FormAssembly Alleviates Administrative Burden for Pets for Patriots

The Form Advocate

Beth Zimmerman

Founder and Executive Director

Case Study Snapshot

Pets for Patriots started working with FormAssembly at the recommendation of one of their volunteers. Their goal was to find a suitable technology for nonprofits that would allow them to capture information and integrate it with other systems.

“Because we are such a small, incredibly lean organization, we really rely on technology to amplify the efforts of our very small team,” Zimmerman said.

About

Exists to help military veterans “adopt the most overlooked, undervalued shelter dogs and cats for a mutual love and companionship.”
Serves veterans at all career stages and from all branches of the armed forces.
Governed by an independent board with members in government and animal science.

The Numbers

staff members make up the team

%

discount for nonprofit customers on annual plans

%

reduction in manual processing time for applications

The Problem

Tedious Tasks Create Burden for Small Staff

Implementing the right technology for nonprofits means finding solutions that promote a better, more streamlined work environment. Although more applications meant that their efforts were making an impact, the Pets for Patriots team was bogged down with arduous processing efforts. Additionally, they needed a way to sync incoming data in real time with other systems.

The Solution

A Powerful Form Solution Saves Time and Effort

“

We have some extremely repetitive tasks and activities that without technology, including FormAssembly, would bog us down and we wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do. . .

Zimmerman knew that Pets for Patriots needed Salesforce integration and the ability to send data to multiple places, including to Marketo, their marketing automation technology for nonprofits. Staff liked FormAssembly’s robust solution that came at an affordable price.

Repeatability

As a small, nonprofit team, Pets for Patriots relies on FormAssembly and other technology to enhance their repetitive processes by reducing manual data entry.

“We have some extremely repetitive tasks and activities that without technology, including FormAssembly, would bog us down and we wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do,” Zimmerman said.

Significant Time Savings

Zimmerman estimates that using FormAssembly for their application process saves at least half the time employees used to devote to manually processing veterans’ applications. With only one full-time staff member and two part-time staff, the extra time has a huge impact on productivity.

Focus on Mission

The time that employees are no longer spending on administrative work can be spent on more meaningful human interaction, such as work with veterans.

“The speed and accuracy that FormAssembly allows us to have without any human intervention is something that frees up our really small team to instead spend more time doing the work that can’t be automated or passed off to technology, and that’s actually working with and talking with our veterans and helping them through the process of adoption and post-adoption follow-up and all the other things we do that make us special,” Zimmerman said.

Use Case

Pets for Patriots uses FormAssembly to revolutionize the process by which veterans adopt pets.

The application flow starts with a pre-qualification application that veterans fill out on the Pets for Patriots site. After determining whether that veteran meets basic criteria and lives in one of the organization’s program areas, they are automatically sent the full application (another FormAssembly form) for additional details about their military service, pet adoption plans, and more.

“What’s really wonderful is that we don’t have to ask them again for their name, address, or any contact details. FormAssembly, when it returns the results of that application to Salesforce, is able to match application data with the initial pre-application data and the contact record associated with it,” Zimmerman said. “FormAssembly is an integral part of our contact and case architecture in Salesforce for managing ongoing applications and interest we get in our program.”

The process is also tied to Marketo, which automates the process of communicating with veterans during the pre-application process. It also prompts for additional documentation after they’ve submitted the full application.

Snapshot of the pre-qualification form on the Pets for Patriots website. (click image to enlarge)

What’s Next?

When it comes to opening up new possible ways to use FormAssembly, Zimmerman said the eventual goal is convert all of their current forms.

“FormAssembly is going to be the hub of all that incoming data and will help us automate everything that can or should be automated,” Zimmerman said. “Automate always sounds like such an ugly word because it seems really cold and impersonal, but when you’re talking about an organization that’s so super lean, automation is critical to our survival. The more we grow, the more data we get incoming. There comes a point where we wouldn’t be able to service our beneficiaries if all we’re doing is data entry. We let technology do what it does best, so that the amazing people on our team are free to do what automation will never do: show our veterans compassion and let them know we care.”

On the hunt for technology for nonprofits that creates stress-free automation?

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