02/05/2020

By Mohona Dutta | Reading time 7 mins

The Need For Microsoft Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator

Microsoft has always been on a philanthropic mission to empower charities with the apps, tools to initiate better social impact through innovation.

 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is greatly used in the nonprofits domain for providing an array of supporters, funds, grants, and volunteers; but, until recently, charities have been very dependent on partners to convert the platform into an arrangement that works seamlessly for a not-for-profit.

 

In a world where nonprofit organizations are perpetually underfunded, every penny matters. New software or technological intervention is viewed as a luxury rather than an area that can facilitate business operations.

 

Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact has been designed to close this gap by creating solutions keeping the requirements of nonprofits in mind.

Need for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator - AhaApps

The Nonprofit Accelerator was first announced in November 2018 at the NetHope Global Summit and since then, there have been continued enhancements with the following versions – v2.0 in April 2018, and v2.1 in July 2019, and v2.2 in November 2019. It is a set of pre-built capabilities and solutions to meet the specific needs of nonprofits.

What does a Nonprofit Accelerator do?

In simple terms, its goal is to make it simpler for non-profits to design, embed and adopt the solutions, accelerating their time to value and delivering a reliable approach at par with the industry standards.

 

The nonprofit solutions can be designed based on entities and attributes that nonprofits commonly leverage for donor management, fundraising, awards, volunteer management, program delivery and impact tracking.

 

These entities enlist donor commitments, designations, transactions, grants, delivery frameworks, results, indicators and more. It includes the Common Data Model for Nonprofits, sample apps, sample data, dashboards and documentation.

 

Using this Nonprofit-specific data model and business processes, the Nonprofit Accelerator furnishes scenarios that are unique to the nonprofits: for example, identifying that a contact can have multiple roles simultaneously that of a supporter, volunteer etc.

How does the Nonprofit Accelerator work?

The Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator is a suite of sample apps, templates, and connectors specifically created to solve the most demanding scenarios nonprofits face when delivering their programs and assessing their impact.

 

The accelerators are designed for partners to use in their expansion of solutions to help diminish the cost to develop and eventually allow for a greater number of solutions to be designed and available to nonprofits. Accelerators have been released that support impact measurement and client management with more elements available over time.

 

These solutions help nonprofits connect their impact to their fundraising approaches by creating opportunities for data transparency across platforms in an effective manner. Now the solutions created are pre-mapped on the Microsoft Common Data Model for Nonprofits, empowering partners and the nonprofits they work in collaboration to quickly create and implement new applications and solutions that add fuel to their mission.

Why is the Nonprofit Accelerator a better choice?

When it comes to nonprofits, certain things are more relevant than building trust. Microsoft took note of this and created the Accelerator with full transparency in mind. Now, why is it a good choice, let’s discuss a few points.

  • Accelerated operations

With the Nonprofit Accelerator, Microsoft Partners can accelerate the delivery of a Nonprofit- specific system. That means charities can reduce costs and save time and help the partners understand the exact requirements of their clients and tailor the solutions to fit the bill.

  • Benefits at reduced costs and risks

The Nonprofit Accelerator is free to use for nonprofits with the right Dynamics 365 licenses. It is supported by Microsoft, which means that it gets the advantage of innovation, stays on track with the Microsoft roadmap and doesn’t prevent organizations from working with different Partners.

  • Best practice onboard

The Nonprofit Accelerator has been designed keeping the requirements of not-for-profit associations in mind and as such the solution is solely based on real-life experiences and the industry best practices weaved in together.

  • Connecting funds and outcomes

With the latest release of the Accelerator, the connection between Fundraising Designations, Program Delivery Frameworks, and Budgets allows a nonprofit organization to assign donations and awards to specific outcomes, programs and activities within the association.

  • Designed for impact

Understanding that nonprofits don’t work in seclusion, the Nonprofit Accelerator is created to work seamlessly across associations by enabling information sharing. Even if their work requires collaboration with multiple organizations, nonprofits can track the exact impact of their funding from donation to delivery.

 

The Nonprofit Accelerator can be used along with Microsoft Dynamics 365 or independently with the core solution layer that is not reliant on Microsoft Dynamics 365.

 

At AhaApps we are focussed on helping nonprofits the right kind of tools to drive their mission. Our aim to find a synergy between the right applications, technology, and our client’s needs and use the same resilience to help our clients in achieving success.

Author’s bio:

Mohona is a Content Writer for the Marketing team in AhaApps since 2019. When she is not busy attending to her creative, technical side, she likes to binge on sitcoms on Netflix. She loves writing poems and reading short stories when she wants to break away from the humdrum of life.