If your charity already uses Salesforce, you may be familiar with Nonprofit Success Pack, usually shortened to NPSP. If you are researching Salesforce today, you are increasingly likely to encounter Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, now referred to by Salesforce as Agentforce Nonprofit.
They are not simply old and new versions of the same product.
NPSP is a long-established managed package that extends Salesforce for nonprofit fundraising and relationship management. Nonprofit Cloud is Salesforce’s newer purpose-built nonprofit platform, with a different architecture and broader capabilities spanning areas such as fundraising, programme management and volunteer management.
That does not mean every charity using NPSP should migrate.
At Sweet Potato Tec, the more useful question is what your charity needs Salesforce to do now and over the coming years. Your existing configuration, data, integrations, processes, budget and internal resources should all influence the decision.
What is the difference between Nonprofit Cloud and NPSP?
NPSP is a Salesforce managed package that has traditionally provided nonprofit-specific fundraising and relationship-management functionality. Nonprofit Cloud is Salesforce’s newer purpose-built nonprofit architecture, designed to support a broader range of nonprofit processes. Existing NPSP organisations do not automatically need to migrate. The right choice depends on your charity’s current system, future requirements, data, integrations, resources and the value a change would create.
What is Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP)?
Nonprofit Success Pack is a managed package built on Salesforce that has been used by charities and nonprofit organisations for many years.
It adds nonprofit-specific functionality and data structures to the underlying Salesforce platform, particularly around fundraising and constituent relationships.
For charities already using NPSP, the important point is that it can be much more than an off-the-shelf package.
Years of use may have resulted in custom fields, Flows, integrations, reports, fundraising processes and organisation-specific configuration being built around it.
Sweet Potato Tec’s work with the Charity Retail Association is a useful example of an existing NPSP environment continuing to support meaningful digital transformation.
The Charity Retail Association had Salesforce and its website operating in silos, membership renewals being tracked manually, event administration requiring manual work and reporting relying on spreadsheets.
Sweet Potato Tec integrated Salesforce with the organisation’s website and Eventbrite, introduced automation and improved access to shared information. NPSP remains part of the published Salesforce solution, with SPT providing ongoing maintenance and improvement.
That example matters because it demonstrates an important point for charities comparing the platforms:
an organisation does not automatically need to leave NPSP simply because a newer Salesforce nonprofit architecture exists.
What is Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud?
Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is Salesforce’s newer purpose-built platform for nonprofit organisations.
Salesforce now refers to Nonprofit Cloud as Agentforce Nonprofit, although charities will still encounter the Nonprofit Cloud name throughout existing documentation, product discussions and the Salesforce ecosystem.
At Sweet Potato Tec, we continue to use the Nonprofit Cloud terminology where it makes the conversation clearer for charities evaluating their Salesforce options.
Our Salesforce for Charities & Non-Profits work uses Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud to support requirements including donor and supporter management, fundraising and grants, volunteer engagement, programme activity and impact reporting.
The important distinction from NPSP is architectural.
Nonprofit Cloud is not simply the latest release of NPSP. It uses a different Salesforce architecture and data model.
That difference becomes particularly important when an existing NPSP organisation starts thinking about migration.
This is not necessarily a normal software upgrade where an administrator installs the latest version and continues with the same records and configuration.
It requires proper assessment and planning.
Is NPSP still supported by Salesforce?
Yes. Salesforce states that NPSP will continue to be supported.
That is an important distinction because charities should not interpret the existence of Nonprofit Cloud as meaning their current NPSP environment has suddenly become unsupported.
Salesforce’s current managed-package information says NPSP is used by thousands of organisations and will continue to receive support.
However, Salesforce’s direction for new nonprofit platform development has moved towards its newer nonprofit architecture. Salesforce’s current Trailhead material also notes that, as of December 2025, NPSP is no longer offered as a preconfigured package in production organisations.
Those two facts need to be understood together.
Existing NPSP users should not panic and migrate simply because a newer platform exists.
