Introduction:
Our client is a longstanding, leading U.S.-based environmental conservation organization operating across multiple states. With a mission centered on habitat restoration, species protection, and community education, they manage complex funding streams including federal grants, private donations, and corporate sponsorships.
Though using Salesforce NPSP for several years, their operations relied heavily on niche field tools and legacy systems that couldn’t communicate with Salesforce. Their small team lacked the resources to bridge these gaps, creating mission-critical inefficiencies.
Challenges:
- Disconnected Field Data for Grant Reporting:
Field scientists collected ecological data (species sightings, habitat changes) via a specialized mobile bio app. This data never reached Salesforce automatically, forcing staff to manually reformat it for grant reports, leading to delays and compliance risks. Each grant report took 8+ hours to compile manually, with an average delay of 3–5 days in submission timelines.
- Sponsor Transparency Gaps:
Corporate sponsors demanded real-time updates on project impact (e.g., acres restored), but field results lived outside Salesforce. Staff cobbled together manual reports, creating perception issues with key partners.
- Underutilized Volunteer Expertise:
A third-party volunteer management system was designed to meticulously track specialized skills, such as water testing and trail restoration. However, without a seamless integration between this system and the project management tools, project managers found it challenging to effectively match these valuable skills with relevant field initiatives. As a result, this disconnect led to a significant waste of talent, preventing volunteers from contributing their unique expertise to projects that could benefit from their knowledge and abilities.
- Disjointed Fundraising Events:
Event registrations from a standalone platform didn’t sync with NPSP. Attendees were excluded from post-event engagement campaigns, missing donation opportunities.
Solutions:
To overcome these challenges and achieve continuous improvement, they needed a strategic, ongoing support partner committed to optimization and maintenance. Our experts provided just that.
As their dedicated Salesforce managed services partner, we then executed the following integrated approach, ensuring proactive monitoring and scalability for their evolving needs:
- Automated Field Data Sync:
Our team integrated the biology app with NPSP using middleware, creating automated pipelines that transformed raw field observations into standardized Salesforce objects. We implemented validation rules to ensure ecological data accuracy before auto-populating grant templates.
- Built Real-Time Sponsor Dashboards:
Our experts developed an Experience Cloud portal that combined live field data from the biology app with NPSP sponsorship records. We configured dynamic dashboards showing project impact metrics and automated quarterly impact summaries for corporate partners.
- Designed Volunteer Skills Matching System:
We connected the third-party volunteer database to NPSP through API integration. Our team created an automated matching engine that alerted volunteers via SMS/email when projects required their specific skills, routing requests through Service Cloud.
- Fixed Event-to-Donor Disconnections:
Our experts synchronized the event platform with NPSP campaigns, establishing automated workflows to tag attendees and trigger personalized donor journeys. We also resolved payment mismatches between systems.
Benefits:
After the implementation was completed, our team ensured that the non-profit’s IT team received a thorough knowledge transfer. We also made our team available 24/7 for their support. Our Salesforce managed services partnership has delivered transformative results, built on a foundation of ongoing support and continuous improvement:
- Simplified reporting, removed the need for manual data transfers, guaranteeing that deadlines were achieved, all thanks to proactive monitoring and system optimization.
- Real-time dashboards increased visibility and improved partner retention, facilitated by our ongoing maintenance and scalability planning.
- Reduced grant reporting time by 70%, enabling on-time submissions for 100% of grants in the most recent funding cycle.
- Facilitated corresponding fit based on skills, boosted participation in projects, and helped with retention, demonstrating the power of ongoing support and system optimization.
- Consolidated event data is focused on nurturing donors, resulting from continuous enhancement and diligent maintenance of integrated systems.
