Salesforce is a relational database, meaning that you can relate different types of information to each other.

For example, an address book can store information about your contacts. But what if you could connect your address book to a notebook you've been keeping on different organizations? Now you have two data bases - one for contacts, and one for organizations (also known as "accounts" in Salesforce).

In addition, you want to track the relationships that your contacts have to each other, as well as their affiliations to other organizations. In a traditional database, you would have to make a note of this somewhere separately. In a relational database, you can link together lots of records - for example, you can link a Fellow to her spouse, assistant(s), nominator(s), primary place of work, Board affiliations, and educational affiliations.

Furthermore, Salesforce can be customized to create "objects" that are specific to our work. This means that we can additionally track programs, classes, program engagements, nominations, and seminar attendance.

Salesforce also integrates with many other useful tools, extending its functionality to features beyond a traditional database, including integration with your email in Outlook, tools for email blasts, and online forms.