At the same time, charities making a significant long-term technology decision should understand Salesforce’s current nonprofit product direction and assess whether their existing NPSP environment remains appropriate for what they need next.
That assessment is more useful than treating the decision as an artificial deadline.
What are the main differences between NPSP and Nonprofit Cloud?
The most important difference is that NPSP and Nonprofit Cloud use different approaches to nonprofit functionality and data architecture.
NPSP is a managed package installed on Salesforce. Many charities have built mature environments around that package over several years.
Nonprofit Cloud is Salesforce’s newer platform approach to nonprofit functionality, with capabilities designed across areas including fundraising, programme management and volunteer management.
For a charity evaluating the two, the practical differences can be considered across several areas.
Functionality
NPSP has historically been particularly associated with fundraising, donations, households and constituent relationship management.
Nonprofit Cloud is designed around a wider set of nonprofit operational requirements.
That broader scope may be relevant to organisations that want Salesforce to connect fundraising with programmes, services, volunteering and other organisational activity.
But broader functionality is only valuable when your charity actually needs it.
A charity with a well-functioning NPSP environment and relatively straightforward fundraising requirements should not assume that more available functionality automatically creates a stronger business case for migration.
Data architecture
The data models differ.
That means an NPSP-to-Nonprofit-Cloud project needs to consider how existing records and relationships map into the newer architecture.
This can affect donations, contacts, accounts, relationships and any custom processes built around them.
It is one of the reasons migration needs to be approached as a transformation project rather than a simple package upgrade.
Implementation
A new charity selecting Salesforce can design around its current requirements from the beginning.
An existing NPSP charity has another layer of complexity: it already has Salesforce.
The organisation needs to determine which existing configuration remains valuable, which processes should change, which integrations need rebuilding or adapting and how historical data should be handled.
Future operating model
The decision should also reflect where the charity is going.
If Salesforce needs to become a wider organisational platform supporting fundraising, programmes, volunteering, services and impact reporting, the newer Nonprofit Cloud architecture may deserve serious consideration.
If the charity’s existing NPSP environment already supports its requirements effectively, the immediate case for disruption may be weaker.
Does an existing NPSP charity need to migrate to Nonprofit Cloud?
No. Existing NPSP users do not automatically need to migrate to Nonprofit Cloud.
Salesforce continues to support NPSP, so the decision should be based on organisational requirements rather than fear that the current platform has suddenly stopped being viable.
A charity should first ask whether there is a problem worth solving.
Is the current Salesforce environment preventing the organisation from delivering new services?
Are fundraising processes becoming difficult to maintain?
Does the charity need programme or volunteer functionality that would be better supported in the newer architecture?
Are integrations becoming difficult to manage?
Is reporting constrained by the current data structure?
Does the organisation have a wider transformation planned that would make this a sensible point to reconsider the architecture?
If the answer to those questions is largely no, migration may not currently be the highest-value use of the charity’s time and budget.
Sweet Potato Tec’s Salesforce consulting approach is built around aligning Salesforce with how an organisation actually operates. That means assessing the existing environment before prescribing a replacement.
When might moving to Nonprofit Cloud make sense?
Moving to Nonprofit Cloud may make sense when the charity’s future requirements justify the cost and disruption of changing architecture.
That could include an organisation undertaking a broader digital transformation, replacing significant legacy processes or expanding the role Salesforce plays across the charity.
For example, a charity may want Salesforce to connect fundraising with programmes, volunteer activity and impact reporting rather than operating mainly as a fundraising CRM.
The decision can also arise when an existing Salesforce environment has become heavily customised, difficult to maintain or poorly aligned with current processes.
But even then, migration is not automatically the answer.
An existing environment can sometimes be fixed or optimised.
The charity should compare the effort required to improve the current NPSP implementation against the effort and long-term value of moving to Nonprofit Cloud.
Sweet Potato Tec works with charities both on Salesforce implementation and on improving existing environments. The correct route depends on what the assessment uncovers.
