Introduction

Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) are non-profit organizations that service a local community's needs through volunteers, sponsorships, and donations.

Challenges of CBOs:

  • Working in silos: CBOs are often atomized - isolated from other organizations that could share data, information, and technology resources. While IT can facilitate communication with other agencies and allow for sharing of resources, the CBO environment is not often optimized to allow such opportunities. This is a crucial role of IT in humanitarian relief efforts, where CBO's must communicate timely and critical information, not only with each other but also with larger, national and international agencies.

  • Financial Constraints: CBOs have the same financial constraints as other nonprofits. Financial support may come from individual donations, fundraising efforts, grants via funding agencies, or directly from other nonprofits. As with the workforce, donors to CBO's are often internally and goal motivated, and funding can be subject to constraints or specific instructions on how it can be spent. They often direct funds at program or mission specific goals, rather than general IT support or professional development opportunities for staff.

  • Non profits ‌do not devote time or efforts towards building a comprehensive IT budget or strategic plan. This limits the ability to take advantage of time-sensitive opportunities and further separates them from other sectors, across all the divides - digital, organizational, and innovation

How do CBOs fit into the SSN ecosystem?

CBOs own 95% of the search results that show up when you search for a service/program on SSN. While we source this information from various places, nothing beats giving control to the CBOs themselves. That way, program listings are accurate and up to date.

We have designed SSN for CBOs to be a tool for providers of social services and non-profit organizations. Our goal is to provide a seamless way for them to be found, receive referrals, manage cases, contact referrals, and track impact. CBOs can claim a listing if it already exists on SSN or create one from scratch.

Features of CBOs on SSN

  • Create/claim organization services

  • Opt into initiative on SSN

  • Create one or more eligibility criteria matching them to Programs

  • Auto Screen referrals

  • Receive referrals from initiatives, custom forms, and people searching SSN

  • Case management

  • Add team members with different permissions

  • Schedule call, visits, and other appointments with referrals or other stakeholders

  • Receive updates from non-team members with custom forms.

  • Track impact

  • Custom SSN search widgets

  • Add multiple program services

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