It’s not even winter yet and we can poke around and see what’s coming in Salesforce’s next release, Spring ’12. I got my pre-release org yesterday and spent a few minutes exploring it. At this point, we’re flying a bit blind since the “Discover Spring ’12″ link in the corner leads to a “not found” page.

The newly revamped Salesforce Ideas is a good place to begin to explore what’s new. It has tagged ideas that are “Coming in the next release.” These are user-submitted and voted up ideas. Some are huge. And disappointing. Note that not all new things in Spring ’12 come from the Idea Exchange. There are some other things I’ve noticed right away which I’ll get to at the end.

Update: Thanks to @aognenoff for pointing out that the release notes are in the Help & Training section. Sure enough.

Let’s start at the top… Exception Reporting, also known as Outer Joins. Over 4000 users clicked the button to say this was something they wanted/needed. 9 other ideas merged into this one. Over 180 comments for years. I kind of like to call this the “raise your hand if you’re not here” report. Show me all the accounts that don’t have opportunities. Show me everyone who didn’t participate in an event. Sounds simple on the surface, apparently not so easy to do.

There’s a great 3rd party app, Apsona, that has exception reporting built in but the reports generated by the app can only be downloaded or viewed in the app. They can’t be added to a dashboard, for example. I know there are many other 3rd party applications that enhance reporting, some probably have a steep price tag.

Next there’s the ability to report on multiple children at the same time. This is very, very cool. Right now, you can report only in a parent -> child -> grand child line. There’s no parent -> sibling/sibling reporting. No show me everyone who has opened a case and made a donation. I have built a number of custom objects, most are the children of the account or contact. I continuously  run in the same wall when I can’t report on all objects related to a contact or its household at the same time.

How about Campaign inclusion reports? I have to be honest and feel a tad smug on this one. Convio Common Ground already has a rather nice campaign segmentation tool which does this kind of “Show me everyone who is in Campaign A but not in Campaign B” type work quite nicely. There are other tools/add-ons that have helped close this gap as well. This is a huge thing for nonprofits.

All of the above features/ideas are coming in the next release! At last! Paar-tay! Not so fast. This functionality will be included in a new package from Salesforce called the Analytics edition. An add-on. Additional cost. Per user, per month. Every user must play. Ouch. Perhaps in direct response to criticism I expressed on the internal MVP forum for the misleading “Coming in the next release” tag, the product manager for Analytics posted a blog explaining that these ideas while indeed coming, was coming at a price. I won’t speculate here as to what that price is, but I’ve heard rumors and suffice to say, it may be tough for smaller organizations to swallow even with the Foundation’s discount.

To me, this feels like instead of fixing the rusted pipes, Salesforce has developed a really cool, super-special brand of bottled water and they’re selling that. I get that the new Analytics package is awesome. It’s probably going to be the best business intelligence tool out there. But I’m not looking for really cool, super-special bottled water. I want to be able to go to the sink, turn the tap and drink. I want to be able to report on two objects that are siblings of each other. I want to be able to edit a report to add in an additional object without having to start over with a new report. Is that really best-of-class business intelligence?

There seems to be a trend at Salesforce lately to sell add-ons and modules rather than fix the #core…unless it’s Chatter. It’s worrying me. And I can’t help but wonder where it might lead…when the most popular idea, multiple contacts on an activity, is finally done will it be delivered in a “Contacts Edition” because it took so much to make it happen? I hope not.

There are some touches in Spring ’12 that are right there in the Enterprise Edition:

There’s an expansion of the cross-object workflow field update functionality. I’m bummed that I’m leaving FightCRC before this is out, because there are a few areas where this will be very helpful. Used to be that you could only update the parent object in a workflow rule if both the objects were custom. Now this functionality is improved so you can update the Account based on Opportunity. You can also update an Opportunity based on something happening on the Opportunity Product. And you can update some standard objects from changes on child objects.

There’s also a nice feature that will be part of base analytics so you can drag & drop filters in the report builder. I admit that more than once I filtered down to a field in the left hand column, only to remember that since it’s a filter, I have to click somewhere else. Nice touch, and works exactly as you would expect in the pre-release org.

You can add dates to the new dashboard filters.

The Idea Exchange says that the default view on reports should be “All Items” rather than the hated “Recently Viewed.” But I don’t see that implemented in the pre-release org yet. With the new drag & drop report filtering you’re no longer limited to just 10 items, and it’s a nice touch that filtered fields are highlighted in the field list.

Searching got a little bit of love too:

And finally, the Idea Exchange indicates that we can tell which end is up in the schema builder, but it doesn’t mention that you can now create fields right from the schema builder by dragging the field type to the object. Interesting. Still no printing though.

The most obvious difference on first login to Spring ’12 is in Social Contacts. I’m still not sold on it, mostly for reasons that my fellow-MVP Elizabeth Davidson explained on her blog. But it’s better than it was before, and since it’s social, it will likely get continuous attention.

You can now unlink a profile that was set to the wrong person. And they’ve added YouTube and Klout:

Still rather useless for finding someone with a common name since you can’t see anything other than name and avatar:

What have I missed? I’ll edit/add to this post as I find out.

I now have an iPhone 4S and my Infuse is being used by a family member who will better appreciate it. It’s a long story, but I managed to do some switcheroo’ing with the phones on my family plan in such a way that I was able to upgrade. Lesson learned. Won’t let it happen again.

