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Salesforce hosted its 2023 Dreamforce conference in San Francisco, and a half dozen of Zuri Group’s team members descended on the conference to glean the most important insights for our clients. Zuri Group has been helping the social sector leverage technology, operations, and data since 2007. Our range of services and clients is vast, including dozens of Salesforce projects over the last decade. As a certified Salesforce System Integrator (SI), our Salesforce practice has doubled each year since 2018.

While at this year’s Dreamforce conference, Zuri Group’s Vice President of Platform Strategies, Ellen Rohwer Pappas, shared this insight:

The direction of Education Cloud innovations presents exciting opportunities at the university level for our clients due to its architecture and potential for intelligently driving institution-wide digital and other engagement. At the same time, our Advancement clients have distinct and robust CRM needs, and those using managed packages will need to ensure interoperability in the short run and perhaps tackle larger decisions in the long run. Zuri Group is already helping clients evaluate their options and determine strategies.

Ellen Rohwer Pappas, Vice President of Platform Strategies

The buzz around Education Cloud is part of a much bigger, ongoing conversation about Salesforce’s position in the nonprofit market and how its flexibility is gaining attraction from all types of organizations. Peak into the conversation with our consultants through this recent Nonprofit Notes podcast episode where we delve into the past, present, and future of Salesforce.

Our team members have decades of experience in making CRM solutions work across the enterprise. Cheryl Cerny, Zuri Group’s new Vice President of Technology Solutions, previously guided the Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) Single Org Salesforce adoption across the campus. In her several years of leading operations, spearheading strategy, and directing campaigns at WPI, Cheryl faced many similar challenges as our clients and built a repertoire of successful strategies to overcome them. Cheryl knows first-hand how to ensure successful digital transformation, and with twenty-five years in fundraising, she also knows the mission critical needs of higher-ed Advancement.

“There are many elements involved in complex projects like these, but three that I find particularly central to success are: planning, communication, and iteration. At WPI, it took a few months to stand up some parts of the CRM and a few years to get the complicated parts (gift processing!) right. My strategy was to combine inclusive planning, careful and enthusiastic communications with end users, and the knowledge that it may take a few tries to get things right. Each organization will need different mixtures of each variable, but it can be done. Now, the Education Cloud is poised to make it even easier for our clients to fully adopt Salesforce.”

Cheryl Cerny, Vice President of Technology Solutions

Do you have questions about Salesforce, Education Cloud, CRM initiatives, or digital transformation? Connect with our seasoned experts at to discuss your situation.

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Zuri Group provides strategic and technology consulting to help nonprofit organizations raise more money, build stronger relationships, and make data-driven decisions. We are a Salesforce System Integrator (SI), and our innovative team has extensive experience in nonprofit fundraising, operations, and digital strategy.

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