G.A.I.N. – powered by Lowe’s
AmerisourceBergen and Xcoobee skilled volunteers completed another phase in Shepherd’s Center of Charlotte’s G.A.I.N. journey, sponsored by NTT. Their migration to SharePoint will result in an increase in the reach of their services to more seniors.
Shepherd’s Center of Charlotte (SCC) creates connections for seniors to reduce the negative impact of social isolation. By providing learning opportunities, social activities and critical support services, SCC strives to improve life in Charlotte.
In this phase of their G.A.I.N. journey, they were matched to a corporate volunteer team from AmerisourceBergen, who set up their new SharePoint site, implemented the file structure and guided SCC in data clean up and migration of files to the new site. Bilal Soylu, of Xcoobee, served as an Epic Change Agent, the volunteer facilitator of this project. This project is sponsored by NTT. The G.A.I.N. program is generously sponsored by Lowe’s and EY.
See one-page project overview Snapshot.
We checked with Holly Whitfield, Executive Director of SCC to learn about her experience in this phase of their G.A.I.N. journey. She anticipates being able to address key organizational pain points which will save significant time:
- Improved access to documents for SCC Board members – Currently all documents are emailed, causing a challenge to many to find what they need, when they need it and resulting in Holly’s need to dedicate time to resending documents. “This will help our committees work more independently and help the Board overall become more informed and engaged.”
- Decreased risk of losing edits and improved ability to collaborate as a team. “Instead of yelling across the hallway to each other about who making a change to which document, we can now update them in real time and know that they are synced up. This is important for our programming, events and sponsorships.”
- Streamlined approval process, which currently struggles with getting backlogged in people’s emails.
- Increased overall operating efficiency
Through this time savings, SCC anticipates increased ability across the organization to focus on fundraising and expansion of programming to new sites, allowing them to increase the reach of their services to a broader group of seniors.
As Holly explains, “The increased efficiency generated here will be a game changer in terms of our ability engage our board and employees, so we can be more effective at fulfilling our mission.”
In closing, Holly shares, “It was very worthwhile. Having someone as organized and professional as Bilal was very helpful because I’m trying to juggle so many things. All of our volunteers were great and very patient with me. They were very consistent and made our migration process very easy and quick. It’s amazing that Apparo has these volunteers who are so engaged. It’s impressive. They keep us on schedule and hold me accountable. It’s a really good model.”
The project volunteers shared their appreciation for the opportunity to work with SCC.
Bilal Soylu – “This project gave us insight how sometimes the simple approach has merits and can get us to the goal. It also allowed much more time to build a working relationship between volunteers and nonprofit.”
Cathleen Summey – “It was such a collaborative effort from the beginning with each member contributing to resolution and solution development. Holly was so receptive to new ideas, patient with challenges, and eager to learn how to manage the solution moving forward. It was a pleasure all around!”
