Pausing to Problem-Solve

Nonprofits, government agencies leverage continuous improvement training to make their operations more efficient

By Suzy Frisch | Photography Courtesy of Family Pathways

As a large human services nonprofit in east central Minnesota, Family Pathways has a near constant need to hire employees and bring on volunteers to support the organization’s hunger relief programs or to work at one of its 10 thrift stores.

Executive Director Tony Buttacavoli and his team, however, faced a significant impediment: Whether new hires or volunteers, new folks must complete a sizable stack of forms through an uncoordinated process before they can hit the ground running. To counter the challenge, the Family Pathways team turned to the Initiative Foundation’s Continuous Improvement program for help. Designed for nonprofits and local units of government, and delivered in partnership with Sourcewell, the three-month program uses the Plan-Do-Check-Act framework to help participants focus on opportunities to streamline their process.

Buttacavoli and his team graduated from the program in June 2023 after focusing on their onboarding obstacles. “It’s important to pause and assess processes and services from time to time and set goals and standards,” he said. “Continuous improvement facilitates the idea of saying, ‘Let’s take a break and look at what we’re delivering and how we’re doing it. Is there a way for us to have better customer service, find efficiencies, and improve the quality of the services we’re providing?”

The answer, it turns out, is yes. Family Pathways now has a more seamless process that includes a standardized checklist to track onboarding progress and a common toolkit of forms that can be filled out and transmitted electronically.

Not Just for Big Business

Launched in 2022, the Continuous Improvement program uses a four-step model to help Central Minnesota nonprofits and local government teams implement change. Buoyed by real-life examples—like a New York food shelf that used the continuous improvement process to cut its per-box packing time from three minutes to 11 seconds—the participating teams take small, measured steps to identify pain points and enact solutions to simplify processes and eliminate wasted time, resources and effort.

“We know nonprofit and local government leaders are passionate about their work and that there are never enough hours in the day or resources to do all that they want to do,” said Nicole Clements, nonprofit development program officer at the Initiative Foundation. “With a small upfront investment of time, the continuous improvement process can help organizations be more efficient, and that, in turn, creates more space to meet other needs.”

Nineteen nonprofits and five local government teams have been supported through the program during the past three years.

During five meetings—four in-person and one online—participants work to identify the root causes of aggravation for customers, clients or employees, said Tammy Filippi, resource development administrator at Sourcewell. Trainers from Performance Excellence Network guide participants as they set goals, identify the necessary changes, and implement them. They then evaluate the results, make adjustments as needed, and standardize the solution. Like a circle, it is meant to be repeated again and again for ongoing improvement opportunities.

The cohort model adds value to the experience, Filippi said. Teams learn from one another as they tackle a variety of challenges—from event planning to building operations to volunteer management. “Governments and nonprofits serve different audiences, but there’s a real learning opportunity when you can hear from all kinds of organizations about their different ideas and projects. It’s a melding of experiences and expertise.”

Better Client Support

Two teams from Morrison County Health and Human Services identified the department’s case management billing system and its intake process for walk-in visitors for their continuous improvement projects.

Jeff Bowman, adult services supervisor for Morrison County, said several departments engage with the case management billing system and frequently encounter outdated information. His team created roadmaps to streamline processes, improve communications, and reduce billing errors. While work is still ongoing, Bowman said the department already has slashed the number of missing or inaccurate claims.

“I believe it will greatly reduce headaches and frustrations and improve collaboration so that people have a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities and how they interconnect,” Bowman said. “We will be able to better support our team and its overall functioning.”

The team tackling the intake process for walk-ins used a data-driven approach to assess traffic patterns. In the past, employees would take turns juggling their schedules—and their responsibilities—so that someone would be available for walk-ins. The strategy increased stress and decreased productivity, said Aaron Stein, human services supervisor. By tracking the frequency of walk-in visitors, the team determined that a daily on-call employee wasn’t the best use of resources. Instead, they improved the way they communicate walk-in policies and procedures for connecting residents with appropriate staff.

The training taught Stein and Bowman lessons that will inform future continuous improvement efforts—and save taxpayer dollars. Driving effective change means “learning to not spread yourself out but rather dive down to the root of the problem,” Bowman said. “Try to solve that one problem instead of trying to do them all at once.”

As the Morrison County teams continue with their improvement efforts, Stein is hopeful about the end results: “I do believe that we will be able to maintain a high level of services for residents of Morrison County and reduce some of the stress and anxiety that goes with being responsive to our residents. There will be a big payoff for our workers and residents.”

The Plan-Do-Check-Act Process

• Plan: Recognize an opportunity and plan a change.
• Do: Test the change by conducting a small-scale study.
• Check: Review the test, analyze the results, and identify what you’ve learned.
• Act: Take action based on what you learned in the study step.