{"id":6100,"date":"2020-02-21T06:14:41","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T06:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teamheller.com\/?p=6100"},"modified":"2025-08-19T20:21:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T20:21:26","slug":"crm-roadmap-to-transform-a-food-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teamheller.com\/resources\/blog\/crm-roadmap-to-transform-a-food-bank","title":{"rendered":"CRM Roadmap to Transform a Food Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

We recently had the opportunity to develop a CRM Roadmap for a large food bank that wanted to streamline its systems and business processes to better serve its community. Like most food banks, it has a loyal constituency: many volunteers are also clients; many donors also volunteer; individuals might first encounter the food bank through an employer-sponsored activity and then sign up for a peer-to-peer fundraising event.<\/p>\n

Instead of internal systems showing the many ways people connect with the food bank, employees often find out from the constituents themselves. This is frustrating for both the constituents and the food bank team. More than ever, nonprofit supporters and clients expect to be known. They expect that when an organization sends them an annual appeal request, it is doing so with a full understanding of giving history, past volunteer hours and gala attendance over the years.<\/p>\n

That is all much easier said than done.<\/p>\n

But it is possible<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Get started now: Read about our TeamHeller Accelerators for Food Banks<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our client hired us to assess the technology environment and make recommendations for areas they could consolidate and break down the information and departmental silos that had grown unwieldy over time. Here is what the environment looked like at the beginning of our project:<\/p>\n

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Food banks are incredibly resourceful organizations. The work it takes to fulfill their missions of ending hunger typically involves a great deal of complex relationship and logistical management. Because they usually carry out their work on very thin budgets, what they accomplish is remarkable.<\/p>\n

For those reasons, it is not surprising to see food banks end up with a dizzying web of systems and data flow. Often the tools were customized at various points in the past to meet specific needs. Over time, as needs expand and evolve, tweaks are made here and there to keep things running department by department, but the overall picture starts to get muddy.<\/p>\n

User Story Collection<\/strong><\/p>\n

We reviewed an extensive set of sample reports, spreadsheets and business process documentation provided by our client before meeting with members of departments from across the organization. During a three-day onsite, we discussed what was working and what wasn\u2019t with representatives from Volunteer Services, Development, DevOps, Finance, Programs & Services, Marketing, Food Resources, and Community Engagement. With the information they shared, we wrote over 200 detailed user stories that articulated what was needed for people to more effectively do their jobs. These serve as functional requirements for new solutions and become the basis of user testing in the future.<\/p>\n

We also described each system in a table, detailing its purpose, who it was used by and the nature of all data input and outputs:<\/p>\n

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As is often the case with Roadmap projects, the Discovery process of gathering this detail was useful even before recommendations were made and a plan was completed. Input from all departments allowed staff members to realize how siloed their activities had become and see new opportunities for collaboration that would better serve their constituents.<\/p>\n

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Read another case study featuring our work with Second Harvest of Silicon Valley<\/a>! \"\"<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Solution Selection<\/strong><\/p>\n

Based on the key issues and the user stories, we identified six fundamental requirements of a new centralized CRM system. At the highest level, this food bank required a solution or set of solutions that:<\/p>\n