Using Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud to Support Families Impacted by Autism

By: Aimee Heintz, Co-Founder, Sputnik Moment

Today, April 2, is the 12th annual World Autism Awareness Day. It’s a day that’s near and dear to our hearts here at Sputnik Moment. On this day, autism-related organizations around the world hold events to raise awareness and funds to help those affected by this increasingly prevalent condition.

In honor of this important day, we are excited to spotlight a nonprofit in South Carolina using Salesforce.org Nonprofit Cloud, specifically the Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP), to organize participation in World Autism Awareness Day events and serve families with children on the autism spectrum year-round.

Family Connection of South Carolina is an organization that provides support and resources to families with children with disabilities. Through peer-to-peer support and hundreds of workshops, they are changing lives by making connections, raising awareness, and promoting inclusion for those with disabilities and special healthcare needs. Since they began using Salesforce in 2011, they have seen a steady and measurable increase in their impact and ability to deliver critical services to families throughout South Carolina.

Here’s what Amy Holbert, the Chief Executive Officer since 2014, has to share more about how Salesforce supports their mission today and every day.

What does World Autism Awareness Day mean to FCSC? What are you doing to participate?

This is a day that is special to many of us – almost everyone who works at FCSC has a loved one with a special healthcare need or disability, and many of them, including my nephew, have a diagnosis on the autism spectrum. All year long, we have weekly support groups for families of children on the autism spectrum, and we host at least 4 sensory-friendly events every month such as movies, aquarium trips, trampoline parks, and roller skating in different parts of the state.

How does FCSC use Salesforce to organize these events?

We use a combination of the Nonprofit Success Pack and the Connected Families case management package from Sputnik Moment to manage and measure the impact of our events. Since some of our funding comes from the federal government, we have pretty specific reporting requirements, and the Connected Families package and NPSP have made collecting and reporting on our data extremely simple and streamlined. We are able to pre-register attendees for events, manage volunteers who will be helping out, track donations that come in as part of the event, send reminders, and follow up with acknowledgements. We also recently added on a texting feature which we are very happy with – we use it to text our families reminders and even surveys after they receive our services.

How does FCSC use Salesforce to serve families impacted by Autism every day?

We have an innovative program called Family Foundations: Autism Parent Navigators (APN) developed for parents of children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder). We track all participant data and visits, as well as goals and outcomes of the program on the Salesforce platform. This evidence-based program is unique in that it’s a peer-to-peer home-based program and focuses on the co-parenting relationship between the caregivers of the child. By providing the caregivers the support, knowledge, and information needed to navigate complex systems of care, the APN program is helping parents feel more empowered in caring for their child with ASD. The various supports provided helps increase adherence to treatment, which ultimately helps improve outcomes for the entire family.

Another great feature of the Connected Families package offers is a peer match module. When a parent or family member is navigating the journey of a loved one’s diagnosis, especially at the beginning, being able to connect with another person who’s been through it can help make an overwhelming experience more manageable. Using the peer match package, we’re able to search and match on our database of peer mentors based on a variety of criteria including diagnosis, child’s age range, location, and expertise. This means we can connect people to relevant community members more easily.

Curious to see what technology can do to help you with your nonprofit program management, marketing, fundraising, and more? See how more nonprofits use Nonprofit Cloud to advance their missions, and learn more about the Nonprofit Success Pack in this demo.

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Sputnik Moment is a Salesforce.org Registered Partner that helps nonprofits succeed with Nonprofit Cloud.

About the Author
Aimee Heintz is the Co-Founder of Sputnik Moment, a Salesforce.org consulting partner. She has extensive experience with social service organizations and is the creator of the Connected Families managed package.