Nearly 40 hours spent on processing data each month
United Way of Southeastern Connecticut (UWSECT) is a locally based non-profit organization in New London County, Connecticut. UWSECT’s mission is to create opportunities for a better life for all, with a focus on helping children to thrive, providing basic human needs, and promoting independence and community wellness.
Previously, UWSECT managed their mobile pantry programs with Excel using two computers that weren’t networked to sync data. This meant that their staff would be forced to manually harmonize the information together after a long process of gathering and inputting data. The non-synchronous files further created a lot of duplicate records in households that took a total of 3 hours a week simply to review and remove redundant information. On top of that, UWSECT had to spend another 25 hours every month processing data to report on their mobile pantry services. This, along with an unsupported inventory program, led to the organization’s decision to adopt a more reliable food pantry software – one that would provide faster reporting and improve operations across multiple programs.
Streamlined process with Link2Feed’s food pantry software
UWSECT transitioned to two products in Link2Feed’s food pantry software: Intake, to help with more efficient reporting and duplicate management, and Inventory to manage their inventory in real-time. With Link2Feed Intake, the organization went from spending 40 hours a month processing data to being able to create and customize reports specific to their needs with just a click of a button. They also no longer have to worry about duplicates as the system automatically flags and presents a possible duplicate in a pop-up window whenever adding a new client or household member.
Link2Feed Inventory also helps the organization record and manage their real-time inventory as well as any distributions to partner agencies. Since Link2Feed’s cloud-based data management technology is integrated across products, they are now able to see all data across client intake, inventory and agencies’ operations in one place instead of asking numerous departments for information, which significantly improves the entire team’s turnaround time.
Optimized existing program and expanded service offerings thanks to data
The extensive data collection and heat mapping technology provided by Link2Feed Intake has enabled UWSECT to not only save time and optimize their mobile pantry program, but also identify any additional gaps in their service areas. As the organization can now see exactly where families are accessing services, they are eager to develop further action plans and bring in new programs to communities in need.
“After seeing what Link2Feed could do, we knew this was everything we were looking for. Unlike other organizations that have a strict amount of food in and out, United Way has many measurables other than pounds that need tracking, such as demographics or outcomes. I’m glad that Link2Feed accommodates the ethos of United Way well and aligns with our mission as well as the impact we want to make on our community.” – Jennifer Blanco, Community Impact Program Resource Manager at United Way of Southeastern Connecticut.