For our team here at Ad Victoriam Solutions (AdVic®), volunteering has always been a part of our company’s DNA. Every employee has 40 hours of annual paid time off to volunteer with their chosen organization. Some team members volunteer to chaperone school field trips, others coach youth sports teams, and many just pick community-organized volunteer events throughout the year, like cleanups and food pantry shifts. 

But for those members of our hybrid team who live near our North Atlanta headquarters – Alpharetta, GA – we have a special opportunity to serve, the AdVic Highway! No, there isn’t a highway named after us, but there is a one-mile stretch of McFarland Parkway that connects our two offices. Back in 2020, when we were looking for something that would allow us to regularly get our team together in service, we reached out to Keep Forsyth County (FoCo) Beautiful and found out the road was available for adoption. 

Driving Employee Engagement Through Volunteerism

Since our founding, volunteering has been a part of who we are. Our CEO spends a lot of his weekends with his wife and daughters volunteering with different nonprofit organizations, and our President is a Chaplain in the Georgia National Guard and a Sunday School instructor at his local church. As they talked about building a different type of company, they agreed that we should not only encourage our team to serve their communities, but we should pay them for an entire week of service every year. 

As we began to tally and track our annual volunteer hours, we noticed a correlation between our volunteerism and our employee engagement scores. Not only were the volunteer events popular, but that instilled a sense of community service and made our employees feel like they were a part of something more than just another job. Our summer tradition now includes annual cleanups led by each incoming Elevate training cohort. 

Celebrating Our Service

As a part of the program with Keep FoCo Beautiful, a national nonprofit affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, we are committed to four cleanups every year. While we’ve tried different days and times, we’ve found that weekdays work best for turnout and that a little motivational carrot on the end of the stick never hurts. So as soon as the last bag of trash has been tied and our hands have been washed, we head back to Halcyon and reward our volunteer crew with a social hour at one of the incredible restaurants right outside our office. 

Measuring Our Impact Over the Past Five Years

At AdVic, we’re firm believers in measuring what matters. And that doesn’t just stop at sales and revenue numbers but also extends to metrics we discovered as we pursued B Corp certification. Things like total volunteer hours, employee volunteer participation rate, and volunteer impact & outcomes. 

And while four roadside cleanups don’t sound like a huge impact, when you add up the numbers over the past five years, it’s pretty impressive. 

• 17 cleanups
• 204 Volunteers
• 306 volunteer hours
• 136 bags of trash collected
• 5,440 pounds of trash (almost 3 tons!!!) off of the AdVic Highway and out of our storm drains and waterways

The Win-Win of Giving Back

We’re excited to celebrate five years of the AdVic Highway and the positive impact it has had on our company. As a company that works for the triple bottom line, we’re also excited at the positive impact it has had on two of our most important stakeholders, our workers and our community. The act of giving back gives our team a unique way to come together that isn’t just happy hour drinks and appetizers. And the outcome of giving back is removing almost three tons of bottles, cans, styrofoam containers, and more from the soil and our waterways. 

If you’re interested in doing something similar with your team, we suggest using Keep America Beautiful’s affiliate search option to find your local chapter. They will be able to help identify adoptable roads and will even provide all of the bags, grabbers, and safety vests for your team’s cleanups. And if you want to ask us some follow-up questions, please feel free to reach out to us, we would be happy to help! 

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AdVic thanks Profitable Purpose Consulting‘s Nathan Stuck for his contributions to this blog.

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Implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) tool can be a daunting task for any organization. For nonprofits with smaller staffs and limited budgets, it presents a myriad of challenges. But with Salesforce’s Nonprofit Cloud, it can be a walk in the park. From its cost-effectiveness to its ability to drive fundraising, donor engagement, and project success, the world’s #1 CRM helps empower nonprofits to new heights. 

The Most Cost-effective Nonprofit CRM

For many smaller and medium-sized nonprofits, the biggest barrier to implementing a CRM solution is often the cost. This keeps these organizations operating out of ad hoc solutions that include everything from Google Sheets and Docs to free versions of Notion, with data spread out all over the place and manual entry for any updates, donations, or new contacts.

At B Local Georgia, an Atlanta-based nonprofit focused on the Georgia B Corp Community (of which Ad Victoriam Solutions, commonly referred to as AdVic® is a part), this was the case for them. “We’re a small, volunteer-led organization with no paid staff and a small budget that’s used to host community events. We couldn’t justify the expense that comes with software licenses, but we knew this was limiting our ability to scale,” B Local Georgia’s Board Chair, Nathan Stuck, told us. 

But with Salesforce’s “Power of Us” program, which waives the first ten license fees, it was free to start using. For organizations like B Local Georgia, “free was a game changer,” Stuck stated. Between an MBA board fellow with previous Salesforce experience and the help of AdVic’s Victory Project, they were able to turn on Nonprofit Cloud and now use it to track attendees, promote events, and stay on top of the Georgia B Corp community’s needs. 

Focus on Fundraising & Donor Engagement

For Raleigh-based nonprofit, A Place At the Table (APATT), they needed a CRM that could do more of everything. As a nonprofit restaurant, the staff is not only running a nonprofit, but they’re also open six days a week for breakfast and lunch and rely on sales, customer donations, and regular donor gifts for funding. 

“We never had the time to focus on fundraising and donors,” Executive Director Maggie Kane confessed. “With Salesforce, the reports give us so much more visibility and we’ve been able to engage different levels of donors in different ways and it’s helped us raise more money,” she added. 

Like B Local Georgia, APATT also took advantage of the Power of Us program to secure ten free licenses. But Kane also appealed to her board to allocate funds to hire AdVic, who also contributed some pro bono Victory Project hours, to fully implement and integrate some of their legacy software.

The investment was worth it. Not only have they increased fundraising, but they’ve also freed up time, including at the end of the year when donation receipts have to be mailed out. “Oh my God, it’s all automated now and I don’t dread all of the end-of-year bookkeeping,” Kane enthused. “We do love Salesforce.”

Measuring Program Effectiveness

When an incredible opportunity to partner with Creature Comforts’ Get Comfortable Foundation on an impactful literacy initiative in Athens, Georgia arose, local nonprofit Books For Keeps was excited to be a part of the program. However, given the high stakes of the pilot, they wanted to ensure they had the data to track and measure the program’s success. 

With the help of AdVic, they applied for their free Salesforce licenses and received a grant from AdVic’s Victory Project to customize and implement the software. Together, they created a simple Jotform that allowed the program mentors to fill out a two-minute survey after every school visit, capturing data that included the student’s name, how many books were read, how long they engaged, and the level of engagement. Combined with reading aptitude test scores, Books for Keeps was able to determine the right recipe for success.

“As we prepare to expand to three schools in 2024, we were able to use that data to identify how frequently our mentors should engage with their mentees, how many books they should be reading, and even identify what kind of volunteer mentor to be recruiting,” Executive Director Justin Bray told us. He continued, “The ability to capture data in real-time, see it update on our dashboards, and slice it a million ways with the reporting functions went beyond our wildest dreams of what we thought Salesforce could do for us.” 

The Best Nonprofit CRM

For any nonprofit, eliminating the cost of the first ten licenses is an incredible offer–and licenses beyond ten are highly discounted. Whether you have the budget to fully integrate all of your legacy software or you just plan on utilizing the features in the Nonprofit Starter Pack, Salesforce can take your CRM out of Google Suite and prepare you to scale your organization’s impact. 

Additionally, it will free your team from administrative work and give you data-driven insights that drive donations, stakeholder engagement, and program success. 

If you have questions about Nonprofit Cloud, you can reach out to AdVic here. We’re happy to help you weigh the pros and cons of the platform for your specific needs, as well as discuss potential implementation costs. You can also apply to our Victory Project by clicking here. 

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Since our first year as a certified B Corporation back in 2018, AdVic® has released an annual impact report to share our environmental and social performance with our stakeholders. And whereas traditional annual reports focus on revenue related metrics, our impact reports aim to share the key performance indicators (KPIs) we’ve chosen to track the good we’re putting into the world. 

While we didn’t hit every goal for our 2022 Impact Report, we did hit a majority of them (and came close on those we missed). Here are some of the highlights: 

• Volunteering 1% of Revenue: Each year, as part of our Pledge 1% commitment, we set a goal to donate 1% of revenue in the form of volunteer time off. In 2022, our team volunteered over 1,550 hours, which amounted to 1.4% of our revenue. 
• 75% Employee Volunteer Engagement: While we missed this goal, our 71% participation rate was a 10% increase from last year. 
• Carbon Neutral: We once again achieved carbon neutrality (through the purchase of carbon credits from We Are Neutral) for our 144 tons of CO2 from our scopes 1, 2, & 3 emissions. 

