Spruce Root improves the reporting of its impact in Southeast Alaska

Spruce Root

Spruce Root is a Native community development financial institution (CDFI) serving Southeast Alaska. It supports local communities and businesses through lending, robust training and workshop opportunities, and targeted technical assistance and coaching.

• Project purpose

  To improve reporting of Spruce Root's reach and impact in Southeast Alaska, existing data needed to be migrated from Outcome Tracker/OTIS to a newly constructed database in Salesforce.

• Objectives

  • Migrate to a new-and-improved database.

  • Migrate applicable data from the legacy system.

  • Develop in-depth processes and tracking for training and workshops, one-on-one technical assistance and coaching, organizational inquiries, Sustainable Southeast Partnership participation, and grants management.

  • Provide training and admin support to help staff with change management and adopting the platform, including video walkthroughs and a comprehensive SOP (standard operating procedures).

• Tools & technology

  Nonprofit Cloud, Formstack, Mailchimp

• Outcomes

  Spruce Root has a new CRM on the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud platform. The system includes comprehensive tracking and processes for the business client services team, dashboards for its various programs, the tracking of inquiries, training and workshop registrations, workshop evaluations, one-on-one coaching and technical assistance, and an annual client survey. We continue to provide ongoing support and database management services to keep the system running smoothly.

• Timeline

  2023–current

• Project team

  Mary Sienko — Project lead and Salesforce database administrator

“I’ve especially appreciated Sweet Grass’ flexibility, personability, and follow-through. They’re responsive and easy to work with, adapt their approach to our organization’s evolving needs, and consistently follow through on commitments.” —Michael Mausbach, Spruce Root

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