GallantFew’s mission is to prevent veteran isolation by connecting new veterans with hometown veteran mentors, thereby facilitating a peaceful, successful transition from military service to a civilian life filled with hope and purpose.
The Challenge
Karl Monger, Founder and Director of GallantFew implemented the Salesforce Nonprofit Starter Pack in 2012 after learning about it through Techsoup.
At that point, he says they entered some data into it and were basically using it like a “big Excel spreadsheet.” Karl knew that there was much more capability within Salesforce but he had to figure out how to make it fit his organization’s needs. GallantFew’s core program is based on a strong one-to-one mentoring model and they wanted to use the power of Salesforce to match veterans in need of services with mentors willing to help.
Our Solution
Integrate Veteran & Mentor Applications into Salesforce By leveraging the power of the Volunteers for Salesforce app, we were able to create a sign up form that both veterans in need of services and veterans looking to mentor can complete.
Once they submit their form, their information is populated in Salesforce and GallantFew staff receive notifications to follow up. Build a Veteran Case Management System in Salesforce Once veterans and mentors are in the system, the GallantFew staff needed to be able to see what kind of services are available and which services have been provided to that veteran. To give them a case management tool, we built a few custom objects in Salesforce that allows them to track each service that a veteran has received and any mentoring that veterans have provided to those in need. They are also able to categorize those services into the five core areas that they work with: spiritual wellness, emotional wellness, physical wellness, professional wellness and social wellness. We also built custom dashboards that lets them easily see the number of veterans they have assisted and better understand the demographics of their population. Integrate Online Donations System & Online Store To completely integrate GallantFew’s systems, we installed Click & Pledge to process online donations, manage events and run an online store.
The integration allows them to better connect with their donors and to build brand awareness by providing GallantFew products through their online store.
Results
GallantFew has been able to grow from one volunteer staff member to seven in just a few years. Karl says “Salesforce has allowed us to continue expanding. It helps with fundraising so we can pay our staff to carry out our mission but now we also have well over 7,000 volunteers in the system. The volunteers sign-up form is secure and has all the features that allow us to automate some responses and communication. It’s a huge time saver which allows us to expand our capacity that much more. We’ve also been able to pull out data to share with other groups that are working with the veteran population and it’s started some great conversations.”
