To begin with: there is no single answer to that question. NPSP - part of Salesforce's Nonprofit Cloud - and Converse - specifically aimed at the Dutch market - both have their advantages and disadvantages. g-company is ideally placed to advise you on the right choice in your situation. We have enormous experience in implementing both products, so we know those pros and cons in detail. 

The issue in the title is topical due to the recent acquisition of Converse by CISIS. Below is a reflection on this issue, focusing on past, present and future.

 Past

In 2013, we started the Salesforce practice for non-profits within g-company. By then, Salesforce was already a particularly powerful CRM for non-profits, but there were challenges: for example, linking donor payments in Salesforce. While in our first projects at fundraising organisations we MamaCash and Compassion were working on a repeatable solution to these challenges, Bas Visser came our way. Bas, previously successful at Salesforce himself, started a new company. His goal: to develop a good fundraising solution on the Salesforce platform, focused on the Netherlands and Europe.

So it happened: StepOrange was created, and we set off together. The first version of the application was positively evaluated by our consultants: this was a powerful solution to our core problem and had much more to offer. Thus, Compassion became the first customer for StepOrange. Of course there were teething problems and we paid learning money during the first projects. Compassion was followed by Wilde Ganzen and Terre des Hommes.

In the years that followed, StepOrange developed significantly and the name was changed to FinDock. Much has happened since then. In 2017, Bas Visser sold Converse to ABSI, which in turn was acquired by PwC in 2019. A few months ago, PwC sold Converse again to CISIS. What does that mean for the present and the future?

 Present

Until about 2-3 years ago, organisations mostly chose Converse as their fundraising solution. Since then, NPSP has been catching up. At the moment, we cannot provide the question "Who wins the race?" with a universally valid answer. In recent years, we have at times been unhappy with the support around Converse, and have had to push for improvement on behalf of our clients. Little functionality has also been added. CISIS is currently showing a lot of ambition to make a big impact in this regard.

The turmoil around ownership has caused several non-profits (such as Leprazending, Dorcas and Sea Shepherd) led them to choose NPSP, to their complete satisfaction. Sometimes we see clients make the switch from Converse to NPSP. Added to this, of course, is the fact that NPSP is made available by Salesforce at no extra licence fee. The ambition expressed by CISIS does inspire confidence that Converse is moving into calmer waters, with more focus on quality, support and further development.

 Future

The innovative power of Salesforce - and thus NPSP - is unprecedented. In three major releases a year, those innovations become seamlessly available, with no effort on your part. In contrast, CISIS has a strategy to continue developing Converse with a full focus on Dutch fundraisers. That includes a connection with CollecteKracht: a successful app developed by CISIS, which is used, for example, by Hersenstichting, ZOA and Amnesty International is used. The future will show how non-profits in the Netherlands will value the future development of NPSP and Converse.

 Our conclusion

The acquisition of Converse by CISIS is accompanied by strong ambitions, in which Converse customers could potentially benefit greatly. g-company is therefore opting for a positive wait-and-see attitude at the moment. We await with interest the roadmap in which the ambitions are to become concrete and will follow the developments on behalf of our current support customers. At the same time, we have now had many positive experiences with NPSP. Based on all this, you can count on our honest and independent advice if you want an answer for your own organisation to the question in the title of this article!