I miss the larger screen on the Infuse. I miss having my Google accounts baked in so logging in with my Google account to certain apps/pages was as easy as selecting my Gmail account from a list (I have 2-step authentication turned on so logging in with my Google account is often a series of hoop jumps). Feature for feature, Android may even be a better operating system. Right now, it’s such a fragmented mess I can’t tell. iOS is mostly stable. And when it’s not, it gets fixed. That’s good enough for me for the foreseeable future. I’m done being Google’s forgotten beta tester.

Yes, it sucks that Apple has such a closed system in iOS. But the Android model replaces an undesirable system with a broken one. Agile software development (release what you got and fix it as you go) and 2 year phone contracts don’t mix when the software developers have absolutely no control over the carrier and manufacturer.

This wasn’t something I learned recently. I knew this. What I didn’t anticipate before I owned a phone running an outdated version of Android was just how much the little things would matter. Stuff that’s hard to put in to words. ZDNet’s James Kendrick probably comes as close as anyone to summing it up and he’s talking about the latest release, no less:

Ice Cream Sandwich is the best version of Android yet in my experience, but it still annoys in a lot of little ways that add up to a frustrating user experience. Google has made Android an open platform, a good thing, but there’s such a thing as being too open. Android is too open for the user’s own good. It’s as if Google set out to make sure Android app developers could have a good time by doing things however they wish. In all that touchy-feely openness, me the user is not having a good time. And the user is the only one in the ecosystem that ultimately matters.

And he’s talking about Ice Cream Sandwich…can he imagine how I felt running a brand new phone with Froyo?!?

For a model that is so open, I never felt so trapped and closed in by technology as when I owned an Android phone.

It’s not Google’s fault that the carriers and manufacturers are screwed up, but I certainly hold Google accountable. This is the world they created. If Google & Friends want to break Apple’s control and dominance over the smartphone space, then they need to come up with something that’s better, not just different.

Yesterday, something glitched on my iPhone and I couldn’t use the Messages app. It would either lock up or crash. Restarts didn’t help. So I restored the phone. 30 minutes or so, start to finish. When done, my phone was working perfectly and everything was exactly where it should be. If I still had problems, I knew I could visit a Genius. I thought about what restoring my Infuse would have been like. Since I was a good girl and didn’t root the phone, my backup program only kept data, no apps or settings. I would have had to reinstall every app. It would have taken hours and hours, with no guarantee that it would fix the problem or that I’d get everything back. Then hours of frustrating runaround as I looked for someone at AT&T or Samsung who could help. No thanks.

Why is this okay with Google? Why isn’t a fantastic user experience a priority? Enough with the features and bells and whistles. Fix. It. And then do whatever it takes to show that you care about the community you already have by making those fixes available to them.

But that’s not the way it works. When I bought an iPhone, I became Apple’s customer. When I bought a Samsung Infuse, I wasn’t Google’s customer. Any more than I’m Google’s customer when I use Gmail. On the web, the advertiser is Google’s customer but at least when Gmail innovates, I’m not left out in the cold. My experience using a phone running a version of the operating system that Google no longer cares about was of no consequence to them, even though it was on a brand new phone. And that’s kinda sad.

A few weeks after 8th grade began in September, she asked if she could start bringing it to school. My first reaction was “hell to the no!”

She kept asking. Her middle school has a SSR (silent sustained reading) policy. Students must have a reading book with them at all times. When there’s time left at the end of a period, or a delay before a program, they’re expected to be reading. If they have nothing with them to read, they’re given demerits.

Our local library is small and lacking. It was cheaper/easier for her to read her books on the iPad as iBooks or Kindle. But then in school she was complaining that she didn’t have an SSR, or she would be reading something on the iPad that she wanted to continue reading in school.

We relented and let her bring the iPad to school on a few conditions:

1. It was entirely her responsibility. If it got lost, stolen or broken there is absolutely no excuse we would accept. It would not be replaced under any circumstances. She keeps begging us to test how responsible she could be. This was her chance.
2. If I got even a single report of the iPad being used to entertain or distract there would be no second chance. It would never go back to school. There is no wifi for students in the building, and her iPad doesn’t have 3G.
3. She had to ask permission of all her teachers (they all said yes, given the conditions we already set).

Last week I visited each teacher for parent/teacher conferences of the first marking period. Her report card was excellent and one of the best of her middle school career. Only one grade below 90 – an 86 in honors math – her toughest course. Last year, she was a solid B/low A student in her academic subjects. Definite improvement this year.

Each teacher I spoke to, in between raving about what a pleasure my kid is to have in class ::kvell:: remarked that the iPad has been a positive influence on her education. She’s been taking notes and emailing her teachers when she has questions (they all say they don’t mind). She uses iStudiez Pro to keep on top of her assignments instead of the messy paper agenda. They haven’t seen one minute of her using the iPad inappropriately or carelessly. In fact, a few have recommended apps to her she should try.

Finally, when she’s home she’s texting less and using Facetime to keep in touch with her friends. Full sentences. Eye contact. Conversation. Less misunderstandings, fights and teenage drama. Yay!

