On any given day, the small team at Cobalt Abortion Fund in Colorado (CAF) may field as many as 50 requests from people seeking help accessing abortion care. Many of these cases are very complicated, with staff coordinating everything from childcare to airline tickets.
The CAF team used to do everything with a shared inbox and spreadsheets, but it was hard to track all the different moving parts. Response times were slow. Sometimes people got dropped. It was frustrating for staff and the people asking for help.
“When we were reaching out to clients, we were finding out the clients were kind of upset at how long it took for us to get back to them and there was a lot of anger or distrust on the other side because of the process.”
Melisa Hidalgo-Cuellar, Cobalt Abortion Fund Director
The quicker the team can respond, the more trust and assurance people have, and the more people CAF can help during such an important time. It was clear to everyone that the shared inbox wasn’t working.
Undaunted Consulting worked with CAF to completely overhaul their intake process, incorporating Salesforce into new procedures that were designed to increase response times, build trust, and reduce stress.
Instead of trying to coordinate in a shared inbox, team members follow a straightforward case management process. People needing help submit an online form, which creates an intake directly into Salesforce. CAF staff use priority criteria to identify and respond to the most urgent needs most quickly.
Instead of seeing dozens of unread emails first thing in the morning, staff log in and go to the “All Assigned Clients” tab. There, they see a list of any new intakes that have been assigned to them, all their ongoing cases, and any tasks they need to take care of. This significantly reduced staff stress. As one team member put it, “I can just focus on the folks that are in my queue and not get stressed about how many we have overall as much as I used to.”
Staff also reported a lot less back and forth between themselves and callers. It used to be that arranging things like transportation and lodging took several phone calls and email exchanges. Now, they can often get everything done in a single phone call. This might have something to do with the centralized case view we created for them. When the team member makes contact with a client, everything is automatically copied from an intake to a new case file. Staff create custom “Support” records to track practical and procedural support expenses, and they use call logs and tasks for updates and important communication.
Anyone who has ever accidentally hit “Reply All” knows the privacy risks that come from a shared inbox. The system we developed has more security layers than email. We also took extra steps to protect people’s privacy. After a period of time, everyone becomes a “J Doe,” and identifying information is purged or altered. Limited information is retained for trend tracking, but there is nothing left to tie a person to their appointment.
Finally, we built another automation for feedback. Feedback is vital for continuous monitoring, evaluation, and improvement, not to mention marketing and fundraising, but it takes a lot of time, time abortion funds rarely have. Now, instead of having to try to remember to send a feedback form after closing a case, Salesforce does it automatically. Clients get a special link, unique to them, that ties their responses to retained information, such as the staff member they worked with and the clinic they went to. Clients are also invited to share their stories, which are held separately in Salesforce (to further protect privacy) and more immediately available for development and advocacy purposes.
Summary of the benefits Cobalt Abortion Fund have seen since working with Undaunted are:
- 70% faster response times.
- Significantly reduced staff and client stress.
- Increased security and privacy protections.
- More positive feedback from clients.
- Faster staff onboarding.
- Trusting, transparent, and collaborative development process.
Undaunted Consulting’s core values are service, sincerity, and collaboration. Cobalt said we lived up to these values. For us, there is no higher praise, and no higher reward, than being able to help a client do more good.
“It was always super clear to us what to expect throughout the whole process and I learned that David [the project lead] would be there for us for any needs that came up. I really appreciate that, and it really built such a system of trust between us.”
Melisa Hidalgo-Cuellar, Cobalt Abortion Fund Director
If you are an abortion fund, or other social justice/service nonprofit, and you want to be more effective and feel more empowered, reach out to us for a free initial consultation today.