Instant Data Collection in Salesforce with Web Forms for Nonprofits

Last Updated on February 5, 2025 by Rakesh Gupta

Big Idea or Enduring Question:

When nonprofit organizations need to quickly collect information from donors, members, or partners, they use web forms that integrate directly into Salesforce. If you want to do the same, you need to consider whether you want tailor-made web forms for your specific Salesforce project or campaign. 

If you do, you have to go the custom development route which can be expensive. Alternatively, you could browse the AppExchange marketplace for a third-party app or platform. 

Objectives:

After reading this blog, you will have:

1. An understanding of web forms and how they streamline tasks for event registrations.
2. More information on the benefits an organization can receive by switching to web forms that integrate with Salesforce.
3. Best practices to help you choose a legit Salesforce web form builder.
4. An insight into the common problems nonprofit organizations face when they want to manually collect data for events. 
5. A summary of how Titan integrates with Salesforce to solve common problems nonprofit organizations face. 

Web Forms Explained

Let’s ensure we are all on the same page by first defining web forms.

WEB FORMS are powerful tools for collecting and syncing data directly to Salesforce and can be used in many nonprofit situations to gather information. Popular uses for dynamic forms in Salesforce include collecting data for event registrations, workshops, and member feedback projects. 

So, how can web forms that integrate into Salesforce benefit your nonprofit organization? For one, they automate data entry tasks. It works because all data entered on a web form is automatically submitted to Salesforce. This automation feature is critical for keeping data accurate in your CRM system. 

Let’s take a look at a few other benefits:

1. Data is captured into Salesforce in real-time as donors, members, or volunteers submit forms. This feature ensures that data in your CRM system is always up to date.
2. Web forms can be designed to include validation rules. This feature will ensure that people who fill out forms can only submit valid answers, or the data is not pushed to Salesforce. Adding validation rules to web forms keeps your data quality high.
3. Information captured from Salesforce’s dynamic forms can automatically be sent to specific team members. For example, an event registration form can capture guest details, which will automatically be assigned to the fundraising coordinator. In this way, web forms are a great tool for managing data. 

What to look for in a Salesforce Form Solution

As we can see, the benefits of going digital and automating data-capturing tasks for Salesforce are time and effort savings. However, to get up and running in Salesforce Data Cloud with this new workflow, you need custom development or tools from a third party that can integrate with your CRM platform and software stack. If you are ready to choose a third-party web form builder solution for Salesforce, we urge you to look at these points first. 

These are the features we consider to be essential for building web forms that streamline Salesforce data collection tasks.

1. We suggest finding software to help you build Salesforce forms with drag-and-drop tools. This will make creating and customizing forms easy, as you will not need any coding knowledge. 
2. Your software of choice needs to be able to map your form fields to Salesforce fields. This is essential to ensure your web form data is recorded correctly in your CRM system. 
3. The next feature you should look out for is conditional logic. It will help you build interactive forms that show and hide fields based on how a user has interacted with them. This feature is essential to making complex web forms user-friendly. 
4. You want software that can create web forms already pre-filled with Salesforce data. When you can automatically fill in your web form fields, you can speed up the user experience for anyone completing it. This feature also helps improve your data’s accuracy since users can double-check the information supplied and update it if necessary.
5. Since web forms collect data for Salesforce, installing software that can transfer your information securely is important. You must also check that the form builder software follows regulations like GDPR and HIPAA. 

Business Use Case

There is no better way to explain software performance than through practical examples of how it is implemented in the real world. Take a look at our use case below, featuring Laura from a nonprofit organization. 

Laura is a fundraising coordinator who organizes events and campaigns for a nonprofit organization. When Laura hosts a fundraising event, she must ensure she collects details from all the attendees so that she can cater the event well, such as choosing the appropriate venue, collecting ticket payments, and managing donations. Usually, Laura has to design a form, email it to attendees, and then manually add the returned information to Salesforce for the nonprofit organization. 

This is a time-consuming process as Laura has to type or copy-paste information into Salesforce and double-check that the entries are correct and free from typos. She also has to track payments and manually enter these details into Salesforce.

Unfortunately, Laura does not have the time to tackle this repetitive administrative task, as the nonprofit organization is scaling rapidly and hosting more events. She knew that Salesforce had third-party apps that could streamline the data-capturing process for event registration. This would be her go-to option as the nonprofit organization could not afford custom Salesforce development at this point. 