I knit on and off through college and after I got married. In 2008, I found Ravelry. Knitting became an obsession in my life again and I haven’t stopped. It helps that I have a yarn store less than 10 minutes away and have a whole bunch of real-life friends who are as serious about knitting as I am.

In late 2009 I knit a pattern from the Fall 2009 issue of Knitscene magazine. As everything else I knit, I logged it in Ravelry. In the middle of knitting the project the designer, Mathew Gnagy, emailed me through Ravelry to say that there was a mistake in the printed pattern and if I gave him my email address he’d send me the correction since the magazine hadn’t printed the errata yet.

That’s what’s awesome about Ravelry. The people who make the yarn and the patterns are also members, and they can communicate with the folks who do their work and see and comment on their progress. This wasn’t the first time I had direct communication with a designer due to Ravelry.

Mathew sent me the correction. I quickly realized that the correction needed correction and Mathew and I had a nice email exchange about his pattern. He then asked me if I had ever done any sample knitting. I had not, but I expressed willingness to try.

A few weeks later he sent me a box of yarn, a very rough pattern and a full size schematic of the design. Communicating entirely through email and sending him pictures taken on my phone, I completed the sweater pieces, taking notes on stitch counts and making changes as we went along based on Mathew’s feedback. I sent the finished knit pieces back to him and he assembled them into the final garment.

Then Mathew signed a book deal with Interweave Press! Along with a number of other knitters, I signed on to knit for the book. That book is Knitting Off the Axis, available now at a bookseller near you!

In the end, I knit 4 of the sweaters photographed for the book, including the cover.

Here’s the full cover sweater (Becca):

This was actually the last of the sweaters I knit for the book. As it was late in the book prep process, time was tight. I knit the pieces for this sweater in just 5 days!

I knit Deille before beginning the book project with Mathew, so glad it was included. There’s a bunch of pretty details in this jacket that the photographs don’t accurately capture.

Next was Merielle. In the description, Mathew notes: “this design was literally turned 90 degrees on its side. I had planned a bottom-up dolman, but as i pinned together the first incarnation for a fitting, I accidentally folded one of the fronts along the center—what was once a hem became a wrist and the cable ran up the arm rather than up the front. instead of a hip-length dolman, I had a cropped jacket with a triangular silhouette. internal shaping produces the great angle of the body; a shawl collar adds warm style.” That bottom-up dolman was the first piece I knit for him. Mathew noted to me that he loved the way it looked when he accidentally pinned my pieces to his dress form in the wrong direction, and this is the evolution of that idea:

And finally, there’s Meredith. What’s most interesting about Meredith is how much of a mystery it was. I remember knitting it. I remember loving the detail at the elbow. But this was one piece where I just had to trust the process, trust the schematic and know that Mathew would make something beautiful out of what I sent back to him.

When the book came out, I had to look back through my notes to remind myself that I did  knit that sweater! Here’s an in-progress photo from the elbow detail knit in September 2010. I also remember how feathery and beautiful the Tivoli yarn is.

I’m so proud of Mathew and his success in his first book. After nearly well over a year of working together, we finally met in person for the first time this past January in New York City. Since then I’ve worked with Mathew on an afghan blanket pattern that appeared in a Knitscene magazine:

And on a sweater that is in a new “Best of” Knitscene book:

I have another sweater sitting on my lap right now that should be done in the next day or so and will hopefully be published somewhere soon (can’t say what it is or what it’s for yet).

Even when I was doing graphic design work, I preferred the production side of the process to design. I much prefer taking other people’s ideas and layouts and making them “real.” So this work allows me to do what I love (knit!) and plays to my strengths. Can I make a career out of knitting samples for designers? No. But it did help feed my yarn habit over the past couple of years.

Android is going to be a great mobile operating system. It’s improving all the time, and Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) looks promising. But I can’t get excited about a new OS that I’ll likely never touch. An iPhone purchased 3 years ago can be upgraded to the latest operating system, but an Android phone purchased 3 months ago is stuck with an evolving operating system nearly 2 complete versions behind. My phone launched in May 2011 with Android 2.2 (Froyo). I bought it in late August. An update to Gingerbread 2.3 was announced in July 2011. It never happened. It’s unlikely that this phone will get any further attention from AT&T or Samsung since the Galaxy S II is the latest darling. I feel as if I bought a brand new computer running OS X 10.1. Great promise. Buggy as heck. Very unfinished.

I knew all this going in. I knew that this was a huge complaint about Android phones that don’t have “Nexus” in their names. I didn’t realize until I started using Android day in and day out how much it would bother me. How frustrated the quirks and bugs would make me. How depressing it is to know there is no relief in sight.

My husband put it best: When my phone is working well I like it, but it’s not working well enough for me to love it. There’s still a lot I do love…just not on the whole. I love Google Maps. I love widgets. I love how quickly developers update their apps in the Market. But even they can only do so much. Case in point this email I received from a developer after reporting a bug that he earnestly tried to fix but couldn’t:

Sounds painful. I think we may have a hit a bit of a wall though, because Android is meant to handle all that routing, not our app. And to make it worse it varies per phone
So long story short I’m not entirely sure what we can do to help you out…in some ways this is why I prefer coding for iOS, so much simpler from a developer point of view.

When I go back to iPhone it will be one of the first apps I get, if for no other reason than to support the developer.

