RSMUS.comThe Salesforce Winter ‘26 release is around the corner! Salesforce releases new features three times a year, with the Winter ‘26 release set to go live starting September 19. To help understand what new features are coming, we combed through the Salesforce Release Notes for Nonprofit Cloud. Read on for the most important Salesforce Winter ’26 updates for nonprofits.
1. Streamline processes with Gift Entry Grid enhancements
The enhanced Gift Entry Grid allows nonprofit staff to easily enter up to 200 gift transaction designations, gift soft credits, and recurring gift commitments. Nonprofit staff can also enter gifts more efficiently by setting Batch default field values.
Why does this matter for nonprofits?
Bulk gift entry is a lifeline for saving time when it comes to your data entry process. Salesforce has prioritized enhancements to the Gift Entry Grid, and this release extends its functionality beyond traditional gift transactions to include gift soft credits, transaction designations, and recurring gifts. For new Salesforce customers, the Gift Entry Grid is enabled in Nonprofit Cloud by default.
2: Track program participants through smooth intake process
Nonprofit staff can facilitate a smooth entry point for participants by efficiently managing ongoing intake processes, ensuring that all necessary forms and information are collected promptly. By following up on any incomplete intake tasks or missing documents, nonprofit staff can help participants seamlessly transition into programs and services, eliminating potential barriers to engagement.
Why does this matter for nonprofits?
Time consuming processes and disjointed communications are common challenges in nonprofit case management. This feature empowers nonprofit staff to focus on delivering streamlined communications and building relationships with participants to connect them with available services.
3: Refine volunteer management
The introduction of the new volunteer management homepage, refined tabs and streamlined workflows equips managers with powerful tools to organize, track, and optimize volunteer opportunities more efficiently.
Additionally, the Shift Capacity and Coverage agent topic can be used to identify volunteer initiatives with unfilled shifts. Automating volunteer initiative data entry and record creation streamlines operations for nonprofit staff. Salesforce matches volunteers to available positions and allows nonprofit staff to assign them accordingly. Volunteer opportunities are published to an Experience Cloud portal, offering both volunteers and managers a unified platform for engagement.
Why does this matter for nonprofits?
Enhanced visibility into key metrics empowers nonprofit staff to make data-driven decisions, forecast volunteer needs, and celebrate program success. These intuitive features not only simplify the process of managing volunteers but also ensure that organizations can more effectively mobilize their communities to support their mission.
4: Strengthen donor engagement with the Gift Planning app
Nonprofit staff can use the Gift Planning app to support planned gifts from initial discussions through stewardship. Leverage actuarial tools to visualize and model gift structures, automate calculations, and customize agreements that align with your organization’s policies and legal standards. Nonprofit staff can build strong donor relationships through clear planning and personalized engagement, ensuring donor intentions are honored and organizational goals met.
Let’s take a deeper look at the app features:
Donor Gift Concept
Provide a single location where all proposed gift concepts can be managed and tracked to ensure easy access across your organization to better serve your constituents.
Gift Agreement
Track all agreements to accept gifts.
Planned Gift
Manage details of planned gifts, track their status, and ensure proper stewardship to honor the donor’s intentions while adhering to your organization’s policies and requirements.
Planned Gift Performance
Monitor how a gift performs over time in terms of returns, expenses and payouts; ensuring performance aligns with the financial terms outlined in the gift agreement.
Planned Gift Annuity Rates
Store and apply annuity rates to calculate payments for charitable gift annuities.
Gift Value Forecast
Track the value of a gift over time, including initial value, future projections, and updates to ensure proper financial oversight.
Why does this matter for nonprofits?
Salesforce introduced a data model for planned giving with the Summer ‘25 release. This new app in conjunction with the data model provides a dedicated place to access all related components from a single location, eliminating the need to create custom solutions or search for objects separately. Additionally, the actuarial tools are designed to assist fundraisers in calculating planned gift values and aim to reduce calculation errors.
5: Centralize philanthropic research operations
The Philanthropic Research app connects prospect researchers and relationship officers, enabling them to collaborate efficiently and engage donors more effectively. The app provides quick access to key insights with prompt summaries and classification tools, automates research processes, and streamlines prospect discovery as your organization expands.
Why does this matter for nonprofits?
Now, nonprofit staff have the additional option of leveraging the Philanthropic Research app. Historically, having a philanthropic research tool in your Salesforce instance required a third-party app or custom solution. Salesforce introduced an enhanced fundraising philanthropic research data model in the Summer ‘25 release. If your organization has ever switched wealth management platforms (many of our clients have!), you may have noticed that new custom objects were created, leaving technical debt with obsolete objects with stranded data from the previous platform. With this new data model, we would expect some wealth management tools to update their Salesforce integrations to map to the new data model.
Staying informed about the latest features is crucial for ensuring that your nonprofit organization fully leverages its Salesforce environment. Reach out today for assistance assessing or incorporating the Salesforce Winter ’26 updates for nonprofits into your Salesforce instance.
For more insights, read additional nonprofit blogs here.
Bonnie Smith
Bonnie is a 19x certified Salesforce architect who provides Salesforce consulting services to public and nonprofit organizations.
