SevaTruck Selects Salesforce As Their Platform For Change
In 2016, The SevaTruck Foundation launched its free mobile food program to combat hunger in the national’s capital. With 30% of children facing food insecurity in Washington DC (one of the highest in the country), and 1 in 7 district residents struggling with hunger, SevaTruck aimed to reduce hunger by serving hot, nutritious meals to anyone in need through its fully licensed food truck with a commercially integrated kitchen.
With its unique model, SevaTruck gained significant interest from partner organizations, collaborators, and donors. In 2017 alone, SevaTruck served over 12,000 meals and launched its second truck in the Detroit metro area. With SevaTruck’s staff focused on food preparation, event logistics, and corresponding with partners - little time could be spent on developing the systems and infrastructure needed to run an efficient nonprofit.
Our Engagement
Recognizing their internal constraints, SevaTruck contacted OneTenth Consulting in early 2017 for strategic guidance and to implement a CRM solution. In order to build a holistic solution that took into account SevaTruck’s donors, staff, and the communities they serve, OneTenth led a strategy session for board members. Participants defined SevaTruck’s theory of change, identified key strategic objectives for the next year, then defined a fundraising strategy to support those objectives. The result was a one year roadmap of actions to grow the organization and the fundraising plan to support it.
With a clear fundraising plan defined, OneTenth and SevaTruck embarked on a CRM selection process that would support the organization’s immediate fundraising needs, while also giving them the flexibility to build for the future.
Technology & Tools
While SevaTruck’s immediate CRM requirements could be addressed through an all-in-one fundraising solution, SevaTruck selected Salesforce as their platform for several reasons:
Ability to leverage Salesforce.Org’s Nonprofit Cloud application that provides best-in-class features to support nonprofits such as complex gift processing, grant management, and high-touch fundraising
Access to the PowerOfUsHub community to exchange ideas and best practices with thousands of nonprofits with similar needs as SevaTruck
Access to the AppExchange, where new and innovative tools are readily available to extend Salesforce’s functionality and enhance the user’s experience
Ability to create custom modules to support non-fundraising tasks, such as tracking metrics on each of SevaTruck’s meal service events
Over the course of a few months, OneTenth implemented:
Salesforce + Nonprofit Cloud to support contact management, donation management, and fundraising efforts
Configurations and customizations to support SevaTruck’s key business processes and impact measurement
FormAssembly to facilitate external communication, such as donation forms, partner inquiries, and volunteer intake
Stripe with FormAssembly to support donation processing
What’s Next?
Adhering to OneTenth’s “crawl, walk, run” approach to CRM which implements new functionality in small yet impactful phases, SevaTruck looks to expand the Salesforce platform in early 2019 by implementing volunteer management, email marketing, and event management. SevaTruck also looks to OneTenth to provide system administration support and ongoing strategic fundraising guidance as needed.
"The transition to Salesforce has allowed us to automate and streamline tedious processes, giving us more time to focus on our programmatic work. We're excited to take advantage of all the platform has to offer. We are also grateful for OneTenth's guidance throughout this journey. Their understanding of our needs and the solution delivered was exactly what we needed." - Sonny Kakar, SevaTruck Executive Director
OneTenth is excited to partner with SevaTruck as they take their organization to the next level, expanding their services and strengthening their impact. ~
At OneTenth, we take pride in working with organizations who work tirelessly to make the world a better place. Please consider making a donation to SevaTruck.
OneTenth has a full range of services exclusively for nonprofits - from fundraising strategy, to CRM selection, to CRM implementation and change management. OneTenth empowers nonprofits by aligning their organizational, fundraising, and technology strategies - providing the tools and insight they need to meet their goals and achieve their mission. Check out OneTenth’s services and schedule a “no pressure” phone consultation today!