How Titan Forms can Help with Event Registration

Laura approached Titan for her custom event registration tasks and requested a free demo. After talking to a Titan expert, she knew immediately that the no-code platform would save her many hours of manual work, which she could use to organize more events instead. 

Titan instantly got to work and gave the nonprofit organization a web form with no code. Here is what Titan and Laura managed to achieve for the nonprofit’s custom Salesforce solution:

• Titan created an event registration form for data collection that integrates directly into Salesforce. 
• The web form has a stepper design with conditional logic to elevate user experience. 
• The web form automatically creates primary contacts in Salesforce for the nonprofit organization when an attendee enrolls for an event.
• The web form automatically creates an Opportunity to link to the primary contact.
• The web form automatically creates additional contacts and links them to the Opportunity Contact when the attendee has invited guests.
• Attendees can make payments through the event registration form.
• Contributors can also make donations using the event registration form.

Now let’s take a look at the new process Laura and her attendees use for event registration:

When an attendee or primary contact wants to attend an event, they fill out their details in an event registration form. They start on page one, requiring the attendee to provide their name, contact information, and demographic data before clicking the Next button. As this happens, the data is pushed to Salesforce, where a record is created.

Meanwhile, that same data is returned to the second page and displayed in a table labeled “Registrants.” At this point, the event registration form will automatically select one ticket for the attendee and display the price. 

As this happens, Laura can see that the primary contact or attendee has been created in Salesforce and is linked to an Opportunity.

If we go back to the attendee, he’s on page two of the event registration form and decides he would like to buy more tickets for the event. He can do so by using the dropdown and changing the number of tickets to the required amount. The attendee will now see that the total amount he owes for the event has increased.

The attendee can then add the details of his guests by clicking on the Add Members button. As he enters each guest’s details, the data is pushed back into the Registrants table for him to easily view. He will also notice that if he adds a guest that is already in the nonprofit organization’s system, their details will pre-fill into the form.

Laura can now see in Salesforce that under Opportunity Contact Roles, multiple records are populated. These records are also created as contacts in Salesforce. This seamless data synchronization from Titan allows Laura to track every step of the event registration process with all data correctly stored in Salesforce.

Now, it’s time for the attendant to pay for his selected tickets. In Salesforce, his status is set to “Qualification,” but when he completes a payment, the information from Stripe will be added to Salesforce, and his status will be updated. All the attendant needs to do is click the Pay Here button on the event registration form.    

This action triggers Stripe, and the attendant can provide his credit card information by clicking the Submit button. At this point, Stripe will interact with Titan and Salesforce to complete the payment for the event tickets. 

Laura can now find this Stripe information in Salesforce with the Opportunity set to “Closed Won,” the captured amount paid for the tickets, and a link to Stripe’s receipt for the payment. 

This is the new process from start to finish on how attendees register for events at the nonprofit organization. 

But there are times when donors want to make extra contributions. Titan has added conditional logic to this event registration form, so if the attendee wants to make an additional donation, he can check a box that adds a new step to the form called “Donations.” On this new page, the attendee can choose an amount to donate with the following options:

• An amount in between a range using an interactive slide element.
• A one-time or recurring donation.
• Pre-set amounts.
• Or a custom amount that can be typed into a box.

Then, he can click the Next button to trigger the Stripe payment process. In Titan, this action will create a separate Opportunity that links the primary contact to it. Now, Laura will find another Opportunity in Salesforce, called Donation, with all the necessary information captured. 

Business Use Case Results

1. The nonprofit organization has a full process to automatically add information to Salesforce from an event registration form.
2. Attendees can register for an event independently and add guests. 
3. Attendees can purchase tickets for themselves and guests through the event registration form. 
4. Attendees can make additional donations on the event registration form, separate from ticket payments.
5. All data from the event registration form is synced to Salesforce, eliminating the need for manual data entry.
6. All data in Salesforce is well-organized, as the event registration form does not create duplicate entries. 

Proof of Concept

Check out this video, where TITAN demonstrates how a simple event registration form can be used to collect attendee data, sell tickets, collect donations, and sync all data bi-directionally to Salesforce:

Learn More About Titan! 

The Titan platform is a suite of zero code products for Salesforce that help you speed up time to market, slash expenses, and create your dream projects in minutes instead of days and weeks. 

Formative Assessment:

What has been the most valuable thing you have learned about Salesforce Web Forms? How will you apply this new knowledge to Salesforce and online forms in the real world? Feel free to share in the comments below.