We couldn’t be more pleased with Craftsman Technology Group, which helped us complete a complicated data conversion project. The entire team is impressive: intelligent, dedicated, and knowledgeable about both the technical aspects and the real-world applications of our system. Their project management and communication skills were outstanding, ensuring that the job was finished on time and under budget.
Hebrew Free Loan Assoc. of San Francisco
Interest-Free Lending w/ NPSP + Fundingo
The Hebrew Free Loan Association of San Francisco (HFLASF) provides interest-free loans to help Jewish and other individuals in Northern California overcome financial challenges and pursue life dreams. As loans are repaid, funds are recycled to make new loans. HFLASF has proven the success of this model with a repayment rate of over 99%, thereby multiplying their impact over time.
Purpose
HFLASF wished to move past its legacy platform, which was cumbersome, inefficient and full of technical debt. The organization was looking for a streamlined system with a user-friendly interface for all its constituents – loan applicants, funders, and staff. As a result, HFLASF was eager to move onto a custom-built Salesforce loan origination and servicing solution that would facilitate integration between the two functionalities as well as donation tracking, enable user logins into one system, and generate dashboards and reports that combine data from both origination and servicing.
Project Details
Craftsman was first engaged to develop a Solution Design – or blueprint for systems change – with HFLASF. After extensive interviews and discussions, Craftsman produced a Design consisting of two phases. For Phase 1, Craftsman suggested a multi-pronged approach with the following elements:
- Custom build HFLASF’s loan origination structure and process in Salesforce
- Implement Fundingo as HFLASF’s loan servicing platform
- Configure Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack to enable HFLASF to track fundraising efforts
Upon approval of the design, Craftsman spent seven months working with HFLASF to build, test and deploy its new Salesforce solution. Craftsman customized Salesforce to meet loan origination and fundraising needs, while coordinating with Fundingo to install the servicing solution and collaborate with internal experts at HFLASF. As part of this build, Craftsman implemented a custom screen flow to streamline the process of entering loan applications internally, and added automation throughout the onboarding processes.
Previously offline or manual fundraising activities were brought into Salesforce, including Grants, Donations from Businesses, and Legacy Society management and reporting. User training and office hours were provided to ensure that HFLASF staff were prepared to use the new system.
The project was completed on schedule and under budget.
Ongoing Partnership
HFLASF and Craftsman are currently engaged in conversations to add a secure cloud portal for loan recipients to make payments and access their payment history. Further work includes potentially building prefilled guarantor forms, required document checklists, and impact tracking.
Tools + Technology
Craftsman oversaw the customization and deployment of Salesforce. Online applications were created using FormAssembly. Document generation with fields mail merge from Salesforce is occurring using Nintex DocGen. Fundingo is being utilized as HFLASF’s loan servicing solution. HFLASF is using Egnyte, integrated with Salesforce, as its document storage solution.