I love how integrated Google services are (duh). But the bugs. So many bugs. Apps that start and stop at random times. Inconsistent wifi and bluetooth. I try and use voice control to “Call (person) mobile” when (person) is in my address book and the phone searches and dials a pizzeria in Idaho. I could go on.

My phone is not rooted. I only install apps that are well-known/popular. I keep my caches as clean as I can. Yet I am rebooting the phone way too often to solve various software ills. Sometimes by force (removing the battery) due to hard freezes that are unrecoverable. I’ve already exchanged the phone once due to a bad antenna. I’ve had enough and it’s only 3 months in.

I don’t think I’m going to make it to 2013. I had a nice little chat with AT&T today about my options. I’m waiting for someone further up the chain to call me back to see if they will grant me an extra early upgrade due to my long history with AT&T. In 10+ years with Cingular and then AT&T I have never played this card before. I’ve always completed my contracts. At first I was offered an early upgrade to any phone but an iPhone. I couldn’t even buy a no-contract phone. I didn’t accept that. Sure, I can get the Galaxy SII which at least has the hope of getting the latest OS at some point. But then 3 months later something shinier will come along and that will be that. I’ll be stuck with the bugs that still exist in Ice Cream Sandwich, just as I’m stuck with Froyo’s quirks now. Not sure I’m willing to go down that hole again. I am so frustrated that I’m almost willing to break my contract and start over…but if I did that, I assured her that my replacement iPhone wouldn’t be on AT&T. Her supervisor seemed willing to allow the override, but apparently it has to be escalated and now I wait for a decision. The woman I spoke to, Micky, was wonderful. Very understanding and friendly and willing to do what she could to resolve this. I’m sure I’m not the first, nor the last, frustrated Infuse owner she has spoken to.

For my friends who also leaped from iPhone to Android…are you happy? What am I missing? And yes, I know there are tons of folks who love Android and don’t have any of the issues I’m having. I’m sure I’ll hear from all of you in the comments too.

It’s likely going to be another long one, so for those of you who just want it short and bittersweet, here it is:

I will be leaving Fight Colorectal Cancer at the end of this year to join Convio’s Common Ground team.

Do you know anyone who lives in the Washington, DC area and reminds you of me, professionally speaking? Then please send them my way because we’re hiring a new me. I’m very fortunate that I don’t begin at Convio until January, giving us opportunity to have some overlap between my successor and me. We’re hoping to find someone who can start in early December. Normally one wouldn’t announce they’re leaving a job 4 months before their last day, but we’re telling the world in the hope of having the time to find just the right person to take over for me at FightCRC.

For my friends and family who care about the details, please read on.

Why am I leaving FightCRC?

This was entirely my decision, and has been coming on for some time. It has nothing whatsoever to do with my faith in the organization or my satisfaction with where things are heading. In fact, the organization has had an incredible surge in the past year or two thanks to both the rebranding and the efforts of my amazing colleagues. Colorectal cancer isn’t the death sentence it was in 1998 when my father was diagnosed. More people are getting screened. The issue is getting attention on Capitol Hill. And on a personal note, you can practically eat off the floor of my data.

I am so grateful to Colorectal Cancer Coalition’s founder Nancy Roach for taking a chance on me and mentoring me through the early years. I can’t sum up our friendship and working relationship in a few sentences. I have gotten to know (and lost) some awe-inspiring heroes in my journey. Watch this video and appreciate the brilliance and passion I’m leaving behind (Call-on Congress registration is now open if you’re interested in experiencing it first hand…highly recommend!):

It’s appropriate that I’m writing this during back-to-school week up here in the Northeast. I know how every parent of a new Kindergarten student feels, and not just because of my own kids. On one hand you’re really excited about having the time to pursue your own interests and have an independent life from your child, but on the other hand it’s so hard to let your kid go out in to the cold, mean world. In the end, you let your child go because you know that it’s good for them too.

Kids leave their Moms for school when they’re about 6 years old. Fight Colorectal Cancer is 6 years old. The organization needs someone managing day-to-day operations who is physically in the office more than once a month. Carlea (FightCRC’s President, my “work spouse” and dear, dear friend) needs a right hand she can touch with her left. She needs someone there with her to grow the organization’s reach well beyond where I’ve taken it. It’s time to put my baby on the bus and wave goodbye.

Getting involved with the founding of the Colon Cancer Alliance in 1999 and then joining Colorectal Cancer Coalition in 2005 was the only way I could live in a world without my father. While I will always be an advocate…and it will be the cause most important to me, I need some space from cancer for a while.

Finally, as much as I loved the experience of starting a nonprofit from nearly scratch, my passion is moving me in a different direction. I love nonprofit technology. I love data. I love figuring out how to get data in and out of systems and designing technical workflows to meet a nonprofit’s business needs and grow their mission. Writing fundraising copy, prepping for an audit, making sure the P&Ls and balance sheets all line up, juggling health insurance premiums…um, not so much with the love. I don’t hate it. I could probably do this job for the next 10 years and be okay. But when I’m lying in bed thinking about what awaits in my day, it’s the Salesforce stuff that has me most jazzed. Five years since I was first introduced to Salesforce and I’m still just as passionate about working on the platform and learning new tools and processes as I was in the beginning. I’m also passionate about community. I love feeling connected to organizations of different sizes and missions. Never gets old to me.

Why Convio?

