🔒Business software bolsters nonprofits’ operations

The paint had barely dried on art projects, and sand was still being shaken out of backpacks when the first survey arrived in parents’ inboxes: How can we make Summer Escape Camp better next year?

Enfield nonprofit Educational Resources for Children (ERfC) surveyed every parent of the nearly 200 kids attending their camp last summer within days after camp ended using the software platform Survey Monkey. In addition, before camp even started, volunteers were mobilized using Get Connected, a United Way online volunteering tool.

“Each year we add a little more of the technology platforms, trying to get away from the old-fashioned Excel sheets,” said Danielle Flaherty, ERfC’s marketing and social media coordinator. “We use the software to measure the [return on investment] of our programs.”

A local provider of after-school and summer programs, ERfC is one of many Hartford-area nonprofits turning to software platforms designed for commercial use to upgrade their services, operations and outreach.

“Nonprofits are not unlike corporations in that they are in the space of individual relationships,” said Maura Cook, director of community engagement and marketing for the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut. “Technology has allowed us to do that better.”

The United Way has been at the forefront of introducing new technology platforms to nonprofits with its Get Connected volunteer site and an ongoing collaboration with one of the largest for-profit platforms, Salesforce. United Way and Salesforce are working together on a corporate employee-engagement tool that matches workers with nonprofits for volunteer and other purposes.

Salesforce is using the agency’s feedback to fine-tune its product. The local United Way branch itself has invested in Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud, a tool that helps the agency craft effective emails that will engage customers.

“That’s interesting for us because it puts us into more of a tech space in addition to a community-partner space,” Cook said. “It’s changed our outlook on what types of products we’re able to offer customers in terms of having invested in state-of-the-art technology.”

Nonprofits have become an important market for Salesforce due to the digital revolution, according to David Slater, vice president of the San Francisco-based company’s Nonprofit Cloud division.

“It came from the kinds of changes the internet has brought to all sectors,” Slater said. “Individuals became deeply empowered to get lots of information on their own, deeply empowered to convene and communicate with others. That’s the context in which nonprofits now operate — a shift from gatekeeper to becoming platforms to really connect problems and solutions.”

The “customer” in CRM (customer relationship management) software now can represent everyone from a petition-signer to a potential donor, volunteer or even a nonprofit client needing housing or other human services.

“It’s deeply embedded in this idea of understanding people and moving them on a journey from point A to point B,” Slater said. “You really have to understand people and all of their relationships to have a productive relationship with them over time.”

Salesforce says its tools have helped nonprofits like the Sierra Club and others transform themselves into digital influencers, in addition to coordinating corporate marketing and internal fundraising efforts to achieve double-digit increases in employee giving.

At ERfC in Enfield, software platforms have been incorporated into all levels of operations. In the main office at ERfC, Basecamp project management software helps the 15 administrative staff members run the nonprofit, which has an annual budget of $1.3 million.

Parents can check their kids in and out of afterschool programs using Procare, a tool that integrates classroom management and parent engagement that also allows parents to keep track of what their child is doing during the day. Cayen AfterSchool software helps the agency streamline administration of its actual programs.

Program management tools are the next frontier for Salesforce, Slater said, as more nonprofits look to refine their data collection and outcome measurements. Tools like CRM software can help track a client from the initial intake interview through services and beyond to measure the success of interventions.

“This is why Salesforce is so powerful — you now have all this data where you can look back and you can prove what you did,” Slater said. “You can really identify what’s working and what’s not.”

At ERfC, parent surveys have helped the staff shape summer programs to include themed activities like escape rooms and STEM-oriented puzzles, along with a “reel stories” activity that explores children’s books that have been made into movies. Larger, town-wide surveys have helped the nonprofit determine community needs and respond with appropriate services.

“With the technology we can take a step back and see where we can improve our programs,” Flaherty said. “We can find out what our community wants instead of guessing.”

This story was done with support from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving.