Profound life lessons are stock-in-trade at Downtown Boxing Gym Detroit. The organization, which provides free programs and services to 150 underserved students in the Detroit metro area. They focus heavily on overcoming challenges through self-discipline, practicing learned techniques until they become second nature, and using strategic decision making to achieve victory.
But as an organization, DBG has struggled to implement those very principles in its volunteer and donor information management processes. Over time, shortcomings in the system began to seriously impact the organization’s ability to effect change in the community. In addition, DBG’s small staff was finding it increasingly difficult to create strategic engagement plans in the absence of accurate donor information or a donation tool that integrates with Salesforce.
Applying Boxing Mentality to Salesforce Nonprofit Grant Management
Shortly after the organization enlisted our help, it became clear that most of their challenges stemmed from a lack of governance and strategic vision—a problem that plagues many nonprofit organizations whose positive PR and media coverage doesn’t always convert to increased dollars.
DBG’s immediate needs included a customized grant management system, business process for accepting payments, and a means of producing accurate accounting reports. With that knowledge in place, Now IT Matters experts began implementing measures that included:
- Integrating Classy (DBG’s online donation tool) with Salesforce
- Identifying a process for delivering weekly donation reports
- Creating a grant deliverables system
- Introducing Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) native functionality for Earned Income
Three Strategic Measures to Increase Accountability and Ensure Staff-wide Adoption
Meanwhile, we wanted to be sure the newly optimized system would be one that all users could commit to using for the long haul. We did this by equipping users with a reporting and development dashboard, promoting the use of Chatter for streamlined internal communication, and training admins as Salesforce experts.
The positive impact of these measures far exceeded all expectations. To date, DBG has experienced qualitative results that include:
- Improved internal communication between teams using Chatter;
- Increased ability to create personalized, online campaigns with direct donation tracking in Salesforce; and
- Decreased time spent creating donations reporting and sending acknowledgment letters.
