This is the final story in the series of blogs about the 2016 Ingenious Award Winners:
Not-for-Profit Sector Winner: Furniture Bank
Since 1998, Furniture Bank has been distributing donated furniture to families and individuals in need across the Greater Toronto Area. Women and children fleeing from abuse represent one-third of Furniture Bank’s clients, while refugees represent another third. The remainder is made up of what Kershaw calls the “recently housed” – people in transition, including youth, elderly, people who have been homeless, and those struggling with mental illness.
Furniture Bank uses a custom application of the Salesforce1 mobile platform that has enabled its 48-person staff and 11-truck fleet to go from supporting roughly 5,600 clients in 2014 to an expected 10,000 or more by the end of 2016.
Automating the service began about 10 years ago. When the organization began receiving the technology at a reduced rate through Salesforce.org’s “Power of 10” program, the project ramped up. The core platform and a newly implemented iPad app play a key role in the charity’s recent growth.
The success of Furniture Bank’s achievement led Salesforce to present the program at their Dreamforce conference in San Francisco.
Watch the brief video introduction here.
Read the full story here.