We invite you to take a few minutes to look through our 2022 Impact Report (click the image below) and join us in celebrating our accomplishments, acknowledging where there is still work to be done, and committing to continuing the journey to being a company that uses business as a force for good. And if you have any questions about AdVic, B Corps, or the 2022 Impact Report, reach us here.

And lastly, as we now focus on 2023, we’re excited to set ambitious goals for our business once again, both on and off the “accounting” books. We not only believe that doing the right thing is good for our business, our customers, and our team, but that it is important simply because it is the responsible, right thing to do.  

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Are we really putting 2022 in our rearview mirror? Where did it go?

Well, there’s no looking back now, so let’s push forward with eyes wide open into what we hope will be an amazing 2023 for all! But before we do that, we wanted to take this opportunity to share the Top 22 Salesforce Blogs AdVic® published in 2022, ones that we got the most feedback from, and ones you may have missed.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year from all of us at Ad Victoriam Solutions!

#1. Highlights from the Salesforce Winter ‘23 Release

Salesforce® has once again packed their platform with exciting new features inside its Winter ‘23 Release, And as they always do, AdVic’s consultants have poured through every one of the new features in this release and have highlighted the ones they are most excited about.
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#2. 5 Common Questions Asked of Salesforce Partners

Through your research, you have found that Salesforce® products will work best for your organization. So, what’s next? It is time to look for a Salesforce Partner to implement (or modify) your technology. Here are five common questions Salesforce newbies (and vets, too) have asked AdVic.
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#3. Be the 1 of 8 Digital Transformations that Succeeds
Did you know that about one of eight digital transformations succeed? To be one of the successful ones, start by building a digital transformation strategic roadmap that includes obtaining buy-in from your stakeholders and the team.
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#4. AdVic’s Journey to be a Better Version of Ourselves
When we first embarked on our B Corp certification journey back in January of 2016, Ad Victoriam Solutions (AdVic®) was less than two-years-old, employed eight employees and was still operating out of a combination of shared workspaces and our founder’s basement. Fast forward to February of 2022 and we’re now over 150 employees strong located in 18 states across six time zones, and we’ve re-certified as a B Corp and continue to scale both fast and responsibly.
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#5. How a Relationship Turned Into a Partnership
It’s no secret that fostering positive relationships with your customers out-of-the-gate can help to transform those customers into real brand supporters and long-term partners. Such is the case with AdVic and a recent high-tech customer that provides cloud-based business solutions to their customers.
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#6. The Seven Stages of a Sales Pipeline
Not to be confused with a sales funnel – which looks at the whole customer journey and the various stages a consumer will go through in their journey towards purchase – a sales pipeline looks at the different steps in the sales process. These seven are generally considered to be the “standard” stages for a business that follows a typical sales process.
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#7. What is B2B2C?
Is your organization B2B, B2C, or B2B2C? The way you interact with your clients, the way you define success, and the technology you use all tie into the business model that defines your company.
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#8. Storytelling with Data
Data is more than a trending topic. Today, data drives business solutions and tells a story about what is happening in your business. Whether manufacturers are using data to pinpoint defects or downtime in their machines, retailers are analyzing their new loyalty programs, or a healthcare provider is monitoring patient engagement, data tells a story.
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#9. AdVic Empowered Minority Football Coaches
As a small nonprofit, NCMFC relies heavily on advisors in the technology, marketing, legal, and finance worlds to enhance their business practices. When it was time to implement Salesforce for their organization, an advisor recommended AdVic as a partner. With excitement, we jumped onboard this pro bono project to integrate Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack into their organization.
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#10. Four Easy Ways to Get Involved and Make a Difference
At AdVic, we give every employee 40 hours of paid time-off to volunteer every year. We encourage them to get involved in their communities to give back, regardless of cause or organization. Here are four simple ways anyone — or a company – can get involved and give back.
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#11. Managed Services: How Does It Save Time & Money? When Do You Need It?
