To Whom It May Concern:
Charlotte Family Housing began our relationship with Apparo in 2014 as recipients of one-on-one consulting to help pinpoint our technology limitations and prioritize resolutions. Over the course of the next four years, Apparo has supported us with four Community Impact Projects which have transformed our effectiveness in serving our clients.
We began in 2015 with a Business Process Landscape, an assessment which helped us identify areas in need of improvement. This categorized, visual map of our pain points helped us gain buy-in from leadership and encouraged us to move forward to make process and technology improvements.
With Apparo’s help, we did so with a second project, a feasibility review and selection of Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) software. After our implementation of Salesforce, we returned to Apparo in 2018 for a refresh of our Business Process Landscape and a Salesforce optimization. It has been an incredibly rewarding journey for our organization with direct impact on Charlotte families in need.
Before working with Apparo, our data was saved across paper files and a large spreadsheet which took up to 20 minutes to load. Tracking was challenging and data inaccuracies were not uncommon. Our new system:
· Contains data validation measures to help ensure accuracy
· Provides immediate on line access to our staff
· Tracks and reports on outcomes of our programs and services
· Streamlines application and other processes for our clients
As a result of our work with Apparo:
· We are better at serving families in need -Accurate data and streamlined processes have had life-changing impact. Today, families get the help they need as quickly as possible with minimal stress. As a result of these improved processes, our families are strengthened, becoming better tenants. Landlords are noticing and
· seeking out our clients, making us faster at finding new housing opportunities.
· We are better at fundraising- Real-time access to accurate data and outcomes reporting enables us to do a better, faster job at telling our story to potential funders. We can quickly fulfill data requests and apply for last minute opportunities. All helping us gain critical funds for maintaining our programming.
· We are more efficient – Less time searching for data on paper or via spreadsheets means more time to spend directly serving our clients. The time to complete some of our internal processes have been cut in half. We are experiencing an organizational cultural shift. Staff members that were once resistant to dedicating the time to load data into Salesforce are now very excited to see what more they can do to improve processes.
Because of Apparo’s support has we are better positioned to fulfill our mission of empowering families experiencing homelessness to achieve self-sufficiency.
Dan Sellers
Chief Operating Officer, Charlotte Family Housing
