Quick Guide

End Users (internal and external): The people who use the system and validate it meets day-to-day needs

Goals:

  • System should support their needs and requirements for fundraising, program management, grantmaking, etc.

  • Maximize efficiency

  • Track performance and targets

Challenges:

  • Low tech background outside their core function

  • NPSP was built largely around fundraising needs; any regression in functionality is a serious risk

  • May have deeply embedded workflows, reports, and third party integrations that need to be rebuilt or replaced

  • Migration timing is high stakes. A disruption during a major campaign or year-end can have real revenue consequences

Questions to ask:

  • What fundraising workflows, reports, or integrations are you most dependent on, and what would it mean if any of them were unavailable during the migration?

  • Are there pain points in your current setup that you are hoping this migration would solve?

  • What time of year would be most damaging for a disruption to your fundraising operations?

  • What tools do you use and why?

Champions: Key team representatives who support validation, testing, and issue resolution during the migration

Goals:

  • Teams should align on expectations and business requirements

Challenges:

  • The knowledge should be easy to teach/explain to all relevant teams

  • Often under-resourced and expected to absorb migration-related work alongside existing responsibilities

  • May feel pressure to agree to a scope or timeline set by leadership or a consulting partner without adequate input

  • If the implementation is over-customized or poorly documented, they are the ones left holding it

Questions to ask:

  • What specific broken processes or pain points must this migration fix?

  • What custom objects, fields, or legacy data can be archived or deleted rather than migrated?

  • What is our data retention policy, and which system will be the source of truth during the migration?

  • How will we train users, and what is our plan to ensure they adopt the new system?

Leadership Stakeholders: Senior decision makers who provide direction, approve key decisions, and ensure alignment with business strategy during the migration

Goals:

  • Low disruption to core business

  • Stay within budget

  • Ensure the organization’s mission delivery is not disrupted

  • Make a financially sound investment decision

  • Build organizational capacity for the long term

Challenges:

  • May not have deep enough technical context to evaluate the decision confidently

  • Balancing this initiative against competing organizational priorities

  • Owning the outcome if the migration goes poorly

Questions to ask:

  • What is driving the interest in migrating now?

  • What would a successful outcome look like for the organization?

  • What level of disruption to operations and staff is the organization prepared to absorb during the migration?

  • What does the organization need to have in place before committing to this project?

Security / Compliance: They ensure the migration meets regulatory, risk, and data protection requirements

Goals:

  • System is secure and compliant with existing policies and best practices (PCI, GDPR, etc…)

Challenges:

  • May not be consulted early enough to flag integration or security concerns before commitments are made

  • Integration dependencies are often underdocumented and surface as surprises mid-project

  • In smaller organizations this role may be a single person or a fractional resource with limited bandwidth

Questions to Ask:

  • What are the organization’s security and compliance requirements that any new system configuration must meet?

  • What systems outside of Salesforce does the organization rely on, and how are they currently connected?

  • What would you need from a consulting partner or implementation team to feel confident the technical architecture is sound?

Budget / Finance: They manage funding, track costs, and ensure the migration stays within approved financial constraints

Goals:

  • Predictive cost

  • Stay within budget

Challenges:

  • Technology costs are often underestimated in initial proposals

  • Difficulty comparing the true cost of staying on NPSP versus migrating

  • May not have context for what “good” looks like in a Salesforce implementation budget

Questions to ask:

  • What budget has the organization set aside for this project, and does it account for implementation, training, and ongoing support?

  • What financial metrics or thresholds would make this investment feel justified to you?

  • What would you need to see in order to feel confident approving this level of expenditure?