Salesforce.org Announces Major Education Cloud Updates, Invests $1.75 Million in College-Ready Nonprofit Organizations

SAN DIEGO, April 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Salesforce.org, which empowers nonprofits and educational institutions through technology, grants, and volunteering programs, today announced a new data architecture to support lifelong learning, new capabilities for its Education Cloud, and investments in nonprofit organizations committed to college and career success for students from all backgrounds. The announcements were made at Salesforce.org's seventh annual Higher Ed Summit.

The Changing Landscape of Education
Higher education is facing new challenges as expectations from prospective and current students, alumni and donors are changing. In today's connected world, they expect seamless and personalized experiences.

Salesforce.org provides innovative tools that enable institutions to deliver tailored student journeys and achieve greater student success—from recruiting and admissions all the way through career readiness.

"Innovative technology is critical to provide the personalized, relevant and adaptive experiences to drive student success across their entire journey," said Rob Acker, CEO, Salesforce.org. "With these announcements, we're closer to achieving our vision to create a platform to support lifelong learning from K-20 and beyond."

"Moving to cloud-based platforms is increasingly appealing to institutions and staff, who are striving to create the connected, personalized experiences that are vital to student success," said Joyce Kim, PhD and Higher Education Technology Analyst at Ovum. "Salesforce.org's Education Cloud platform truly delivers the capabilities and innovation to help institutions on this journey."

Lifelong Learning: Announcing Education Data Architecture, Now for K-20
Today, Salesforce.org is announcing Education Data Architecture (EDA), the expansion of Higher Education Data Architecture (HEDA). HEDA, the foundation of Education Cloud, is leveraged by more than 1,000 higher education institutions including Harvard, UVA and UMASS Lowell. Now, the data architecture will support the needs of both K-12 and higher education organizations.

Developed in alignment with the Ed-Fi Alliance's industry-leading data standard for K-12, EDA will empower K-12 institutions to streamline operations across Admissions & Enrollment, Family & Community Engagement, and Fundraising & Grants Management—with 360-degree student views at the center to help ensure their success.

Salesforce.org customers can easily get started with EDA through K-12 Kit, Salesforce.org's first out-of-the-box custom offering for K-12 schools. The kit includes custom fields and configurable dashboards unique to the needs of K-12 schools and systems.

New Education Cloud Features for Higher Education Focuses on Student Success
Salesforce.org Education Cloud for Higher Education enables institutions to intelligently drive student success across the student life cycle from prospect to alum. New solution sets for Recruiting & Admissions, Student Experience, Advancement, and purpose-built products like Salesforce Advisor Link make it easy for higher ed institutions to create personalized, empowering, relevant experiences for students at scale across their education journey. These solutions include:

• Einstein Analytics Strategic Services for Recruiting & Admissions provide a guided introduction to Einstein Analytics, helping institutions determine how AI can be used across the recruiting and admissions funnel to surface relevant insights.
• Einstein Next Best Action surfaces intelligent, contextual recommendations on the best course of action for an educator to take with each student.
• Mobile Publisher makes it fast and easy for educational institutions to turn websites and portals into beautiful mobile apps that deliver a consistent digital experience for students, educators and more. Each app is downloadable directly from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
• MyTrailhead for Higher Ed enables institutions to combine the power of Trailhead with their own content, brand and voice to create personalized and inspiring learning journeys. Now, institutions can empower every employee with custom content designed to improve the student experience across the entire lifecycle.
• Gift Entry Manager (GEM) delivers pledge and gift management that provides flexible workflows to enter single or batch gifts. This open-source app enables institutions to make their gifts operations more flexible, efficient and insightful to improve donor intelligence, engagement and cultivation.
• Salesforce Advisor Link is now available in EMEA and will include new features to enhance the student and advisor experience including Degree Plan View allowing students to easily see requirements for their degree, Success Plan Templates that make it even easier to provide students with the structure for graduation plans, and a Student Launchpad to empower every student with the information they need to stay on track to graduate on time.

"Before, departments across our campus were siloed and student data had to be continuously re-collected, which made for inefficient processes and a disconnected experience for students," said Steffanie Hoie, Senior Director of Enterprise Applications, University of San Diego. "With Salesforce.org Education Cloud, we've been able to unify our data and break down silos between departments. Getting everyone on one system has given us a leg up in serving our students, and we now have consistency across campus."

Investments to Make College and Career Success a Reality for Under-Served Students
Salesforce.org is committed to investing in future-ready leaders. Today, the company is announcing $1.75 million in grants to four nonprofit organizations that are committed to making college a reality and ensuring career success for first-generation or low-income students. Salesforce.org is investing in the following organizations focused on preparing youth for the opportunities of today and tomorrow:

• Beyond 12 works with institutions across the country (K-12 schools, college access organizations, colleges and universities) offering them a longitudinal student tracking platform and a personalized, virtual student coaching service that provides students with the academic, social, and emotional support they need to earn college degrees.
• Bottom Line recruits rising high school seniors applying to college and soon-to-be high school graduates who are on a four-year degree track and provides structured, high-touch 1:1 college coaching for everything from college applications through to college graduation.
• OneGoal is a coalition of teachers, students, school leaders and education advocates working to close the degree divide and ensure all young people have an equitable opportunity to achieve their greatest postsecondary aspirations.
• Braven empowers promising, underrepresented young adults—first-generation college students, students from low-income backgrounds, and students of color—with the skills, confidence, experiences and networks necessary to transition from college to strong first jobs, which lead to meaningful careers and lives of impact.

"At Salesforce.org, we're committed to preparing youth for the opportunities of today and tomorrow," said Ebony Frelix Beckwith, Chief Philanthropy Officer, Salesforce.org. "Access to opportunities shouldn't be a barrier, and these investments will support first-generation students and students from under-served communities in realizing their college dreams, and helping them persist through graduation and transition into strong first jobs." 

The Salesforce.org Education Community Gathers for Higher Ed Summit
At the seventh annual Higher Ed Summit taking place April 16-17 and co-hosted by Salesforce.org and the University of San Diego, Salesforce.org customers, partners, employees and evangelists will come together to learn, innovate and connect on the biggest trends facing the higher education industry. Keynote speakers include Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Tara Westover, author of Educated: A Memoir and Admiral William H. McRaven.

Availability

• Salesforce Advisor Link and EDA are available now.
• K-12 Kit will be generally available by June 2019.
• GEM will be generally available Summer 2019.
• For more information, please visit: http://www.salesforce.org/educationcloud.

Connect with Salesforce.org

• Like Salesforce.org on Facebook
• Follow @SalesforceOrg on Twitter
• Learn more about the seventh annual Salesforce.org Higher Ed Summit here

Forward Looking Statements
Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other blog posts or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase Salesforce applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com and Salesforce.org have headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and Salesforce.com trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://www.salesforce.org, http://www.salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE. 

About Salesforce.org
Salesforce.org was founded on the idea that the business of business is improving the state of the world. Founded on the 1-1-1 model, Salesforce.org is now both a non-profit and a social enterprise that gives back to the community to invest in education to make sure youth are future ready.

Everyone who wants to change the world should have the tools and technology to do so. Technology is the most powerful equalizer of our time, providing access to data, knowledge, and--above all--connections. Salesforce.org gets technology in the hands of nonprofits, education institutions and philanthropic organizations so they can connect with others and do more good. As a social enterprise, the more missions the technology supports, the more the company invests back into technology and communities, creating an endless circle of good.

SOURCE Salesforce.org

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