The idea of custom software for nonprofits sounds counterintuitive in an industry known for making do with less. However, a properly planned software solution can offer a return on investment (ROI) that moves it from a luxury to a strategic necessity.
Making the case for innovation and investing in software can be difficult. Even as budgets seem to be growing increasingly tight, nonprofit organizations are also being challenged to use limited volunteer resources as efficiently as possible. This creates a conundrum: spending money (on better software could make your organization run more efficiently) can save you money (and volunteer resources).
For example, software that moves your organization away from paper-based communications can pay for itself in efficiency and mobility. For non-profits that find spreadsheets useful, automating reports may make the difference between seeing a developing trend and missing it until the bottom line sags. In both cases, off-the-shelf solutions can provide some benefits but often require the organization to change many tried and true processes to fit the software.
This is especially true for managing the complicated mix of staff and volunteer workers that many nonprofits rely on. With many activities happening away from the nonprofit’s office, having software that allows mobile access to scheduling, contact information, and planning documents may make the difference between a successful activity and one that increases employee and volunteer burnout.
For service-based Family Partnerships of CT, the amount of time spent processing paper was weighing down their organization and hindering growth. Triple Helix worked with the organization to identify key processes and developed software to capture critical information like time entries and progress notes and automate time-consuming activities like invoicing and reporting.
As with many nonprofits, Family Partnerships’ processes were unique and did not easily fit into off-the-shelf medical or professional services software. By building a custom solution, the organization could set up custom rules and parameters that eliminated hours of manual work to ensure all time billed was allowable and would pass an audit.
Another advantage of custom software is that it should be flexible and long-lived. By using platform-agnostic and open source building blocks, Triple Helix helps organizations make a smart investment that won’t create software logjams in the future. In the case of Family Partnership for example, if a new state reporting mandate is released, the software can be easily updated to accommodate the new requirement.
Triple Helix focuses on delivering software that makes a positive impact on operations and solves business data and process problems. We have helped clients in manufacturing, professional services, and non-profit services and can help your business too. Contact us if you would like to schedule a risk-free consultation to see how your organization could benefit from a custom software solution.