I briefly considered whether I wanted to join another nonprofit. For about 15 seconds. No other organization will be in my heart and soul, ever, the way FightCRC is. It was an experience I don’t think I can top and I’d rather not try. I also spoke to some of the consulting firms that specialize in Salesforce in a nonprofit environment. In the end, accepting an offer from Convio was the best and most logical choice for me.

It’s no secret that I wasn’t a fan of Convio in the beginning. In fact, Convio wasn’t interested in having us a client in 2005! GetActive was warm & comfy and treated us like we mattered. Shortly after I posted that blog, some of the friends I made at GetActive privately reached out to me to assure me that the new Convio wouldn’t kick us to the curb. That the support and community I felt from GetActive would seep in to the Convio culture eventually. I know there are those who will roll their eyes, but I do think that proved to be true. Right away Convio started working on a Salesforce connector to sync Convio online data. I jumped at early migration to not only use this tool, but to give feedback on its design and functionality. And my personal relationship with Convio only grew from there.

When Convio embraced the Force.com platform I joked that it was like my two best friends were getting married. Now, it’s like they’ve adopted me and I’m moving in.

Implementing Common Ground in 2009 was the best decision I could have made for my organization. Convio’s decision to provide a Salesforce Force.com developed CRM application for Enterprise/large orgs (now rebranded as Convio Luminate) and a separate application for medium/smaller orgs (retaining the Common Ground name/branding) was the best decision Convio could have made. This isn’t the same company that didn’t want anything to do with a tiny startup nonprofit in 2005. I think Convio is moving in the right direction, and I’m excited for the chance to be a part of it. More exciting, they want me too! It’s not every day you get to start working for a company of 300+ folks and you can honestly count 10-20% of them as your friends before your first day.

I’m incredibly fortunate and grateful for this opportunity. I’ll post more about what I’m doing once I start in January.

What’s next?

A few weeks ago we officially moved from Luminate to Common Ground. I will say more about that in another post. There’s some very exciting new features and functionality that are only available in the smaller product that I can’t wait to share with you. I waited as I didn’t want to post any further about Common Ground until I could also offer some disclosure. I’m not quite “lame duck” but I’m in this one-foot-in/one-foot-out place that’s a bit strange. I’m confident that I’m leaving my precious data and custom objects in good hands.

I’ll still continue this blog. I’ll still share my longer-form observations, tips & tricks, etc. here. For the past six years I’ve managed to be an employee of a nonprofit, blog about the nonprofit honestly and not piss anyone off or violate any confidences. I hope I can do the same when I’m working for a bigger company, too. Convio knew what they were getting with me, and I’m thrilled that they’re encouraging me to keep going. As to whether your opinion about my credibility changes once Convio signs my paycheck, that’s for you to decide. I’ve always told it like I see it. I don’t think that has to change. I’ve never mindlessly reported from a press release. I have no intention of starting now.

On a personal level, this was the best Dreamforce yet. I was honored to be selected as a Salesforce MVP last March. This gave me some Dreamforce perks starting with a fantastic MVP-only Introduction to Object Oriented Programming class on Monday before the conference began.

This class was a reduced version of the full 5-day course. I’ve always had a fear of learning Apex/code. I’m not as adverse to it now. The class was structured with lessons, followed by 20 minutes or so to complete an exercise. Unlike the hands-on sessions at Dreamforce itself, the solutions weren’t handed out step-by-step like a recipe. You were expected to use what was taught to write some basic, simple lines of code that when executed didn’t produce errors and showed the desired result. I surprised myself at how quickly I picked up the concepts. During one lesson, not only did I get working code but I did it in a way that the instructor said was “elegant.” Yay me! I never want to be a developer. I just want to understand enough Apex to do simple tasks and recognize when and why something is not behaving correctly. This class was a step in the right direction and I highly encourage folks to check it out next year.

Dreamforce can be a circus. So much going on at one time. So many people (45,000 give or take this year). The Salesforce Foundation has continually struggled with how to make Dreamforce meaningful for the nonprofits who attend. This year, the Nonprofit/Foundation sessions and exhibitors were all on the lower level of the nearby Marriott Marquis. If this was my first Dreamforce, I would probably think it was fabulous idea. For me attending my 4th Dreamforce, I was disappointed that it felt a little second class.

I enjoyed presenting on Tuesday morning on the topic of Nonprofits & the AppExchange. I think it went well considering how much we rattled off in an hour without using a lot of visuals or demos.

The Salesforce Nonprofit community has become a bit fractured in the past few years. When I started in 2006, there was essentially one nonprofit experience on Salesforce. A nonprofit either used the nonprofit template or they went off on their own to custom development on the basic Enterprise edition. Now, I’ve been told that approximately 40% of active Salesforce nonprofits are using the Nonprofit Starter Pack (NPSP). That means that approximately 60% are using other applications such as Convio Common Ground or Luminate, the old template, Affinaquest, Outreach Suite or any number of combinations. It’s no longer variations on a single theme. Each direction is very different, using a different data model (see below for lots more on that) and approach. As a result of all that diversity among nonprofits, the nonprofit track sessions at Dreamforce tend to be high level and program/strategy-driven. I’d love to see sessions that take deeper dives into not just what nonprofits are doing on Salesforce, but exactly how they’re doing it. It’s hard for me to relate to case studies without understanding a bit more about what happened behind the curtain. Maybe that’s just me.

