Celebrating 15 Years of Impact

Born of Peace Corps, Red Cross, and Outward Bound experiences and values, we at Idealist Consulting want to celebrate our 15 year existence as a company by acknowledging all the nonprofit organizations, partners, and individuals that have shaped us into the innovators we are today. This is not only a history of Idealist Consulting as a company, but a history of how the Salesforce for nonprofits ecosystem has evolved… where we started, where we are, and where we are going.

Who we are

No part of this journey would have been possible without the people that make up Idealist Consulting. Our staff past and present harken from such notable organizations as the Peace Corps, Americorps, Red Cross, Girl Scouts and others. One thing we all have in common is that we genuinely care about advancing the missions of nonprofits.?

We have many individuals on our team that have been with us since our early years, sticking around for the tight-knit company culture, shared vision and desire to innovate. We continually nurture a learning-rich environment, where growth and collaboration are treasured. Idealists say it best:

“When I was a new admin I was overwhelmed and unsure. At that time Rob was still hands on with all the consultants and he encouraged me with this wisdom (paraphrased) : April, you're always going to feel lost, just become comfortable with being lost. No one person knows everything, that's why we have a team. Find your silo and work within in it. Don't be afraid to ask for help.IMHO Idealist culture is its greatest asset and that is why I've never considered going anywhere else.” - April Engle , CRM Consultant

"Idealist Consulting allows me not only to show up as my full self, but this is something that is celebrated and honored. As a company, they've helped me nurture my unique skills and use those skills to support our clients and the growth of the company. A truly special place to work."? - Alison Brown Wandschneider, MBA , Director of Client Success

"My first year at Idealist Consulting has been intensely rewarding. Not only has joining this longstanding B Corp affirmed my career pivot into HR, but I’m lucky to be working with teams that share my belief that good data and optimized process can make a real difference globally." - Christopher Schiel, PHR , HR Manager

Drawing from our founding principles, we continue to promote a culture where everyone is encouraged to share ideas, learn from one another, and work toward our common goal: empowering the world’s most vulnerable.

Where we began

Back in the early 2000s, nonprofits were operating under the assumption that the latest advancements in technology were reserved for the private sector. Idealist founder, Rob Jordan, saw an opportunity to shift the nonprofit space from a tech scarcity mindset to one of technology abundance. These founding principles carry through today, and Idealist staff, or “Idealists”, are here to advance the missions of nonprofits, using technology as our craft.From the beginning, Idealists made our voices heard, encouraging companies to gift technology to the nonprofit space and increase access to digital tools. We saw profound value in empowering the missions of nonprofits - not a monetary one, but a humanitarian one. We continue to be inspired by seeing the on-the-ground impact of our work as organizations are better able to serve their constituents.

In the early days, Idealist Consulting implemented tech solutions that would provide the most impact for organizations, including solutions like Vertical Response, Google Suite, Ring Central and other powerful tools. We were also early adopters of cloud computing, encouraging adoption of this technology by nonprofits because of its affordability and ease of deployment.?

Soon Salesforce.org began showing an interest in the missions of nonprofits and approached the sector with an open-source mentality. This aligned with one of Idealist’s founding principles: that the best solutions are built by the community, for the community. With these shared values, Idealist Consulting and Salesforce.org teamed up to bring high-quality technology to nonprofits, resulting in Idealist Consulting being the first SI (System Integrators) Partner for Salesforce.org, a distinction we are very proud of.

An altruistic idea takes hold

The Idealist story began when a late 20s Rob Jordan joined the Peace Corps in 1998 and was dispatched to Ukraine at a time when the region was grappling with the bombing of former Yugoslavia, Y2K, hyperinflation, systemic corruption, and a post-Soviet hangover. Rob served as a business development volunteer and soon recognized that the solutions available weren’t suited to the scale of the challenges Ukraine faced. Witnessing this planted a seed of an idea for Rob: nonprofits need and deserve access to the most advanced technology available. Powered by a strong tech suite, nonprofits can supercharge their missions.?

Rob embraced this concept in a position for the Costa Rican branch of Outward Bound. Applying private sector business acumen to improve their organizational processes, the nonprofit saw tangible improvements, including better promotion of their mission and enhanced internal communication. The results were improved safety, stronger cultural fabric, and financial efficiency. Upon leaving Outward Bound three years later, Rob had gained clarity and inspiration on the positive influence that business methodology can have in the nonprofit sector.

Taking this wisdom to Portland, OR in 2005, Rob began forming a small team of Salesforce consultants focused on the idea that implementing a powerful CRM has a significant impact on the missions of nonprofits. Being the first Salesforce-for-nonprofit implementer, the team often had to do some convincing to encourage nonprofits to adopt a technology rooted in the word “sales”. Idealists began developing the first iterations of the Nonprofit Success Pack (Initially called the NPOrganizer), a Salesforce solution built specifically for nonprofits.

As good ideas often do, Idealist Consulting’s mission caught fire in the nonprofit world. In 2010, our impact became notable when Idealist Consulting was recognized by Hillary Clinton for our work with “Project Palestine ”. The goals of this project included giving Palestinians the ability to work inside and outside Palestinian borders and strengthening the business operations of Palestinian nonprofits, NGOs, and local businesses. The successful completion of this project granted Idealist a much wider audience, allowing us to reach more organizations in need of technology solutions.

"Idealist has changed a lot over the years, but was has not changed is the desire to care for our clients' missions." - Rob Jordan , CEO

While the concept of providing gifted technology to nonprofits was rare in 2006 (Idealist Consulting being one of only five Salesforce-for-nonprofits implementers at the time), the concept has since permeated the space. Idealist Consulting is now joined by over 600 companies working toward similar objectives.

Leading by example

Looking back, we feel immense gratitude for the long list of over 1,500 missions we’ve worked with, and we know we wouldn’t be here today without the collaboration, ideas, time, and effort that have built us. We’ve learned a lot through years of innovating and iterating on our core values, carving out milestones like these:

While it’s fun to get nostalgic, it’s more energizing to peek into the future. We’re excited about the next phase of nonprofit impact potential, and you can be sure we’ll be at the front of the pack as technology evolves. At Idealist Consulting, we’re innovators and care deeply about the missions of the nonprofits we work with. We’re humbled to think of the impact our nonprofit partners have affected over the last 15 years, and we’re honored to continue delivering quality technology solutions to empower the world’s most vulnerable.

We'll be celebrating 15 years of impact durring our annual Engagement Party at Dreamforce this year, share a toast with us!