Nonprofit teams wear many hats. One week you’re planning a gala; the next, you’re coordinating volunteers, running a webinar, or managing donor outreach. Events fuel your mission, raise visibility, and deepen relationships, but when they’re managed through a patchwork of tools, the result is chaos.
Many organizations use Eventbrite for registration, Zoom for sessions, spreadsheets for tracking, and Salesforce for donor records. Each tool captures a piece of the story, but none of them talk to each other. That means hours of manual exports, duplicate records, and incomplete reports when leadership asks, “So how did the event perform?”
When time is tight and staff capacity is limited, that fragmented approach just doesn’t scale.
There’s a better way: event management in Salesforce with Salesforce-native tools.
Why Native Matters
“Salesforce-native” means your event management app lives inside Salesforce, not as a bolt-on integration. Your registration data, attendance records, and engagement insights all flow directly into the CRM you already rely on.
For nonprofits, that translates into tangible benefits:
- A single source of truth across donors, events, and communications
- Automatic updates—no more manual imports or data cleanup
- Real-time visibility into attendance and giving trends
- Streamlined reporting for boards and funders
- Personalized outreach that strengthens relationships and increases retention
Instead of chasing data across platforms, you can finally see the full picture: who attended, who gave, and how your events advance your mission.
Meet Blackthorn: The Salesforce-Native Solution for Nonprofits
That’s where Blackthorn comes in.
Built entirely within Salesforce, Blackthorn enables nonprofits to manage every aspect of an event —from registration and payment processing to attendance tracking and post-event follow-up — without ever leaving Salesforce.
Because it’s 100% native, all event data is automatically linked to donor and contact records. There’s no syncing, no connectors, no lost data. Everything your team needs is right there in one place.
With Blackthorn, You Can:
- Create and manage event pages directly in Salesforce
- Track registrations and check-ins in real time
- Automate personalized follow-up emails to attendees
- Collect payments securely and link them to donor records
- View event performance dashboards at a glance
This isn’t just about saving time. It’s about empowering your team with visibility and control so they can focus on mission impact rather than manual data cleanup.
Security and Compliance You Can Trust
Nonprofits handle incredibly sensitive data like donor contact information, payment details, and volunteer records, so security can’t be an afterthought.
Because Blackthorn runs on Salesforce, it inherits the platform’s enterprise-grade protection:
- Role-based access controls to prevent unauthorized viewing
- Encryption of donor and payment data at rest and in transit
- Audit logs to track every change
- Centralized identity management for staff and volunteers
This foundation ensures your organization remains compliant with privacy standards and retains the trust of donors who expect their information to be handled responsibly.
Proving and Improving: Measuring Event ROI
For most nonprofits, event ROI isn’t just about dollars raised. It’s about engagement, retention, and mission impact. Salesforce-native dashboards make these outcomes visible in real time. You can measure:
- Attendance vs. registration rates
- Donor conversion and retention following events
- Engagement by campaign or program
- Cost-per-dollar-raised or cost per attendee
Instead of waiting for post-event reports, your team can see trends as they happen then pivot to strengthen outcomes. Maybe you boost mid-event outreach, identify high-value donors who attended, and automate personal follow-up.
Pro Tip: Use Salesforce dashboards to identify which events deliver the highest mission impact and refine your strategy with data, not guesswork.
Want help building those reports? Watch our on-demand session: Demystifying Event ROI for practical, step-by-step tips.
New in 2025: Step-by-Step Implementation Guide for Salesforce-Native Event Management
Here’s a simple step-by-step framework for implementing Salesforce-native event management in your nonprofit:
Step 1: Assess Your Current Event Tech Stack
- List all event tools you use (registration, payments, surveys, etc.).
- Identify which data currently lives outside Salesforce.
- Document duplicate processes (like manual exports or re-entry).
- Read through nonprofit buyer’s guides for event technology to help identify your organization’s needs and goals.
Step 2: Define Your Goals and Data Strategy
- Set clear objectives (e.g., track attendance, link donations to events, automate follow-up).
- Create a basic event data model that maps how information should flow inside Salesforce.
Step 3: Install and Configure Blackthorn Events
- Add Blackthorn from the Salesforce AppExchange.
- Configure event objects, registration flows, and attendee types.
- Connect payments, forms, and automation (Belmar can help tailor this).
Step 4: Automate Engagement and Reporting
- Use Salesforce Flows to trigger follow-ups, surveys, and thank-you emails.
- Build dashboards that show event attendance, donor conversions, and ROI in real time.
Step 5: Train Your Team
- Host short sessions to show staff how to create and report on events inside Salesforce.
- A firm like Belmar Consulting often leads these hands-on sessions for smooth adoption.
Step 6: Analyze and Optimize
- After each event, review attendance and giving metrics.
- Identify patterns, then refine future events accordingly.
This process ensures your organization builds a sustainable, data-driven event strategy that improves efficiency year after year.
Belmar Consulting: Helping Nonprofits Get It Right
Of course, following these steps successfully takes more than just software. It takes expertise, customization, and the right support. That’s where Belmar Consulting makes all the difference.
Implementing Salesforce-native event management can be complex, especially for small teams managing multiple priorities. Belmar bridges that gap by helping nonprofits move confidently from planning to execution. They don’t just install tools. They tailor systems to how your organization actually works and ensure your staff is equipped to use them effectively.
Belmar Helps Nonprofits:
- Configure and customize Blackthorn Events to fit unique workflows and data structures.
- Train and empower teams to create events, automate tasks, and use Salesforce dashboards with confidence.
- Establish best practices for data management, reporting, and governance.
- Provide ongoing support as your organization scales and your event strategy evolves.
Together, Blackthorn and Belmar deliver a best-of-both-worlds partnership: cutting-edge technology and hands-on expertise that ensures your investment drives measurable results.
Customer Success Story: PMD Alliance
When the Parkinson & Movement Disorder Alliance (PMD Alliance) had to pivot quickly during COVID-19, they turned to Blackthorn to move their programming online while maintaining complete visibility in Salesforce. Their previous system required extensive manual work and offered little insight into how attendees and donors were connected. With Blackthorn, PMD Alliance seamlessly transitioned to virtual events, unified data across all constituent records, and began reaching a much wider audience.
The results spoke for themselves: streamlined communication, increased attendance, and the ability to identify and re-engage past event attendees who hadn’t yet donated. Even amid pandemic uncertainty, PMD Alliance achieved its $50,000 October fundraising goal, proving that with the right Salesforce-native tools, data, and mission, we can move forward together.
Ready to Eliminate Data Silos?
Stop wasting hours stitching systems together. Be empowered to run all aspects of your event in one place.
With Blackthorn’s Salesforce-native event management, your data, donors, and decisions finally live in one place. And with Belmar Consulting, you’ll have a partner who helps you implement, train, and scale for long-term success.
See Blackthorn in Action — Schedule a demo to experience how Salesforce-native event management transforms disconnected data into clear, actionable insight.
Talk to Belmar Consulting about an event strategy session built for your nonprofit.
Quick Answers for Nonprofit Event Teams
Q: Why do nonprofits struggle to manage events effectively?
A: They rely on disconnected tools for registration, communication, and reporting. Without integration into Salesforce, data becomes fragmented and insights are lost.
Q: What does “Salesforce-native” mean?
A: A native solution is built directly inside Salesforce, so registrations, attendance, and donation data automatically sync—no manual imports required.
Q: Why should nonprofits manage events inside Salesforce?
A: It creates a single source of truth for event and donor data, enabling real-time insights, automated updates, easier reporting, and personalized engagement.
Q: What is Blackthorn, and how does it help?
A: Blackthorn is a Salesforce-native event management app that handles registration, attendance, payments, and engagement, all within Salesforce.
Q: How does Belmar Consulting help nonprofits succeed?
A: Belmar customizes Salesforce and Blackthorn for each organization, ensuring proper setup, workflow automation, and staff training.
Q: Is native event management secure?
A: Yes. Because it’s built on Salesforce, it includes advanced encryption, audit trails, and role-based permissions to protect sensitive donor data.
Q: How can nonprofits measure event ROI?
A: Use Salesforce dashboards to track attendance, donor conversion, and engagement trends in real time, making it easy to demonstrate impact to funders and boards.
Q: What’s the first step to get started?
A: Book a demo with Blackthorn to explore native event management, or connect with Belmar for a tailored Salesforce event strategy session.
Key Takeaways
- Nonprofits need unified event management to eliminate silos and manual data work.
- Blackthorn delivers a secure, Salesforce-native platform for end-to-end event management.
- Belmar Consulting ensures that event tech is implemented, configured, and adopted the right way.
Together, they help nonprofits save time, improve donor engagement, and amplify mission impact.
Event management tools, right in Salesforce
See how Blackthorn radically simplifies event management for orgs of all sizes.
