5 Nonprofit Dreamin Sessions to Watch Right Now

January 28 and 29, I, and many other Arkies, attended the first Nonprofit Dreamin conference. There are lots of Dreamin events (I’ve attended Texas Dreamin) but this is the first Dreamin specifically for a nonprofit audience.

Put together by a dedicated team of volunteers, this two-day event covered a wide variety of topics from helpful apps to empowering users. There were even “rooms” (this was a virtual event, of course) where you could network with others and learn about various Community groups. I hung out with the Supermums (and made sure to join their Facebook group) and The Introvert Sandbox group. Here’s a quick roundup of the sessions I attended and recommend you check out or watch again. 

Salesforce Labs All-Stars: 5 Free Tools Your Nonprofit Can Use Today

Lara Kimberly and Skye Tyler shared 5 AppExchange apps created by Salesforce Labs that require minimum setup but are maximum helpful. Salesforce Labs is not functionality supported by Salesforce, but has usually been created by Salesforce employees (and is sometimes eventually incorporated into the core Salesforce product!). Personally, I really want to get my hands on CMTD Enhanced Related Lists and Record Hunter. The other apps on the list are Timeline & Timewarp (both components), Adding Multiple Related Records (a flow template), and Magic Mover for Notes and Attachments to Lightning Experience.

Challenges for Solo Admins and How to Overcome Them

Mark Jones has a great metaphor likening a solo admin to a juggler keeping both glass and rubber balls in the air. Sometimes, you have to let the rubber balls bounce.  To be a better juggler, a better admin, it’s important to make time to invest in your own development. Make sure your efforts aren’t limited to spending time on Trailhead and getting certified. Follow blogs, subscribe to podcasts, join Salesforce Community groups, and build your personal network. (Side note: may I recommend following the Arkus Blog and subscribing to the Cloud Focus Weekly podcast?)

How to Advocate for Diversity Equity and Inclusion in the Ecosystem

I only caught the second half of their presentation, but this group of amazing ladies (Brittany Daley, Emma Bloksberg-Fireovid, Jessica Murphy, Marisa Lopez, and Rachel Park) discussed empowering yourself and others to step into action and to stand for diversity, equity, and inclusion. A single paragraph can in no way do justice to their presentation. I strongly encourage you to watch the session recording. Here are some of my personal takeaways:

• If you don’t ask, the answer is always no
• Make sure your words match your actions (i.e. walk the walk)
• Think about how you’re treating the people in your workplace
• Having your own network is priceless

Exception Dashboards

One way to keep your data accurate and clean, is by creating an Exception Dashboard. Yamile Pacheco Cueva shared her expertise on using these dashboards to ensure you have data your users can trust. These dashboards can show where you’re missing data and let you know where you need to fill in the gaps. Yamile particularly recommended the Field Trip app to help track down missing data. The overall goal is to see zeroes across the board on your dashboards (e.g. zero anonymous households, zero donations missing an opportunity contact role, etc.).

Thinking Through Rollup Scenarios with Customizable Rollups

Arkus’ very own Amy Bucciferro led an amazing session where she not only demonstrated Customizable Rollup setups she’s created for clients, she also outlined her thought process behind the solutions. Here’s an example of that thought process:

1. Why do I need this rollup?
2. Where does the information I want live in Salesforce?
3. Where do I want to see this information (i.e. the result)?
4. Does this match a rollup type?
5. If not, can I move some data (before or after) so it will? If I can, should I?

There were many sessions I didn’t get to attend and I’m really looking forward to catching up on what I missed now that the session recordings have been released. This virtual dreamin event took a huge amount of effort and I applaud all the volunteers, speakers, moderators, and sponsors. I sincerely hope Nonprofit Dreamin will be back again next year! 

Did you attend the event? What did you think? Was there a session you really wanted to attend but couldn’t make it? Let me know in the Trailblazer Community or via Twitter @emadram.

P.S. Wondering why a crane is the Nonprofit Dreamin mascot? Read this post by Gurleen Singh.