Caterpillar Ministries Technology Plan Frees Staff Time through Apparo’s G.A.I.N. program
Caterpillar Ministries is a grassroots, nonprofit founded in 2007. They partner closely with residents of the Huntington Green community in Huntersville, North Carolina. Their work centers on building real relationships while supporting families through faith development, education, advocacy, and practical help such as food, housing support, and tutoring. Through all of it, they work to empower individuals and build a thriving, connected community.
Why Caterpillar Ministries Wanted a Technology Plan
Caterpillar Ministries offers a wide range of wraparound services, and their staff work directly with families every day. That kind of work depends on good information. The team wanted a clearer way to track family needs and follow-up, more consistent processes their whole staff could rely on, and a long-term plan for their technology. They also wanted to strengthen how they protect the confidential information families share with them.
Caterpillar Ministries took on this work as part of Apparo’s G.A.I.N. (Growth, Agility and Innovation for Nonprofits) program, a one-year nonprofit accelerator cohort sponsored by Lowe’s. Through G.A.I.N., Apparo matched Caterpillar Ministries with a skilled volunteer team from CapTech Consulting to complete a technology plan Community Impact Project.
Looking back, Sarah Fortner, Executive Director of Caterpillar Ministries, said the timing was right: “Sometimes I wish we had done this a few years ago, but we weren’t ready, and I wasn’t ready. It was great timing.“
Building a Technology Roadmap and Google Workspace Foundation with CapTech
The CapTech volunteers began by reviewing how Caterpillar Ministries uses technology today, including risks, gaps, and pain points. From there, they built a prioritized roadmap for the next two to three years. It includes a detailed one-year timeline for the most important projects, cost estimates, and practical steps to carry each recommendation forward.
The team also completed a hands-on project to standardize how Caterpillar Ministries uses Google Drive and Calendar. After delivering the final roadmap, the volunteers committed to one-hour weekly meetings for eight weeks to help the organization implement quick wins and short-term recommendations. In 159 hours, the CapTech team completed a project valued at $40,000.
Standardized Processes Protect Caterpillar Ministries’ Knowledge During Staff Transitions
The new Google structure proved its value almost right away. Just before the project wrapped, a staff member moved on from Caterpillar Ministries. Before her last day, Sarah asked her to move her work into the shared Google files. “That has helped us tremendously,” Sarah said. “It’s only been two days, but we’ve been able to see what she was doing and find it easily.”
That’s the kind of resilience the technology plan is designed to build. With standardized processes and better documentation, valuable knowledge no longer lives only in one person’s head. That gives Caterpillar Ministries a much stronger foundation for succession planning and helps new team members step in with confidence.
How the Technology Plan Frees Staff Time for Huntersville Families
Caterpillar Ministries has already started acting on the plan. With the help of a new managed IT provider, the team estimates they’re saving about 3 hours a week, around 150 hours a year, by sending tech issues to experts instead of solving them on their own. Sarah also expects that standardizing how the team uses Google Drive and Calendar will save each staff member about 2 hours a week, around 600 hours a year across the team.
The biggest anticipated gain comes from moving to a new client data system. Families will complete a digital intake form that flows directly into their profile, where staff can add follow-up notes. Sarah expects this to save each of the three case management staff members 10 hours a week, potentially around 1,500 hours a year.
Consolidating tools onto Google Workspace is expected to lower costs as well. Retiring Basecamp will save $4,200 a year, retiring Volgistics could save $1,200 a year, and moving from Zoom to Google Meet saves another $240 a year. Together with the IT provider’s support, the team has also strengthened their data security, which Sarah says has strengthened the confidentiality of the families they serve.
Better data will help Caterpillar Ministries understand families’ essential needs more completely, track attendance and follow-up more consistently, and share their impact more clearly with funders. Most of all, it supports a goal Sarah named simply: making sure no family falls through the cracks. For Sarah, the real value is what all of this makes possible for her team. “When you strengthen the systems, you create more staff capacity for us to show up, and to keep showing up, for families and kids,” she said. She has also seen the team’s coordination and collaboration improve as processes become more consistent.
CapTech Volunteers Reflect on the Caterpillar Ministries Project
For the CapTech team, the project was about more than technology. “It’s been a joy to work with you, Sarah,” said Cassandra Willis, Senior Manager, Organizational Change Management at CapTech Consulting. ” Thank you very much for being an open book for us so that we could provide better materials to help you serve even more families.” You were so kind to be so honest with us.
Cassandra also shared that this was the first time the four volunteers had worked together. “At a consulting firm, we’re picked for projects and then we work together,” she explained. “This project gave us an opportunity to become friends, so thank you for that as well.” Her teammate Kimberly Brown, CapTech Consulting at CapTech Consulting, added that the group learned a lot from Cassandra along the way.
The appreciation went both ways. Sarah said it’s often hard to let people in, but the team made it easy: “Sometimes you want to keep the walls up, but you were so easy to communicate with and to be transparent with. Apparo has some fantastic volunteers, and when I say fantastic, I picture the four of you.”
