Customer Stories
United Way of Southwest Michigan
OnBoard modernizes how nonprofit board serves its community.
Customer Stories
OnBoard modernizes how nonprofit board serves its community.
Industry: Community-based charitable nonprofit
Headquarters: St. Joseph, Michigan
Board Management Goals
Results
The United Way of Southwest Michigan has worked for years to create a better life for its community through programs centered on improving citizens’ health, education, and financial stability. Its current board of 13 members meets every other month, and includes three committees that meet monthly.
The organization recently transitioned to OnBoard, taking advantage of a special promotion for 501(c)(3) organizations. “We are a nonprofit and if somebody offers us something really good for free, we will take them up on it,” says Retta Curneal, Executive to the President and Human Resources Specialist.
By using OnBoard, the United Way of Southwest Michigan is leaving behind years of managing the board and committees via “lots of emails.” “People were getting tired of getting so many emails,” she says. “We were wanting to step up and bring things into this century. Honestly, for board and committee meetings, it probably takes me 50% less time to prepare for and administer them.”
“Our board members love it. It makes them happy. One board member is really tech-savvy and he was texting me, ‘Oh, my God. This is so cool!’”
Everyone was surprised to discover just out how intuitive the OnBoard platform was. Board members and administrators found it easy to use — even those who might not be considered tech-savvy. “Our board members love it.” Curneal says. “One board member is really tech-savvy and he was texting me, ‘Oh, my God. This is so cool!’” She had another board member, however, who was not technically inclined, and she was worried he wouldn’t adapt quickly. “But now,” she says, “even he loves it.”
The board appreciates that they can store all their board materials in one place for board member access. “They have to click only one button to open up their books and the entire meeting is right there,” Curneal says. “They are not having to go through three different apps or three different processes to find what they want.”
In addition, OnBoard acts as a repository for all ancillary board information and documentation, creating a one-stop shop for all things board-related. “Everything is handy,” Curneal says, “right at their fingertips if they want it. When I put new items in the ‘resources’ section, I can simply send an email that says, ‘This is now available in the resource folder, please feel free to use it.’
“With OnBoard,” Curneal continues, “you click on one button to engage a team. You don’t have to pick out 45 names. You do it once to set it up. Everybody gets the same information at the same time. Everybody gets the same notifications and everything is right there for them.”
OnBoard also delivers peace of mind on the data security front. One of the organization’s board members, an IT leader for a Fortune 500 company, conducted a thorough evaluation of the software from a security perspective. “He came back with, ‘This is great,’” Curneal says. “He said, ‘This is secure. We don’t have to worry.’”
“[The OnBoard trainer] was knowledgeable, very patient, and made everything easy to understand. We recorded her training and now I have a training video I can shoot over to anyone who needs it.”
Curneal found the training OnBoard provided to be excellent. “I’m not tech-savvy,” she says, “and at first, I thought, ‘Here is something else to mess up.’ But it is really easy. The OnBoard trainer was amazing,” she continues. “She was knowledgeable, very patient, and made everything easy to understand. We recorded her training and now I have a training video I can shoot over to anyone who needs it.”
Curneal says she’s still learning everything the product offers. “We try something new every month,” she says. However, results to date are sufficient to explore OnBoard’s use in other areas. “I would like to see us also use it for staff meetings,” Curneal says. “We have a lot of teams that involve a lot of outside people and volunteers. It would make life so much easier to have them using OnBoard.”
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