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As part of the inaugural G.A.I.N. cohort, A Better World has completed their technology assessment and plan phase in Apparo’s two-year nonprofit accelerator.
A Better World (ABW) is an after-school program for at-risk kids who live in troubled homes and neighborhoods. ABW equips them with the skills and confidence to be responsible adults by nurturing their physical, academic and spiritual development. Through G.A.I.N. — powered by Lowe’s, they were matched to corporate volunteers from Hylaine — Matthew Burke and Brian Justice – who conducted their tech assessment and provided a plan with recommendations for improvement. The project was facilitated by volunteer change agent Jon Carter and was sponsored by Bank of America. Dave Matthews, Senior Technology Executive at Bank of America shares, “Because of Apparo, nonprofits in Charlotte receive the mission enriching and expanding support they need, but often cannot afford. I am proud to help support this amplifier of good in our community through our financial support of Apparo and through the volunteers we provide. The G.A.I.N. program is also generously supported by EY.
Adam Boitnott, chief executive officer at Hylaine, shares his enthusiasm for working with Apparo, “Hylaine’s success is built on a foundation of talented, engaged, and empowered employees. Our partnership with Apparo is critical to our organization because it provides so many opportunities for our team to use their skills to deliver results that make a difference for both our clients and the community at large.”
ABW leadership anticipates saving 1,000-plus hours annually upon implementation of tech plan recommendations. This time saved will be driven by new IT support and systems that will replace manual processes to help address problems. “We’ll have someone to answer our questions and won’t be wasting time checking for duplicates, searching for data and making new spreadsheets,” explains Beyonka Fulton, administrative and fundraising director.
ABW also expects an increase in revenue thanks to improved effectiveness in fundraising. “This will give me more time to focus on fundraising,” Fulton explains. “I’ll have more time to spend with our donors and community partners and more time to think creatively, coming up with new ideas to generate more donations.”
Anthony Panciocco, communications and program director, also says ABW will be more effective at fundraising because of better access to data and donor communications. “I’m excited to have a better plan for us being able to house all of our documents and data in the same place, making it easy to find the information we need,” he explains. “It will be useful for applying for grants and sharing impact stories with community partners and donors.” Fulton adds, “I’ll be better able to manage donor communications and be more efficient at reaching new potential donors. We’ll also try new kinds of fundraising like peer-to-peer and crowdfunding.” Fulton says her goal will be to increase fundraising 5 to 10% over the next year and adds that she looks forward to “spending more time on the fun side of fundraising, connecting with people.”
Saving time and increasing funds will help ABW not only serve more students, but also serve them more impactfully. Panciocco explains how the nonprofit anticipates deepening its impact: “I’ll be able to be more creative in the way we support our students. It’s so easy for them to fall behind in their reading levels and hard to meet expectations of getting back up to grade level,” he says. “I’ll be able to have more time to pour into our families and work with our volunteers and teachers in our community to flesh our improvements to our reading program. We’ll have additional funds to keep programs like our homework helper staffed, so that we can be successful in getting our students to meet their goals.”
Fulton says she will have more time to collaborate with the community and to reach more schools. “We’ll be able to grow our programs and our organization as a whole, helping more kids in our community shape promising futures,” she says.
In appreciation of his volunteer team and the G.A.I.N. program, Panciocco says, “When I think about the depth of the roadmap delivered to us, I can’t say enough about how much it’s already helped and how much it is going to help in the future. Our Hylaine volunteers made it approachable and actionable. They guided us through it and made it easy for us to identify what needed to be done in a way that wasn’t intimidating. They delivered a plan not just for today, but for the next few years, helping us understand how to be more effective. It’s priceless.”
Learn more about how your organization can benefit through corporate-nonprofit partnerships with Apparo.