A journey to implementing change with a small agile team

More than ever we’re witnessing the driving need to implement change, and many nonprofit organizations are building resilience to pivot, collaborate in a digital environment, focus on the constituent experience, and make data-informed decisions. The opportunity for change is exciting. With so many other competing priorities it can be overwhelming, but not impossible.  

Watch the on-demand session to learn about the YMCA's motivation for making change, the challenges of achieving big goals with a small team, and learn how they made fundamental improvements in their operations and constituent experiences by leveraging Salesforce and Traction Rec.
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‍Here are some highlights:

• [5:30] Why it was important for the YMCA to invest in technology now
• [9:40] Strategy for a successful implementation with minimal resources
• [12:01] Unexpected challenges faced and how they were addressed
• [13:56] The impact this implementation has made on day-to-day operations
• [25:05] Creating meaningful relationships and better experiences for constituents
• [34:31] Lessons learned and advice for organizations ready to implement Traction Rec and Salesforce
• [40:30] Questions from the audience

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Key Takeaways

On making change

"It was really great to have a lot of flexibility, but also look at our business practices at the same time, to be on the correct path that we need for our organization."

"One of the things that I preach to the leadership team and to all the staff is, as we approach this, it's important to change your processes to match the software. Don't change the software to match your process. So we really focused hard on what those processes were and the way we used to do things and we have made many changes in our structure to more accommodate and move in better sync with with this platform."

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On actionable data

"We can see where people have stopped in a process midway and that has been a huge game changer for us. We can reach out to those members to see why they stopped or see there's another program offering that we can provide. That has been huge for us."

"We've seen great strides... we couldn't get real time data, everything was always a day and a half behind, and now we can get real time data which is really important."

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On managing customer and member services

"[Members] can go on to our website and say what they want to change, when they have questions, [and] let us know how to help you. So if a member wants to hold a membership they don't have to come in, they can submit a case for that, and it's taken within 24 business hours for our staff... We can strategically place our staff, where they're needed instead of just assuming."

"You can register for multiple people for multiple things... They can manage it all in one screen for themselves ... [we] can put people from a waitlist into a class right away. That has been really helpful internally and externally. It streamlined and made [registering] a lot quicker, since our programs are included and it's competitive. We'll get a couple thousand registrations in the first three to five minutes, and the system could handle that. That's something that we didn't have before."

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Going paperless

"We are essentially paperless at this time. So that has been huge... We're not storing a lot of stuff ...and we're cutting downtime."

You can’t put a price tag on time

"Now I've got program directors who can focus on their programs. They're not sitting at a desk. The processes feel like they can focus on meeting members and getting to know them and being out on the floor.... I don't even know that you can put a cost to that, but it's huge...what you get for what you're buying, you know it's more than worth it."

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On the biggest wins

"The streamlining of procedures, the ability to change our membership types to become user friendly... people could register online for child care. They were really happy both the leadership team and the child care team were really happy about that."

"Looking at permissions and things like that people were doing and what they should be doing in the system that related to their job. I think that that was a huge win."

"Rules have been super helpful and really cool to make sure people aren't signing up for the right things, or the wrong things. I just didn't anticipate needing those, but those are pretty cool ...and I found them very helpful."