Intertribal Agriculture Council expands its impact measurement system in Salesforce

Intertribal Agriculture Council

Founded in 1987, the mission of Intertribal Agriculture Council (IAC) is to pursue and promote the conservation, development, and sustainable use of agricultural resources for the betterment of Tribal Nations and their citizens. As a member-driven organization, IAC provides a forum for federally recognized tribes to identify and advance policy positions on agriculture issues.

• Project purpose

  Building on IAC's impact measurement and evaluation efforts, Sweet Grass planned and built IAC's organization-wide impact measurement system into Salesforce's NPSP. Using a phased approach, this project started with the need to track technical assistance and activities provided to Native producers across the country. Over time, Sweet Grass has continued to adapt and expand IAC's system to encompass internal admin and staff processes, including general staff travel, finances, HR, youth and professional development, natural resources, American Indian Foods, and regenerative economies. Sweet Grass supported the implementation of Tableau as a data visualization tool for IAC to share its data back with funders, partners, and producers. This provided IAC with a dynamic CRM and database to track its work across programs and BIA regions.

• Objectives

  • Create a central database and impact measurement system for IAC to track and measure program and service impact.

  • Streamline staff and client data entry.

  • Enable IAC to make data-informed decisions.

  • Create reports, dashboards, and data visualizations to report out IAC's reach and impacts.

  • Develop customer relationship management software and capabilities for a large staff spanning the country.

• Technology

  Salesforce NPSP (Nonprofit Success Pack), FormAssembly, Calendly, Smartsheet, Tableau

• Outcomes

  IAC's data is the most comprehensive view of technical assistance provided to Native producers and agriculture in the nation. We build customized reports and dashboards to aggregate the data needed for internal purposes as well as external reporting. We streamlined ways for staff to submit data, then created data visualizations to share back with communities, funders, and partners.

• Timeline

  Jul 2019–Dec 2025

• Project team

  Mary Sienko — Solution design, Salesforce customization, Salesforce administrator, client training, and technical assistance

  Josh Shaughnessy — Solution design, Salesforce customization, and Salesforce administrator

“Sweet Grass met us where we were at on projects and undoubtedly helped us to advance our projects closer to our goals.” —Kelsey Ducheneaux, Intertribal Agriculture Council

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