USO

Transitioning out of the military can be tough — it requires service members to find new work and move their families into new communities. The USO PathfinderSM program is there to support service members as they navigate their path from military service to thriving Veteran status.

USO Pathfinder is a non-governmental transition resource for service members and military spouses designed to offer the highest quality of transition services to meet the broadest spectrum of needs.

Approximately 200,000 talented men and women will re-enter the workforce annually over the next few years – and USO PathfinderSM leverages the USO’s global network of networks by connecting individuals to best-in-class services and resources in their new hometowns, regardless of where they may be.

The Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack (NPSP) and mobile app built on Heroku are helping USO Pathfinder deliver on this mission faster and more efficiently than ever before.

The Nonprofit Success Pack in Action

At the core of its mission, the USO Pathfinder program is built on the idea that when military service is complete, all service members and military spouses should have access to relevant opportunities, a strong support system and an action plan. Powered by the NPSP, the USO serves thousands of transitioning service members and their families through its programs with robust case management, customized Action Plans, and task-based follow through and connections to resources.

With the use of fully customizable Cases in the NPSP, case managers – known as Scouts – create a personalized Action Plan for a transitioning service member or military spouse. The Action Plan, a custom object the USO built within NPSP, links relationships back to the Case record, tracking all service members and their families in one place. It allows the Scout to get a full picture of an individual or family’s “current state” and where they are in their progress towards transition. Staff also manage thousands of partners that provide access to resources to help service members and their families successfully transition to civilian life directly within the NPSP.

“Follow-up and follow through are what we do,” explains Kylee Durant, Active Duty Army Spouse, USO VP of Transition Technology & Innovation Programs, and Salesforce MVP. “Since implementing the Nonprofit Success Pack, the time in which a client submits an intake form to a Scout meeting with the individual for the first time has been reduced from an average of 48 hours to two hours due to the power of workflow automation and case assignment rules.”

The Action Plan App, Built on Heroku

With military members and their families on the go, the USO needed to meet their constituents where they are, anytime, anywhere. With the help of Salesforce employees who donated over 160 hours of pro bono work, the USO built a full mobile responsive app on Heroku called the Action Plan App. Service members now have access to their Action Plans in real-time with the ability to chat with their Scout directly in the app, complete tasks, and track progress towards their goal. With the power of Process Builder, Scouts are alerted every time a client completes a task.

Since customizing the Nonprofit Success Pack and launching the Action Plan app, the USO has also been able to serve 50 percent more service members than it had in the past, which has helped inspire the organization’s leaders to think big.

Everything in One Place

The Nonprofit Success Pack serves as the foundation for all that the USO Pathfinder program does. “The power of the Nonprofit Success Pack is that is puts the constituent at the center of everything,” explains Durant. “Team members are able to understand an individual’s path through the program and can communicate with one another across the country to share resources and best practices. The 360-degree view that we receive from each constituent has been critical to creating efficiency, understanding and the innovation we need to move the needle forward for service members, veterans and their families.”