Boost recurring donations this giving season with the upsell prompt!When using Soapbox Engage with Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud (NPC), you may notice an important difference between how the Donations app processes data and how other Soapbox Engage apps, such as Events, Shop, Actions, and Petitions, process constituent activity.
Soapbox Donations uses our NPC-specific fundraising integration and does not rely on the Lead-based processing used by our NPSP integration. However, Leads remain a required part of the Soapbox integration for Events, Shop, Actions, and Petitions.
This distinction is intentional and reflects the different purposes of these interactions and the Salesforce functionality they are designed around.
Donations and the NPC fundraising model
Salesforce designed the NPC fundraising model specifically around charitable giving. Salesforce describes Gift Transactions as records used to track donations received as one-time gifts or installments toward a Gift Commitment.
Soapbox Donations is designed around this NPC fundraising architecture. Depending on the type of donation being processed, Soapbox works with the appropriate NPC constituent and fundraising records rather than processing the donor through the Lead automation used by our NPSP integration.
However, the NPC fundraising model is not intended to represent every interaction in which a constituent may participate or money may change hands.
For example, an event registration can include ticket purchases, multiple registrants, packages or add-ons, refunds, cancellations, substitutions, or benefits received in exchange for payment. These transactions are not necessarily charitable gifts simply because a payment is collected.
For this reason, Soapbox does not process these interactions through the NPC Donations workflow.
Lead usage for other Soapbox Engage apps
With NPC, the following Soapbox Engage apps use Lead-based Salesforce automation:
- Events
- Shop
- Actions
- Petitions
For these apps, the Lead serves as an intake and processing record for constituent information. It does not replace the Person Account as the individual's constituent record in NPC.
Soapbox uses the Lead to perform the matching and conversion logic required by these integrations. Through Salesforce's standard Lead Conversion functionality, the individual can be associated with the appropriate Salesforce records and, where applicable, an Opportunity can be created for the transaction.
This architecture allows Soapbox to distinguish between charitable giving processed through the NPC fundraising model and other types of constituent engagement or transactions.
Can the Lead object be bypassed?
No. For Events, Shop, Actions, and Petitions, the Lead object is a required part of the Soapbox Engage Salesforce integration architecture.
An organization may choose not to use Leads as part of its own day-to-day constituent management processes, but Salesforce must still allow the Lead-based automation required by these Soapbox Engage apps to operate successfully.
There is not an alternative configuration that bypasses the Lead object or redirects these submissions through the NPC Donations processing model.
Additional Salesforce resources
The following Salesforce resources provide additional context for the Salesforce architecture and functionality referenced in this article:
Nonprofit Cloud Fundraising Data Model
Supports the distinction between NPC's purpose-built fundraising architecture and the broader Salesforce platform. The data model shows the relationships among constituents, Gift Commitments, Gift Transactions, Opportunities, Campaigns, and other fundraising records.
Gift Transactions in Nonprofit
Supports how Gift Transactions are intended to be used. Salesforce describes Gift Transactions in the context of donations, including one-time gifts and payments made toward Gift Commitments.
Gift Types in Nonprofit
Provides additional examples of the types of charitable giving represented within the NPC fundraising model, including individual donations, recurring gifts, grants, in-kind gifts, and donor-advised fund gifts.
What Happens When I Convert Leads?
Documents Salesforce's standard Lead Conversion functionality, including the creation or association of Account and Contact records and, when applicable, an Opportunity.
Lead Conversion Field Mapping
Documents how Salesforce maps information from a Lead to Account, Contact, and Opportunity records during Lead Conversion.