Dreamforce 2025 Wrap-up

There are Dreamforce 2025 Wrap-ups all over the internet that are amazingly complete, so if you’ll indulge me, I’d love to hit just three things.

1. Thank You

Thanks from the bottom of our hearts to everyone who made it out to our Day Zero event at the Marine Memorial Club & Hotel. We had way too much food and an abundance of cheer by the fireside. 

Bonus points to Justin from Apsona, doing the heavy lifting with his photo share on LinkedIn!

A good time was had by all, and then we all decamped for the Salesforce Military event at the Clancy.  Congrats to the Salesforce Military team for a spectacular event!

2. The Agents are Here

If this Dreamforce left me with any lasting thoughts, it’s that the Agents aren’t coming… they are here.  And they’re advancing rapidly.  I was especially happy to see that the Nonprofit keynote introduced three “purpose-built” Agents; two are available today, and a third is slated for GA next February:

• Prospect Research Agent – summarizing giving capacity and philanthropic milestones

• Participant Management Agent – sets goals, creates benefits, prepares interaction notes, and creates referrals

• Volunteer Capacity & Coverage Agent – finds unfilled shifts & matches volunteers to those shifts

It is not so much that I think these specific agents will be used widely as-is (though that Participant Management Agent looks pretty good), but they show what’s possible… TODAY.  Not in a few releases, not next year.  Today.

There are a lot of good reasons to go slow and careful with Artificial Intelligence.  Privacy, security, data quality, process management… I’ll leave that for others.  For me, the question of IF they have a place in our overall Salesforce strategies is settled.  Used correctly, with sufficient due diligence, they are ready to solve problems and add capacity today.

Bonus: Volunteer Management

FINALLY.  After much fuss, tears, and angst, volunteer management is getting its long delayed glow-up.

We will see this feature set slowly improve over the coming releases, but it’s gratifying to see the commitment to closing what has been a sizable functional gap in Salesforce for Nonprofits as compared to competing platforms. 

3. Who Came to Dreamforce?

In the months leading up to this Dreamforce, I talked to tons of folks in my circles who routinely attend that planned to sit out this year.  While I missed some familiar faces, the crowds and energy were not at all diminished.  This especially struck me at the Nonprofit party, where the house was packed as usual, but with mostly fresh (to me) faces.  

It’s been a rough few years, and I’m sure we have worse days ahead of us than we’ve had behind us, but… At every session, every party, there were folks making connections, exchanging ideas, sharing and teaching.  The tone of Dreamforce certainly took a hit at the outset with Marc Benioff’s ill-timed comments on the National Guard, but I was reminded throughout that our community is more than the measure of its executives.  No industry, no human community is perfect.  But if you find the courage to look, you can pretty readily find partners to do more good. 

See you at TDX!

Ready to Learn More?

• Check out Agentforce for Nonprofits

• Explore the Power of Us Program

• Watch Dreamforce sessions on-demand at Salesforce+

• Learn about the Agents for Impact Accelerator