Through nonprofit technology grant program, Accenture volunteer team identified and implemented crucial software solution, helping improve life in West Charlotte
Sponsored by Accenture
The West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition is a 501(c)3 nonprofit community-driven organization in Charlotte’s West Boulevard corridor. West Boulevard is one of Charlotte’s primary western corridors and serves as the commercial center for established neighborhoods to its north and south. The corridor is a community of over 13,000 residents, united by a powerful desire for an inclusive, sustainable, better way of life; where neighbors are empowered, rather than limited by beginnings.
The goal of the WBNC is to ensure that collective efforts involve local residents, churches, community organizations and businesses in the West Boulevard corridor and that these efforts are beneficial to the economic development, education and health outcomes for the residents of the West Boulevard corridor.
WBNC applied for Charlotte’s 2023 Mission Possible Award because they are growing, and have a need to improve their systems and the way they track and interact with donors and other constituents. As an organization with limited staff and staff capacity, having a streamlined data management system will improve the efficiency of their overall operations, thus, increasing their ability to raise more capital to support other initiatives. Moreover, a singular donor and people management software system will relieve the organization from the need expend vital resources on acquiring additional storage space.
As the winners of the 2023 Mission Possible Award in Charlotte, WBNC partnered with an Accenture skilled volunteer team to assess their current state of managing donors and constituents to identify and document business requirements for a donor and people management system. Following the assessment, the team scheduled and attended vendor demos and evaluated potential solutions, empowering WBNC to make the best decision for their organization. Finally, along with identifying a software solution, volunteers assisted with implementing the program.
With a new system in place to manage donors and people, WBNC anticipates many positive outcomes. The team is looking forward to increased communication with existing donors, the potential for opportunities engaging with new donors, and the ability to widely disseminate information and spread their mission across a large population of people. Additionally, WBNC hopes to experience increased overall community engagement and connection, and a greater ability to drive and sustain revenue.
- Volunteer Team – Accenture:
- Michael Turner, Ankur Singh, Michael Flanagan, Simon Pfister
- Nonprofit Team – WBNC: Sharika Comfort, Elliott Royal
Nonprofit technology grant helps WBNC overcome many significant organizational pain points.
After the project was completed, we met with Elliott Royal, Board Member, to learn about the significance of this work and anticipated impact.
Elliott explained that an important goal for their organization has been to build a community-owned co-op grocery store (to be named Three Sisters Market, with target opening in 2026). To effectively raise the funds and deliver required reporting to funders they needed to replace their cash donations and spreadsheet-based tracking with a proper donor management system. Their processes prior to winning this award led to many pain points:
- Limited tracking and data analytics
- Time consuming manual reporting
- Inconsistent collection of data on donors and other stakeholders
- Inability to take pledges or electronic payments
- Inability to establish recurring donations
With Bloomerang in place, West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition is well positioned to fulfill their dream of providing their neighborhood with improved access to fresh, affordable food.
Elliot shared an overview of the key benefits they anticipate with use of Bloomerang, the software selected and implemented in this project:
- Improved fundraising, which is expected to help raise an initial $150,000 needed for the grocery store, through ability to:
- Create segments and target strategies
- Allocate donation to specific needs/programs and be transparent with donors/funders about the use of their funds
- Launch donor cultivation strategy
- Add donate button to website
- Collect, store and analyze consistent data on all donors
- Decrease in administrative time spent on spreadsheets
- Ease of accessing and understanding data for tracking towards goals and other business decision making
- Improved security of financial and other personal data
- Increased data integrity/decrease in errors and consistency
- Improved email marketing capabilities
- Potential to expand use of Bloomerang to program management
- Potential elimination of Mailchimp expense
The nonprofit technology enhancement team shared their words of appreciation at the end of the project.
In closing, Elliott shared, “The experience with the Community Impact Project team has been amazing! Their expertise and patience during our donor platform selection process allowed us to make a thoughtful decision while advocating for our experience with our selected vendor. The fantastic volunteers provided priceless insight, and I truly believe they will be supportive of our organization’s goals moving forward.
“Seeing the market value of this project is amazing because we could have paid that, but we would not have received the priceless, infinite value of our volunteers advocating for us and ensuring that we got what we needed.
‘I’m so thankful for the volunteers willingness to do whatever was needed to get it done right because they believed in the great good that would come out of it. We will make sure that you all continue to see and be a part of our story.
“Without Mission Possible, we would have been figuring this out on our own and possibly picking a platform that didn’t fit our needs. That would have been a real wasted expense. We were operating on the ground before; our work with Apparo and Accenture is giving us a foundation. With all of the hard, tiring work we do, we need reassuring moments. Receiving this grant from you reassures us that we’re doing the right work, good work for our community. Seeing this come to fruition is heartwarming and keeps us going. That helps us fulfill our mission.”
Accenture volunteers also shared their words of appreciation:
Michael Flanagan: “What I’m going to remember from this, is the great people like Elliott working to make a difference, we just get to share in it a little bit and it’s so fun.”
Michael Turner: “I got really, really spoiled working with WBNC, with their vision and passion for their mission. Underpinning the tech was like bolting a new engine onto a Rolls Royce. I also thank you, Sarah (Friday, Apparo project facilitator), for keeping this all organized and moving forward. It can be easy to lose the thread and you kept us all together.”
Ankur Singh: “This was a very enriching experience for me. I really appreciate the opportunity.”
Simon Pfister: “It’s an honor and a privilege for us to have served you and to help you get through this, and that’s why we do it, to see how you can progress and how much impact you can make, and it’s been great.”