Simply put, Managed Services, and specifically a Managed Services Provider (MSP), handles the daily operations of your specialized technology applications so you and your teams can focus on driving revenue. But how do you know when it’s really time to enlist the services of an MSP before your day-to-day business is impacted?
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#12. Do You Need Sales Automation or An Upgrade?
From the top of the sales funnel to closing, the sales process has a lot of steps. In many cases sales begins with marketing initiating the first touching point. It could be socials, ads campaigns, or email marketing, and from there, prospects flow through the funnel hopefully landing in a closed deal. Here’s how sales automation increases productivity, accelerates the sales cycle, and increases revenue.
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#13. Equipment Manufacturer Replaces Legacy Systems and Thrives
Here’s how Residential Elevators is now seeing profound improvements with their new and improved CRM system. In the ever-evolving world of Salesforce®, their technology is continuously seeing updates, new features, and more functionality that enables their business to progress.
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#14. A Manufacturer’s Road to Success
The most successful digital transformations drive change from leadership to employees to provide customers with unforgettable experiences. They also require planning stages. Get our step-by-step “Guide to Success” for manufacturers.
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#15. Electrical Equipment Manufacturing Challenges and Growth
The electrical equipment sector of manufacturing is experiencing robust growth. According to Yahoo Finance, “The global electrical equipment market is expected to grow from $1,384.97 billion in 2021 to $1,540.25 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.2%.” Because the manufacturing industry, specifically electrical, was hit so hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, they are working tirelessly to get back on track.
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#16. Talking Tech Trends with Salesforce Ben & AdVic
During a 2022 AdVic “Salesforce Simplified” podcast – titled “Talking Tech Trends with Salesforce Ben” and featuring Salesforce Ben’s Ben McCarthy and AdVic President Brian Mize – we discussed top tech trends that may impact the industry and business practices in the near future.
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#17. ‘May the Fourth Volunteer With You’ Week a Huge Success at AdVic
After an inaugural volunteer week in 2019, and a two-year delay because of pandemic-related postponements, “May the Fourth Volunteer With You” week was back this year at AdVic. With three events at our headquarters just outside of Atlanta, and our remote employees participating in events across the country, our team came together to give back.
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#18. HexArmor’s Sales Director Talks About Sales Cloud
HexArmor‘s Director of Sales, Geno Lechuga, recently spoke on the AdVic “Salesforce Simplified” podcast about how his team benefits from being able to see every interaction prospects and customers have with his business—regardless of department—using the CRM platform that connects his whole company. Here’s some highlights from that conversation.
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#19. The Best Features of Salesforce Sales Cloud
For those who don’t know, Salesforce Sales Cloud – often referred to as the World’s #1 CRM – provides a platform to manage end-to-end functioning of the sales department for companies. In this Salesforce Blog, we focus on some of the best features of Sales Cloud.
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#20. The Project That Became a Partnership
AdVic’s initial project with FLUX Pumps was to implement a necessary Salesforce Sales Cloud solution. From this, their sales cycle was cut in half. They were awarded efficiency, visibility, and automation with their introductory digital transformation. FLUX achieved great milestones that included doubled conversions, a 20% increase in revenue, and a way to nurture leads that turned into customers.
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#21. What You Need to Know About Slack
Slack and Salesforce® have spearheaded a newfound innovation in the way that employees communicate, connect and collaborate. From internal marketing teams to recruiters connecting with new talent, Slack offers unmatched flexibility that allows all parties to communicate swiftly with their instant messaging capabilities, or their built-in video and voice capabilities. Inside the blog, download AdVic’s informative no-form Slack infographic.
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#22. Top Brands Do This to Create an Effective Customer Experience
These days, customer experience has become more than a buzz phrase. No matter the industry or the brand, companies have come to the realization that they need to focus on being more proactive, as opposed to reactive, when it comes to engaging with their customers.
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Early in 2020, with the world quarantining at home, virtual networking meetings began allowing people around the world to build meaningful connections. For Ad Victoriam Solutions (AdVic®), one of those connections we made was to Tiffany Spencer, who was at a virtual event hosted by Atlanta-based Goodie Nation. Tiffany ran HBCUForce (now Tech Forward), an organization committed to equipping HBCU students with Salesforce® skills & credentials that would prepare them for a career in the “Ohana.” 

