Interview with John Sas - Founder & Managing Partner, Nexell GmbH

John, tell us a bit about Nexell.
Nexell is a boutique type of business specializing in customer relationship management (CRM) and partnering with Salesforce for almost 20 years. We are a multinational and multilingual team of 25 people, all based in Switzerland. Our mission is to help our customers to build better relationships through custom CRM solutions and our strategic expertise. We want them to be able to concentrate on their mission or efficiently work towards their business goals while we take care of their systems.


What distinguishes you from your competitors?
We are different in many ways. Have you heard about our NexellAngels? This initiative is a core part of our DNA. We help nonprofit organizations, NGOs, Higher Ed, and startups enhance their ability to achieve their social mission through improved efficiency. This means that we help them transform into connected nonprofits with a custom CRM solution. They are able to build powerful fundraising campaigns, improve their donor and stakeholder management, and build interdependencies of fundraising, program management, measurement, and reporting.


After 20 years in business, what are your key motivations for dedicating your time to nonprofits?
My motivations are personal passion and the conviction that what goes around, comes around. I like the feeling I get when I help others. This seems to have led Nexell to where we are today. Every person on the team has some kind of helper mentality in their blood, which creates the perfect environment for our NexellAngels deeds and passion.
In addition, we were the first certified Salesforce partner in Europe working with nonprofits in Switzerland. This put us in a unique position in the market. We became real experts; we understand the nonprofit world and the organizations’ needs. It was meant to be - and it makes me proud of our team.


You call it a personal career working with nonprofits - what has changed over the years, including working with Salesforce.org?
We can see a steadily increasing number of nonprofit organizations in the market, which means there are many opportunities for us to help. My team and I always strive to show the best version of ourselves and deliver high-quality services in all phases of a project.
The relationship with our Salesforce.org colleagues is close. Since last year, I have been a member of the Salesforce.org EMEA Partner Advisory Board. I must say, I am very pleased about this new platform, through which we address and openly discuss clients’ needs as well as the challenges we face in serving nonprofit and education organizations worldwide, in order to improve and be the best we can be, thereby making our customers’ lives easier.


Do you see this tough economic period, triggered by the Coronavirus, as an opportunity for Nexell?
Albert Einstein once said, “In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” As I prefer to look at the positive aspects of things, I find plenty of opportunities.
Instead of waiting, complaining, and burying our heads in the sand, we virtually put our heads together and discussed different concepts regarding how we could face this situation and how and where we could help.


What initiative did you launch to support organizations in need?
We at Nexell have always been committed to supporting the community and helping nonprofits through our NexellAngels initiative. When the COVID-19 lockdown happened, we launched a campaign in our network to offer our help and guidance to organizations on the road to digitalization. We are proud that, with this pro bono initiative, we have helped more than 15 organizations onboard to Salesforce.org. They have additionally benefitted from the Salesforce.org license donations.


Which organizations did you support specifically and how? How did they benefit?
Our offer supported mainly NGOs with no CRM in place, such as Powercoders, The Womanity Foundation, ASK, DOCIP, Swiss Emergency Responder, PeaceNexus, C/Can, and many more.
The support was based mainly on their data management, mass emailing, fundraising activities, and donor management. They are now better fitted to work remotely and more effectively by centralizing their information and focusing on their great causes.


What are the pro bono projects that make you really proud?
I could mention several projects from the past almost 20 years, but how we were able to help so many nonprofits, especially in the last year when Corona turned the world upside down - those are the moments when I know that our team is in the right place, at the right time, and most importantly, giving back and doing the right things.