Skilled volunteers from Centric Consulting created a thorough technology plan to improve efficiencies for MeckEd, enabling staff to focus more time on their mission
G.A.I.N. – Powered by Lowe’s
MeckEd connects students to people, organizations, businesses, industries, technical and certification programs, and post-secondary educational opportunities, through MeckEd’s Career Pathways program in order to provide all young people with the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to thrive. They do this through engaging community partners, business and industry leaders, and education stakeholders to provide a range of enrichment experiences, internships, financial, and navigational supports, both in and outside of the traditional school day, in order to help clear a path to a bright future for all children.
Apparo’s G.A.I.N. (Growth, Agility, and Innovation for Nonprofits) Grant Program provides nonprofit participants with the tools, training, and other support they need to implement and sustain their technology and process improvements. G.A.I.N. delivers a one-year journey of technology and process improvement to a cohort of nonprofits to help them overcome their technology challenges and amplify their nonprofit impact. The G.A.I.N. program is generously sponsored by Lowe’s.
MeckEd came to Apparo for assistance streamlining processes and increasing efficiency. Prior to their experience with Apparo, each staff member had a different way of saving documents that were not in shared drives, and some were hard copies filed in boxes. MeckEd also wanted assistance developing a technology roadmap to improve their software and hardware over time.
Through Apparo’s G.A.I.N. program, MeckEd was matched with skilled volunteers from Centric Consulting, along with a Tech Mentor, Rebecca DePasquale. Together they assessed MeckEd’s current state and pain points, explored various solutions and created a technology plan based on volunteer recommendations.
Technology improvements lead to operational efficiencies
A major pain point for MeckEd was the lack of a centralized file sharing software, costing employees several hours searching for the correct documents. With the implementation of a file sharing service and a defined file organizational system, MeckEd anticipates saving 15 hours per week. The Centric Consulting team generously aided in developing their Google Document structure for files to easily and effectively organize all their documents.
Adding a managed IT service to their team not only saves time but reduces costs for MeckEd. Prior to their experience with Apparo, MeckEd did all their IT work internally, despite not having an IT professional on their team. This led to team members using their time to fix software and hardware issues instead of working on their mission. It also meant costly emergency repair calls to IT providers. Now that they use a managed IT service, they will avoid having unexpected large repair costs and it allows the professionals to fix the technology while they focus on the mission.
The recommendation to automate their website will open up more time to focus on their mission as well. With the Centric team recommendations, MeckEd’s website will have automated features, such as data collection and messaging. Currently MeckEd has to go into the backend of their website, manually add any data to their documents, and manually send messages to donors, volunteers or constituents. They anticipate the automation of the website will save them 10-15 hours a month.
Tech tools strengthen the ability to fulfill their mission
With the technology recommendations from the Centric Consulting team, MeckEd anticipates freeing up approximately 80 hours of work a month. This time savings will allow staff members to focus on developing more partnerships and assisting more students in the community.
Being able to pull data quickly from a database also allows staff members to efficiently create proposals for potential funders, partners and schools. This allows them to expand their reach and services in the community. MeckEd is excited to potentially add 1 to 2 more schools served within the next year thanks to these efficiencies.
Skilled volunteers reflect on their project experiences:
- “It’s been really rewarding. The whole process has been great, giving assistance and expertise, giving back to the community. This has been an awesome opportunity given by Apparo and awesome working with an amazing nonprofit like MeckEd. I especially liked doing the on-site visit and getting to see their offices, meeting folks face to face and getting to know them personally. That was the highlight of my experience. Thanks to Allison for keeping us on schedule and staying on track.” – Jason Daniels, Centric Consulting
