Chicago Lights - Program Management With Salesforce
Chicago Lights is a non-profit organization based in Chicago, dedicated to providing educational, social, and emotional support to children, youth, and adults in historically marginalized communities. With a mission to empower individuals and families to thrive, Chicago Lights offers a wide range of programs, including tutoring, mentoring, arts education, and social services.
The Challenge:
Prior to implementing Salesforce, Chicago Lights faced several challenges in managing their operations efficiently. The organization relied on manual processes, separate systems to track social services, and spreadsheets to track tutoring enrollment and volunteer management. This fragmented approach resulted in data inconsistencies, limited visibility into key metrics, and a lack of centralized communication channels. Chicago Lights recognized the need for a comprehensive solution to streamline their operations, enhance participant and volunteer engagement, and improve program outcomes.
Solutions:
To address these challenges, Chicago Lights partnered with OneTenth Consulting to implement a customized Salesforce solution. The implementation involved the following key components:
1. Constituent Management: Salesforce's Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) was leveraged to centralize all constituent data (participants, volunteers, partners, etc.) and communication. Participant data from external systems were migrated into Salesforce to reduce any data silos. This allowed Chicago Lights to gain a holistic view of their constituent base, identify trends, and personalize communication to enhance constituent engagement.
2. Program Enrollment and Management: Form Assembly was integrated to capture student and tutor registration data, allowing data to flow into Salesforce seamlessly. The Program Management Module (PMM) was implemented to track each participant’s engagement in Chicago Lights’ programs. This included students, tutors, and participants in social services. Custom components and workflows were utilized to streamline program enrollment, track attendance, and monitor program outcomes. This enabled Chicago Lights to efficiently manage program logistics, setting the foundation to measure impact, and make data-driven decisions to improve program effectiveness.
3. Case Management: Core to Chicago’s Lights’ values is establishing deep connections in providing case management services. To support this, Salesforce's Nonprofit Case Management Module was implemented to track client notes, goals, outcomes, and assessments. This allowed Chicago Lights to ensure clients have the appropriate resources and care throughout their engagement with the program.
4. Reporting and Analytics: Salesforce's robust reporting and analytics capabilities were leveraged to create customized dashboards and reports. This provided Chicago Lights with real-time insights into key metrics, such as program engagement, participation and attendance, and volunteer engagement. Future plans include dashboards for goal-tracking and assessments for students, so leadership can easily surface issues requiring further attention. These insights will enable Chicago Lights to identify areas for improvement, optimize resource allocation, and demonstrate impact to stakeholders.
Impact:
By automating manual processes and consolidating data in Salesforce, Chicago Lights reduced administrative burden, improved data accuracy, and saved valuable staff time. This allowed the organization to redirect resources towards program delivery and expansion.
With better visibility into program data, Chicago Lights can identify areas for improvement, measure impact, and make data-driven decisions.
Future Roadmap:
As we look to the future, Chicago Lights plans to onboard all of their programs onto Salesforce and explore more opportunities for goal-tracking, assessment analysis, and identifying patterns and trends with their newly collected data. Our next phase will move us from “data tracking” to “insight tracking.”
In conclusion, Chicago Lights’ implementation of Salesforce is the first step toward streamlining operations, enhancing participant engagement, and improving program outcomes. By leveraging Salesforce's robust features, the organization as a whole is gaining greater efficiency, effectiveness, and impact in their mission to empower communities.
“Rubin and the OneTenth Team have provided the highest level of care, communication, and service. The proposal, discovery, design, training, and implementation stages have flowed seamlessly and efficiently. Rubin and the team took the time to understand our needs, design a Salesforce instance that works for us, and continue to train us and create customizations to make the instance even better. I’ve implemented two other databases in my time here at Chicago Lights and this is the only one that has ever worked in the way we need it to. OneTenth made it possible for Salesforce to meet almost every need we’ve had for data management, implementing workflows that increase staff efficiency and program effectiveness, and reporting. We look forward to our continued work with OneTenth!” - Alex Cornwell, Director of Evaluation and Impact at Chicago Lights
"We are immensely proud to have partnered with Chicago Lights on their Salesforce implementation journey. Their dedication to transforming lives and empowering historically marginalized communities is truly inspiring. Working alongside such a remarkable organization has been a privilege, and we are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to their mission. We look forward to continuing our partnership and making an even greater impact together." - Rubin Singh, CEO of OneTenth Consulting
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To learn more about Chicago Lights please click here. And to support their impactful work, please consider making a donation.
OneTenth Consulting is a registered Salesforce consulting partner, offering 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 free phone consultation today!