A First Look at the Dynamics 365 Nonprofit Accelerator

The Microsoft Common Data Model for Nonprofits came from sitting with, observing, learning from 100's of nonprofits about their unmet technology challenges and the frustration of managing data across many systems of record.  The approach includes:

• Microsoft partnering with leading thought leaders in the nonprofit technology space as well as a Customer Steering Team made up of a diverse group of global nonprofit organizations and foundations to create a nonprofit common data model that reflects the common nonprofit scenarios.
• Learning from data model challenges of the past and design a streamlined, open foundation for vendors, partners and nonprofits to rapidly build applications and connectors.
• Incorporating data standards into the model against widely adopted international data standards like IATI.
• Harnessing the power of the Microsoft technology stack -  Azure, Office 365, Power Platform, Dynamics 365, Power BI - alongside the interoperability is the nonprofit CDM will save nonprofits time and money better spent in their missions.

The Microsoft Common Data Model for Nonprofits is the first of its kind to provide a model that reflects industry best-practices and insight across program delivery, grant/award management, constituent management, fundraising, and donation management.

Challenges 

Some of the key challenges that were considered while creating the Microsoft Common Data Model for Nonprofits include:

• 360-degree view of constituent - Many systems promise a full view of the constituent but this has not been modeled in solutions.  The Microsoft Common Data Model for Nonprofits provides a constituent "single source of truth" that represents a 360-degree view to individual's data to include profile, salutations, relationships, preferences, education, and employment, as well as a view into the role that they have been part of in the model.  An important distinction is that a contact is always an individual and is sometimes part of a household and/or an organization.  An individual contact can exist on it's own, or be part of a household along with other contacts with whom it has one or more relationships.  A contact can also be part of an organization.
• Better tie impact to funding - Currently, there are challenges for nonprofits to report back to donors on the outcomes from their donation. The Microsoft Common Data Model for Nonprofits includes requests to awards and disbursements model to help nonprofits efficiently make and transparently manage investments, grants, and awards.
• Lack of standards - Many solutions are available to nonprofits do not have a standard data schema that slows down innovation, data transparency, and interoperability.  The Microsoft Common Data Model for Nonprofits is working with the customers and partners to create a standard that represents a data schema that is common for all nonprofits along with incorporating data standards, i.e. IATI, that organizations use for reporting.  

Entities within the solution

• 38 Entities  - (32 new & 6 extensions to existing CDS Core and First Party Application Entities)
• 691 New data attributes 

Constituent Management 

• • Account
  • Contact
  • Customer
  • Address 
  • Connection
  • Salutation
  • Employment
  • Education
  • Preference

Fundraising

• • Lead
  • Opportunity
  • Campaign
  • Designation
  • Designation Plan
  • Credit Plan
  • Credit Recipient
  • Designated Credit
  • Donor Commitment
  • Planned Giving
  • Payment Schedule
  • Payment Asset
  • Transaction
  • Payment Method
  • Payment Processor

Awards

• • Lead
  • Opportunity
  • Campaign
  • OFAC Match
  • Docket
  • Recommendation
  • Request
  • Report
  • Award
  • Award Version
  • Review
  • Disbursement
  • Objective
  • Delivery Framework
  • Budget
  • Disbursement Distribution 

Delivery Framework (Program Management/Results)

The Delivery Framework entity aligns with the IATI Activity standard.

• • Objective
  • Delivery Framework
  • Budget
  • Result
  • Indicator
  • Indicator Value

Capabilities 

The following represent some samples about how to model key segments of the Nonprofit Common Data Model.

Constituent Management

360 degree view and tracking of constituent's data to include profile, salutations, relationships, preferences, education, and employment.

How to Model Constituent

Donation Management

Tracking donations and donor commitments from individuals and institutions to include one-time and recurring donations, GIK, grant payments, and bequests.

How to Model Donation

Fundraising

Solicitation to transaction model enables tracking end-to-end fundraising across gift types.

How to Model Fundraising

Grants/Awards Management

Requests to Awards and Disbursements model to help nonprofits efficiently make and transparently manage investments, grants and awards.

How to Model Grants/Awards

Program Delivery

Outcome and result based model help nonprofits efficiently deliver on their missions, measure results and communicate their impact.

How to Model Delivery Framework

In Closing

We strongly encourage you to join the Nonprofit CDM Insider Program. We will share more information about how to join the program soon.

Our goal is to build a community around customers and partners that want to collaborate and continue to improve upon industry best practices. We don’t want to build a “Microsoft CDM”, but rather a “Community CDM”, which will be a great outcome of the CDM extension program.

We plan to iterate the CDM and future releases for the Nonprofit Accelerator as well as published additional contents while collaborating with our strong partner channel. We are excited and look forward to continued conversations with nonprofits about their unique business processes and about how Dynamics 365 and all of Microsoft’s technologies can  support your digital transformation journey.

Please visit Michael Gernaey’s Microsoft announces its first Nonprofit Accelerator blog posted HERE for more references.