Organizing for Change: The Airlink and TaskRay Connection

This blog post from Jamie Moir first appeared on the Bracket Labs website.

TaskRay is a project management tool designed by Bracket Labs. It is a native Salesforce solution that allows for task management, reporting, and integration with Chatter, among other features.

TaskRay is proud to follow Salesforce’s 1-1-1 philanthropic model and commits to supporting nonprofits by offering 10 free licenses and an additional 50% discount per license if more than 10 are needed. Because of the relationship they’ve cultivated in the nonprofit community, TaskRay has been able to work with nonprofits of every shape and size and enjoyed watching how their technology helps them change the world. Of the many nonprofits using TaskRay, Airlink stands out as an exemplary case study of how the app can be used to help streamline projects and guide nonprofits toward success.

Airlink’s Executive Director Steven Smith was kind enough to answer some questions about how the nonprofit has used TaskRay throughout their Salesforce implementation and beyond:

1. What’s your organization’s mission?

Airlink is a rapid-response humanitarian relief organization that links airlines with prequalified nonprofits. Since its inception, Airlink has worked with airline partners to respond to a number of disasters, including the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami in Japan, Hurricane Sandy and numerous tornadoes in the US, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and the Ebola crisis in West Africa. Additionally, with the help of its airline partners, Airlink has assisted many organizations in addressing ongoing issues in the developing world, such as access to clean water, food, shelter, medical aid, and education.

2. When did you start using TaskRay?

After winning the Force for Change grant, we selected Idealist Consulting to conduct our Salesforce implementation in April, 2015. We partnered with TaskRay to help facilitate that project in June of the same year.

3. What functions do you use TaskRay for at your NPO?

Throughout our implementation, TaskRay has helped our internal team manage tasks and coordinate efforts with Idealist Consulting’s external consultants.

4. Has TaskRay helped you deliver more programmatic impact?

TaskRay helps us organize our thoughts and communication which is indispensable in our line of work!

5. Has TaskRay helped with your fundraising? Or other operational functions?

Getting our instance of Salesforce up and running has positively impacted every facet of our organization, and TaskRay’s assistance in that process was invaluable.

6. What advantages does it give you in delivering your mission?

We can clearly track who is responsible for tasks and what tasks are needed, which helps us improve our efficiency of getting resources and aid to the nonprofits that need them.

7. Can you provide any quotes from users within your organization about how TaskRay has helped them do their jobs better?

“We are finding TaskRay really helpful in coordinating core projects within Salesforce that are key to the management and communications across our global disaster response.” -Steven Smith

8. What advice would you have for other NPO’s looking to add TaskRay to their Salesforce instance?

Start using it immediately for your Salesforce project implementation! Not only does it work as an excellent project management tool within this complicated process, but by getting used to it early on, you’ll enable users in your organization to familiarize themselves with TaskRay's functionality and become comfortable with the tool so they can continue to use it down the road.

9. Anything else you’d like to say about your organization, TaskRay, or both?

It was very generous of TaskRay to donate the licenses and on behalf of Airlink, we sincerely appreciate it. You are helping the nonprofit space do more for the world and that is an admirable example to set for the rest of the private sector!

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