Client Overview

The client works closely with Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) across multiple verticals such as capacity building programs, volunteer programs, accelerators, and monthly workshops. Their work involves tracking hundreds of NPO engagements every year, managing program cohorts, and supporting day-to-day partner interactions. A 15-member team relies on accurate data for internal operations and external reporting to donors and stakeholders.

The Challenge

The client’s data processes were no longer keeping pace with their growth. For years, registrations, workshop attendance, cohort progress, and partner assessments were all maintained manually in scattered Google Sheets. With more than 500 unique NPOs and nearly 900 annual touchpoints, this manual system created major problems:

• No reliable way to track a single NPO across workshops, cohorts, and programs
• Duplicate or inconsistent organization names
• Unclean data and broken dashboards
• Frequent manual reconciliation
• Unreliable reporting for external stakeholders

They previously attempted to use Salesforce but found it “unwieldy in terms of data entry,” difficult to customize, and ultimately not suited to their evolving needs.

What Was at Stake

The organization had reached a point where data management had become an “urgent need to solve for.” The risks were clear:

• Inability to scale programs without breaking existing workflows
• Loss of trust in data used for reporting to donors and partners
• Time wasted on manual cleanup and searching for correct records
• Fragmented insights across verticals and programs

Most importantly, they needed a system that their entire team could use confidently. As they said, “We better get it right this time.”

Our Approach

We focused first on fixing data hygiene problems, then built a structure that reflects how the client actually works. The system needed to unify data across all verticals, support frequent registrations, and give the team clear, reliable dashboards.

To replace the limitations they faced with Salesforce, we introduced a scalable CRM foundation using CiviCRM. It allowed us to model their full hierarchy — verticals → programs → cohorts → NGOs — something their earlier tools could not support.

We then customized CiviCRM to match their terminology, workflows, and reporting needs, creating a system that can grow with their operations instead of holding them back.

The Solution

1. Clean Organizational Structure With Unique IDs

We implemented a unique ID system for every NPO. Regardless of who registers (which POC, which email, which event), all data now maps back to one organization record. This eliminated years of duplicate and inconsistent entries.

2. Self-Serve Registration Forms

The team can now create unlimited public-facing forms directly inside the system. Each form can be customized using a drag-and-drop builder, and all submissions automatically sync into the CRM. This replaced fragmented Google Forms and Zoom registrations.

3. Bulk Data Import With Validation

We enabled safe, large-scale imports through:

• Preview and validation screens
• Error handling for incorrect rows
• Background batch processing for large files
• Automatic linking to existing organizations

4. Modeling Their Full Program Lifecycle

We modeled the real structure of their work: verticals, programs, cohorts, workshops, partner engagements, and required assessments. This gives the team complete visibility across every interaction.

5. Consolidated Dashboards Across All Offerings

Leadership can now see:

• NGO-wise engagement
• Program-wise progress
• Sector-wise distribution
• Organization-wide analytics

A scattered data environment has been replaced with a clear, unified, decision-ready view.

Outcomes

• Clean, consolidated records for 500+ NPOs
• Sustainable workflows for ~900 touchpoints annually
• Fully linked data across workshops, cohorts, and programs
• No dependency on Google Sheets for core operations
• Faster reporting to donors and external stakeholders
• Higher confidence in the accuracy of data
• A platform the entire team can use without friction

“We finally have a system that grows with us — not against us.”

Technical Appendix

• Custom CiviCRM configuration for NPOs (“Institutions”)
• Automatic unique ID generation
• Customized Events for workshops and webinars
• Customized Activities for partner engagements and assessments
• CSV bulk imports with batch processing
• Configurable form builder with field-level mapping
• CRM extensions to support multi-vertical and multi-cohort structure

Key Takeaways

• Clean data enables confident decisions.
• Scalable systems are essential as program volume grows.
• Customization matters. A generic CRM could not meet their evolving needs.
• Purpose-built tools support complex program operations.