So how is it always about the data model?

Follow along with me. Salesforce was originally just a business-to-business tool. A company sales person connected with an individual at another company in order to close a deal with the company. The relationship wasn’t about the individual. If the person at the company left, the deal would remain with the company. The account is, and remains, the center of the Salesforce universe. Nonprofits typically work in a mixed environment where it has a relationship with companies, but often the relationship is solely with an individual having nothing to do with where they work.

I strongly believe that if you are going to be successful on Salesforce you must understand and appreciate the Account/Contact relationship. It doesn’t matter which application you use, or how your implementation partner has configured your customizations. I happen to think the Account/Contact model makes perfect sense, but I know it’s frustrating for new nonprofits on the platform who don’t understand why they have what they think are two records with the same information.

You also have to appreciate the notion of account ownership. A salesperson in a business doesn’t typically have access to all the accounts and deals in the business. A salesperson builds a relationship with the individual at the company they are trying to woo. A nonprofit typically has a very different ownership/sharing model. A development director wants access to all individuals to target his/her fundraising efforts. Office staff batch enters donations where that person then technically “owns” those opportunities because they created the account & contact, but they aren’t directly responsible for the “deal” or its sales process. A nonprofit Salesforce administrator has to learn to approach sharing rules with a very different mindset than their commercial counterparts. Frankly, I’d love to see a Dreamforce nonprofit track session targeted to administrators specifically on sharing models and the implications of different decisions. It’s complex and widely misunderstood. I’ve seen too many nonprofits just make everyone an Adminstrator or turn everything to “Modify All” rather than really understand what it all means.

Now Salesforce comes along with their big Social strategy. The opening day keynote was all about the Social Enterprise. The idea is that a salesperson can use social media to get to the know the individuals who make decisions about deals. They can use social media to monitor what is being said about their company and provide direct support. I think the new Chatter Now and Chatter Custom Groups will be welcome additions to a nonprofit’s Salesforce org. Before, you could only use Chatter to collaborate with people who shared your email address domain. Now you can bring in outside contacts to Chatter. So that means in-Salesforce collaboration with Board members, or key volunteers, or your organization’s largest donors. Lots of possibilities.

Unfortunately, once again I think nonprofits need to be prepared to flip the data model around. We’ve already successfully flipped around the salesperson-connects-to-organization-through-a-contact model before social media was part of the picture. Wrap your head around this: the Salesforce social enterprise sales model is about a salesperson’s one-to-one relationship with the key contacts at a business. Not organization-to-contact unless it’s about service/support or brand monitoring. How is that a challenge? Think about it. At a nonprofit, do we really care that the development staff member who batch entered those donations so they’re now the “owner” of the account is connected on Facebook to the donor? Maybe. Probably not. A nonprofit cares about how the donor is connected to the organization and those people who are influential to the organization’s mission, staff or not. Are they fans of our Facebook page? How are they connected to other key donors? Are they friends with people who are influential about our issues?

The Salesforce social enterprise push will be wonderful for development directors who want to connect to foundations and corporate sponsors. That most typically aligns with the standard Salesforce Account/Contact model. I don’t see the new social media features as they are being demo’ed as being particularly valuable to the nonprofit using the Starter Pack to engage as an organization with individual donors. I think Radian6 will be very interesting for nonprofits, provided the organization can afford it. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet.

Hopefully, the amazing developers, vendors and partners in our nonprofit community will create applications and integrations that close those gaps just as they did before. I can’t wait.

After reading reviews and getting opinions from friends on social media, as well as time spent just playing with different phones in the AT&T store, I decided on the Samsung Infuse 4G.

The screen is beautiful and large. It’s incredible how light and thin this phone is. You have to pick it up to believe it. The pictures don’t do it justice.

After 3 years on the iPhone and its locked down app store, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the options and new choices. But in a fun way that only someone who finds these things fun can appreciate.

Overall Strengths:

As expected, everything Google is easy to configure and beautifully handled. 3 Gmail accounts, no problem. Switching between them is a pleasure compared to on the iPhone. Calendars & contacts were synced in what felt like seconds. No hoops to jump through in order to switch seamlessly to Google Voice and back. No clunky calendar sync application. While the Google+ app is still not what I hope it will be, it’s far better on Android than iPhone.

The built-in Maps application is fantastic. So is the camera (compared to the camera on the 3GS).

Did I mention the gorgeous screen? 4.5″ – 480×800 pixels. I’m coming from iPhone 3GS so this is a huge improvement. Doesn’t feel too big at all, even when I hold it up to my ear. I tend to talk through the headset anyway.

I like that I can shop the Android Marketplace from my computer and a few seconds later the app is already on my phone. Many free choices. So far, I’ve spent less than $10 on apps. Thankfully, I’m not a gamer. If that’s not enough, I can also shop the Amazon app store since my phone is supported and grab their daily free app.

Moving from iPhone to Android was so much easier than going from Blackberry to iPhone. Hold down an app icon to move it around, press & hold for copy/paste, moving around the Phone app…all similar enough to the iPhone that I’ve learned by trusting muscle memory. I watched iOS 5 demos so I already knew what to do with the notifications. For all the inconsistency in app design, I like that settings can typically be found in a consistent location (by hitting the menu button on the phone). I admit that I do find myself trying to wake up the phone by reaching for a button at that bottom that isn’t there. I don’t want to count how many times I looked for a back-like button in an app only to remember that it’s one of the buttons on the phone. Same with Settings. I like not losing screen space until I need it.