Over the next few years, we watched Tech Forward grow. Like most corners of the IT industry, the Salesforce ecosystem celebrates a good bit of diversity, but still lags behind when it comes to people of color. Tech Forward aims to change that and is doing the needed work to bring talented Black Salesforce professionals into an industry expected to create 9.3 million new jobs by 2026. 

So when they announced their ambitious plans to host a conference this year and asked us if we’d like to be a sponsor, we couldn’t say “yes” fast enough. The event, held in Raleigh, NC, was the first of its kind, bringing together current and aspiring Black Salesforce professionals and numerous other ecosystem partners.

Our team recently returned with big smiles and a renewed sense of purpose and commitment. Here are our top three takeaways from the inaugural Dreamin’ in Color conference. 

A Community Committed to Positive Change

From the sponsors to the speakers to the attendees, everyone in that room up in Raleigh shared a common goal to see more Black Salesforce professionals. When you put so many positive, action-oriented people in the same building, you build a community. There were conversations over meals, between sessions, and even in the elevator where you could literally see the collaborative lightbulb turn on. As everyone connected on LinkedIn, they also made plans to follow up and combine forces in powerful ways. 

This community quickly began to feel more like a welcoming family. It will be exciting to see all of the wonderful new alliances, partnerships, and collaborations that will come out of those 48 hours in Raleigh. 

Tech Forward is Changing Lives

One after another, we heard from people that this organization has touched. From the “accidental admins” who found their community to the former HBCUForce students who have built successful Salesforce careers, the impact this organization is making is real and tangible. We truly enjoyed the emotional stories, testimonials, and reflections from the participants. 

This conference was a reminder of the organization and mission we’re supporting and why we’re supporting it. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Tech Forward is changing lives, and we’re honored to support their work. 

There Is Still Work to Do

There is still work to do, and we’re looking forward to next year. We heard a rumor that it may be in New Orleans or Atlanta (we’re obviously biased towards the latter option – AdVic’s home turf). We hope to see you there as well! 

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After an inaugural volunteer week in 2019, and a two-year delay because of pandemic-related postponements, May the Fourth Volunteer With You week was back this year at Ad Victoriam Solutions (AdVic®). With three events at our headquarters just outside of Atlanta, and our remote employees participating in events across the country, our team came together to give back.

The Stats of Our Labor

Of AdVic’s 141 team members, 47 of our team members spent at least some portion of their week serving their local community. From the Mobbly Bayou in Florida to the beaches of Southern California, our team worked with 22 different organizations over the weeklong volunteer drive. Other highlights of the week included:

• 205 total hours of service
• Six bags of trash picked up along the road connecting our two offices in the Atlanta area
• 96 meal kits prepared, which included 768 meals for HOPE Atlanta,  an organization that feeds children in need. 

Nonprofits Benefit From AdVic’s Project Victory Team

The week also included another cohort of nonprofits working with our Project Victory team to unleash the power of Salesforce.org. With three teams of two AdVic consultants, these organizations are moving out of Google Sheets and manual data entry and updates and into a world of real-time reporting and actionable insights, empowering them to greater efficiency and a better ability to serve. This year’s recipients were: 

• Journeymen Triangle, a North Carolina nonprofit that pairs volunteer mentors with adolescent males to support their path to becoming men of integrity.
• Water4Mercy, a Florida-based nonprofit, works with villages in Tanzania to supply the technology and infrastructure needed to provide clean drinking water.
• B Local Georgia organizes a community of B Corp’s in Georgia. As B Corp momentum continues to grow, this project will help them expand their academic offerings to schools throughout the state. 

More Work to Do

As a B Corp, we take our commitment to serving our stakeholders very seriously, with a goal to donate 2% of revenue in the form of volunteer time (each employee gets 40 hours of paid time off to volunteer) and pro bono services. This year’s goal is 3,200 hours and in one week, we achieved 6.25% of that target. 

With a little more than seven full months to go in the year, there is still a lot of work to do, but we’re encouraged by our team’s efforts so far. Year-to-date, our team has served 936.5 hours and 50% of the team has used at least a portion of their Volunteer Time Off. We’re proud of our team for stepping up and excited that this week was once again possible after all that the previous two years threw at everyone. 

While we’ll continue to serve throughout the year, our impact team will now turn its focus to Giving November, where we’ll be volunteering and fundraising for our employees favorite charities, and providing additional pro bono consulting services to nonprofits. 

