The Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association Serves an Active Community of Farmers and Businesses Using FormAssembly

Case Study Snapshot

The Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association (PCFMA) uses FormAssembly as they work alongside more than 250 farmers and 250 other businesses that sell goods in over 50 weekly markets. Smart web forms allow vendors to select market participation, upload required documents, and pay application fees. From an administrative perspective, FormAssembly saves PCFMA valuable time, staff resources, and hundreds of dollars in paper and postage each year. Explore the case study to learn how smart web forms provide the perfect technology for nonprofits.

About

• Founded in 1988, operates farmers markets in 6 counties around San Francisco.
• Sister organization Fresh Approach provides nutrition education and resources.
• Upholds a mission to “empower California farmers to be enormously successful in Bay Area communities.”
• Operates as a 501(c)5 nonprofit organization.

Initially, the Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association became familiar with FormAssembly through a process of transferring their database to Salesforce from Microsoft Access. The transition provided an opportunity to eliminate reliance on paper, which was extensive. When developing technology for nonprofits, often the first step is moving to a CRM platform.

“We had to generate paperwork for everyone that was selling in our markets. It was a weeklong affair to assemble all of those packets to send to market participants,” Moy explained.

When it comes to actual form creation, PCFMA makes use of a number of FormAssembly’s unique features, such as the Prefill Connector, Conditional Logic, and the Salesforce Connector. Each of these tools allows the organization to move forward with their big-picture goals in mind.

Easy and Appealing

Although there are many options for creating web forms needed to collect the type of data that PCFMA needs, FormAssembly is the perfect choice for its simplicity and functionality.

“FormAssembly has made it possible for us to get closer to our goal of making Salesforce the center of data tracking. We utilize FormAssembly instead of Salesforce web-to-case because it’s easier to integrate with our website, and the visual quality to the user we think is superior,” Moy said.

Considering the Respondent

When working with farmers and other vendors, the PCFMA aims to create web forms that eliminate any potential obstacles during completion. When determining the best technology for nonprofits, it’s important to consider what is required on the part of the respondent.

“We don’t want to feel like a burden for our farmers to fill it out,” Moy said.

Tools like the Prefill Connector allow the organization to include information that they already know about certain farmers. Forms are set up to easily showcase what a farmer needs to upload, such as certification documents or licenses. When PCFMA needs updates to this information, their goal is to be proactive. By using FormAssembly, they can trigger email reminders that prompt farmers for up-to-date or missing information. As laws and requirements change, edits are quick and hassle-free.

Staff Time and Resources

One of the ways that the organization benefits most from FormAssembly is by delegating form creation and maintenance to a staff member who splits their work time between the office and various markets. By making use of FormAssembly’s detailed Resource Center, this staff member has been able to create, troubleshoot, and implement new web form use cases. PCFMA knew that they did not want to hire a web developer for the task, but they also recognized that manual data entry was costly and time-consuming.

“FormAssembly has saved us from having to hire an additional staff person. When we were on paper, it was too much for one person to do,” Moy said.

The Pacific Coast Farmers’ Market Association has already streamlined many administrative processes using FormAssembly. In the future, they plan to expand the scope of existing forms, such as their musician registration form, and to capitalize on FormAssembly’s easy-to-use interface for other projects, such as grant funding for school field trips. All in all, FormAssembly provides an overarching solution to a number of data needs.

“Any time we look for information or need data, we’re looking to FormAssembly for that,” Moy said.