I love the keyboard. I like the the little vibrating feedback and the predictive typing. I feel like I can type much faster than on the iPhone, although it might be the increased screen real estate which helps. The phone gives a choice of 3 inputs: Samsung, which I didn’t like much, default Android which I’m using, and Swype that I haven’t tried yet.

I like that not every installed app must appear on a home screen.

I like that I can set different sounds for each type of notification.

I’m getting re-used to the concept of a file browser on a phone again. That, plus an external battery and SD card.

When I was in the AT&T store yesterday, I heard at least two salespeople steer customers away from Android and towards iPhone the moment they asked a question that demonstrated a lack of technical/gadget knowledge. Now I know why. That’s what makes Android attractive to me, but this is not my mother’s next phone.

So many hacks and tweaks, so little time. Wasn’t sure whether to put this in the positive or negative column. I’m at that point where I’m still very clueless but know just enough to do some serious damage.

Will Take Getting Used To:

As I was saying…I know I can do serious damage. You can jailbreak an iPhone to allow more applications/tweaks. Most don’t. You can root an Android phone to allow more applications/tweaks. From reading through Android user forums, I feel like the last person who hasn’t rooted. So many sites either assume you’ve already rooted the phone or tell you to come back when you have. I’m wary to do this until I know what I’m doing.

That image above is an actual screen shot from my phone. Took time to search, download and play with different downloads to find a screenshot app that was free, didn’t require a rooted phone and actually worked on my device. This is compared to holding down two buttons on the iPhone.

The phone is running Android 2.2. The AT&T rep told me that Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) won’t be released to the phone until late November/early December. Bummer. Don’t tell me, let me guess…if I root the phone I can get it earlier? ::sigh::

I heard voice commands are great on Android, but if I have to click on on the Google widget to activate it and then scan possible matches what’s the point? I miss the ability to hold down on the microphone to activate voice dialing. I’ll have to play with it some more. Update: Thanks to my friend Peter who was nice enough to comment below, I now know that I can long press on the search button and it goes to the voice control interface. Much, much better.

I like the headset that came with the phone. Very comfortable earbuds. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to figure out how to get the mic button to do anything. I even have to answer a call by touching the phone. If I’m listening to a podcast (see apps below) pushing the button doesn’t pause playback. That seems wrong somehow. I have a feeling it’s an app or setting I haven’t found yet.

If I screw up the phone with my tinkering, how do I backup/restore the data? I’m sure there’s an app for that. Haven’t found one yet that doesn’t require an engineering degree to use. Is linking to my Google data enough? Can’t tell.

State of Apps:

I’m relieved that most of the free iPhone apps I relied on are on Android and virtually unchanged. Download, enter site credentials and pick up right where I left off. Twitter, Evernote, Mint, Dropbox, Audible, Kindle (with link to Kindle Store, thankyouverymuch), Pandora, WordPress, TripIt, Box.net, etc. 1Password is read-only, but that’s fine with me for now. I know they’re working on a full version.

Some apps have been a pleasant surprise. I’ve been getting my magazines digitally since 2004. The Zinio iPhone app only worked with a handful of my subscriptions. I was pleased to discover that every magazine I subscribe to is available through the Android app. Since the desktop Zinio app is build on Adobe Air and Adobe technologies are better supported on Android, it’s not that surprising. The larger screen helps too. The Bank of America app is much easier to use and navigate on Android, and even the Facebook app is a nicer experience.

One of my favorite apps so far is DoggCatcher. It was only $2.99 over the weekend and would have been worth the $6.99 original price. I like listening to podcasts while I walk the dog, while knitting in the evening or on long drives. Mostly tech, but a few knitting and newsy ones thrown in for good measure. Love DoggCatcher’s interface and it’s quite fast. Only downside is lack of an iTunes store means download only – no streaming. Oh well. I’ll live.

Salesforce Chatter was easy to hook up to the now-active Dreamforce Conference social site, which just doesn’t work at all on iPhone.

Unfortunately, there’s no Netflix app that works on my phone. I’m also missing an Android app for my current favorite to-do manager on the desktop, The Hit List.

So there’s my first full day as an Android user. For the veterans, what am I still missing?

I’m eligible for an AT&T upgrade. No, I won’t consider changing carriers. AT&T coverage is fine where I live. Furthermore, there are 5 lines in our family plan all with varying upgrade dates. Just not feasible to switch.

I’ve been holding out for the mythical iPhone 5. But should I go Android?

Pro-Android:

• I have 3 email accounts, all Gmail. I use Google Voice, Google+, Google Calendar, etc. I’d say that 75% of the time I’m using my iPhone, it’s to access a Google service. I only plug my iPhone in to a computer these days to back up. Everything else syncs over the air to something non-Apple. I don’t even use iCal or Address Book on the desktop.
• Android phones seem to be much cheaper with contract than iPhones.
• A quick search of the Android Marketplace reveals that most of my favorite iPhone apps have Android equivalents, mostly free. In fact, the only application I use that doesn’t exist on Android yet is Salesforce and I know that’s coming soon.
• I heard Google Maps on Android is fabulous.
• I’m not entirely a fan of Apple’s anti-competitive app store policies, such as forcing developers to remove links to 3rd party stores.
• I like new toys and learning new things in tech. I’ve been using the iPhone for 3 years, which is the longest I’ve ever used the same mobile OS. Yes, I’m getting an itch for change.