In closing, “May the Fourth Be With You” year-round and may it inspire you to be the change you want to see in the world. 

Volunteerism is just a small part of how AdVic – a Certified B Corporation – gives back to our communities and the world at-large. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

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Recruiting and retention look a lot different in 2021 than they did twenty years ago. In addition to an increased focus on company purpose and  mission and the ability to work a flexible schedule from home (or anywhere), many employers are also offering an increasing amount of Volunteer Time Off (VTO). 

Since our founding in 2014, Ad Victoriam Solutions, a Salesforce Consulting Partner and certified B Corporation, has always strived to be different, including offering an entire 40 hours of annual VTO. However, we found, like most companies, that not everyone took advantage of this perk. In fact, in both 2019 and 2020, only around 25% of employees utilized any portion of their one week of paid volunteer time. Sure, we still achieved our Pledge 1% commitment to donate 1% of employee time back to the community, but we knew we could do better. 

As we spoke with employees, we found three contributing factors: the overwhelming lack of weekday volunteer opportunities, the business demands of the workweek, and the difficulty of finding an opportunity that included their biggest passion: technology. 

The Plan

We set a 2021 goal to double our employee volunteerism rate and we made some changes. For starters, employees could volunteer on the weekend and count it towards their work-week expectations–volunteering no longer had to be done during work hours to count. We also opened it up to non-traditional volunteering, like chaperoning field trips and helping out with little league practices, encouraging parents to spend more time outside of the office and with their children. 

In addition, we launched a training program with Goodwill of North Georgia that allowed our employees to volunteer their technical skills and expertise to teach Salesforce® to adults transitioning into tech careers. We also added an experiential component to the program, pairing employees with students to implement Salesforce’s nonprofit success pack for four deserving organizations. 

The Results

As of mid-November, we were on pace to see almost 60% of our staff use their paid VTO to give back to their communities. And that 1% target? Between the volunteer time (on pace for 1,600 hours) and our pro bono Salesforce work, we’re going to double our goal and donate 2% of revenue in the form of employee time. 

So, as we begin to lay out our plans to eclipse our 2021 results in 2022, we’re confident – in hindsight- that increasing our flexibility as a company really did drive overall team volunteerism. And all it took was small changes to attain those significant results… an impactful reminder of the importance of listening to our employees. 

Questions about our company-wide volunteer efforts? Reach AdVic here.

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It’s that time of the year again–that magical time when there is a crisp in the air, the leaves are hitting the ground, and holiday decorations find their way out of the attic for another year of celebration. And with that renewed focus on the holiday season, we also start that endless search for the perfect gifts.

As a B Corp, Ad Victoriam Solutions (AdVic) believes in shopping with its values. Our company gifts and swag are traditionally sourced from other B Corps, minority-owned businesses, or purchased locally (and sometimes all three). With this spirit of purpose and equality and compassion in mind, we’ve put together the 4th Annual AdVic Holiday Guide to share some of our favorite gifts with you, which in-turn, you’ll want to explore for your own-gift-giving ideas this holiday season.

Traditional Gift Ideas

• Looking for something unique? Look no further than Uncommon Goods. The Amazon of handmade, repurposed, personalized, and heartfelt gifts, Uncommon Goods offers something for everyone. Offering everything from bird feeders (pictured, below) to cheese boards (our top two picks), there is something for everyone on your list. Best yet, they are a certified B Corp that donates $1 for every item purchased ($2 if you join their Perks club). 

• Is there an outdoor lover on your list? Check out Cotopaxi and Patagonia. These two B Corps specialize in everything outdoors and put sustainability front of mind with everything they do, including Patagonia’s repair process where they’ll fix your damaged item so you don’t have to buy a new one. Our recommendation is the Cotopaxi Del Dia collection, which repurposes fabric scraps from other production runs, eliminating waste and meaning you’re buying a one-of-a-kind bag. 

• Added bonus: If you live near AdVic’s HQ – in the Alpharetta, GA, area – make the drive up to Clayton and support a local small business by purchasing your gear from our friends at Wander North Georgia.

Everyone has a reader on their list that still loves the smell and feel of a physical book in their hands. For them, check out the Lucy & Phyllis Bookstore, a black, veteran-owned online bookstore that’s headquartered in Georgia. With a large selection of traditional favorites, book club selections, and black voices, there is guaranteed to be something that will bring a smile when it’s unwrapped.

