If your organization runs on the Nonprofit Success Pack, you have probably heard that Nonprofit Cloud is where Salesforce is headed. Here is the part that tends to get lost: NPSP has not been discontinued. It is still available, still supported, and there is no retirement date on the calendar.
What did change is that Salesforce stopped adding to NPSP in March 2023. Every new capability since then, including the new AI features, goes to Nonprofit Cloud. So the move is not an emergency, but it is a decision with a cost that grows quietly with every release.
When you do make that decision, the most important thing to know up front is that there is no upgrade in place. Moving to Nonprofit Cloud means starting over in a new org, which changes how the project should be scoped. Before you plan anything, it helps to understand what that actually means for your team.
What an NPSP Migration Actually Involves
Nonprofit Cloud is a different architecture, not a package layered on top of what you already have. Moving to it means building a new org rather than converting the one you have. In practice:
Your new org is configured to the Nonprofit Cloud data model from the ground up.
Configuration, security model, page layouts, and automations are rebuilt.
The household account model does not carry over.
Opportunity records are split across three separate gift objects, so you will want a crosswalk of old record IDs to validate everything after go-live.
Of all of it, data carries the most risk. Years of gift history, custom objects, and the reports your leadership relies on all depend on getting the mapping right the first time. That is also the part we have built our experience around. We already have multiple client orgs running on the new data model, so we know the destination, not just the starting point.
None of this is a reason to avoid the move. Nonprofits make it successfully every day. It is a reason to know what you are scoping before you scope it, because a project planned as an upgrade that turns out to be a rebuild in month three is when timelines and budgets break.
Three Ways to Make the Move
Once you know it is a rebuild, the real question is how much of it your team wants to own.
Advisory. Your team does the build. We provide discovery, data model mapping, and recurring working sessions so your decisions get validated as you make them. This is the lowest-cost path, and the one most nonprofits with an in-house admin choose.
Advisory plus data migration. Your team builds the new org. We handle the extract, transform, and load, and we validate the data. More involved than Advisory alone, since we're doing the data work, but still well short of a full build.
Full implementation. We build the new org, migrate the data, remediate integrations, handle testing, and train your staff. The most complete option, and the right fit when your team doesn't have the capacity to build.
Most organizations with a capable in-house admin land in one of the first two. If you are not sure which fits, that is a normal place to start, and it is the first thing a scope review sorts out.
How Advisory Services Works
Regular working sessions: We meet with your team on a cadence throughout the migration to guide best practices, as often as the project requires.
A running list worked live: We recommend your team keep a running list of questions and considerations as you progress. Bring those topics to each advisory session, and we work through them together so nothing sits unresolved.
Discovery first, then ongoing quality checks: As part of onboarding, we analyze your existing Salesforce environment and run discovery sessions to understand your goals, current workflows, and any operational considerations relevant to the migration. From there, we also periodically review the new org to ensure high-quality standards are being upheld as the project progresses.
Why Advisory Support Matters
A migration is only as good as the decisions made along the way. A misstep in data mapping, automation, or configuration early on tends to compound quietly and surface at go-live, when fixing it is most costly. Advisory exists to catch those moments while they are still small.
What's Included
Priority Advisor Access: reach your advisor directly, no ticket queue
Live Working Sessions: face-to-face strategy time whenever it's useful
Shared Project Visibility: real-time visibility into the plan, tasks, and notes alongside your team
Annual Roadmap Session: a yearly step-back to reassess goals and strategy
Advisory Meetings: up to 6 monthly, scheduled around your migration milestones
Who Is Advisory Services For?
Advisory Services is the right fit for teams that already have:
An internal admin is already assigned to the migration
A rough timeline is already in place
A need for validation rather than a full build
A budget that doesn't support a full implementation
If you do not have an admin who can own the build, one of the other two options will serve you better, and we will tell you that on the first call.
Why Teams Bring Us In
70+ Salesforce certifications across the team
Nonprofit Cloud-certified consultants on staff
Years of work inside the Salesforce nonprofit ecosystem
Frequently Asked Questions
Is NPSP being discontinued?
No. NPSP remains fully supported. Salesforce has not announced an end-of-sale or an end-of-life date for it.
Does NPSP have an end-of-life date?
Not currently. Salesforce announced the end of new feature development for NPSP back in 2023, but that only means no new functionality is being added. Existing orgs keep getting maintenance and security updates.
Can I upgrade NPSP to Nonprofit Cloud in place?
No. There is no in-place upgrade path. Moving to Nonprofit Cloud means building a new org on a different data model. Your current org isn't converted, it's replaced.
What changed with the Power of Us Program in December 2025?
Salesforce moved the free 10-license nonprofit grant from NPSP to Nonprofit Cloud for new applicants. If your organization already has NPSP licenses, this doesn't affect you. It does mean new nonprofits joining the program are now starting on Nonprofit Cloud by default, which is a signal worth knowing even if it doesn't change anything for existing orgs.
How much does an NPSP migration cost?
It depends almost entirely on how much of the build your team takes on. Organizations with a capable in-house admin who handles their own build typically spend far less than those who need a full implementation. That's the reason a tiered advisory model exists rather than one-size-fits-all pricing.
Start With a Scope Review
The best migrations come down to good decisions made early, and those decisions get easier when someone who knows the destination is in the room!
We are not here to take over your project or push our process onto your team. Advisory Services was built so you get direct access to real expertise exactly when you need it, without giving up ownership of your migration.
Schedule a complimentary 30-minute scope review. We will talk through your timeline, where an extra set of eyes would be most helpful, and which of the three options actually fits.
Questions before then? Reach me directly at rmckim@missioninmotion.com.
From the first data mapping decision through the weeks after go-live, your team will have Mission in Motion alongside them!