Community First Fund Optimizes Workflow With Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Enterprise Edition

CHALLENGES

Data Silos, Manual Workflow, No Single Point for Managing Stakeholder Relationships

Community First Fund’s staff struggled with workflow inefficiency and an inability to access data universally across the organization. There was no single platform for managing and viewing contact information and relationship interactions with clients, donors, and other stakeholders.

The software platforms the nonprofit uses for loans (accounting, documentation, underwriting), donor management, and grant and investor pipeline management, weren’t connected nor was information within them visible to all team members.

According to Melissa Siwiec, project manager at Community First, “We didn’t have one solution that was the source of truth for contact and relationship information. Everyone was using their own Outlook contacts,” explained Siwiec.

Community First’s Vice President of Community Lending, John Scott, shared that without a central source of data and means of collaboration, the organization relied on manual methods for sharing information. “There were a lot of emails, Excel sheets, and meetings.”

Reporting was complex and inflexible, too. This was especially true when trying to pull lists from their loan software. “Generating queries would crash the system or take forever when refreshing data,” said Scott.

“What I appreciated about the Cargas team is that they stuck with us as we changed our scope of work three times during the project. They were patient with us as we got our arms around what we needed to do.”

~ Memie Siwiec, Project Manager

SOLUTIONS

Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Enterprise Implemented by Cargas

The organization recognized that it was spending a lot of time manually extracting and inputting information from one system to another—which impeded their marketing efforts. As Community First began the discovery process to find a viable CRM platform to streamline its marketing processes, it also realized it needed to expand its scope to other areas—including sales, loan servicing, compliance, and more.

George Pabon, Community First’s IT director, shared, “Our previous way of doing things inhibited our growth.” And with Community First’s recent merger with Philadelphia-based FINANTA (also a CDFI), finding a CRM that could scale with the organization’s team and expanded reach became paramount.

The organization visited other community investment funds as it explored CRM options. After seeing the benefits one of those not-for-profit companies had gained by using Dynamics 365 CRM, Community First decided on that solution.

“Another deciding factor was that we were already using Microsoft products, and the price point was more attractive than for other CRM offerings,” said Scott. “We chose Cargas as our implementation partner because we liked that they are local, and other organizations in the community recommended them.”

Their Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM Solution:

• Enterprise Edition – Sales, Marketing
• Additional Features: ClickDimensions (licensed through ClickDimensions)

The advantages gained by Community First Fund include:

• An intuitive portal for managing workflow
• Automated marketing
• Reliable mobile access from anywhere and anytime
• Seamless use with other Microsoft products, including Microsoft Outlook
• Flexibility to run queries and generate reports that provide meaningful insights
• Up-to-date visibility into all contact and relationship interactions
• Less manual entry of data required to synchronize systems
• Development of a COVID Risk Assessment (tool for identifying at-risk loan clients, enabling Community First to be proactive about providing assistance and notifying lenders)

“I see even more capabilities and efficiencies ahead as our not-for-profit moves from a mid-sized to large organization.”

~ John Scott, Vice President, Community Lending

BENEFITS

Streamlined Workflow, Real-time Data and Insights, Elevated Efficiency, Scalability

End-to-End Workflow Management

With Dynamics 365 CRM, Community First now has a solution that allows it to manage its workflow end to end—from marketing outreach to managing leads to tracking loan packages to assigning responsibilities to other team members to monitoring and maintaining its relationships.

“Before Dynamics 365 CRM, we were dependent on using Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, shared folders, and Outlook to record and share interactions. Not all information was conveniently available to everyone when they needed it,” Scott explained. “Now we have a central place to go for information and a mobile app that allows us to make updates and view information in real time. As sales data for lending moves from our loan application system and into our loan accounting system, it creates leads in Dynamics 365 CRM that then become account opportunities within the CRM.”

Siwiec shared that Dynamics 365 CRM has transformed Community First’s fundraising and development activities quite a bit, too. “Before the Cargas solution, the sheer volume of grant and equity applications we tried to get out the door was overwhelming to keep track of. We used complicated spreadsheets, and everyone had all of their hands in it. We didn’t always know who was doing what. It was highly inefficient. Now that business flow is embedded in Dynamics 365 CRM, we can assign certain types of applications to certain individuals—and we always know the status of where they are in the process because their updates are visible to everyone through the CRM.”

Marketing Enhancements

The ClickDimensions feature in Dynamics 365 CRM has brought immense efficiency to Community First’s marketing efforts. It has automated activities and saved time on digital marketing and traditional marketing as well when engaging with donors, community stakeholders, and government representatives.

According to Siwiec, “ClickDimensions allows us to do campaigns easily. Our Development department is using it to talk to donors at a certain time of year, email previous donors, and track response rates. It has also streamlined our social media efforts.”

Whereas before it would take Community First nearly two months to pull information from comma delimited Excel sheets, Dynamics 365 CRM allows users to quickly and easily download targeted contact lists and import them into their email marketing platform.

Robust Reporting Capabilities

Another benefit of Dynamics 365 CRM is that everyone can select and filter data according to their needs and purposes.

Scott shared that it’s easy to build reports that fuel informed decision-making. “There are many ways to interact with the system to accommodate people’s styles of work and comprehension,” said Scott.

Individuals can set up their own personalized dashboards to view the data they need in a way that’s most meaningful to them.

Time Savings

Additionally, the integration of Spark, a loan application software platform, with Dynamics 365 CRM has saved Community First valuable time.

“The connection built between Spark and Dynamics 365 CRM has streamlined our loan origination process and saved time overall. Especially when recording activities related to intake, application, underwriting, closing, and pre- and post-closing technical assistance.” explained Scott. “The flow of data starts when clients enter their information on our website and into our system, and then that data is disseminated through the other systems automatically. Because of the accessibility of the cloud-based Dynamics 365 software, our team can access, update, and utilize the data from any internet connected device. We save hours of time per lead, per loan. I would estimate the time we save is three hours per week on leads, four hours a week on loans, and another two hours related to access and reporting of that data.”

Scott also shared that because they have up-to-date data that’s universally accessible by all within the organization, Community First has reduced its number of meetings overall.

Flexibility and Scalability

Pabon shared that Dynamics 365 CRM has empowered Community First with more system administration capabilities. “I like that it’s intuitive and gives us the ability to make simple customizations and changes on our own. That’s helpful, and it saves money.”

Moreover, Cargas is there to offer ideas and suggestions when Community First embarks on making changes. “They offer recommendations for how to do things more effectively,” said Pabon.

The solution’s scalability is also a major benefit. With training by Cargas under their belts, nearly the entire Community First team uses the CRM. The Community First Dynamics 365 CRM user base will grow by another 15 individuals, as the Philadelphia-based FINANTA team is introduced to the platform.

“It can grow with us,” Scott added. “That’s what I like the most about it.”

That’s significant— not only in accommodating additional users but also in creating new processes. He mentioned the COVID-related Risk Assessment, which he and Cargas built, as an example. That assessment process allows them to look at their portfolio of 1,500 loan customers and determine whether the pandemic is jeopardizing payments to lenders and if interaction or assistance is needed.

“That’s a process we can and will use from now on,” said Scott.

Siwiec is excited to see how the software can accommodate more and more processes to deliver additional efficiency and insight. “For example, we’ve created an app to track our strategic plan work. Never before did we have a view of our progress in one place. With every new discovery of what Dynamics 365 CRM can do, it leads us to want to know, ‘What else can we do with it?’”

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