Enhancing your social impact with a single software solution

In this article, we're going to look at a client of ours. This global corporation used to waste time using multiple software tools. Their team was searching for a solution that could streamline and expedite their processes. Thanks to Optimy, they were easily able to save time and be more efficient, all on one single platform.

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A few words about this global corporate organization

This client, an international corporation that specializes in community support across the globe, was searching for a solution to streamline their social impact projects. With more than 4 active calls for grants in place, 2 for sponsorship, and the organization looking to start an employee giving program operating across different international teams, the organization was highly dependent on manual processes. On top of this, this client was using separate platforms for each regional branch of their organization and for different aspects of social impact project management, such as budget reporting software for budgeting, Excel Spreadsheets for reporting, HRM software for team management within a single region, and separate CSR platforms for sponsorship and grantmaking activities. As you can imagine, constantly having to switch between and having to train their employees on all of these platforms and manual processes while trying to manage applications and day-to-day tasks grew tiresome and frustrating. This led to the organization’s discovery of Optimy: an all-in-one platform that could manage all of these activities on an international scale. 

With Optimy, they were able to view and filter applications for both grants and sponsorship using customizable forms, manage their teams and assign tasks, budget for their projects, organize, store and export data for reports, and much more. All this, on a single platform, accessible to their team anywhere in the world. 

Why is it important for organizations to focus on social impact?

There are numerous benefits to organizations that incorporate social impact projects into their corporate culture. Not only will it reflect your organization’s culture and values to your stakeholders, but it will also attract talent who identify with your causes. Additionally, social impact projects that speak to causes that are important to your employees can create job satisfaction and retention. Check out our article on millennials and corporate volunteering for more information! 

The challenges facing this global corporation

One of the main pain points facing this global corporation was having to use multiple platforms for different aspects of their social impact project management. Hours were spent collecting and organizing data from the different platforms for reporting purposes. It was a meticulous process as the platforms could not filter this data. On top of that, employees needed to be trained on every single platform to be able to do their jobs efficiently, which meant a much longer onboarding process. However, their biggest challenge was trying to scale programs as the organization grew using Excel sheets. All of these issues made it impossible to measure their social impact and manage their social impact projects.

Using Optimy 

Optimy solved all of this organization’s issues with CSR project management and measuring social impact. On a singular platform, they could:

1. Collect data from their stakeholders with customizable forms and their own public branded website, and centralize all grant applications within the Optimy platform, including previous offline applications, CSVs and Excel files.
2. Review and select the best social impact projects for their organization with ease. They could also automatically rank applications using their own project scoring criteria, stay up to date on all projects and applications with a centralized dashboard, and automatically filter incoming applications. 
3. Manage their projects by assigning tasks to team members and keeping track of the project, communicating clearly with all stakeholders through messaging, and centralizing all documents related to the project in one place. 
4. Report on the project using data exportation, available to export their data in whichever format they want, with automated and customizable charts using the data entered onto the platform. They can also track budgets, maps and calendars.  

What else did they like about Optimy?

1. Customer service: A dedicated account executive was there to solve any issues or answer any questions they may have had. Helpful one-on-one guidance after going from multiple platforms to Optimy.
2. Ability to customize the platform: So that you don’t need to invest in multiple platforms.
3. Streamlined tasks: Application processes and project management activities more than halved in time
4. Reliability: Reliable software tool with easily accessible customer service
5. Easy to use: Anyone can use it. You don’t need to know any coding languages.

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