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EvanMartinez's avatar
EvanMartinez
Quickbase Staff
5 years ago

Non-Profit Networking: Achieving Your Mission while Faced with Challenge

Welcome to the Non-Profit networking session community thread. Join us here to collaborate with your Non-Profit peers to discuss how they're overcoming common challenges such as: providing transparen...
empower 2020
MikePasquale's avatar
MikePasquale
Qrew Member
5 years ago
Hey Evan,

Thanks for creating this space and the Slack Channel.  I'm looking forward to connecting to other non-profits using QB. We have some unique use cases and the opportunity to network with other non-profit leaders around QB is really needed.  I totally "second" everything that Cullen Coats suggested. More Zoom networking sessions would be a great start.

Center for Community Alternatives is a mid-sized nfp in NYS with 3 locations (NYC, Syracuse and Rochester.)  We've been using QB in our employment programs since 2012 and are working to expand its use agency wide. Currently we are working on an app we can use when we start to re-open (next week!) for contact tracing/health screenings for staff and participants coming to our offices.    We've nearly doubled our users since March (35 to 70) and expect to get to nearly 120 by the end of the year.  So this is a busy time for us and QB!    https://www.communityalternatives.org/

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Mike Pasquale
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  • MelissaFreel1's avatar
    MelissaFreel1
    Qrew Cadet
    5 years ago
    Hi Evan!
    Thanks for doing this!  I have yet to get into SLACK all the way, so please keep posting in both?  I was part of the non-profit break out and YES I want to spend more time with my nonprofit colleagues on QB. 

    I am employed by Kids' Health Connections (formerly WCHAP, Inc.)  in Detroit which I help start eight years ago.  We are tiny but scrappy. Through community health workers and our Executive Director/Pediatrician we work to connect families in southeastern Michigan to primary care.  We also provide home-based services for asthma and group-based services to combat childhood obesity. 

    • What tech gaps have you had trouble filling with traditional point solutions?---Answer: Most specifically our "electronic charting."  Too many of the off the shelf solutions did not meet our needs to record what was happening with our clients.  Too many of the custom ones were not "customizable" enough and cost way too much money.  I started us on the QB path in 2017 after having previous exposure to it when it was part of Intuit.  We now record data related to more than 4,000 clients in our case management application. 
    • What types of approaches have you taken to work through these struggles?  Answer I became a certified app builder in December 2019 and it has helped "gel" all my learning since we began working with QB. We are a really team-based nonprofit too and having those team member contributions is so important to improving and modifying our applications. 
    • As a Non-Profit how are you using tech to deliver on your mission?  Answer:  With Covid-19, we were able to quickly add a COVID-19 screen within our case management application, like within a couple of days!  No other  SAAS would have been able to respond given the crisis, but being an in-house citizen developer, I was able to move us quickly to this place.  Being a nonprofit in Detroit Michigan, it was beyond critical.

    Because of my success with QB, I have been asked by two other non-profits in Detroit to build QB apps for them.  One is an app to collect data on a homelessness program and the other was an incident response app (with COVID-19 questions) for a community mental health agency.   I don't know where these requests will take me per se, but I have been happy to help my fellow nonprofits "off the side of my desk" and maybe some day this is what I will do full-time.  I would loooovvveee that!

    • If you could have a super power what would it be?  Answer: It's hard to pick one!  Obviously if I could automatically heal the world from COVID-19, climate change, and racism, that would have to be it.  Massive healing powers is my answer.   But maybe collectively we have that superpower, just need to "activate it"!
    • What is a song/album that you use to help you get pumped up or focused when taking on a new project?  Anything from Imagine Dragons right now. 





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    Melissa Freel
    mfreel@khcmi.org
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