• And as fall turns to winter, the days grow shorter, the air gets colder, and nothing beats curling up under a nice blanket. But what if we told you we found the softest blanket with an incredible story made by a company, Sackcloth & Ashes, built on giving back? We highly-recommend their Glasses blanket (pictured, below), designed by Naiomi Glasses, a seventh-generation Navajo textile artist. Not only will Sackcloth donate a blanket to a homeless shelter when you purchase any blanket on their site, 100% of the profits from this line go to a Navajo nonprofit, Chizh for Cheii.

Travel Ideas

If you’re planning on channeling your inner Clark Griswold this holiday season and surprising everyone with a good old-fashioned family vacation, check out Legacy Vacation Resorts. With locations in Florida, New Jersey, Nevada, and Colorado, Legacy has you covered whether you’re relaxing on the beach, taking the kids to Disney, or hitting the slopes. Best yet, Legacy is a fellow B Corp and a proud member of 1% for the Planet, meaning they donate 1% of all revenue to climate related charities.

Don’t take our word for it, take theirs by checking out one of the greatest ads ever made:

Four Legged Friend Ideas

Whether you’re shopping for your furry friend or that person on your list that talks about their pet in a dog voice, we’ve got two great B Corp options for you, West Paw and Pet Play. From treats and truly indestructible toys, to tote bags and camping tents (yes, camping tents for dogs), these two companies have it all. And both companies prioritize sustainable materials (e.g. recycled plastic bottles) and USA-made manufacturing. 

‘I Don’t Need Anything’

Everyone has this family member or friend. In theory, they’re the perfect person to have on your list. In reality, they still want something and express disappointment when you actually get them what they wanted, which was nothing. 

What better way to give them something they can’t complain about than to make a charitable contribution in their name? Because of our commitment as both a B Corp and a member of Pledge 1%, we are lucky to work with and support a lot of wonderful nonprofits every year. Here are some of our favorites for you to consider:

• HBCUforce: We recognize the incredible lack of diversity in our industry and are passionate about supporting upstream solutions aimed at changing that. We can think of no better organization than HBCUforce, which “partners with HBCUs to implement programs that provide early access to cloud computing careers.” You can donate here.  
• HYPE: Local to Atlanta, and one of our 2021 Victory Project recipients, HYPE is another great organization looking to make a long-term impact by “empowering girls of color with technology skills…to cultivate a pipeline of diverse talent for the tech industry.” Be a part of their incredible mission by making a donation here. 
• The Little Pantry That Could: With a significant AdVic team presence in the Nashville area, we’ve been fortunate enough to volunteer and support TLPTC for several years now. We’ve seen firsthand the impact that Ms. Stacy and her team of volunteers have made on their community and they are an inspiration to our team to serve our local communities. Serve them by making a donation using this link. 

Happy Holidays!

No matter what you buy or donate for those on your list, we hope you’ll shop with purpose and meaning and support organizations doing business the right way. You can find and search through a full list of B Corps in their directory. We also encourage you to shop locally and support underserved entrepreneurs (women-, people of color-, veteran-, LGBTQ+-, and indigenous-owned businesses). 

Most importantly, we wish you the best of holiday seasons, filled with family, friends, and gratitude. From all of us at AdVic, happy shopping, happy holidays, and our best wishes for a happy and healthy 2022! 

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Nonprofit organizations are usually high on passion and purpose, but often lack the resources needed to take their mission to the next level. One of the biggest challenges they face can be access to technology, prohibited by the cost of licenses and proper implementation. Most of these organizations start off in a free version of Excel or Google, relying on manual data loading, emails, and more, leaving their volunteer staff stretched thin and limiting their ability to maximize their impact. 

For four nonprofit organizations in the southeast, this story was all too similar. And even though all four were in different phases of growth, they all needed to take the next step in their organization’s progress. And that’s where Salesforce® and Ad Victoriam Solutions (AdVic) stepped up to help. 

Salesforce’s “Power of Us” Nonprofits Program

Through Salesforce’s Power of Us program, each of these wonderful nonprofits was able to acquire 10 free licenses to the Nonprofit Success Pack. And through AdVic’s Victory Project program, each nonprofit had their data loaded, reports built and generated, and email templates created, which allowed them to send different emails to different groups with the click of a button. Additionally, each nonprofit will now have new contacts automatically imported into their Salesforce org, eliminating another manual component of the process and saving valuable time. 

