Wells Fargo skilled volunteers optimize nonprofit technology, so they can do more to combat issues of housing and health for the formerly incarcerated, justice involved, and children in the McKinney-Vento program for homeless children in CMS.
Freedom Fighting Missionaries provides services and resources to the formerly incarcerated and criminal justice involved, leading to self-sufficiency for individuals re-entering society and communities. The challenges for these individuals can sometimes only be achievable with the support and resources of multiple organizations. They are that bridge for these individuals and our partners to help them. Efforts are focused on supporting those who have been incarcerated, the elderly, and those with disabilities. They do this by connecting them with services and resources that are specific to their needs. Four critical services are essential to individuals re-entering the community: identification, healthcare, employment, and housing.
Freedom Fighting Missionaries reached out to Apparo for support in selecting a new application to support their incredible recent growth, as their new client intake increased by 50%, their budget more than doubled and their staff nearly doubled in the past year.
Apparo paired them with a team of skilled Wells Fargo volunteers for an Apparo Community Impact Project. Skilled volunteers assessed the organization’s current software, Zoho, and helped them determine that it could be optimized to meet their needs without transitioning to a new application. The volunteers worked with Freedom Fighting Missionaries to optimize Zoho to meet their needs, including: application intake process, automated marketing, and integrated donation management and fundraising capabilities. Read more about the original project here.
- Freedom Fighting Missionaries Nonprofit Team: Maurice Collins, Kenneth Robinson
- Wells Fargo Volunteer Team: Katie Collins, Amaldass (Benno) Marcellene
- Change Agent: Kelly Stegall
Wells Fargo volunteers assessing technology needs with Freedom Fighting Missionaries to assist with the application selection process.
One year after the project was completed with met with Maurice Collins and Kenny Robinson to learn about the sustained impact on their organization. They shared their appreciation for all the ways Zoho is helping them save time and improve their effectiveness:
- Hub for case notes
- Reminder functionality
- Access to real-time data
- Reporting capabilities
Maurice explains, “The team from Wells Fargo was able to translate our language and needs in a simplified way for us in a system that we understand and can manage on our own, with no additional expenses. The kind of IT work that our Wells Fargo volunteers did for us can go unseen. We want to be sure that they know they are appreciated. We’ve benefited from them in multiple ways. And we’re thankful to Apparo for bringing us together and making it happen, as they said they would.”
Kenny shares, “My decision making is improved because I have access to real time case notes. This is extremely helpful. In the past, it would have taken weeks or months to get the information I need to make decisions.
“As a result of the improved processes, more people are being housed. The number of people we are serving has doubled. We can accomplish this because of the online screening and other automations that our Wells Fargo volunteers put into place. The time savings has been more than we could have imagined. We would not be able to handle this volume of needs otherwise. We freed 80 hours of time a week – the equivalent of a whole salaried position.”
In closing, Kenny shares that FFM looks forward to ground-breaking on their first housing development and invites the community to support their capital campaign.
Open Impact Update Snapshot in own window.
