These include:
- Apps, Lightning Pages, and other UI
- Automation - process builders, workflow rules, flows, and Apex
- Data - custom objects/fields, validation rules, list views, reports, and dashboards
- UI/UX - lightning pages, page layouts, buttons/actions, LWC,
- Productivity - email templates, files, notes, and attachments
- Other - Experience sites, custom metadata
It’s easy for stuff to accumulate and be forgotten about, so it may be worth working with a partner to identify what exists in your org and whether it should be moved.
If you are, ask if they can give you an overview of metadata in your org to review easily.
Implement Best Practices
Move existing workflow rules or process builders to flows if they still support your business processes.
Use Lightning Web Components instead of Visualforce pages where possible for more efficient rendering and performance.
Take the time to review profiles and user personas and map those to NPC permission sets, including custom permissions.
Implementing best practices often involves technical debt. Migration is a natural time to review the org and clean up technical debt that may have accumulated over the years or as Salesforce has updated.
Like decluttering a closet, cleaning up technical debt helps the org run smoother and reduces future time and money spent on maintenance or feature development.
Clean & Backup Data
In addition to technical debt, this is a fantastic time to clean up your data.
Deduplicate records, consider deleting or archiving old records, and ensure all required data exists and data is as up-to-date as possible. Stepping into a new org with clean data is remarkably energizing.
Back up your data regularly during cleaning and migration, especially before and after significant edits or moving data.
Data Mapping
As part of your planning process, map each original object and field to the new ones. This helps:
- Show discrepancies between field types and data types and if data needs to be reformatted before import.
- Plan the data import process.
- Highlight what custom object-and field-level customizations need to be built.
If data won’t transfer to its corresponding field in NPC, consider reformatting if possible, saving it in a custom field, or archiving it.
Salesforce’s entity relationship diagrams or NPC developer documentation are helpful (even if you aren’t a developer!). They review all standard objects and fields, their purpose, types, and other details.
The Nonprofit Cloud Best Practices Group has helpful resources for orgs looking to implement NPC, especially NPSP to NPC translations and data mapping resources.
Onboarding
Create a plan to test a buildout, refine as needed, and onboard your team into the new org. Find “super users” that can help you test and give you good feedback.
You may want to build out specific operational areas and then onboard those respective teams so that you aren’t onboarding everyone all at once. For example, donor processing first, then donor management and development, then programs.
Migration Process
Salesforce recommends the following order for migrating data. This is largely informed by the standard data model.
Migration needs and order depend on what your org currently uses. The order of custom objects will depend on the kind of their relationships with other objects.
Overall, the operational order for migration is as follows:
- People, Organizations, Groups, and Households
- Addresses
- Campaigns
- Fundraising
- Tasks & Events - Replace Engagement Plans with Action Plans
- Program Management
- Case Management
- Outcome Management
- Grantmaking/Budget Management
Fundraising
- Accounts, then Contacts - Person Accounts and new data model for groups
- Campaigns
- Gift Commitments and Gift Designations
- Gift Default Designations
- Gift Commitment Schedules
- Payment Instruments
- Outreach Summaries
- Outreach Source Codes
- Gift Transactions - NPC doesn’t allow $0 Gift Transactions
- Gift Transaction Designations - NPC requires an amount and percentage on a Gift Transaction Designation
- Gift Refunds, Gift Tributes, Gift Soft Credits, and Donor Gift Summaries
Action Plans
- Action Plan Templates, Template Versions, Template Items, and Template Item Values
- Action Plans
- Action Plan Items
- Document Checklist Items and Tasks
Program Management
- Migrate Organizations, People, and Households - Person Accounts and new data model for groups
- Migrate Programs
- Program Cohorts and Benefits
- Benefit Schedules
- Program Enrollments and Benefit Sessions
- Program Cohort Members
- Benefit Assignments
- Benefit Schedule Assignments and Benefit Disbursements
- Recurrence Schedule
Case Management
- Migrate Organizations, People, and Households - Person Accounts and new data model for groups
- Public Complaints
- Cases
- Referrals and Case Participants
- Interaction Summaries, Complaint Participants, and Complaint Cases
Outcome Management
- Programs, Benefits, Goal Definitions, and Impact Strategies
- Outcomes and Time Periods
- Outcome Activities
- Impact Strategy Assignments
- Indicator Definitions
- Indicator Assignments
- Indicator Performance Periods
- Indicator Results
Households and Group Memberships
Migrating group and household membership objects can happen anytime after accounts, contacts, and person accounts. These objects include:
- Party Relationship Group
- Party Role Relationship
- Account Contact Relationship
- Account Account Relationship
- Contact Contact Relationship
Conclusion
Migrating from NPSP to NPC is a significant undertaking that requires careful planning and execution. By auditing your org, optimizing data and processes, and following Salesforce’s recommended migration steps, you can ensure a smoother transition.
While the process may seem daunting, leveraging best practices and working with experts when necessary will help your organization make the most of NPC’s enhanced capabilities.
Taking the time to plan and clean up your org now will pay dividends in the long run, ensuring your nonprofit can continue to operate efficiently and effectively on Salesforce’s evolving platform.