Salesforce.com

We're using Salesforce.com to make the best student-volunteer matches possible!

We hear the refrain over and over: In this difficult economy, we all have to do more with less. For nonprofits like Boston Partners in Education, this maxim rings especially true. One of our ongoing goals is to make our operations as efficient as possible so that we can continue to provide high-quality academic mentoring services to Boston’s public school students.

That’s why we’re excited about the redesign of our Salesforce.com database. Although we’d been using Salesforce.com as a donor database since 2007, we maintained a separate database for our volunteer matching process until August 2010, when our redesigned system launched. After nearly two years of planning, configuration, coding, and data migration, we finally have a “one-stop shop” for all our constituent information. Student, volunteer, and donor data is all housed in one secure system, allowing us to more quickly and easily report on program outcomes, generate communications, track funding, and above all, make and support quality matches.

You may have already noticed a few of the outward-facing elements of our redesign: the updated Volunteer Application and Teacher Request Form. Both forms were custom-built using the Salesforce.com platform and feed directly into our database. In addition to collecting more specific information about the students we serve and better capturing volunteers’ interests, the forms are tied to automated processes in Salesforce.com. This automation reduces the time needed to place volunteers with children in the Boston Public Schools and gives our staff improved capacity to track and support matches once they are made.

Going forward, additional enhancements to the database will allow us to produce comprehensive reports for schools, teachers, parents, volunteers, and supporters about the impact our programs are having on student achievement and personal development. We’ll also be able to manage special events and marketing campaigns through Salesforce.com, making it the ideal management tool for all phases of our business.

We continue to invest in technology to help us meet our mission more efficiently and sustainably. With the generous support of the Salesforce.com Foundation and other partners, we’re eager to see what the future brings.