The Power of Engaging Networks + Salesforce

Engaging Networks (EN) is a powerful advocacy platform with a rock-solid Salesforce integration. It offers nonprofits a suite of tools from data capture forms to surveys to advocacy actions that identify, target, and empower your supporters to drive political change. Once connected, every interaction – making a donation, signing a petition, reading your newsletter – feeds into a single supporter profile in Salesforce.

We recently helped Alliance for the Great Lakes (AGL), transition to Engaging Networks with Salesforce, setting them up for powerful advocacy. Here’s why they chose Engaging Networks, and how it unlocked more than just advocacy.

With the right setup, Engaging Networks can also fuel fundraising, events, and lifelong supporter journeys.

(P.S. Want to see it in action? Check out AGL’s progress meter – a great feature they can now embed directly on their site.)

The Backstory:

The Alliance for the Great Lakes (AGL) is on a mission to protect the Great Lakes (think volunteer-powered cleanups, advocacy and policy work) with a focus on thriving Great Lakes and healthy water that all life can rely on across all eight Great Lakes states.

When their advocacy platform was acquired and sunsetted, they needed a replacement on a tight timeline. After eight years on Phone to Action, AGL had a pretty specific set of requirements for what they needed out of their digital advocacy tools. After referring back to our advocacy platform report and evaluating the current market, they decided on Engaging Networks.

Judy Freed, Senior Marketing Manager at AGL shared with us: "We liked that Engaging Networks has more flexibility for Salesforce implementation and how you use it”.

Key Decision Factors:

• Federal + State Campaign tools – petitions, targeted outreach, and grassroots mobilization – all syncing to Salesforce.

• Customizable Salesforce sync to track supporter engagement.

• Room to grow into next-level features like state district mapping, custom questions, fundraising, and more.

The Nuts and Bolts: A Purpose-Built Integration

AGL worked with Engaging Networks’ implementation team and Percolator’s Jessica Townsend to deploy Engaging Networks and tailor the sync with Salesforce (note: AGL is on the Nonprofit Success Pack, but EN also works with Nonprofit Cloud). Engaging Networks’ flexible integration gives you full control over where your data maps in both directions down to the field level. Here’s what stands out:

1. You Control the Rules

• Customizable Sync Rules: Map data to standard or custom objects exactly how you need it. Use EN's default templates, or build your own for more custom requirements.

• Map custom questions, and choose exactly which fields data maps to.

• Map over federal and local district data into Salesforce so you can do custom segmentation in Salesforce.

2. Duplicate-Proof by Design

• Use Salesforce’s built-in matching rules to prevent duplicates.

• Automatically respects merges in both systems; no more manual clean-ups.

3. Great Support

• Engaging Networks supports your implementation with a dedicated Account Success manager and a Client Support Specialist to help you succeed with the platform.

As Percolator’s Client Success Manager, Jessica, helped AGL navigate the integration’s setup, she noted, "A lot of tools only do one thing, and you don't get a choice about what type of records get created. With Engaging Networks, you get to set the rules, you know when and how the data's going to come in, and the rules process automatically like clockwork.”

The Outcome:

Since making the switch, the Alliance for the Great Lakes has hit the ground running. They've successfully launched federal and state campaigns that have already mobilized their constituents to send over 3,500 messages to their representatives. They are just getting started with Engaging Networks, but they are off to a great start. As Judy put it: “with more flexibility comes more complexity," but for an organization the size of AGL, that flexibility is exactly what they need.

Scaling Beyond Advocacy

Engaging Networks does more than just advocacy – it also has tools for email and SMS messaging, managing events, and fundraising.

While AGL is using Engaging Networks exclusively for advocacy, the platform’s unified design means that customers start with advocacy and keep EN’s fundraising, events, and email tools in your back pocket.

Fundraising

With Engaging Networks and Salesforce, you can process donations, recurring gifts, and membership renewals the same way as advocacy actions, all flowing into Salesforce as transactions that can then be processed by rules you design.

Jessica’s insight: "Whether it’s a petition signature or a donation, EN processes those actions the same way as advocacy. No matter what happens, it all looks the same data-wise. You don’t have to learn a different structure because you added on a new module."

Events & Mass Email

Engaging Networks also has features for managing live and virtual events, and can be used as a powerful broadcast email and SMS messaging platform.

• Manage ticketing, Zoom integrations, and check-ins for events, and ensure all your data flows into Salesforce.

• Segment and target your audience to communicate with the right people at the right time.

• Use automated journeys and run campaigns with A/B testing to streamline your messaging.

• All while keeping Salesforce as your single source of truth.

Why This Matters

For nonprofits that want to track and integrate their advocacy work with Salesforce, you can start small and scale smart. Once you have Engaging Networks connected with Salesforce, you can scale up and add on the features you need without starting from scratch. You can:

• Have a user-friendly system for staff to manage advocacy and more.

• Track cross-channel engagement (e.g., seeing if petition signers later donate) and maintain a 360-degree view of your constituents in Salesforce.

• Be in full control of how your data flows between Engaging Networks and Salesforce.

Curious how Engaging Networks could work for your org? Let’s discuss your goals – drop us a line!