The phrases “business process management” and “workflow automation” immediately bring to mind disciplines utilized in for-profit businesses. However, orchestrating non-profit organizations also requires fund management, administration, hiring, and other procedures similar to for-profit companies.
When core operational processes run efficiently for non-profit institutions, more productive services can be rendered, holistically improving individual lives and our world as a whole. Automated workflows escalate efficiency, enabling non-profits to pursue their mission with focused intensity.
Here are six incredible organizations that have turned to workflow management to help them do even more good.
Project Syncere
In southern Chicago, ten team members teach the importance of math and science to youth in underserved communities through over twenty engineering programs. Project involvement has helped students achieve higher grades and also piqued their interest in STEM fields.
Director Adrianne Wheeler said that Project Syncere earlier used word of mouth, sticky notes, and other paper methods to plan and manage projects, resulting in frequent miscommunication and disorganization.
After switching to automated workflows, program planning became much smoother thanks to the centralized communication hub and task reminders. Soon, staff members began to take ownership of internal processes by offering suggestions for additional improvement.
YMCA of Metro Chicago
Over a thousand employees at The YMCA Metro Chicago serve about 100,000 members and half a million locals by promoting youth development, healthy living, and social responsibility. Renting and leasing their numerous facilities for various local events was a tedious, time-consuming process.
They tried several software solutions, but expenses ran high, and problems such as poor printing capabilities and complex information retrieval still slowed operations. When the software was integrated with automated workflows, multiple issues were resolved: pertinent information became instantly available over the cloud-based system, receipt/contract printing needs were met, and senior leaders could directly make approvals while out of office and without scrolling through emails.
Vibrant Emotional Health
Helping Americans achieve emotional wellness with dignity and respect, Vibrant Health runs the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and serves local residents out of their main office in New York City. In the past, payment requests and approvals were completed manually and walked from desk to desk for signatures.
The implementation of DocuSign only cut down on paper use since form data could not include calculations or be modified by colleagues. When payment processes were moved to automated workflows, processing time decreased by more than 50 percent and human error was significantly reduced.
Thresholds of approval were created by each department to ensure an accurate chain of communication. IT costs stayed within budget and users were promptly assisted by the system’s customer support service.
World Vision
Since 1950, World Vision has been providing relief and development aid to overcome poverty and injustice around the world. Multimedia coverage of work efforts is vital to raising awareness and keeping contact with sponsors, but gathering content from all over the globe through email lead to lost attachments, misplaced data, and chaos.
World Vision implemented workflows to improve communication between the field and home office. The applications enabled users to locate the nearest communication expert easily, evaluate their credentials and cost, and initiate approval requests for media coverage. Efficiency skyrocketed as stories from the field could be seamlessly requested, approved, and delivered through a centralized system.
Wayne Metropolitan
Dedicated to diminishing poverty in greater Detroit, Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency provides services, programs, and resources to low-income families, cultivating hope for a brighter future. Tracking relocation of personnel and resources across numerous sites was cumbersome, and approving hires took about five days until they began using cloud-based automated workflows.
Without hiring IT experts, management was able to customize workflows to meet their data processing needs intuitively, and teamwork between departments amplified. New hire approval was reduced to one to two days, allowing workers to meet community needs even sooner.
NQ Dry Tropics
In Northeastern Australia, NQ Dry Tropics works with communities, industries, and the government to sustainably manage natural land and water resources. A workflow system easily integrable with Google Apps was needed to track expense request and approvals.
The team chose a cloud-based, user-friendly program in order to analyze the flow of funds and plan for the future strategically. After a successful start, NQ Dry Tropics expanded workflow use to other internal processes. As the organization grows, workflows will naturally scale with the organization, remaining straightforward and efficient.
Process Faster, Impact More
Wise resource management is crucial for non-profit organizations and low-cost automated workflow systems enable non-profits to cut down on processing time without breaking the bank. Consolidating the nuts and bolts of a nonprofit’s procedures into automated workflows promotes unification of team members through streamlined communication channels.
Average American workers spend eight hours out of a forty-hour workweek just searching for internal documents. Staff members in mission-driven organizations have no desire to lose that much time while urgent human needs are waiting to be met. Automating processes is a win-win, conserving resources so more energy can be contributed to reaching the masses, whether local or global.
