Saia Inc., Salesforce, and ECHO Technology Solutions volunteers provide recommendations to improve Wellspring Living’s ability to fulfill their community-empowering mission
Sponsored by Saia, Inc.
Since 2001, Atlanta-based nonprofit, Wellspring Living has provided domestic sex trafficking victims and those at risk (ages 12+) with comprehensive, trauma-informed, victim-centered recovery services through residential programs, community-based programs, and graduate services. Each program utilizes a multi-disciplinary service model to provide transformative care through five service pillars: therapy, education, life skills, career readiness, and case management. Each participant focuses on developing the courage and confidence to move forward and succeed.
Wellspring Living came to Apparo using Salesforce for relationship management, financial reconciliation, limited donor management, and limited tracking of volunteers. Staff considered the configuration troublesome and inefficient, particularly regarding volunteer management. The team was committed to optimizing and improving volunteer management business processes within Salesforce to improve volunteer data collection, management, and reporting.
Sponsored by Saia, Inc., Apparo paired Wellspring Living with a skilled volunteer team who worked diligently to help identify how Wellspring could leverage Salesforce and associated configurations to increase efficiencies. Wellspring wanted to focus on volunteer management processes, previously managed in Excel, and a separate volunteer management platform where they managed individual volunteers. Volunteers provided expertise to conduct an assessment of Wellspring’s current state to create a document of volunteer management needs and current pain points. Based on the business process assessment, volunteers provided recommendations around Salesforce configurations to track volunteer data and Serve Day projects, integrations with other applications (Moodle and Volgististics), and additional business processes to enhance data management, ultimately empowering Wellspring to streamline their processes and better serve constituents. Saia, Inc. volunteer Thien Dang “Kari Zimmer did an excellent job providing Wellspring with guidance around Salesforce. She is a true professional who carried the weight of offering helpful expertise to the Wellspring Living team.”
Streamlined Processes for Maximized Efficiencies
Streamlined processes that make volunteer data more easily accessible by staff in Salesforce allow for a comprehensive view of volunteer data, deepening the ability to maximize relationships with constituents. By optimizing Salesforce as the central volunteer management platform, staff can quickly and confidently leverage information, saving the entire team staff time and, importantly saving over 50% of daily time for Kerrionne Phillips, Wellspring’s Volunteer Engagement Manager. With this time savings, Wellspring anticipates the Volunteer Manager role and volunteer program (training, experience, surveys, etc.) to be elevated and experience a greater capacity to set and measure program goals.
Kerrionne reflects on the experience and anticipated outcomes of this work, “Apparo’s Community Impact Project and volunteer team were incredibly valuable in providing recommendations to enhance our volunteer processes. They thoroughly examined our procedures and offered comprehensive insights into optimizing our integrations and data capture whenever additional clarity was required. They were proactive in revisiting and refining their recommendations to ensure they aligned with our needs when implemented. I believe their insights will significantly improve our internal operations, enabling us to better support those who support our mission.”
Additionally, Wellspring Living anticipates an improved ability to increase revenue through the improved reporting on volunteer time, creating more opportunities to reach larger corporate partners and increasing company matching (dollars to volunteer hours). Improved reporting enables staff to strengthen donor relationships by confidently showcasing volunteer contributions and tangible impact, motivating continued engagement and support. The organization is looking forward to the mitigated risks of staff burnout and missing or inaccurate information with fewer manual data-gathering processes. Wellspring Living Director of Development, Victoria Shelton-Stroud shares, “This project with Apparo and volunteers is giving our team back the time we need to grow and continue to improve our capabilities to better serve our community.”
