Salesforce CRM has many products, one of which is Nonprofit Cloud which includes modules for managing Programs, Cases and Outcomes. We will be covering these modules in these series starting with Program Management.
I will be referencing and quoting the official Salesforce documentation throughout this blog and video series.
Common Use Cases for Program Management Module
Program Recipient Journey
I don’t usually use AI to write, but I needed some help to put this story together.
This is a story to explain the steps a Program Participant goes through as part of the Program and what type of data we log and track at each step.
The objective of this story is to show a thorough example of what you would use Program Management for and how, we will dive deeper in each of these data points in future articles and videos.
Maria’s Journey with a Nonprofit Called Nonprofit Helpdesk
The Organization
Nonprofit Helpdesk is a nonprofit that helps enable and educate individuals to navigate their career as part of a program called Career Readiness Program.
Chapter 1: The Program
Nonprofit Helpdesk defines a Program called “Career Readiness Program.” It’s the umbrella under which they organize everything related to helping people find and keep jobs, benefits that fall under this program are resume help, interview prep, job placement support, and more.
Chapter 2: Maria Enrolls
Maria lost her job six months ago and hears about Nonprofit Helpdesk through a friend. She meets with an intake coordinator, who signs her up for the Career Readiness Program. This creates a Program Enrollment record. Nonprofit Helpdesk can track her journey from here on out.
Chapter 3: Maria Learns about the Program’s Benefits
Nonprofit Helpdesk points Maria toward one of the program’s Benefits: the “Resume Writing Workshop.” Nonprofit Helpdesk categorizes this as a Service-type benefit, measured in hours, so they can later report on how many service-hours they’ve delivered.
Chapter 4: Learning The Schedule
The Resume Writing Workshop isn’t a one-off. it runs on a recurring Benefit Schedule: every Wednesday evening from 6–8 PM for six weeks straight. That is a total of 6 Benefit Sessions.
Chapter 5: Shows Interest
Maria showed interest in participating in Resume Writing Workshops, Nonprofit Helpdesk creates a Benefit Assignment for her.
Chapter 6: Maria Signs Up
Maria checks her calendar and picks the session that works for her: Wednesday, August 12, 6–8 PM, she signs up for one specific Benefit Session on that schedule.
The coordinator adds Maria to the roster for that August 12 session. This creates a Benefit Disbursement with a status of Enrolled, linking Maria to that specific session so Nonprofit Helpdesk knows to expect her.
Chapter 7: Maria Shows Up
Maria attends the workshop on August 12, working one-on-one with a volunteer career coach for two hours to rebuild her resume from scratch. By the end, she walks out with a polished, ready-to-send resume.
Because Maria actually attended and received the service, Nonprofit Helpdesk updates the Benefit Disbursement from Enrolled to Completed: on August 12, Maria received 2 hours of resume-writing services. This is the record that proves the help was actually delivered, not just offered or scheduled.
The Data Points
The story above covered the following data points:
Program
Program Enrollment
Benefits
Benefit Schedule
Benefit Sessions
Benefit Assignment
Benefit Disbursement
We will talk about these data points in more details in the next episode