2020 was, by all accounts, a landmark year for Cloud for Good. Not only was it the company’s tenth anniversary, but it also marked the launch of our first-ever pro bono program in November of that year. Across ten incredible years, Cloud for Good has experienced tremendous year-over-year growth, granting the opportunity to work on increasingly larger and more complex projects with enterprise nonprofits and higher education institutions. After a decade of steady development, Cloud for Good sought to continue to give back to the amazing communities that helped us get to where we are today.
The Selection Process
Cloud for Good has helped thousands of organizations create transformational value through the Salesforce platform. The company took intentional steps to ensure that our award-winning Salesforce consulting services were provided to the organizations most in need of the technology to help improve the communities they serve. To determine which organizations would be nominated, an extensive selection process was conducted by a dedicated pro bono committee according to specific program guidelines. Organizations were to be under $5M in annual revenue, the projects were to be well-defined with a particular scope, and the Salesforce work conducted by Cloud for Good should be able to be supported long-term after completion of the project.
Following the selection, two organizations, New Entry Sustainable Farming Project and Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County were nominated to receive transformational Salesforce services undertaken without charge.
Cloud for Good Operations Project Lead Aarica Smith managed the application process and helped steer the selection committee towards achieving the program’s goals. On why it was important for Cloud for Good and herself, personally, Smith said, “Every Goodie is at Cloud for Good for a reason: to help nonprofits and higher education institutions thrive, but also because of a deep sense of connection and desire to help others. That is why we are thriving as a company, because of our team and their desire to go above and beyond to do good in the communities we serve.”
Here at Cloud for Good, we know firsthand the impact a superior CRM platform like Salesforce can have on an organization. It allows their staff members to save time they previously spent grappling with unintuitive technology and invest that time back into their constituents and community. Below we’ll provide brief overviews on both pro bono program projects and hear from the team members now benefitting from Salesforce’s transformational technology.
Optimizing + Enhancing New Entry Sustainable Farming Project’s Technology
As an initiative of Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, New Entry works locally, regionally, and nationwide to strengthen food systems by supporting new farmers. The New Entry Sustainable Farming Project (NESFP) plays a specific, pertinent role in that mission by training the next generation of farmers to produce sustainable, nutritious, and culturally preferred food by making food accessible to individuals regardless of age, mobility, ethnicity, or socio-economic status. To make these goals a reality, NESFP provides critical training, career development, and economic opportunity to the farmers of tomorrow.
Prior to their engagement with Cloud for Good, a significant amount of NESFP’s programmatic and partner data lived outside of Salesforce, thus causing significant data silos and little-to-no growth on the platform. Through the pro bono program, however, Cloud for Good was able to optimize and enhance their Salesforce environment to enable a single source of truth with seamless constituent, program, and grant management. This was made possible by reconfiguring permission sets, upgrading the Salesforce org from Classic to Lightning, optimizing FormAssembly, creating impact reports, standardizing the NESFP grant tracking and management process, installing the Case and Program Management Module, as well as centralizing all internal communication.
The results thus far have been staggering, with NESFP now able to monetize the volunteer hours related to the cases and grants that fund them.
Reflecting on the experience of working with Cloud for Good as part of the first pro bono program, Director Jennifer Hashley said, “We all thought the process was very professional and spelled out. We had regular, consistent communication from our build team and felt that we were continually working toward our goals. Overall, we were very pleased with the process and have a much better understanding of how these types of engagements work and the time commitment on our end that is necessary to take full advantage of a contract like this. Thank you again for a wonderful opportunity!”
Developing + Refining the Processes of Cancer Resource Centers of Mendocino County
Established in 1995 by women living with cancer seeking information and resources unavailable in their area at the time, Cancer Resource Centers (CRC) of Mendocino County comprises service providers working toward one, unified vision: that no one faces cancer alone. Across a wide variety of services, including consultation, patient navigation, support groups, and assistance funding, CRC serves as a local authority in cancer care in their area and the first non-facility-based cancer resource center between Marin County and the Oregon border. All of the center’s many interactions are logged into Salesforce, but their data had become mired in Salesforce Classic, and a dire need for organizational updates, process development and refinement, and user training had become apparent.
Cloud for Good helped rectify these deepening issues through a move from Salesforce Classic to Lightning, updating their internal data, refining record types, and talking through how and why they do the things they do with technology to positively alter internal processes. A six-week Managed Services contract was provided to assist in declarative UI updates, automation support, process refinement, system owner empowerment, help with third-party applications, and training to further user adoption, enablement, and comfortability with reports and dashboards.
As a result of the pro bono services, Salesforce users at CRC are now empowered to make the most of the Salesforce technology available at their fingertips. “Cloud for Good was fantastic. They were so knowledgeable about Salesforce and grasped our customized nonprofit set-up very quickly. They made good recommendations and we adopted almost all of them. They taught me so much about Salesforce and how to seek answers for myself when I get stuck. I can’t say enough about the help we received, pro bono. We are a small nonprofit that serves cancer patients, and we are very grateful for all the help and guidance,” said Executive Director Karen Oslund.
As Cloud for Good continues to grow and expand our services throughout the wider Salesforce ecosystem, so too does our ability to give back and provide for the many communities in need of assistive technology. Organizations like New Entry Sustainable Farming Project and Cancer Resources Center of Mendocino County are testament to the fact that you don’t have to be considered a “large” organization to make a “large” impact on people’s lives. It is a privilege and an honor to provide pro bono services to worthy causes such as these two organizations.