Anti-Android:

• On AT&T right now it looks like my options are the Samsung Infuse, Samsung Captivate, HTC Inspire or Motorola Atrix. Samsung Galaxy? I have no idea how to really compare these phones and make the right decision, aside from reading thousands of reviews. With the iPhone, you know exactly what you’re getting.
• AT&T’s track record on deploying Android OS upgrades. These phones are all currently running Android 2.2 (I think). Seems they’re finally getting upgrades to Android 2.3. What happens on Google’s next OS release? Do I want to be frustrated with Apple or AT&T?
• What is the life cycle on these phones? I’m going to be committed to a phone for at least a year, if not longer (AT&T typically qualifies me early for upgrades). What’s on the horizon? Just as it’s silly to get an iPhone 4 today with new phones coming in September, should I wait for Android too?

Blogging this is helping me make my decision…I think the pros are outweighing the cons. Now to figure out which Android phone is for me and if now is the right time to jump. Suggestions?

At Fight Colorectal Cancer, we switched from web host email to Google Apps in 2007 and we haven’t looked back. Last summer, I set up Google Apps for my synagogue. Both IRS-recognized nonprofit organizations are using the Education Edition of Google Apps, which offer more features, support and storage space than the Free edition. In both cases, I only had to fill out a simple form providing the organizations’ Tax ID number to verify its nonprofit status.

Google used to offer the Education Edition free of charge to any 501(c)3 organization. That changed with the new consolidated Google for Nonprofits which was launched with fanfare last March. Unfortunately, Google now denies acceptance to a significant number of nonprofit organizations it used to welcome.

Before the new consolidated Google for Nonprofits launched in March, an organization had to apply separately for the nonprofit/education edition of Google Apps, Google AdWords, Google Earth and YouTube. Each had its own eligibility requirements. Now organizations can apply and qualify once and get all the products.

From a nonprofit’s perspective, the hardest product for a nonprofit to get donated from Google has always been AdWords (also known as Google Grants). With good reason. There’s a huge difference between a product that essentially costs Google nothing to provide individually to organizations and does not directly compete with products they sell, and giving away $10,000/month worth of advertising. Google has always had very strict eligibility requirements on Google Grants/donated AdWords. Not all nonprofits qualified. Among the restrictions: No selling products, no prosthelytizing, no trying to influence elections, etc. For the record, I have absolutely no problem with these restrictions. Fight Colorectal Cancer received its Google Grant years ago and works very hard to stay within the program’s tight guidelines, and we were recently rewarded with a Grantspro upgrade.

Consolidating all the Google nonprofit offerings seemed like a great idea. Efficient. Easier for nonprofits and I’m sure much easier on Google staff. But what happens when you combine a product that used to be simple for any nonprofit to get (Google Apps) with one that used to be difficult for nonprofits to get (AdWords)? Of course Google has to keep its tighter restrictions on free advertising (which again, competes with paid advertising) so the restrictions on the other products were changed to the lowest common denominator–Google Grants.

According to the new eligibility requirements, that means no Google Apps for:

Communities and Groups

• Programs requiring membership and/or providing benefit solely to members, such as clubs, sports teams, alumni, networking and other membership organizations
• Religious content or proselytizing on website as well as organizations that use religion or sexual orientation as factor in hiring or populations served
• Groups serving a primarily political function such as lobbying, think tanks and special interests
• Schools, childcare centers, academic institutions, and universities, unless the organization’s sole (entire) purpose entails serving a disadvantaged community (e.g., the blind, hearing impaired, low-income members, etc.) or the organization is a philanthropic arm of a school (e.g. research programs)
• Places or institutions of worship (e.g., churches, ministries, temples, synagogues)

Ironically, private schools that restrict admission based on religious factors can still get Google Apps Education, while nonprofits freely donating services to the same communities are now locked out.

Thankfully for my synagogue, it appears that organizations that were using Google Apps for Education since before the change are grandfathered and won’t lose the service. Am I nervous that will change? Truthfully, yes. There’s nothing except loss of good will that stops Google from enforcing their new guidelines on existing program recipients.

For every Westboro Baptist Church there are tens of thousands of churches that provide valued service to community. Most offer programs that are fully open to all regardless of religious affiliation. Many, like my synagogue, are staffed entirely by dedicated volunteers.

What’s frustrating is that Google has been silent about this change despite pleas for explanation in their support forum. I’m assuming that AdWords restrictions are the reason behind the change. It could be something else. Google won’t say. They changed the rules mid-game, slipping the change quietly under the door hoping no one noticed. I noticed. So have others.

Once again, I fully understand why a church or synagogue does not qualify for donated AdWords. That policy should not change in my opinion. However, I wish they would offer a separate application for Google Apps for those organizations that used to qualify and now don’t for reasons having nothing to do with Google Apps. Or at least explain to the rejected churches and synagogues exactly why they’re left out when similar organizations used to be accepted.