What does migrating from NPSP to Nonprofit Cloud involve?
Migrating from NPSP to Nonprofit Cloud involves assessing the existing NPSP environment, mapping its data and processes to the new architecture, planning how configuration and integrations will be handled, moving and validating data, testing the new solution and preparing users for the change.
Salesforce itself publishes dedicated migration guidance for moving from NPSP to Nonprofit Cloud. That guidance covers platform differences, migration recommendations and how NPSP features map to the newer platform.
That tells charities something important about the nature of the project.
It is not a button labelled “upgrade”.
Before moving anything, the organisation needs to understand what currently exists.
That includes:
- constituent and fundraising data
- existing custom fields and objects
- Flows and other automation
- integrations
- reports and dashboards
- permissions and security
- third-party applications
- data-quality issues
- processes that have evolved around the existing CRM.
Some of those elements may need to be redesigned rather than copied.
This can be an opportunity.
A migration does not need to reproduce every historical compromise from the old environment. It can be used to reconsider how the charity wants Salesforce to work.
But that opportunity also creates project scope, which needs to be reflected in budget and planning.
How important is data when moving from NPSP to Nonprofit Cloud?
Data is one of the most important parts of an NPSP-to-Nonprofit-Cloud migration because the two architectures do not represent every nonprofit process in exactly the same way.
Historical data needs to be mapped deliberately.
That means understanding not only which records need to move, but what those records mean.
Which information is still useful?
Which records are duplicates?
Which fields are no longer used?
Which historical customisations were created to work around limitations that no longer apply?
Which relationships need to be preserved?
Which integrations create or update records?
This is also a good point to address data-quality problems rather than moving them unquestioned into a new environment.
Salesforce’s own migration guidance exists partly because charities need to understand the differences between the platforms and determine how existing functionality maps into the newer architecture.
Sweet Potato Tec’s nonprofit work includes data mapping, migration and testing as part of moving charities from legacy systems into Salesforce.
The same discipline applies when the “legacy system” is an existing Salesforce architecture.
What happens to existing integrations and customisations?
Existing integrations and customisations need to be assessed individually rather than assumed to transfer unchanged.
A mature NPSP environment may connect to websites, donation platforms, event systems, finance tools or other applications.
Changing the underlying Salesforce data architecture can affect those connections.
The same applies to custom automation.
A Flow or integration built around an NPSP object or field needs to be reviewed against the new data model and the process it supports.
This is where migration scope can expand quickly.
A charity may initially think it is moving its CRM data, only to discover that Salesforce sits at the centre of several operational workflows.
The Charity Retail Association project shows how significant those connections can become. Sweet Potato Tec integrated its Salesforce environment with its website and Eventbrite, while automating membership and other processes.
If an organisation with that type of connected environment were assessing a future architectural change, those integrations would need to be part of the decision from the beginning.
Do not assess NPSP versus Nonprofit Cloud by looking only at what appears on the Salesforce screen.
Assess the ecosystem around it.
Is Nonprofit Cloud more expensive than NPSP?
The meaningful comparison is the total cost of achieving and maintaining the required solution, not simply the headline software price.
Costs can include licensing, discovery, implementation, data migration, integration work, testing, training, internal staff time and ongoing support.
For an existing NPSP organisation, migration itself is also an investment.
A charity should therefore compare at least two scenarios:
What will it cost to keep and improve the current NPSP environment?
and
What will it cost to implement Nonprofit Cloud and move the organisation onto the new architecture?
Then consider the value each option creates over an appropriate period.
A lower initial cost is not necessarily better if the system cannot support the organisation’s future requirements.
Equally, a newer platform is not automatically better value if the charity spends significant money recreating processes that already work well without gaining a meaningful operational benefit.
Salesforce licensing and nonprofit programmes can also change, so current product and licence pricing should always be checked directly with Salesforce when building the business case.
The decision needs to be financial and operational.
What should your charity ask before choosing NPSP or Nonprofit Cloud?
