CCP Tech volunteers provided a process and policy assessment for Veterans Bridge Home to streamline operations and reduce risks.
G.A.I.N. – Powered by Lowe’s
Veterans Bridge Home (VBH) connects Veterans and their families, in any state of transition, to the community. Through their network of partners, they help Veterans navigate employment, create social connections, and settle their families. They look at the whole Veteran and connect them to the resources needed to be successful and thriving leaders in our community.
Apparo’s G.A.I.N. (Growth, Agility and Innovation for Nonprofits) Grant Program provides nonprofit participants with the tools, training and other support they need to implement and sustain their technology and process improvements. G.A.I.N. delivers a one-year journey of technology and process improvement to a cohort of nonprofits to help them overcome their technology challenges and amplify their nonprofit impact. Lowe’s generously sponsors Apparo’s G.A.I.N. program.
Background Information
In recent years, Veterans Bridge Home has experienced rapid growth and increased their staff size. The internal technology staff at VBH currently manages technology, and the majority of processes are handled manually. VBH currently has several (6) Technology Policies in place. They requested a thought partner to review current technology processes and provide a policy assessment to identify gaps, risks, and pain points.
Apparo matched the organization with volunteers from CCP Tech to address and support VBH’s technology challenges. CCP Tech skilled volunteers worked with VBH to review current technology policies and processes and provide recommendations for updates or new policies that will allow VBH to operate more efficiently and securely. Volunteers reviewed specific technology processes and tools including onboarding and offboarding processes, automation of updates to staff laptops, and Microsoft 365 operations.
- Nonprofit Team: Pete Vacho, Vice President of Operations
- CCP Tech Volunteer Team: Bill Hammelman, Ross Feldman
Process and Policy Assessment Goals
Prior to this project, Pete Vacho, Vice President of Operations, noticed a lack of efficiency in VBH’s technology workflow. Being new to technology, he felt like making “one mistake can cost you dearly,” especially in the nonprofit world. Going into this project, Pete Vacho established several goals for VBH including:
- Education and Better Technology Awareness
- Understanding the Basics of Technology
- Creating 3-5 items and next steps to take
- How to prioritize those next steps
Vacho stated he was able to utilize Bill Hammelman and Ross Feldman’s expertise, experience, knowledge, and know-how to lead him toward the correct next step on the nonprofit’s technology journey. Through this process and policy assessment, Vacho ultimately anticipates creating operational efficiencies that will help the nonprofit save time. By using Bill and Ross’s expertise, he has learned how to leverage programs they already have. Vacho anticipates streamlining even further which could reduce expenses in the future. Their ultimate goal is to reduce and simplify the programs they’re using to make the technology process more seamless for their employees.Through this project, they also set up automated updates on staff laptops, making VBH more efficient and secure.
In a previous G.A.I.N. project, Vacho worked with a team to find a software program to make the onboarding process more efficient. Ultimately, they decided to go with Intune and Autopilot, making the process more automated and freeing up Vacho’s time to place more focus on mission work. Through this project, they were able to create even more efficiencies and anticipate saving 132 hours a year in staff time related to onboarding.
Thoughts on the Policy Assessment
“It was great to work with Pete on this project,” Ross shared of his volunteer experience with the process and policy assessment. Pete felt the same about Ross and Bill. He shared, “We just appreciate Bill and Ross’s expertise and friendship. I just love the team we’re on. We gained traction. We got better. That was our ultimate goal to make our organization more secure, safe, and efficient.”
“This felt like a really great capstone project. I’ve been working with Pete and the VBH team in the G.A.I.N. program for more than a year. We had accumulated a lot of recommendations that were, to that point, theoretical and not necessarily actionable. What was cool about this project was that we were able to dig in a little bit deeper to those recommendations and put some of them into immediate use. There was a real sense of moving forward and the strategic changes became more in reach for VBH which was really rewarding to me,” Bill Hammelman, CCP Tech volunteer stated.
Overall, the process and policy assessment will amplify VBH’s mission by allowing them to prioritize technological improvements for their nonprofit. But in Pete Vacho’s eyes the project had much more meaning. Pete shared, “It’s not only about the technology. It’s about the people. Getting to know Allie Lavallee from Apparo and Bill Hammelman from CCP Tech was a highlight of the project. There’s a trust that is built from these relationships. If you’ve ever seen A Christmas Story where Ralphie gets an A++++, that’s Apparo and Bill Hammelman.”