The implementations were run through AdVic’s Victory Project, a first of its kind event that paired AdVic consultants with students from the AdVic Enable career development program in partnership with Goodwill of North Georgia. And the nonprofits were thrilled with the results they got. 

The Victory Project in Action

HYPE, whose mission is to empower and prepare girls of color for careers in technology, was one of the nonprofits involved. And their Executive Director, Kristina Newton, told us how important getting Salesforce was to them. 

“We’d been sitting on our free nonprofit licenses offered by Salesforce for over a year with little progress in actually using it to support our business needs and activities. Having the support of Ad Victoriam’s Salesforce professionals during The Victory Project event helped us to upgrade our processes for tracking data, engaging with donors and volunteers, and managing leads and contacts to support our outreach efforts. It was a wonderful experience and we’re excited to start finally using the power of Salesforce on our team!”

The other nonprofit beneficiaries of the Victory Project, all B Corp-related organizations, were Florida For Good, B Tennessee, and B Local Georgia. 

As a certified B Corp, AdVic was excited to make an impact with these organizations, whose mission is to educate and grow the number of companies using business as a force for good. 

Nonprofits are short on resources and big on ideas. AdVic wants to eliminate this barrier so nonprofits can expand their reach and increase their impact. That’s where The Victory Project comes in. As part of this program, our experienced nonprofit Salesforce consultants help implement or enhance Salesforce, at zero cost to a nonprofit organization. Does your nonprofit organization need help with its technology solutions? Let’s talk!

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For those that live in Raleigh, NC, or have ever visited, there’s a good chance you’ve enjoyed a meal at A Place at the Table.  From their delicious biscuits and gravy to their beloved chicken noodle soup, this cafe serves delicious food and does things a little differently. Unlike most restaurants, A Place at the Table is a nonprofit organization, serving community and good food for all, regardless of means. 

With a unique pricing structure that asks customers to pay what they can, they allow those in need to pay as little as $3 for their meal or work it off by volunteering. And because of this approach, they also rely on the generosity of their other customers, as well as donors, to bridge the gap. When the pandemic placed an even heavier reliance on this need, they realized they needed help filling this gap.

That’s when A Place at the Table turned to Salesforce’s nonprofit success pack, a free version of the popular Salesforce® customer relationship management software. This solution would allow them to more effectively, and efficiently, recruit new donors, set up recurring donations, and thank those that donate. It would also serve as a hub for the different technologies they use to collect donations, including Paypal, Give Lively, and Square. 

AdVic Lends a Helping Hand

After completing the application for their free Salesforce licenses, A Place at the Table also realized they needed help implementing the software and integrating all of their legacy systems. That’s when they reached out to Ad Victoriam Solutions (AdVic) for help. With our extensive experience implementing the nonprofit success pack, we were able to offer the right kind of helping hand. 

Best yet, as a Certified B Corp, AdVic was able to offer 25% of the project as pro bono work through our commitment to Pledge 1%, a pledge to donate at least 1% of annual revenue in the form of nonprofit work. A Place at the Table’s executive director, Maggie Kane, knew about AdVic through a mutual connection and made the call. “AdVic has been active in the B Corp community for a while now and I have a lot of friends in the Raleigh B Corp community, so I knew I could trust them to be transparent and honest with us,” Kane states. “They went above and beyond my expectations, making sure to stay within our approved budget and even accomplishing what I thought would need to be done in a Phase 2.”

AdVic was just as thrilled to work with an organization like A Place at the Table. These types of projects give AdVic’s team a sense of purpose in what they do every day, a sense of knowing that they’re making an impact for a wonderful organization that is serving a major need in the community.

An all-around win-win, this project was a fulfilling success for everyone involved. If you’re in the Raleigh area, stop in to A Place at the Table, enjoy a wonderful meal and add a little extra on the donation line when you complete your purchase. 

Watch the Angel Oak Creative Interview with A Place at the Table and AdVic

In need of a technology solution for your nonprofit? Check out Salesforce’s nonprofit success pack here and fill out The Power of Us application to get your nonprofit licenses. And if you’re in need of help implementing the software, or just want to see if it’s right for you, feel free to reach out to AdVic here. 

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