Nonprofit Assistance Platform Modernization

The Initial Ask

The nonprofit approached us with a clear challenge: their existing financial assistance application was built on an old HTML system that had become difficult to maintain, slow to use, and no longer supported modern workflows. Staff and volunteers were relying on manual data entry, email attachments, and handwritten notes to track client referrals from submission through payment.

Their request was simple: “Can you replace our outdated system with something modern, easier to use, and built inside Office 365?”

To ensure the solution met their real operational needs, we partnered closely with our primary contact throughout the discovery process. We reviewed their existing workflows, identified bottlenecks, clarified approval steps, and mapped out how referrals moved from submission to payment. This direct collaboration guided the design of a system tailored specifically to their program’s structure.

What We Delivered

Through a collaborative build process, we created a completely custom application that reflects how their team works, rather than forcing them to work around an outdated system. Using Power Apps, SharePoint, Power Automate, and AI-based data extraction, the new application now:

• Automates referral intake through structured email processing
• Uses AI to extract key data from PDF referral documents
• Eliminates manual data entry and reduces errors
• Provides clear statuses from Pend → Reviewed → Pledge → Check Issued
• Synchronizes payment data with a finance-facing spreadsheet
• Keeps program, volunteer, and finance teams aligned around one source of truth

The result is a system that is faster, more accurate, easier to train on, and fully future-proof within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

How the New Workflow Operates

1. Referral Submission

Clients are referred through a standardized Financial Assistance form. Once submitted, an email containing the referral details and attached PDF is automatically sent to the shared mailbox monitored by the application.

2. AI-Powered PDF Extraction

We integrated an AI engine that reads PDF referral forms and extracts key fields such as:

• Client name and contact information
• Case Manager details
• Address and household data
• Type of assistance requested
• Funding source and eligibility indicators

A Power Automate flow ingests the email, sends the PDF through the AI model, validates the output, and writes the structured data into the Pend queue inside Power Apps. This eliminates manual typing and ensures consistent records.

3. Pend Review

Volunteers and Case Managers use the Pend screen to verify details, assign a Money Captain, check prior referrals, and confirm eligibility. Once complete, the referral moves to Pledge.

4. Finance Integration

When a referral becomes a Pledge:

• Data syncs to a Google Sheet used by Finance
• Finance issues checks and records check number and date
• These details sync back into the Power App automatically

5. Search & Reporting

The system provides:

• A Search screen to quickly locate any referral
• A Reporting screen filtered by date, funding source, status, and more

A Platform Built for Long-Term Impact

The new application drastically improves efficiency by automating what used to require hours of manual work. Volunteers process referrals faster, Case Managers have accurate client histories at their fingertips, and Finance receives structured, audit-ready data without extra effort.

This is more than a replacement — it is a tailored, scalable solution that will strengthen the nonprofit’s community impact for years to come.