Start with your organisation rather than the product comparison.
Ask:
What is working well today?
Do not discard useful processes simply because they are part of an older architecture.
What is not working?
Identify the real operational problems rather than assuming the platform itself is responsible.
What do we need Salesforce to support over the next few years?
Consider fundraising, volunteering, programmes, services, grants, impact reporting and wider organisational requirements.
How complicated is our existing NPSP environment?
Document customisations, automation, applications and integrations.
What is the condition of our data?
Understand duplicates, incomplete information and historical structures before planning migration.
What would migration allow us to do that we cannot do effectively now?
There should be a clear answer.
What resources do we have?
Consider budget, internal time, technical capability and the organisation’s capacity for change.
What would happen if we stayed on NPSP for now?
This is just as important as asking what happens if you migrate.
A good Salesforce decision should compare realistic options, not assume that the newest platform must automatically be the destination.
FAQs
Is Salesforce NPSP being discontinued?
Salesforce currently states that NPSP will continue to be supported. However, Salesforce’s newer nonprofit product direction is centred on Nonprofit Cloud, now referred to as Agentforce Nonprofit, and NPSP is no longer offered as a preconfigured package in new production orgs. Existing NPSP organisations should assess their own roadmap rather than interpreting this as an automatic requirement to migrate immediately.
Is Nonprofit Cloud just a newer version of NPSP?
No. Nonprofit Cloud uses a different architecture from NPSP. This is why moving from NPSP to Nonprofit Cloud requires migration and implementation planning rather than being treated as a routine package upgrade.
Can our charity stay on NPSP?
Yes. Salesforce continues to support NPSP. Whether remaining on it is sensible depends on how well the existing environment supports your charity’s current processes and future plans. A well-functioning NPSP implementation may continue to provide value without an immediate migration.
Can we improve NPSP instead of moving to Nonprofit Cloud?
Potentially. Problems with reporting, automation, integrations, data or usability do not necessarily mean the underlying platform needs replacing. A Salesforce assessment can help determine whether optimisation of the existing NPSP environment or migration to Nonprofit Cloud represents the better route.
How difficult is it to migrate from NPSP to Nonprofit Cloud?
The complexity depends on the existing environment. Data volumes, customisation, integrations, automation, third-party applications and reporting requirements can all affect the project. Salesforce provides dedicated NPSP-to-Nonprofit-Cloud migration guidance because the platforms have architectural and data-model differences that need to be planned for.
Should a charity starting with Salesforce today choose Nonprofit Cloud?
Nonprofit Cloud should be considered seriously by a charity implementing Salesforce today, particularly where Salesforce needs to support multiple nonprofit processes. However, product selection should still follow discovery. The organisation should define its fundraising, programme, volunteering, service, reporting and integration requirements before deciding on the appropriate Salesforce architecture.
Make the decision around your charity, not the product release
The existence of Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud does not make every NPSP implementation obsolete.
NPSP continues to be supported, and many charities have years of valuable data, processes, integrations and organisational knowledge built around it.
At the same time, Salesforce’s newer nonprofit architecture creates opportunities for organisations that need Salesforce to support a broader and increasingly connected operating model.
The right decision therefore depends on what your charity needs next.
At Sweet Potato Tec, our Salesforce for Charities & Non-Profits work starts with the organisation rather than assuming the answer in advance. We look at your processes, data, existing technology and objectives before determining what Salesforce should look like.
Our work with the Charity Retail Association also demonstrates why existing NPSP should not automatically be dismissed. Rather than replacing a functioning environment simply because it existed already, SPT improved the connected ecosystem around it through automation, website integration, Eventbrite integration and ongoing optimisation.
If you are currently deciding between NPSP and Nonprofit Cloud, or trying to determine whether an existing NPSP environment should be migrated, start with an assessment.
Understand what you have, identify what your charity needs next and establish the practical cost and value of each route.
Only then decide whether the right next step is to optimise what already works or move to a different Salesforce architecture.