Coast Funds uses Salesforce to empower Indigenous communities for conservation
Customer Profile
When it comes to preserving our natural resources, it is essential to involve the people who have been living off the land for centuries. This is where Coast Funds comes in - an innovative organization that supports Indigenous-led conservation efforts along the British Columbia coast. The organization was established in 2007 as a partnership between First Nations, the Government of Canada, and philanthropic foundations. Their primary goal is to provide funding and support to Indigenous communities that are working towards sustainable management and protection of their territories.
Coast Funds is dedicated to empowering Indigenous entrepreneurs and creating healthy bonds between economies, communities, and the conservation of their homelands. By providing grants, technical support, and capacity-building opportunities, Coast Funds helps these communities develop their own strategies and solutions for conservation that align with their cultural values and traditions.
Coast Funds’ primary goal is to provide funding and support to Indigenous communities that are working towards sustainable management and protection of their territories.
The Challenge
Belmar Consulting has held a long-standing relationship with Coast Funds, and supported their continued growth and operations. With a small team and low overhead, tech-based solutions were required to help the organization scale-up and match the demand of their services in regards to their project funding and application processes. In fact, maintaining the organization’s agile and streamlined structure was a key priority.
With a small team and low overhead, tech-based solutions were required to help the organization scale-up and match the demand of their services.
The Solution
Among the Coast Funds staff, there were members who have had past experience with Salesforce, and delivered similar use cases. Coast Funds evaluated other technologies and made the determination that Salesforce - based on its ability to address their grants and management use cases - was the best solution for their organization. The solutions implemented include:
Service Cloud
Experience Cloud
Online Forms (with offline options)
Formstack & Form Assembly.
The Coast Funds team was using programs such as Excel to track grant applications.
The Impact
Belmar’s work with Coast Funds began when the fund was relatively new, and the team was using programs such as Excel to track grant applications. Belmar helped Coast Funds create a holistic platform for facilitating inbound grant applications.
The organization offers First Nations a continuous intake for new applications with four rounds of funding every year - through Salesforce, Coast Funds can now capture, record, and consolidate grant and fund applications on a quarterly basis for board review in a more efficient manner.
Hear from Eddy Adra, CEO at Coast Funds on his experience working with Belmar Consulting on their digital transformation to Salesforce.
