Digital Upgrade to Fight Climate Change and Economic Inequality
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3,000
People helped
Young people and adults given training and employment opportunities to date.
1994
Operating since
The year the non-profit was founded in California.
The client
Rising Sun Center for Opportunity is a Californian non-profit whose mission is to empower people so that their communities, and they themselves, become sustainable environmentally and economically.
Through Climate Careers, its youth employment programme, it takes on and trains young people who then deliver energy and water efficiency services at no cost — installing LED bulbs and efficient showerheads for residents in the area. Young people get work and training; low-income households get smaller bills.
The challengeWhat the teams actually needed
Climate Careers runs on a database system supporting its young Energy Specialists. The data is large in volume and sensitive to the organisation’s funders, so it has to run smoothly and handle information safely.
Challenge 01A system close to failing
By the time the organisation came to Netguru the database was old and full of errors, and looked likely to fail outright.
Challenge 02Hard to use for the people trained on it
Young people being trained by the organisation struggled to use the system and to enter data into it.
Challenge 03Funders who could not see results
The same problems left funders unable to see clearly what Rising Sun’s work had achieved.
What we did
A pro bono upgrade to the system the programme runs on
We collaborated with Rising Sun on a partly pro bono basis to upgrade the system, and now help the organisation serve disadvantaged communities better — one light bulb at a time.
Appointments
The software includes an appointment scheduler, which is how the field work gets organised at all.
Tracked
An inventory tracker keeps hold of what has been installed and what is left.
For clients and funders
A report generator serves both the households and the funders, which is what the organisation’s ability to diversify funding depends on.
A tool everyone uses
An in-field tool lets every employee collect and store data where the work actually happens.
Client testimonial
Netguru internalized our wants and needs, understood our challenges and procedures, and translated all of that into working solutions. We had worked with other developers prior to our agreement with Netguru and none of them stacked up in comparison.
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What’s next