Granting more wishes to more children with Salesforce

Pop concerts, adventure camps, football matches: events like these make everyone’s childhood special. But for sick children, these special days and memories are often out of reach. Min Stora Dag is a non-profit organisation that works with hospitals and clinics across Sweden to grant wishes to children and teenagers with serious illnesses and diagnoses.

“We want to give these children the chance to be part of something special to help them through the tough times they’re facing,” explained Simon Bender, Project Coordinator at Min Stora Dag. “They don’t have the same opportunities as other children and need activities and events to look forward to.”

To give children a day to remember, Min Stora Dag needs to build strong, trusting relationships with families, volunteers, and partners. “To achieve our mission, we need everyone involved in arranging a special day or event to be engaged and inspired,” said Maggie Nilsson, Project Manager at Min Stora Dag.

The charity eventually wants to be able to reach every child in its target group in Sweden, but that requires both time and money. “We’re a small organisation, so how we use our resources has a big impact on how many children we can help,” explained Nilsson.

Just the ticket

In 2012, Min Stora Dag swapped its time-intensive manual processes for an integrated solution from Salesforce. “For us, Salesforce is not just a solution, it’s a support network. It understands our goals and helps us achieve them faster,” said Nilsson.

Everything is now logged in one place for the whole team to access – from supplier and sponsor details to event schedules and children’s special day requests. “When we log an activity in Salesforce, we can attach all the booking info that goes with it: copies of tickets, family contact details, medical requirements, reference numbers,” said Bender. “This means there’s no risk of disappointing a child because a ticket has been lost.”

This single source of information means that Min Stora Dag’s 14-strong in-house team can achieve more in less time. Since deploying Sales Cloud, the team has been able to reach more children than ever before. In 2015, it granted 300 wishes and hosted 3,000 children at special events compared with 1,753 in 2013.

To reach more children, Min Stora Dag has started to collaborate directly with families via its website. Details from online forms are automatically captured in Sales Cloud, which also generates email notifications for parents. “Automating key tasks means we can expand our reach without having to expand our resources,” said Bender. “Knowing we can give more children a day of happiness is an amazing feeling.”

Greater simplicity, greater results

For Min Stora Dag, this is just the beginning of its use of technology. It also wants to automate its booking systems and create digital codes for parents to download for different activities. “We need to make things as simple possible for parents so they can spend more quality time with their children,” added Bender.

Min Stora Dag also wants to make things easier for its 300-strong volunteer community, who play a critical role in arranging activities and accompanying children during their special day. As Bender explained: “With the Salesforce1 Mobile App, our volunteers will be able to access activity details while attending events with children and their families. This will help us work more effectively as one team and ensure a better experience for everyone involved.”

“With 100% of funding coming from donations, our donors and sponsors want to understand how many children they have helped and the type of activities that they have funded,” said Nilsson.

With Sales Cloud, the team at Min Stora Dag can access this information with a single click. “By demonstrating our results and sharing the stories behind each event or special day, we can continue to attract both individual and corporate donations,” added Nilsson.

More donations means more special days and more work. With Salesforce, Min Stora Dag will be able to expand its activities more easily and cost-effectively. “With Salesforce, we’re not just helping more children, we’re helping each other,” said Nilsson. “We can nurture relationships and collaborate more effectively to ensure that every special day meets a child’s expectations.”