The Alameda Education Foundation (AEF) is a non-profit that has existed since 1982 to provide educational programs and benefits for the public school system in Alameda, California.
AEF benefits as many as 4,000 students in the school district through:
- 400 after-school enrichment and summer camp programs
- A year-round middle school sports program serving over 600 students
Paper Chaos Calls for an Online Solution
Like many programs, AEF originally operated through the use of paper registrations facilitated by parent volunteers. The office manager had to coordinate all that paper, including payments by check. This eventually drove them to an online system, ACTIVE’s legacy system, Thriva, which met their needs for 8 years.
Upgrading to Mobile-Friendliness
AEF transitioned to ACTIVE’s hosted system, ACTIVEWorks® Camp & Class Manager, in 2016 after customers expressed their desire to be able to register and pay from their mobile devices.
Efficiency Grows Program
Online registration continues to be the key factor in maximizing their volunteer and staff bandwidth in their enrichment and sports programs. The significant reduction in paperwork and payment collection improves volunteer and staff efficiency, reducing manpower needs and overhead. AEF has found that the ease of managing registration improves volunteer loyalty. More significantly, the foundation has been able to increase the number of enrichment classes they can host by 30% as a direct result of this increased efficiency. The foundation also values that the coaches in their middle school sports program don’t have to manage payment collection.
Attractive Communications Help Raise More Funds
Sarah Olaes, AEF’s Enrichment Program Director, states that her favorite feature of the software is being able to customize and send attractive, professional-looking bulk or individual emails through the Camp & Class Manager database to let her participants know about other AEF events, such as fundraisers.
Looking Forward
With the help of Camp & Class Manager, Sarah’s aim is to continue improving the quality of AEF’s programming and managing it at the highest level of efficiency possible, a goal ACTIVE is committed to supporting.
